La barricade de la rue de la Chanvrerie

La barricade de la rue de la Chanvrerie is the insurgents’ stronghold in the June 1832 uprising, but it is more than a defensive obstruction: it is the destination Marius approaches and hesitates to enter, and the confined ground on which resistance gives way to defeat. Seen first from its dark outskirts and later as a position under attack, the barricade concentrates the uprising’s scale, danger, and personal cost.

Setting and Approach

On 5 June 1832, unrest spreads through Paris as a popular uprising against the government takes shape. Marius receives word that his friends are waiting at the barricade. The voice that calls to him seems familiar, resembling the hoarse, rough voice of Éponine Thénardier, but when he runs to the gate and looks out, he sees only someone who appears to be a young man disappearing into the twilight. The message draws him toward the insurgents without resolving who delivered it.

Marius approaches through streets near Les Halles. A reddish glow on the rooftops points him toward the barricade at Corinthe Tavern: the light comes from a torch burning there. He follows it past the Marché-aux-Poirées and enters a dark lane, moving quietly. The insurgent sentry watching the far end does not see him. Marius is close to what he came to find, but closeness does not yet mean entry.

From the shadowed corner, he can make out only a fragment of the position. Some light falls on the cobbles; he glimpses part of the cabaret and a flickering lantern behind what looks like an irregular wall. Men crouch there with rifles across their knees, about ten toises away. The buildings along the lane conceal the rest of the cabaret, the main barricade, and its flag. This restricted view makes the stronghold present as both a real military position and a threshold Marius has not crossed. With only one step remaining, he instead sits on a boundary stone, folds his arms, and thinks of his father.

The Insurgents and Their Position

The force inside is gravely outnumbered. During a lull, the narrative contrasts the insurgents’ fifty men with the sixty thousand expected against them. Distant, intermittent gunfire and the prolonged quiet suggest that the government is taking time to assemble its strength. The pause is therefore not security but a warning: the men at the barricade wait while the imbalance grows more overwhelming.

The position is also connected to the insurgents’ efforts to limit the losses among those who might escape. National Guard uniforms taken from corpses are intended to let married men and fathers pass through enemy lines. There are four uniforms for five men. The shortage gives the proposed escape a stark arithmetic: even before the final assault, a means of getting away does not exist for everyone. The barricade is thus not simply a place where its defenders stand together; it is also where survival becomes a question of who can leave and who may have to remain.

Capture and Defeat

The barricade’s defenders include Enjolras and his comrades Courfeyrac, Bossuet, and Combeferre, as well as Gavroche. During the lull, Enjolras goes to find Gavroche, who is making cartridges in the lower room by the uncertain light of two candles. The insurgents take care that the candles do not shine outside and leave the upper floors unlit. Even this small, practical precaution reflects their exposed position: activity and light must be contained while they prepare for a fight against far greater forces.

The barricade also becomes the place where Inspector Javert’s disguise is exposed. When he gives his name, Enjolras signals to four men; they seize, throw down, bind, and search him before he can turn around. They find his police identification card, which names him as an inspector and gives his age as fifty-two, along with his watch and a purse containing gold coins. The insurgents leave him his watch and purse. Their discovery turns a hidden police presence into a captured enemy within the position, a sharp reversal inside the larger confrontation.

The barricade is eventually stormed and enters its last moments. Its defenders are killed one after another, and Marius is wounded. As he falls unconscious, he feels a hand seize him roughly and imagines that he has been taken prisoner. The scene ends for him in uncertainty, while the larger fate of the position has already become clear: the insurgents’ stand is being overwhelmed. The barricade’s significance lies in that convergence of collective resistance and individual vulnerability. It gathers friends and fighters in one confined place, yet cannot shield them from the force assembling against them; even its final struggle is experienced by Marius as a sudden, unexplained grasp in the dark.