Whether one sits or stands, destiny hangs in the balance

Whether one sits or stands, destiny hangs in the balance is an expression about how a seemingly trivial circumstance can shape an encounter. In the scene that gives it force, La Thénardier is crouched while a traveler explains her circumstances; the narrator suggests that seeing her upright might have unsettled the visitor and broken her trust.

Meaning in the Scene

The expression turns on a contrast of posture. La Thénardier is seated rather than standing, and the narrator treats that detail not as incidental description but as a circumstance on which the destinies at stake may depend. The point is deliberately contingent: had she stood, the encounter might have unfolded differently.

The Encounter and Its Consequences

The narrator describes La Thénardier as a young woman, barely thirty, with a large, imposing build. Seated, she does not present the full effect of her height and breadth; standing, she might have alarmed the traveler and made her confidence disappear. The traveler then tells a modified account of her life, explaining that she is a worker whose husband has died and that she is seeking work elsewhere while carrying her young child. The narrator’s reflection links the practical details of this meeting to the fragile beginnings of what follows: a difference in posture might have changed whether the traveler trusted La Thénardier at all.