Marius Character Analysis in Les Miserables

The grandson of Gillenormand, who is brought up in his household. Marius is perhaps the character that changes the most throughout the novel, shifting from a youth who parrots his grandfather’s reactionary views to a revolutionary himself. According to the narrator, poverty actually strengthens Marius’s character, making him devoid of greed or pride. His relationship with Cosette is the main love story of the novel, though it has tragic dimensions in terms of how it prevents Marius from being as forgiving as he might have been to Valjean once he learns of the latter’s past.

Marius Quotes in Les Miserables

The Les Miserables quotes below are all either spoken by Marius or refer to Marius. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

He had found him at last, and how? His father’s savior was a ruffian! That man, to whose service Marius was burning to devote himself, was a monster! The liberator of Colonel Pontmercy was on the point of committing a crime whose scope Marius did not, as yet, clearly comprehend, but which resembled an assassination! And against whom, great God! What a fatality! What a bitter mockery of fate!

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Page Number and Citation: 683

Explanation and Analysis:

Happy, even in the midst of anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of unhappiness! He who has not viewed the things of this world and the heart of man under this double light has seen nothing and knows nothing of the true.

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Page Number and Citation: 744

Explanation and Analysis:

He who despairs is in the wrong. Progress infallibly awakes, and, in short, we may say that it marches on, even when it is asleep, for it has increased in size. When we behold it erect once more, we find it taller. To be always peaceful does not depend on progress any more than it does on the stream; erect no barriers, cast in no boulders; obstacles make water froth and humanity boil. Hence arise troubles; but after these troubles, we recognize the fact that ground has been gained. Until order, which is nothing else than universal peace, has been established, until harmony and unity reign, progress will have its revolutions as its halting-places.

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Page Number and Citation: 1057

Explanation and Analysis:

As he emerged from the water, he came in contact with a stone and fell upon his knees. He reflected that this was but just, and he remained there for some time, with his soul absorbed in words addressed to God. He rose to his feet, shivering, chilled, foul-smelling, bowed beneath the dying man whom he was dragging after him, all dripping with slime, and his soul filled with a strange light.

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Page Number and Citation: 1108

Explanation and Analysis:

Marius Character Timeline in Les Miserables

The timeline below shows where the character Marius appears in Les Miserables. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Mystery and Knowledge in Paris Theme Icon

...The chamber next to the Jondrettes’ is occupied by a poor young man named M. Marius. (full context)

Chapter 1 The narrator fills in the backstory about Marius. In the Rue de Saintonge a few old inhabitants still remember an even older man... (full context)

History, Revolution, and Progress Theme Icon

Though Pontmercy adores his son Marius, the boy’s grandfather, Gillenormand, had threatened to disinherit him if Pontmercy did not allow Marius... (full context)

Chapter 3 Marius knows nothing of the world but Madame la Baronne de T.’s salon, making him a... (full context)

...history, though towards 1820 it begins to disintegrate into absolutism and thus, paradoxically, confused ideals. Marius attends college and law school as a fanatical Royalist, and emerges as a cold but... (full context)

Chapter 4 In 1827, Marius has just turned 17, and he returns home one evening to hear Gillenormand order him... (full context)

The servant gives Marius a note from his father, who writes that he wishes to give Marius the title... (full context)

Chapter 5 Marius goes to Mass the Sunday after his father’s death, and as he sits down, an... (full context)

Marius accompanies the man home, and the next day he asks Gillenormand for permission to leave... (full context)

Chapter 6 After three days (which the narrator will tell of later on) Marius returns to Paris and asks for the law school library’s files of the Moniteur newspapers.... (full context)

Slowly, Marius’s opinions and ideas begin to shift radically. Initially astonished by his reading about the Republic... (full context)

From his childhood, Marius had been taught to despise Napoleon as a monster. Only slowly, by reading carefully, does... (full context)

Chapter 7 One morning, Marius again asks his grandfather’s permission to take a trip. Gillenormand still thinks it’s for a... (full context)

Chapter 8 Marius has come here every time he’s been “sleeping out.” Theodule slips away and decides not... (full context)

For an hour, the two sit in silence. Then Marius comes downstairs, and sees his grandfather holding one of his cards. Gillenormand asks what the... (full context)

The next day, Gillenormand tells his daughter to send Marius money every six months, but to never mention his name. Marius, meanwhile, has only 30... (full context)

...sees a young man in a cabriolet with a tag on his luggage that says “Marius Pontmercy.” Bossuet calls out to him and says he was looking for him. He hadn’t... (full context)

