47 pages • 1 hour read
Abbe PrevostManon Lescaut
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1731A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 56-82Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 56-69 Summary
Des Grieux is treated well at Saint-Lazare, although he is devastated that his family will now know how far he has fallen. He impresses his jailers, who comment on his “gentle and lovable” nature (57) that seems the opposite of his immoral and criminal behavior. Des Grieux pretends to repent for his behavior, aiming to get released as quickly as possible to reunite with Manon, who he believes is with M. de G…M…. His keepers report his behavior to G…M…, who visits Des Grieux and informs him that Manon is also in a reformatory. Des Grieux is “seized” with “such a fury of rage” (59) that he attacks G…M…, who then wants him punished harshly.
Des Grieux is finally honest with the Father Superior in charge of Saint-Lazare and tells him about Manon and his love for her. The Father Superior reveals that he did not know that G…M… was trying to take a lover and that immoral behavior on his part would lead to lenience for Des Grieux. The Father Superior gets Des Grieux’s sentence reduced to six months. This is still too long for Des Grieux, and he secures permission for Tiberge to visit. He convinces Tiberge to deliver letter to Lescaut as the first step in his escape plan. Lescaut brings Des Grieux a pistol, and Des Grieux forces his way out of Saint-Lazare, killing a porter in the process. He then devises a plan to rescue Manon. He befriends the son of one of the reformatory administrators who he believes “will offer to help […] out of generosity of spirit” or “at least do something for so enchanting a young woman, if only in the hope of sharing her favours” (69). Des Grieux’s story moves the young man, M. de T..., and he is only too willing to offer his help, his friendship, and even some money.
Pages 70-78 Summary
M. de T… gets permission for Des Grieux to see Manon, and one of her jailers tells them “he had never seen such angelic sweetness” and that “she had been properly looked after” (71). Manon and Des Grieux have a pleasant reunion, which greatly impresses M. de T…. He remarks that he envies Des Grieux, saying that “there is no destiny, however glorious, [he] would not forgo for so lovely and so passionate a mistress” (73). The jailer so impressed by Manon’s “angelic sweetness” offers to help Des Grieux “secure Mademoiselle Manon’s freedom” (73) for the right price. They decide to dress Manon as a man, to allow them to escape Paris more easily.
They go to Lescaut’s apartment, but an argument with the coachman forces them to leave just as soon as they arrive. While they are walking, Lescaut is shot and killed. Manon and Des Grieux flee to Chaillot. The next day Des Grieux sets off for Paris on foot to ask both M. de T… and Tiberge for help. He is reluctant to ask either of them but believes that “what is at stake is Manon’s life and well-being, her love and her fidelity” (78), and he will do anything to secure her love.
Pages 79-82 Summary
Tiberge readily gives Des Grieux some money and assures him that he will not be prosecuted for the death of the man he killed during his escape; the Reverend Father “had […] been magnanimous enough to conceal the details” from the police (80). Tiberge convinces Des Grieux to write to his father for a reconciliation, believing that he is no longer with Manon. Des Grieux agrees but only in the hopes of securing money from his family.
A visit with M. de T… reveals that Des Grieux has nothing to fear from the law over Manon’s escape either, and that Lescaut was killed by a man over a game of cards. M de T… purchases clothes for Des Grieux and Manon and promises to visit them in Chaillot that evening. At this point, Renoncour breaks the narrative, explaining that he stopped Des Grieux to allow him “to rest for a while” and continue telling his story after supper (82).
Pages 56-82 Analysis
Des Grieux’s birth and education prevent him from being mistreated in prison, and these same qualities allow him to make his escape. Des Grieux’s character, however, further deteriorates. He deceives the Father Superior without any guilt and even convinces Tiberge to help him once again. Indeed, his appeal to Tiberge is alarming in many respects. He tells Tiberge that just as the religious suffer through life to reach heaven, so too does he suffer through life—but for him, Manon is heaven. This is clear blasphemy, and Tiberge dismisses it as “a wretched sophism, born of impiety and irreligion” (63). Des Grieux, however, utilizes all his rhetorical skill to argue that he did not mean to equate Manon with heaven, only to contradict Tiberge’s argument that by choosing to suffer for Manon, Des Grieux is choosing suffering, “a contradiction between ideas and conduct” that calls into question Des Grieux’s logical reasoning skills (63). He tells Tiberge that Tiberge cannot and should not argue that love’s pleasures are not as close to heaven as we can be on earth. Tiberge “agreed that [this] way of thinking was not wholly unreasonable” (65). In this small way, Des Grieux allows Tiberge to shoulder some of his own corruption and reveals that everyone’s admiration for Des Grieux could be because he is charming and manipulative rather than genuinely wise and virtuous.
Des Grieux also turns to violence in this section, first attacking M. G…M… and then killing the porter during his escape from Saint-Lazare. Des Grieux feels no remorse for this murder. In fact, after he shoots the porter, he says “[n]ow see what you’ve done” to the Father-Superior, “not without a touch of pride” (68). He even blames Lescaut for bringing him a loaded weapon while acknowledging that without that gun he “would certainly have been in Saint-Lazare for a very long time” (68).
Des Grieux uses his charm to free Manon, using that idea of sensibility to convince M. de T… to help him free Manon. Des Grieux tells Lescaut that M. de T... will help them because he will not “wish to be thought so gauche as to refuse his assistance in an affair of the heart” (69). Des Grieux continues, “If he is a young man of honour and breeding, he will offer to help us out of generosity of spirit” (69). He is relying on this young man being either a creature of sensibility, much like Des Grieux himself, or one who wants to be thought a man of sensibility. However, Des Grieux cynically adds that at the very least, he will want to help “so enchanting a young woman, if only in the hope of sharing her favours” (69). Although he was previously horrified by the idea that Manon could sell those favors to support them, he is not above using her appearance and reputation as bait.
Des Grieux’s charm is powerful, and he learns he will not face any consequences for killing the porter or helping Manon escape. His callousness is on display here as well; he walks away from Manon’s brother after he is shot, telling Manon “there was nothing [they] could do to help a corpse” (76), and his only concern for Lescaut is that his murder might have something to do with Manon. Once he discovers that Lescaut was killed over a gambling debt, Des Grieux never mentions him again, even though it was Lescaut who taught to gamble and cheat at cards, and Lescaut who helped him escape from Saint-Lazare.
