Les Misérables, Book 7: Parenthesis, Chapter 2 summary
Book 7: Parenthesis, Chapter 2 of 365 · 5 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 2, the narrator argues that monasteries outlive their early usefulness and become obstacles to society, especially through the confinement and suffering of women. Against defenders who dismiss such criticism as empty rhetoric, he presents the surviving prison cells at the Abbey of Villers as physical evidence.
What happens
- The narrator grants monasteries an early civilizing role but argues that their growth now drains society and obstructs work.
- He describes Spanish convents through jeweled crucifixes, bodily punishment, and women deprived of independent life.
- He compares religious enclosure to a guarded harem and links its punishments to burial alive.
- He attacks defenders of the past who dismiss accounts of suffering as exaggerated rhetoric.
- He describes the wet dungeons, restraints, and cramped stone box at Villers as evidence that cannot be dismissed.
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Quick check
What does the narrator report seeing at the Abbey of Villers?
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