#lm 3.2.8

[cliozaur]

Marius is finally here! But the poor little thing is immediately presented as an abused and frightened child, “always trembling and mute in the presence of M. Gillenorman”. Not much different from little Cosette, who also shivers and becomes mute when the very name of her abusers is mentioned (well, of course, Marius doesn’t have to work hard and is well provided for). For his grandfather, yelling and cursing (his famous “straightforwardness”) is a way of showing that he “idolizes” his grandchild. As much as he is a man of the eighteenth century, he could do better in learning basics of pedagogy: both Locke and Rousseau insisted that you should never threaten children!

Surprisingly, this chapter is much more coherent and less impressionistic than the previous ones. However, it focuses on a rather frustrating topic. There was a chance to learn more about Marius’ mother, the younger daughter of M. Gillenormand, but Hugo describes her in very general terms, albite positively: she is portrayed as a romantic soul who appreciates all things sublime, was happily married before her death, and stood in contrast to her older sister. And then we get a whole bunch of offensive crap about “Mademoiselle Gillenormand, the elder” (welcome to another of Hugo’s character without a first name; I have a feeling that he decided not to bother giving half of his characters proper names and left them with only a surname).

The most offensive aspect is Hugo's excessive focus on her repressed sexuality, portraying it as abnormal and deserving of ridicule. Interestingly, the same author created an entire gallery of celibate male characters whose value only grew as a result, but the narrative changes when it comes to women. It reduces her to a foolish goose, a prudish and ridiculous old maid  who “multiplied clasps and pins where no one would have dreamed of looking” and at the same time takes pleasure in her grandnephew embracing her. (Sorry, I have just finished teaching a course on the history of sexuality and cannot help but notice all these details about the Gillenormands’ sexuality.)

To be fair, towards the end of the chapter, Hugo provides a slightly less misogynistic remark about Mlle. Gillenormand, mentioning that in her older age, she “had gained rather than lost” and “years wear away the angles, and the softening which comes with time had come to her.”

[pureanonofficial]

LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - Two Do Not Make a Pair, LM 3.2.8 (Les Miserables 1925)

There was also in this house, between this elderly spinster and this old man, a child, a little boy, who was always trembling and mute in the presence of M. Gillenormand. M. Gillenormand never addressed this child except in a severe voice, and sometimes, with uplifted cane: “Here, sir! rascal, scoundrel, come here!—Answer me, you scamp! Just let me see you, you good-for-nothing!” etc., etc. He idolized him. This was his grandson. We shall meet with this child again later on.

[dolphin1812]

Hugo’s treatment of Mlle Gillenormand is so frustrating, especially since he has so many other characters who aren’t in romantic and/or sexual relationships (starting with Jean Valjean!) that he approaches with sympathy. Mlle Gillenormand is reduced to a “prude,” with the comments about this seeming to be attempts at humor that fall flat because they’re mean-spirited. I especially hated the implication that this “prudery” made her “melancholy” because her life never “began” without a relationship. And it could easily have been so much better! Her father treats her exceptionally poorly (he treats her like a child), so that would be a great explanation for her “melancholy.” The way he isolates his household would inhibit her ability to form relationships of any kind, depriving her of support relating to her circumstances (being an unmarried woman and having wished to marry, but never getting the chance; this is in addition to her father’s harshness). 

Mlle Gillenormand’s depiction is part of a larger issue with Hugo’s representations of women. Although her sister is portrayed positively, it seems that she’s “good” because of her “ideal” romance, thus defining both her and her sister through their relationships with men. Hugo also parallels Mlle Gillenormand with Baptistine:

“ She kept house for her father. M. Gillenormand had his daughter near him, as we have seen that Monseigneur Bienvenu had his sister with him. These households comprised of an old man and an old spinster are not rare, and always have the touching aspect of two weaknesses leaning on each other for support.”

While this seems like a nice image, Baptistine wasn’t allowed independence from her brother in the narrative, with her concerns, along with Magloire’s (her brother’s safety while traveling, their safety if the doors are never locked, etc), dismissed by both Myriel and Hugo. And Myriel was kind to everyone, including his sister, so this kind of life with M Gillenormand must be so much worse. 