Chapter 3 In a few days Courfeyrac and Marius are friends, especially once he learns Marius’ political opinions. He invites Marius to the Friends... (full context)

Chapter 4 One conversation is a particular shock to Marius. Grantaire, who has gotten drunk, is shouting that life is a hideous invention and there... (full context)

...the conversation, Bossuet suddenly refers to a certain date: June 18th, 1815—Waterloo. At that name Marius pays greater attention. Courfeyrac exclaims at this mention of Bonaparte’s fatal number, while Enjolras says... (full context)

Marius lowers his eyes; when he raises them everyone but Enjolras has left the room. On... (full context)

Chapter 6 Marius feels gloomy and wonders if he must reject his new faith. He’s now no longer... (full context)

Chapter 1 Marius is forced to leave the hotel so as not to go into debt, and he... (full context)

Marius is finally admitted to practice as a lawyer, and he tells his grandfather in a... (full context)

Chapter 2 Finally Marius’s misery ends up becoming bearable. He learns German and English; he translates articles and does... (full context)

Marius never forgets two names: that of his father, and that of Thenardier. He had been... (full context)

Chapter 3 Three years after he left, Marius still imagines that Gillenormand had never loved him, although his grandfather had adored him despite... (full context)

One publisher offers to take Marius into his house, lodge him, give him work, and pay 1500 francs, but that would... (full context)

Chapter 4 Mabeuf understands little of how he himself impacted Marius’s political opinions, and he prefers to think less about politics than about plants and books.... (full context)

Chapter 5 When he’s not seeing Mabeuf or Courfeyrac, Marius takes pleasure in his long walks on the boulevards, the Champs-de-Mars, or in the Luxembourg... (full context)

Even with the Revolution of 1830, Marius’s opinions stay the same, though he thinks of human affairs as largely small and petty.... (full context)

...in Paris for garrison duty, and Mademoiselle Gillenormand decides to plot to have Theodule take Marius’s place as the heir. She tells her father that Theodule is coming, but he cares... (full context)

Chapter 1 At this time, Marius has become a handsome man with thick black hair, a calm, sincere air, and reserved... (full context)

Chapter 2 For around six months Marius doesn’t find the time to go to the Luxembourg, and when he finally returns to... (full context)

Chapter 3 One day, as Marius is walking near the bench where the father and daughter habitually sit, the girl raises... (full context)

Chapter 4 The next day, Marius sets off in his good clothes to the Luxembourg. On the way he encounters Courfeyrac,... (full context)

Chapter 5 For the next fortnight, Marius goes to the Luxembourg every day in his new coat, always glancing at the girl... (full context)

Chapter 6 One day at the Luxembourg, Marius sits with an open book on his lap and gives a start, seeing that the... (full context)

Chapter 7 Marius’s isolation and independence, as well as his religious devotion to his father, have not prepared... (full context)

One day Marius finds on the pair’s bench a simple handkerchief marked with the letters U.F., and he... (full context)

...of wind sweeps into the alley and the girl lifts her dress, exposing her leg. Marius is furious and jealous: he wants to preserve the girl’s total purity. He gazes at... (full context)

Chapter 9 No longer satisfied just to know (he thinks) the girl’s name, Marius follows them home one day to the Rue de l’Ouest, a modest house, and asks... (full context)

...the next few days, father and daughter don’t come to the Luxembourg, so at night Marius hides and watches the third-floor window of their home. On the third night, the shades... (full context)

Chapter 1 Winter arrives and Marius has still failed to find the girl, who has ceased to come to the Luxembourg.... (full context)

Chapter 2 The only remaining residents of the Gorbeau house are Marius and the Jondrettes, whose rent he’d once paid. One night Marius is walking along when... (full context)

...of wretched circumstances. All are written by the same hand, and none includes an address. Marius is too melancholy to try to solve this mystery, and he flings the papers away.... (full context)

...with missing teeth, though with the remains of beauty now dying away. The girl addresses Marius by name, though he doesn’t know her, and gives him a letter in which Jondrette... (full context)

Marius suddenly understands the letters from the night before: this one is in the same hand.... (full context)

Marius tells the girl that he has a package that belongs to her. She’s delighted, saying... (full context)

Chapter 5 Marius realizes that he hasn’t known true misery. He reproaches himself for the passions and contemplations... (full context)

Chapter 6 Marius’s own chamber is shabby, but neat. The hovel he now sees is sordid and dirty,... (full context)

