In these two books, through many rapid changes of scene, Hugo is maneuvering all his characters toward a crisis and preparing also for the denouement of the love story in the next part. Five of his characters—Marius, M. Mabeuf, Eponine, Cosette, and Jean Valjean—are undergoing a period of sorrow and doubt. For Marius, this period of inactivity and passivity is a prelude to a violent reaction that will once more reunite him with the realities of life and decide his destiny for good or ill. The despair of Eponine and M. Mabeuf, which has more valid causes, will also produce dramatic decisions and drastic consequences. Cosette's unhappiness deepens and strengthens her feeling for Marius, and by learning to bear sorrow with patience, she matures from girl into woman. As for Jean Valjean, his anger and grief are a normal response to the foreknowledge that yet one more sacrifice will soon be demanded of him, and this the greatest sacrifice of all.
Skillfully, Hugo uses Eponine not only to win our sympathy but to further plot and character development. A waif just out of prison, she is a figure pathetic enough to cause any bourgeois to subscribe promptly to public education and child welfare, but she also serves as a link between the criminals, Marius, M. Mabeuf, and Cosette and Jean. Finally, her love for Marius, which Marius ignores, points up the egoism of his blind devotion to his unknown love—a devotion that has already made him idle and neglectful of his own future. Marius, young hero though he is, is far from perfect—perfection is a privilege that will ultimately be reserved for the elderly Jean Valjean.
Jean Valjean, however, is right to fear him, just because he is young and in love and because nature is therefore on his side. Good parenthood always ends in a painful separation because it is a parent's function to prepare the child to leave home. Jean Valjean has courageously taken the first step in this direction already by taking Cosette out of the convent and allowing her the liberty to choose what her future life will be. Nature, in making her beautiful, takes the next step; Marius is simply the inevitable conclusion of a series of developments.
The garden of the Rue Plumet is the image of Cosette's spirit—innocent, beautiful, and wild—and Jean Valjean has until now been privileged to share its springtime joy. Cosette's true companion, however, is on his way, and once he arrives Jean Valjean will again be shut out in the shadows of his past, as the scene with the convicts at the Barrière du Maine implies.