The child at the end of the chapter gives us a brief glimpse of what a more sensitive portrayal of Mlle Gillenormand could touch on. Like Cosette before, he’s “always trembling and mute,” his grandfather’s abuse making him fearful and withdrawn. Mlle Gillenormand would have shared this experience, having lived with him all her life. Although the signs of abuse are recognizable from Cosette, the dynamics are distinct because of the “idolization” in it. Cosette feared the Thénardiers, but she didn’t look up to them, either; she knew that the way they treated her was wrong, but was resigned to it because she saw no alternative. In return, the Thénardiers either ignored or despised her. Gillenormand “idolizes” his grandchild, which suggests some fondness, but not familial love that would recognize that his grandchild is a person. 

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 3.2.8 ‘Two do not make a pair’

Ugh. I want to just skip this chapter. Instead, I’m going to rant at it.

We’re shown two sisters, one of whom is portrayed as romanticism and idealism personified, and the other is a boring and unintelligent prude, and WHY? Marius’s mother does indeed sound delightful! Would love to hear more about her some time! Why do we need to denigrate her half-sister in order to tell that story?

Fuck everything.

I’d have more say about how horrible the portrayal of Mlle Gillenormand is, but I’ve said it before. There’s a subtle and realistic characterization here in terms of how complex her sexual repression is. There’s a fear and horror and obsession in her uptightness that’s not mere indifference to sex--it’s very perceptively drawn! And there’s a really interesting observation about how her innocence makes her unaware of how she reacts to her handsome young grandnephew.

BUT, when it comes time to explain what’s going on with her, Hugo is just, like, “Lol, stupid prude.” Because she’s a woman, because she’s not charismatic, because she isn’t naturally inclined to the romanticism that’s the hallmark of positive characters in this book, she’s the butt of the narrative’s jokes. He’s been balanced and compassionate about her father, despite his many sins, which--fine! I’m not against compassion and nuance! But why is she the one whom suddenly the narrative has no patience for?

Fuck that. Nobody needs to be charming to deserve being treated with dignity and compassion, and I thought this book understood that better.

And it’s really unfortunate, because if you strip away Hugo’s awful way of talking about her, he’s drawn someone that really makes sense in these circumstances. It really feels like her stifledness and dissatisfaction and clinging to religion were created in the shadow of her father’s overbearingness, charisma, bullying, and libertinism. It’s telling that the two kids raised by Gillenormand are sexually repressed and socially anxious and generally weird!

But Marius’s issues get dealt with compassionately because he’s 1) male, 2) a Romantic, and 3) the author’s darling. And Mlle Gillenormand’s get talked about like her issues are her fault. Her fantasy as a kid was to marry someone stable and steady and boring, and HEY, MAYBE THERE WAS A REASON FOR THAT? Yeah, she’s got lots of unexamined issues about class. LET’S GET HER OUT OF THIS AWFUL HOUSE AND WORRY ABOUT THAT AFTER. WHY must Hugo take women not having sex as an affront to him personally?

And fuck, it’s not even mentioned in this chapter how she’s fifty and her father still beats her. Not that there’s, like, an age where that’s okay, but there’s something extra awful about it, both from a dignity perspective and an injuries perspective.

And the word “prude” is so horrible. And it’s such a horrible thing to level at her. And it’s bizarre that it’s JUST at her, in a book with this many celibate characters? What she chooses to do or not do in terms of sex is none of the narrator’s damn business to make moral judgments on! I had Enjolras use the word “prude” against himself in a fic one time because the way it’s used here against one of the least powerful and least charismatic characters in this novel is fucking unfair.

And in the middle of all this, Hugo drops:

No ambition is fully realized, here below at least. No paradise becomes terrestrial at the period in which we live.

Which is extremely important to the structure of this book! This explains so much about why the barricade and the ending are what they are! And also I’m too mad at him to explore any of it right now!

[fremedon]

Brickclub 3.2.8, “Two Do Not Make a Matching Pair”

@everyonewasabird had good things to say about this one, too.

All through this chapter I kept thinking about all the households we see of a very old man and a not-quite-as-old woman who is something other than his wife, and who is completely under his control, and then the text explicitly made the comparison to Myriel and Baptistine. I was thinking as well of Mabeuf and Mother Plutarch.