Chapter 7 Marius is about to duck back down when the door bursts open and the eldest sister... (full context)

...stolen their money. Then a white-haired man and a young girl appear on the threshold. Marius is blown away: it’s the young girl whom he hasn’t seen for six months. (full context)

Chapter 10 Marius had remained fixated on the young girl for the entire scene. She seemed like a... (full context)

Chapter 11 Marius returns to his room and sees the elder Jondrette girl there. She now seems hateful... (full context)

Marius drops into his chair as the girl leaves, but suddenly he hears Jondrette’s voice exclaim... (full context)

Chapter 13 Now, Marius sees clearly the nature of these monsters, and knows that the young girl and her... (full context)

...presented to the inspector, a tall man with a thin, firm mouth and searching glance. Marius tells him that a person whom he only knows by sight is about to be... (full context)

...A few moments later, Bossuet and Courfeyrac are ascending the Rue Mouffetard when they see Marius. They’re about to call out to him when they realize that he’s following a man... (full context)

Chapter 16 At five o’clock, Marius’s heart is beating hard, and only the feeling of the hard pistols in his pocket... (full context)

Chapter 17 Marius springs back up to the peep-hole, and sees the hovel entirely illuminated by the reflection... (full context)

Jondrette tells his wife to fetch two chairs from the neighbor’s room. Marius has no time to hide, but he’s leaning against the wall in shadow. The wife... (full context)

...M. Leblanc arrives and lays the sixty francs on the table. Leblanc sits down, and Marius feels horror but no fear, thinking he’ll be able to stop Jondrette whenever he wants. (full context)

...about his descent into wretchedness, for which he is not to blame. As he speaks, Marius notices a man in a vest with no shirt, tattooed arms, and face smeared with... (full context)

...of the original men arm themselves with the irons and place themselves across the entrance. Marius raises his hand towards the ceiling, preparing to shoot his pistol. Jondrette remarks that Leblanc... (full context)

Meanwhile, Marius is trembling in every limb, and almost drops his pistol. This man is the one... (full context)

Marius shudders at Thenardier’s avowal, and at the reproach against his father. Marius now has no... (full context)

...by the time the six men drag him back in. Bigrenaille lifts a lead bludgeon. Marius silently asks his father to forgive him as he prepares to shoot the pistol, when... (full context)

The man remains impassive, and Marius admires his stoicism and refusal to despair. Thenardier says he doesn’t want to ruin the... (full context)

...seem to take pleasure in the crime, instead acting with ennui. They wait in silence. Marius wonders whom “the Lark” could be, now knowing that the “U” refers to her father.... (full context)

...the 200,000 francs are handed over: if not, his comrade will take care of her. Marius is struck dumb, unable to decide if he should shoot the pistol. But the man... (full context)

...rushes into the room, shouting, “False address!” The old man has duped him, she cries. Marius breathes freely. Thenardier quietly asks the prisoner what he expected to gain through a false... (full context)

...worth defending. He lays the burning chisel on the bare flesh of his arm, and Marius reels in horror, but the man looks serenely and without hatred at Thenardier. He tells... (full context)

...escaped. He had been waiting for the agreed-upon signal, but finally grew impatient and used Marius’s pass-key to go upstairs himself. He enters the room and tells the men there are... (full context)

Chapter 1 After witnessing Javert’s ambush, Marius goes to visit Courfeyrac and spends the night there. The next morning, he pays the... (full context)

Marius is also heartbroken not to have learned much more about the young girl, the Lark.... (full context)

Sometimes Marius wanders around the Latin Quarter, down the Rue de la Glacière, and then to the... (full context)

Chapter 3 Though Marius no longer seeks out friends, he sometimes runs into M. Mabeuf, who is more wretched... (full context)

Chapter 4 A few days afterward, Marius heads off to the Lark’s meadow, where he spends more time than at home, dreaming... (full context)

Eponine continues to chatter, but then her eyes cloud and she says Marius doesn’t seem happy to see her. She could force him to look glad, she says:... (full context)

Chapter 6 Thus Cosette and Marius were drawn together by destiny. The narrator notes that the idea of love at first... (full context)

Chapter 7 Slowly, Valjean begins to notice Marius in the Luxembourg. Only once does he mention him, saying that the young man has... (full context)

After realizing that Marius has followed them home, Valjean stops the trips to the Luxembourg. Cosette doesn’t complain or... (full context)

