Hugo does an amazing job in this chapter of describing to us the way that Valjean and Cosette were mutually shaped and formed into something new and full of life as they cared for one another. I want to quote almost the entire chapter, but instead I’ll just say this:
- For Valjean, love was something that had seemed impossible for some time now. He had learned virtue from bishop Myriel, but love was something new. He had recently seen just how terrible things could be for women, and just how awful the “law” seeking “justice” could actually become, and had personally been locked away again for seeking to do the right thing, and was rightfully in a place where he was in danger of regressing back into the ways of the Jean Valjean of old. Cosette taught him love.
- For Cosette, she had lost her mother at a young age, and had never been loved by the Thenardiers, their children, or anyone else in her orbit. She did not know what love was or could be. She only knew the coldness of trying to survive. In Valjean she found safety and freedom and was able to learn to love.
In summarizing all of this Hugo closes the chapter out with this sentiment:
Who can be sure that Jean Valjean had not been on the verge of losing heart and giving up the struggle? In loving he recovered his strength. But the truth is that he was no less vulnerable than Cosette. He protected her and she sustained him. Thanks to him she could go forward into life, and thanks to her he could continue virtuous. He was the child’s support and she his mainstay. Sublime, unfathomable marvel of the balance of destiny!