#les mis parallels

[secretmellowblog]

Feeling normal about Javert and Eponine today

[cometomecosette]

I just realized that in the musical of Les Mis, in two scenes not far apart ("Red and Black" and "In My Life," respectively), the words "no longer a child" are applied to both Marius and Cosette. But Marius is told "You're no longer a child" by Enjolras, while Cosette insists "I'm no longer a child" to Valjean.

Both young lovers are in the process of growing up. But Cosette has been sheltered like a child too long and is eager to become an adult, while Marius has adulthood forced on him too quickly by outside circumstances.

[livingasaghost]

victor hugo, les misérables / nora sakavic, the sunshine court

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

For Jean Valjean's redemption, it was important that kindness be shown to him by a person with authority.

For Javert's redemption, it was important that kindness be shown to him by a person with nothing.

[pelideswhore]

a suffix to their name.

Barbie (2023), dir. Greta Gerwig // Les Misérables, Victor Hugo // Barbie (2023), dir. Greta Gerwig // Achilles Come Down, Gang of Youths // Barbie (2023), dir. Greta Gerwig

[fluentisonus]

[lesbianslugreaction]

Why do you, as a man, have a narrative foil if you aren't at least going to kiss him about it?

[i-ideate]

javert according to mr hugo

[lesbian-thesbian]

yet another little parallel that wrecks me

🎥 @medium-observation

[24601orwhatever]

GUIDO BALZARETTI as MARIUS

even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise 📷 : los miserables

[iambecomeahamburger]

Like Jean Valjean, Javert asks himself 'Who am I?' And his answer is, 'I am the Law.' I find this so interesting as a parallel because the way that Javert sees himself is purposefully dehumanising. He uses the dehumanisation of himself to engage in the systematic dehumanisation of others, specifically wrongdoers, especially Valjean. By disregarding Javert the human, he enables himself to act inhumanely, and gives himself permission to do whatever he feels is for the 'highest good.'

In contrast, Valjean post-conversion (conversion as a metaphor for turning his life around and thinking of others before himself) purposefully humanises himself and others. His 'Who am I?' does not place himself as a larger entity, but takes accountability by placing himself as a human among humans. His position of power is a position of responsibility. This is illustrated through his interactions with Fantine, the man Javert mistakes for him, and others.

And so this is why, when Valjean forces Javert to confront his own flawed worldview and see him as a fellow human, not as an escaped convict, he must kill himself. He has nothing else now to live for, because his whole career, ideology, and life have been bound up in this systematic dehumanisation of both himself and others. He is so fascinating to me.

[secretmellowblog]

Another thing I think people miss about Valjean and Javert is that they view Valjean as the emotionally honest/open/expressive one, while Javert is the dishonest "closed book" who is impossible to read. In the novel it's almost the opposite, at times? Javert is compulsively honest; he's repeatedly described as being so honest that his entire soul is visible on his face, or so honest you can look into his eyes and see all the way to the bottom of his conscience. He's physically incapable of pretending to feel things he does not feel or believe things he does not believe. He is literally unable to lie. Yeah Javert generally expresses his emotions in restrained, stoic, austere, controlled ways (except when expressing glee/fury during arrests)-- but he is honest about them. He may not break down weeping in Madeleine's office, but his entire soul is visible in his face when he earnestly (if stoically) discusses his failures.

Jean Valjean is an excellent liar, out of necessity. He's often described as being utterly opaque and unreadable. If Javert's entire soul is visible on his face, then Jean Valjean's face is often blank. He needs to play the part of the Respectable Polite Bourgeois perfectly or he will be discovered and dragged back to prison, and so he plays the part very well. One of his greatest assets is that he has a perfect "pokerface" in moments of great tension and distress, which helps him defuse conflicts or evade suspicion. His politeness/strict control over his emotions/tranquility are described as his defense mechanism, the shield he uses against people who are trying to hurt him. He is serene, he is polite-- he lies constantly and no one ever knows who he is or what he's thinking. I think the scene in Madeleine's office where Javert is trying to get himself fired really shows the difference between the two of them, for me? Javert and Jean Valjean are both obviously very good at restraining and controlling the way they express their emotions.

