How does Victor Hugo successfully establish that Marius becomes symbolically wedged between the revolution and his love for Cosette, as seen in Les...

One way in which Hugo successfully portrays
Marius as divided between his love for
Cosette and his friends' revolutionary
ideals is by portraying Marius as first seeing Cosette well before he
begins getting very involved in his friends' way of thinking. He first sees Cosette in
the Luxembourg Gardens around the same time he begins joining his friends in their
meetings in the back of the cafe. At first he is indifferent to Cosette, but then falls
deeply in love. Similarly, at first he is astonished by his friends' beliefs but then
grows to accept them as his own. Interestingly, by the time he has fallen deeply in love
with Cosette, he has also completely changed his political beliefs, showing us that both
Cosette and his friends represent, or symbolize, an awakening within
Marius. However, as his relationship with Cosette progresses,
he begins caring less and less about what his
friends are doing in the back of the cafe. He begins to spend more time
with her and less time with his friends planning a revolution, showing us that
Marius becomes torn between his love for Cosette and his political
ideals.

Later, when Valjean moves Cosette away from the
Rue Plumet, Marius feels that he has lost everything of value in his life and wants to
die. This is why, when Eponine tries to distract Marius from Cosette, telling him when
he finds her house empty, "Your friends are waiting for you at the barricade of the Rue
de la Chanvrerie," he immediately heads for the barricade (Vol. 4, Bk. 9, Ch. 2).
He no longer really cares about upholding political ideals.
He only cares about his love for Cosette and wants to die
now that she has been taken from him, as we see in the
lines:

The
voice which has summoned Marius through the twilight to the barricade of the Rue de la
Chanvrerie, had produced on him the effect of the voice of destiny. He wished to die;
the opportunity presented itself; he knocked at the door of the tomb. (Vol. 4, Bk. 13,
Ch. 1)

His desire to die
shows us that not only was he torn between his love for Cosette and political ideals,
his love for Cosette won in the end, becoming the most important thing to him, more
important than the revolution.