#but gillenormand is literally stuck in the past
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Hugo’s really stressing Gillenormand’s age here, as if to point out that, as old as he is, the ideas he represents haven’t disappeared, either. He was “young” at 74, and even now, his hair is “gray rather than white.” Gray hair is still associated with aging, but the fact that it won’t turn white suggests that he clings to youth in some ways, with his persistent longevity and fixity in his ways resembling the resilience of the monarchy linked to a regime literally called the “old regime.” His “youthfulness” is probably meant to be comical as well, but his energy also feels ominous because of the order he represents. He’s able to enforce his will and beliefs so strongly precisely because he’s aged while remaining in excellent health.
This isn’t to wish bad health on Gillenormand because of his age; most of the elderly men in this novel are caring figures open to change. The bishop, for instance, may not stop being a royalist, but he was still willing to talk to the Conventionist and did learn a bit from his words. Like Gillenormand (and perhaps even more than Gillenormand, as an actual aristocrat), he had good reason to distrust those tied to the French Revolution and resisted engaging with this person because of it, but ultimately, a higher principle won out for him (his religious duties). To Gillenormand, his highest principle is adherence to the “old order,” making him inflexible.
I think this also ties into the way he “barricaded himself against every one.” Characters like Myriel are somewhat dynamic because of their communal ties. The suffering Myriel sees in his community inspires him to communicate and search for solutions, leading him to be an exceptionally compassionate and understanding bishop. Even his visit to the Conventionist was motivated by his sense of duty to his community. Gillenormand rejects community, preferring to isolate himself and the family members that are stuck with him. The image of a barricade also implies that there’s something threatening outside worth barricading against, transforming opportunities for connection and new perspectives into dangers (probably because Gillenormand sees disagreement as threatening; republics make him faint). The comparison is quite ironic as well, given the use of barricades in popular protests that the aristocratically-minded Gillenormand would find abhorrent.
It would be remiss to not acknowledge that there is another major character with a family who isolates himself: Jean Valjean. He does so for more legitimate reasons than seeming “fashionable,” fearing arrest if he is around people, but it still has consequences. He and Cosette may be safe and relatively content in the convent now, but the convent was compared to a prison several times. They’re safe, but they’re also trapped. Of course, Jean Valjean doesn’t reject community as a whole like Gillenormand does; he tried to build it as mayor, even if he didn’t really participate in it himself. But if isolation is a prison with Jean Valjean, who at least respects community in theory, then how bad can it get with Gillenormand, who chooses to avoid it out of adherence to an older social order?
#les mis letters#lm 3.2.7#gillenormand#jean valjean#bishop myriel#technically people can visit gillenormand at night#but that only allows for people who share his ideas to come#it's not the general social engagement of the others#where even if they don't align entirely#(myriel will never stop being a royalist but can respect attempting to improve people's lives)#there's still chances to learn and change#gillenormand doesn't want that#not to go along with hugo's linear view of progress because it's really flawed#but gillenormand is literally stuck in the past
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Brick Club 3.2.1 - 3.2.2
About a dozen pages into the volume entitled ‘Marius’ we now get to hear about Marius, as is Hugo standard.
...And so let us begin with a portrait of M. Gillenormand, Marius’s crochety grandfather. I really enjoy how Hugo likens him to a dying breed of sorts. “Formerly they were like everyone else, and now they are no longer like anybody else.” Essentially, he’s an old racist who was charming in his own day, we know the type.
He’s really just a person who has lost his connection to a social and political peer group, due to them literally dying out. It’s reasonable that this would make him crochety; people who occupy a position of relative social power are reluctant to change their world views, and Gillenormand has seen quite a few political shifts come and go. The generation that incubated his views has been replaced several times over and he no longer commands any societal power outside his own house.
He managed to stay current until the years of the Directory, about 30+ years past in present day, and that age weirdly suits his sensibilities. Gillenormand is a waning emblem of old French aristocracy and it makes sense he’s frozen in a time in which young aristocrats were trying to make a cultural comeback. He’s stuck between in the mindset of a monarchist but desperate to retain some social power as time marches on.
#even on cursory glance the whole incroyables movement is FASCINATING#i could spend ages looking into that subculture and its historical underpinings#and for gillenormand to cling to that time in particular is even more interesting#les mis#brickclub#3.2.1#3.2.2#im so far behind i just need to jump in here and play backwards catch up when i can
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