Meanwhile, Cosette feels anguished at Marius’s disappearance, though she tries to put on a sweet face for Valjean. For the first... (full context)

...when they say that a girl is making eyes at him from the garden. Meanwhile, Marius still despairs about Cosette. He’s the sort of person who never emerges from sorrow, unlike... (full context)

...expansion of a single being to God, who lives in all. It was excruciating for Marius not to know the address of his very soul, which the narrator links to the... (full context)

...not expecting a guest. She goes out to sit on the bench, and suddenly sees Marius. He is thinner and paler, with shadowy eyes but a face illuminated by the sunset.... (full context)

Cosette is about to faint, but Marius catches her, feeling love, not lust, for her. Marius asks if she loves him, and... (full context)

Chapter 1 It was Eponine who had originally pointed the Rue Plumet home out to Marius, enabling him to finally enter Cosette’s garden. Now, he enters every evening that May of... (full context)

Chapter 2 Marius had told Cosette that he was an orphan and lawyer, and that he was on... (full context)

...suspects nothing and is content himself. The couple hides in the garden for hours, and Marius usually doesn’t go away until after midnight. Courfeyrac notices his friend’s change of habits and... (full context)

One day Marius is on his way to the garden when a girl greets him: it is Eponine,... (full context)

Chapter 4 The next day is June 3rd, 1832. That night, Marius once again catches sight of Eponine on the way to the Rue Plumet, so he... (full context)

Chapter 6 Meanwhile, Marius had found Cosette weeping in the garden. Her father has business that may require them... (full context)

...is over 91 years old and still lives with his daughter. He’s been waiting for Marius for four years, confident that the young man would ring the bell at some point,... (full context)

...not to invite him anymore. One June evening, Gillenormand is thinking lovingly but bitterly of Marius, when the butler asks if M. Marius may come in. He stammers yes, and Marius... (full context)

Gillenormand’s joy is not clear in his harsh words asking why Marius has come—and Marius says it’s not to beg his pardon. With grief and anger, his... (full context)

Gillenormand rings for his daughter, who looks at Marius, frightened. Sarcastically, Gillenormand remarks that Marius has come merely for a formality. He asks if... (full context)

Marius begins to tell Gillenormand about Cosette. Gillenormand responds that it’s right to be in love... (full context)

Chapter 2 Marius begins to wander the street, suffering. At two in the morning he returns to his... (full context)

...walking in a zig-zag, as though drunk. Courfeyrac had recognized Mabeuf, who had often accompanied Marius to his door, and he had told him to go home, as there was fighting... (full context)

...wants to speak with him. A pale, thin, freckled man steps out and asks for Marius. Courfeyrac doesn’t know where he is; he says he’s off to the barricades. The pale... (full context)

Joly and Laigle pay little attention to this lecture, and instead start discussing Marius’s apparent love affair. Grantaire begins his next bottle and starts another speech, but at that... (full context)

...this tragic episode, Courfeyrac catches sight of the small young man who had asked for Marius that morning. (full context)

Chapter 1 The voice that had summoned Marius to the barricades had come at an opportune moment, when he was mad with grief,... (full context)

Marius sneaks across a street patrolled by National Guardsmen, attempting to make his way through the... (full context)

Chapter 3 Marius reaches the Halles and sees a red glow, the reflection of the torch on the... (full context)

...And when a tyrant falls in France one falls everywhere—thus such wars lead to peace. Marius mingles these logical, rational thoughts with his heartbreak and passion. He glances towards the inside... (full context)

...and the man laughs at him, before suddenly being struck by a bullet—the work of Marius, who’s just entered. (full context)

Chapter 4 Marius had not been able to hesitate after witnessing Mabeuf’s death and the threat to Gavroche.... (full context)

Chapter 5 The group gathers around Marius, and Enjolras proclaims that he is now the leader. Cosette’s loss, the fighting at the... (full context)

Chapter 6 Marius recalls another small, deserted barricade, and heads that way. A voice calls his name, and... (full context)

...Plumet house. He must think her ugly, she says. She had wanted to die before Marius, but now she’s content—everyone will die, she says, but now she can remember all the... (full context)

Chapter 7 Marius keeps his promise and kisses Eponine. He lays her on the ground and goes to... (full context)

Marius is for a moment overjoyed that Cosette still loves him, but then somber again when... (full context)

...him, he saw the reflection of Cosette’s blotting-book, where she had drafted her letter to Marius before copying out a final version to send to him. (full context)

