This chapter solidifies what we have been told from the mines and Miners chapter, that the crime is aided by the authorities. I also find it interesting to parse the title as Hugoâs opinions on prisons being incubators of crime, which they are in many cases and why he insists on education for the gamin to prevent him from going to prison for crime.
This relationship between crime and authority are very interesting because the relationship seems to run both ways. The authorities want the escaped prisoner because he was valuable to the criminals and criminals help find people who are valuable to the authorities. It makes the links between the Patron Minette and the police of which Javert is a part that much deeper and lends a much more sinister air to the likes of Claquesous, who we are told mysteriously vanished.
It is interesting that Javert is not surprised by it, leading to the conjecture that the police is too inefficient and easily corruptible if it lets criminals escape so easily, but he is annoyed that Claquesous was not tracked down and caught because he was too valuable. He was valuable because he was more villainous, which makes for good agents. Similar to there being no good lawyer in canon era. Javert too views lawyers through that lens where he thinks Marius too innocent to be one.
Eponine seems to be doing so many errands for the Patron Minette, now she is taking messages from Magnon to spy on a house in Rue Plumet, but here we see her take agency and of her own accord tell Patron Minette that the house was a biscuit. She could have chosen not to do this. She is trying like Gavroche to make her own decisions and live her own life in what little way she can, and I love her all the more for it.
Marius and Mabeuf are directly compared again. Their lives are increasingly running towards desperate circumstances down towards darkness. It is also heart-breaking that all that desperation has created a rift between Marius and Mabeuf, because of their poverty. Father Mabeuf is also stubbornly carrying out his indigo plant experiment. I know that Hugo wanted to emphasise the beautiful as being useful but for Mabeuf, his not relying on the community around him and not using his garden to grow food or even doing something else that would give him a little bit of money for a while, is thrusting him deeper into poverty and desperation.
His obsession with the indigo seems to me to closely mirror Mariusâ obsession with Cosette. Both are things outside their reach currently and they both are neglecting to eat to focus on it. Father Mabeuf seems a dreamer in much the same way as Marius and a warning to him. Â
I also find the emphasis on Eponine as a supernatural creature in this chapter really fascinating. Father Mabeuf seems to rely on superstition, which is not deemed to be such a good thing since Hugo has already said much about superstition in his convent chapters and so thinks of her as a fairy, supernatural creature.
But the way the narration describes Eponine as a wild creature reminds me of the werewolf child description from Cosetteâs chapter. Eponine also seems to be described as an evening flower manifestation. So, her appearance puts her outside society and within nature. Nature for Hugo can be unforgiving but also better in some ways than civilisation.
Itâs also interesting that we do get that description of nature with Mabeuf gazing heavenward at the stars while the sky is a mixture of twilight and fading light, though his gaze seems more a plea from Providence than the bishopâs philosophical contemplations.
For Mabeuf though she is a fairy and Eponine does a little kindness for the old man showing as in the last chapter that she does good for people, that she needs that recognition and is kind, despite having worked for Patron-Minette, she is not a monster or a devil even though she says so, but an angel for Mabeuf who watered the plants for him. In return she asks for a favour, not for herself, but to find Marius.
Marius has gone back to his translation work but he still has the haze around him and is still distracted from work and makes promises to do work but doesnât which is relatable.Â
Eponine seems to move towards the metaphorical light and becomes beautiful. I wonder if it also mirrors how Fantine was described as beautiful even when she was dying. Eponine is both dying and is aware of how much she is âa specific sort of womanâ yet with the kindness to Mabeuf and the kindness to Marius, all she is asking for is, in my view, some form of sympathy, kindness and friendship in return.Â
She is compared to Ophelia without being driven mad by her love of Hamlet, so Hugo too rejects the angle of love perhaps.  Also, in this chapter she is painfully aware of the difference/distance between their social situations because she talks about Marius being a Baron and therefore an important person.Â
But she did not have to help Marius by giving him Cosetteâs address and she does. Despite her being described as supernatural and outside society, she still is making an effort to separate herself a little from Patron Minette and especially her father.
She is moving towards goodness whereas for P-M, I donât really think there is any hope at this point that they could be rehabilitated into better people, they have sunk too low among the mines.
Eponineâs excited chatter much like in the chapters on the Gorbeau House is heartbreaking and also in that same vein she asks to mend his shirt and wants him to laugh because she wants to see him happy.Â
Marius is distant and standoffish using vous and then reluctantly tu. She is so pleased when he remembers her name but the way that she tells Marius to keep his distance is so much heartbreaking once again. Â
This coupled with the fact that @akallabeth-joie mentioned that Eponine is barely a minor and that things would get grim in a couple of months, if she finds herself arrested after she turns 16 and my heart breaks all over for her. Â
Marius fails to understand her, the farthest thing she wants is money for her time, thatâs what people give her, Marius was her friend, Marius was kind to her. Mariusâ unobservant nature and his focus on finding Cosette also makes him forget that he was going to give this money to Thenardier in prison. Marius is so quick to forget his fatherâs promise all for the sake of Cosette, a girl he still barely knows.Â
