Everything I need to know about Greek myths, I learned from Wikipedia.
"Corner" seems to be a very weird translation—the chapter title seems to be going for Achilles’ heel, the one weak point to an otherwise invulnerable person. Achilles was held by his mother (Thetis…not to be confused with Themis from last chapter) when dipped into the River Styx—from the word for "hate, detest." Achilles’ power comes from being surrounded by hatred—the first word of the Iliad refers to the rage of Achilles. Last chapter, we saw some of the things that Cimourdain hates—but even then, he was able to constructively work for justice.
So, after a bunch of rhetorical questions, Hugo finally decides to level with us and admit that yes, Cimourdain is totally capable of individual love, for the child he tutored back in the day. Even then, it’s still love on Cimourdain’s terms: the child is “a sort of prey to this heart condemned to solitude.”
"he had inoculated him with the dreadful virus of his virtue" Cimourdain’s ideals are, hopefully, going to spread throughout France—furthering the revolution, and so forth. He wants them to be able to "infect" other people. But they’re still dreadful, and in large doses can sometimes lead to harm. He does, however, want the child to get an appropriate dose at first, so that he’ll maybe be "immune" to the aristocratic views he might otherwise have grown into.
"Let us add this: it was easy to replace the father, for the child had no father;" Narrator’s not even going to hide the fact that he’ll gladly kill off parents for a simple origin story.
"The natural separation of their lives came about. When his education was completed, Cimourdain was obliged to leave the child, grown to a young man. With what cold and unconscionable cruelty those separations are made!" So we move pretty quickly from "natural" to "unconscionable." Is this just the great-uncle trying to save money? He’s avoiding the castle, so who knows how long it takes him to remember "oh, yeah, junior’s grown up, let’s leave him to his own devices."
"We shall see." Again with the snap answers to rhetorical questions. Not even hiding the foreshadowing, either.
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"Corner" seems to be a very weird translation—the chapter title seems to be going for Achilles’ heel, the one weak point to an otherwise invulnerable person. Achilles was held by his mother (Thetis…not to be confused with Themis from last chapter) when dipped into the River Styx—from the word for "hate, detest." Achilles’ power comes from being surrounded by hatred—the first word of the Iliad refers to the rage of Achilles. Last chapter, we saw some of the things that Cimourdain hates—but even then, he was able to constructively work for justice.
So, after a bunch of rhetorical questions, Hugo finally decides to level with us and admit that yes, Cimourdain is totally capable of individual love, for the child he tutored back in the day. Even then, it’s still love on Cimourdain’s terms: the child is “a sort of prey to this heart condemned to solitude.”
"he had inoculated him with the dreadful virus of his virtue" Cimourdain’s ideals are, hopefully, going to spread throughout France—furthering the revolution, and so forth. He wants them to be able to "infect" other people. But they’re still dreadful, and in large doses can sometimes lead to harm. He does, however, want the child to get an appropriate dose at first, so that he’ll maybe be "immune" to the aristocratic views he might otherwise have grown into.
"Let us add this: it was easy to replace the father, for the child had no father;" Narrator’s not even going to hide the fact that he’ll gladly kill off parents for a simple origin story.
"The natural separation of their lives came about. When his education was completed, Cimourdain was obliged to leave the child, grown to a young man. With what cold and unconscionable cruelty those separations are made!" So we move pretty quickly from "natural" to "unconscionable." Is this just the great-uncle trying to save money? He’s avoiding the castle, so who knows how long it takes him to remember "oh, yeah, junior’s grown up, let’s leave him to his own devices."
"We shall see." Again with the snap answers to rhetorical questions. Not even hiding the foreshadowing, either.