#les mis parallels

[secretmellowblog]

Feeling normal about Javert and Eponine today

[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

[crushing-on-nico-di-angelo]

love is what defines us

cosmos, carl sagan // humanity as told by uquiz free text answers, @judas-redeemed // @cheruib // the good place, gif by @trueloveistreacherous // rien ne va plus, margarita karapanou (tr. by karen emmerich) // everything everywhere all at once, gif by @rosalie-starfall // les misérables, victor hugo // unknown

[fluentisonus]

[i-ideate]

javert according to mr hugo

[24601orwhatever]

GUIDO BALZARETTI as MARIUS

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

[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.

[purrvaire]

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

3

[autumnalmess]

If this gets one like I'll finish that dust-coated enjoltaire fanfiction from deep in the archives (6 months ago)

[wolfboywarmachines]

you are my god, my lover, my religion 

holy things in this world - emery allen (2017) // fleabag (2016-2019) // les misérables - victor hugo (1862) // the borgias (2011-2013) // “coming down” - halsey (2015)

[just-tell-him-you-love-him]

Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) // House MD, s8e20, Post Mortem (2012) // Epilogue, Les Misérables

[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.

[syrupsyche]

Let us take a look at Enjolras' final transformation.

He has truly become god-like now. Despite 24 hours of fighting, he "had not a wound, who was as indifferent as an invulnerable being". He is compared to (as we all know well) Apollo, as well as a flower. Both a god and a thing of nature, Enjolras has far left the realm of humanity, he is already gone before he is killed.

Lastly, it is no surprise that when Enjolras dies, he dies standing. There, he completes his transformation. Just like Galatea the statue turning human, Enjolras turns into a statue-like form. We are left with this last image of him leaning upright, head bowed, forever standing.

And fulfilling his own role as well, Grantaire collapses at Enjolras' feet, forever to be the statue's supplicant.

[ineffable-gallimaufry]

i just realized that there's two whole separate times in les misérables when thénardier runs into one of his kids and literally has to have one of the other members of patron-minette point it out to him that the random kid he just ran into was in fact. related to him. like they know his kids better than he does

[fluentisonus]

chiens-loups

[randomwholocker]

hear me out "My name is Jean Valjean" "And I'm Javert" parallels "My name is Marius Pontmercy" "And mine's Cosette" thank you *goes back to writing fic*