I’m not sure what we’re supposed to take from the comparison. Hugo says “These households consisting of an old man and an old maid are not unusual and always present that touching image of two frailties supporting each other”--and that is a pretty good description of Mabeuf and Mother Plutarch. Here, though...Gillenormand has been set up as a foil to the bishop over and over, and I feel like Hugo’s inability to see past his own prejudices about women who don’t fuck are keeping the contrast from doing the work it should be here. There’s clearly a deliberate callback to Baptistine’s sofa--another reasonable goal!--in Mlle Gillenormand’s desire for a stupid, well-to-do bourgeois husband being dismissed with “No ambition is ever fully realized; here below, at least.”

But BAPTISTINE HAD AT LEAST SIGNED OFF ON THE HOUSEHOLD’S VOLUNTARY POVERTY. Realizing her desire for a nice sofa would have conflicted with other goals WHICH SHE AND HER BROTHER SHARED, even if they were his ideas.

I was about to say that Gillenormand would have lost nothing and stood to gain a great deal by doing his ONE JOB and arranging a marriage for his daughter...but he would have lost control over her. An unpaid housekeeper, and someone to yell at and threaten and generally lord it over, was worth more to him, in the balance of things, than the rich and well-connected son-in-law that her name, wealth, and youth while she had it would have been amply enough to secure.

The portrait of Mlle. G’s passive nature settling firmly into sexual repression and religious fervor as she realizes she’s not going to get the life she wanted is very lifelike, but I don’t feel like Hugo, with his sympathies so entirely in the camp of the Romantic sister with her love-match, fully acknowledges the degree to which this isn’t any fault of Mlle. G or of the smallness of her dreams.

(Also I keep looking at that wings like an angel / wings like a goose and wondering if it’s supposed to echo the angel with swan wings / angel with eagle wings coming up in a few chapters. I don’t think it is? But it’s just sitting there looking significant.)

[pilferingapples]

Retroblogging 3.2.7, 3.2.8

3.2.7

...Okay I despise Gillenormand but I NEED to draw this hairstyle. NEED.TO. 

3.2.8

Oh gad Mlle. Gillenormand. Though she's surely not the most lovable character in the book, and sometimes even KINDA AWFUL, I really feel for her.   She wasn't as extraordinary as her sister, she doesn't have the social freedom that Marius, as a guy, will, and she's been brought up her whole life in the shadow of father who speaks in threats and even violence. Even her smallest wishes get mocked and ignored, by her father and even by the narrative, dang.

  And all we really learn about her sister, later Mme Pontmercy, is that she was so much better and more likeable and special-er. Ugh. Not here for that crap, Hugo. Mme Pontmercy must have been really pretty awesome! I want to know about her BECAUSE SHE'S INTERESTING, not because she makes her sister look bad by comparison, ugh.

(and I do wonder if, if Mme. Pontmercy had been in another life, she might have dreamed of BEING a heroic figure, instead or in addition to marrying one. I WANT SO MUCH MME. PONTMERCY STORYTIME OKAY.)

And hey, here's younger generation showing up! Mmmaybe besides the lancer thing and the distance issue, Mlle. Gillenormand likes Theodule because he treats her like she EXISTS?!?  I mean it's a wacky idea but maybe??

Also, augh, Marius. AUGH. I don't care AT ALL if Gillenormand idolizes the kid he yells at and threatens, in his home where he can be seen to actually strike other people (and possibly his kids), where he's kept a stranglehold on his oldest daughter and still treats her like furniture. He might genuinely FEEL love for the kid, but he doesn't ACT love, and that's a major and important different thing. Marius is supposed to know about his inner feelings how exactly? At SEVEN?

...of course, it does specifically say he IDOLIZES  Marius, which is a different thing from LOVE. Very different. And does fit in better with how Gillenormand seems to treat Marius;  as a sort of cipher, an idol or image of what he thinks a grandson and young boy (and later,man) SHOULD be.   And that I think ties in nicely with the idea later that love makes people transparent;  Gillenormand DOESN'T entirely love Marius, and isn't entirely seeing him. (If anything I think he's seeing himself there; he's treating Marius the way he, as he is now!, would like to be treated, as a outgoing, self-assured adult who's lived through an awful lot already. It's a flawed approach, to say the very least.)