...to piece together certain circumstances and dates, and has no doubt that they all involve Marius (whose name he still doesn’t know). He feels hate for the man—a feeling he hasn’t... (full context)

Chapter 3 Valjean goes inside with Marius’ letter and reads only “I die. When thou readest this, my soul will be near... (full context)

...of families that would grow helpless and wretched. They must not be selfish, he says. Marius raises his voice and says that the men are right, and those who have families... (full context)

Chapter 6 Marius had been feeling as if he were already dead, but now he wonders why Fauchelevent... (full context)

Chapter 8 Marius asks Gavroche what he’s doing there, and Gavroche says he delivered the letter to the... (full context)

Chapter 10 At that moment Cosette awakens, having dreamed of Marius, whom she is sure has received her letter and will find a way of seeing... (full context)

Chapter 17 Marius dashes out of the barricade, but it’s too late: Gavroche is dead. Marius barely notices... (full context)

...of the houses. They barricade the window below and secure the wine-shop’s doors. Enjolras tells Marius to stay outside and observe. When the drum beats the assault, the men will rush... (full context)

...with Javert. He unties the rope. Valjean drags him out of the wine shop, and Marius sees them pass into the Mondetour lane. Valjean and Javert catch sight of a woman’s... (full context)

Meanwhile, Marius had realized the inspector was the very man whom he had approached about the Thenardier... (full context)

...narrator compares it to the battle of Troy. Bossuet, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, and Combeferre are killed. Marius is still fighting but is riddled with wounds. Only Enjolras isn’t struck. (full context)

Chapter 22 When only Enjolras and Marius remain of the leaders at the two edges, the center of the barricade gives way.... (full context)

Chapter 24 At the moment of losing consciousness, Marius had felt the grasp of Jean Valjean, whose role in the battle was only to... (full context)

As Valjean drags Marius, he can feel the latter’s breath on his cheek, confirming that he’s still alive. Valjean... (full context)

Valjean stops to rest a little further on, and he puts his hand on Marius’s heart, which is still beating. He dresses Marius’s wounds and then looks at him with... (full context)

...his waist, the slime to his knees. He feels he is sinking, and he holds Marius up. Suddenly his foot strikes something solid. Valjean climbs back up, pauses, and prays. (full context)

...of the vault sees daylight. No longer is Valjean conscious of his fatigue or of Marius’s weight. He reaches the outlet and stops: there’s no way to get out. The arch... (full context)

Valjean lays Marius down by the wall and seizes each bar, but none of them move. He asks... (full context)

...out. Thenardier says he has the key. He assumes that Valjean has killed the man (Marius) for his money, so if he gives Thenardier half, he’ll open the door. Valjean was... (full context)

...name. He tells Javert to take him, but to grant him one favor—help him carry Marius to his home. Javert mutters that this man was at the barricade. Javert calls to... (full context)

...Gillenormand’s son is brought back, dead. The porter doesn’t seem to understand, but wakes up Marius’s great-aunt Gillenormand, and Basque goes in search of a doctor. Javert touches Valjean’s shoulder, and... (full context)

Chapter 11 Valjean wants to tell Cosette where Marius is and to warn her of what is to come. Suicide is impossible to him:... (full context)

Chapter 12 Meanwhile, Marius is carried into the living room. He has a shallow wound in his ribs, slashes... (full context)

Gillenormand says that instead of dancing and carousing, as a twenty-year-old should do, Marius has gotten himself killed for the Republic—a reason to drive Gillenormand mad. He yells at... (full context)

Chapter 2 Marius remains in a fever for many weeks, with his grandfather seated at his side. Every... (full context)

When the doctor announces that Marius will recover, Gillenormand grows delirious with joy. Before, he had never really believed in God,... (full context)

Chapter 3 One day, Gillenormand suggests that Marius begin to eat meat to regain his strength. Marius takes the opportunity to sit up... (full context)

Chapter 4 Cosette arrives at Marius’s room, delighted and afraid, followed by Jean Valjean. The porter cannot recognize in this man... (full context)

...possesses 600,000 francs, and opens the package on the table. The grandfather exclaims that young Marius has stumbled upon a “studentess” who’s actually a millionaire. Meanwhile Marius and Cosette gaze at... (full context)

...Today people are too serious, he says, expounding upon the older days as Cosette and Marius stop listening and gaze only at each other. Aunt Gillenormand has lived these past few... (full context)

Chapter 7 Cosette and Marius see each other every day, accompanied by Fauchelevent/Valjean. Marius doesn’t entirely understand the man, and... (full context)