But Javert is entirely earnest in this scene. He's not breaking down and weeping, but "his entire soul is visible in his face." He doesn’t lie. He is utterly sincere in everything that he says, including his hilariously deranged rants about hating kindness. Jean Valjean spends the entire scene lying. In "Tempest in a Skull" we see that scene from Valjean's point of view, and are explicitly told that everything he says/does is out of terror of the "great danger" Javert represents. He’s attempting to remain as calm and polite as possible, because that's what "Unsuspicious Bourgeois Madeleine Who Has Nothing To Hide" would do. He spends the entire scene being insincere. Jean Valjean isn’t emotionless: he IS kind, and sweet, and often feels genuine care/pity for other people. I think the line "he smiled to avoid speaking and gave to avoid smiling" (and the way he breaks into people's houses to give them money) is a good summary of the way Jean Valjean's genuine kindness rubs up against his terror of sincerely connecting with other human beings.

But, except in rare instances of extreme emotion, Jean Valjean is also very hard to read.

He's calm, tranquil, serene, mild, kind, pitying, polite-- and he is opaque.

[ciospola]

HEAR ME OUT so the chapter in which enjolras and grantaire die and have that fucking tragically epic homoerotic moment is called "Orestes fasting and Pylades drunk". STAY with me yet: according to its etymology, the phrase "like Orestes and Pylades" is usually used to describe two inseparable friends OR to SUGGEST AN HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO MEN! (this if anyone needed ulterior confirms on the nature of their relationship beside the Achilles AND Patroclus one)

[cometomecosette]

Fantine:

At the expiration of two or three months she shook off her shame, and began to go about as though there were nothing the matter. “It is all the same to me,” she said.

Éponine:

“God will bless you,” said he, “you are an angel since you take care of the flowers.”

“No,” she replied. “I am the devil, but that’s all the same to me.”

Hugo's "fallen women" pretending they don't care who they've become or what others think of them.

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

Locations of Les Mis - Jean Valjean's Journey

Okay, so JVJ starts his life in Faverolles, Brie (modern Aisne — thanks @vapaus-ystavyys-tasaarvo).

Then he was put in chains in Bicêtre (in Paris)

and continued on his way to Toulon, where he was in prison for 19 years.

The day after his release, he was underpaid for his labor in Grasse (was told 30 sous but, after showing his papers, was only paid 15 sous)

and several days later was in Brignolles, Digne where he was denied food and shelter but met the Bishop (inspired by the historical Bishop of Digne).

He was supposed to be going to Pontarlier next to work in the dairy farms

but instead went on to Montreuil-sur-Mer (Fantine's hometown and where she'd later return after Tholomyès left), arriving "just at nightfall, on a December evening" in 1815. What I suspect happened in the interim is that JVJ went to Paris before setting out for this town that he heard was good for cottage industries (and away from Faverolles, where he knew he would be searched for) (and anyway, last he heard his sister and niblings had moved to Paris as well) (OH SHIT was his first instinct to seek them out in Paris???). (Map updated, thank you to @baloo394 for the correction!)

In early March 1823 when Champmathieu was on trial in Arras, JVJ went through great lengths to travel from Montrieul-sur-Mer to there, leaving at 5AM and arriving at "nearly eight o'clock in the evening" despite all of the hindrances.

He then returns to Montrieul-sur-Mer to see Fantine die and be re-arrested. He escapes for three or four days, allowing him time to bury his money in the woods near Montfermeil (which Boulatruelle sees and is haunted by for the rest of his days) — Montfermeil also being where Fantine stopped on her way from Paris to Montrieul-sur-Mer and deposited Cosette with the Thénardiers —

after which he was found in Paris "at the very moment when he was entering one of those little vehicles which run between the capital and the village of Montfermeil (Seine-et-Oise)" (2.2.1). (What was the PLAN JVJ??? You went to Montfermeil, then on to Paris, and then ... what, were gonna backtrack back to Montfermeil? Did they report inaccurately and you'd just arrived in Paris? What did you go on to Paris to do?????)

He then next appears at the Court of Assizes of the Var (see the green in the bottom right-hand corner?) not long before 25 July 1823. I assume this is because he robbed Petit-Gervais while in that region.

After this, he was returned to Toulon.

Orion entered Toulon's port late October 1823, and JVJ made his unlikely escape 17 November 1823.

24 December 1823, we know that JVJ finally arrives in Montfermeil to retrieve Cosette,

after which they escape to Paris where they remain more or less the rest of the book (besides JVJ's periodic Monfermeil excursions).

[purrvaire]

black sails + shitpost I have on my phone (pt. 4/?)

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