Chapter 8 Marius makes all the attempts he can to find two men: Thenardier and the unknown man... (full context)

Marius wants to find the savior who had led him through the sewer. He asks the... (full context)

...Tuesday (the day before Lent begins). The prior evening, Valjean gives the 600,000 francs to Marius, and a chamber in the Gillenormand house is set up for him. A few days... (full context)

Chapter 2 Cosette and Marius both look young and lustrous, though Marius’s scars are still visible. Gillenormand confides to Fauchelevent... (full context)

Chapter 3 Earlier, Valjean had gone up to the antechamber, where he’d arrived with Marius eight months before. He returned to the Rue de l’homme Armé, his former home, now... (full context)

...now passing through a final combat between good and evil. He had enabled Cosette’s and Marius’s happiness. But should he now keep Cosette as much as he can, living with them... (full context)

...On February 17th, Basque opens the door to see Fauchelevent, who asks for the Baron (Marius’s new title, the title of his father). He asks that Basque not mention his name—he... (full context)

Valjean interrupts Marius and says he must tell him something: he is an ex-convict. There is nothing the... (full context)

Valjean tells Marius that Cosette was an orphan, and she needed him. He fulfilled this duty while he... (full context)

...entire existence a lie. He is pursued and denounced, he says—by himself. And now that Marius despises him, he can respect himself as an honest man. He pauses, then says that... (full context)

Marius says he will ask his grandfather’s friends to attain Valjean’s pardon, but Valjean says he... (full context)

When the door is shut, Marius shakes his head, saying “Poor Cosette, when she finds out…” Valjean trembles and says he... (full context)

Chapter 2 Marius struggles to accept this new knowledge, and wonders if he hasn’t been imprudent. He admits... (full context)

Then Marius asks himself why Valjean came to the barricade, and he recalls Valjean dragging Javert down... (full context)

Cosette exclaims that recently she can’t understand either Marius or Valjean. She asks if he’s angry at her because she is happy. It is... (full context)

...seems slightly diminished. In the coming days, the household gets used to the new norms. Marius always arranges to be absent when Valjean is there. Cosette begins to settle into married... (full context)

...however, continues to be in the hour he sees her each day. One April afternoon, Marius suggests to Cosette that they return to the Rue Plumet garden. That evening, they are... (full context)

One day, Cosette tells Valjean that Marius had said something odd to her: whether she’d be brave enough to live on only... (full context)

Chapter 1 The narrator cautions the reader not to blame Marius, who has done what he thought just. He decides not to spend any of the... (full context)

...husband was right to make him understand that he ought to go away, but that Marius had committed a slight error. He explains his invention of making wax cheaply so as... (full context)

Chapter 4 That evening, Marius is leaving the table when Basque hands him a letter from someone in the antechamber.... (full context)

...that renders the wearer respectable-looking. It’s one of these suits that the visitor is wearing. Marius asks what the man wants, and he says he believes he saw the Baron at... (full context)

...stranger grows incensed, and finally says he will sell the secret about Valjean’s fortune. But Marius says he knows this as well. He calls the man “Thenardier.” He says the man... (full context)

...the sewers had been, finding out his name and that Madame Pontmercy was really Cosette. Marius says that he’ll reveal the other “secrets.” In 1822, a man named M. Madeleine made... (full context)

Thenardier glares at Marius as though a conquered man, but then smiles. He says that they’re on the wrong... (full context)

But Thenardier exclaims that Valjean is, in fact, an assassin and thief. Marius grows distraught once again, as Thenardier makes himself comfortable. On June 6, 1832, he says,... (full context)

Marius begins to shout that Thenardier is a liar and villain—he wanted to ruin Valjean but... (full context)

Marius rushes out to the garden and cries to Cosette that they must call a carriage.... (full context)

Chapter 5 Valjean feebly calls out that the knocker may enter. Cosette and Marius rush into the room. Valjean is overwhelmed, stammering that he thought he’d never see her... (full context)

...that is nothing—God knows what is needed better than humans do. He blesses Cosette and Marius. At that moment, the doctor enters and feels Valjean’s pulse. He murmurs that it must... (full context)

Valjean’s breath grows intermittent, and he beckons to Cosette and to Marius, exclaiming how good it is to die like this, surrounding by love and family. He... (full context)

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Marius Character Analysis

Marius Quotes in Les Miserables

Marius Character Timeline in Les Miserables

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