thenardierfamilytherapy

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

Despite the kindness and forgiveness emanating from Bishop Myriel and, later, Jean Valjean, figures who restore faith in humanity's goodness, the Thénardiers possess the power to shatter any trust we might have in humankind. What they have done to Fantine and Cosette is arguably the gravest sin against humanity in classical literature. They exploit money from Fantine, coercing her to literally sell parts of herself, all because she believes it keeps Cosette safe and sound. If only she knew... I can’t fathom what would have become of her if she did. It is even sadder that Fantine’s money doesn't enrich these individuals; it only services their endless debts.

Cosette is abused, undernourished, and dressed in rags. This is sufficient to evoke sympathy, but Hugo takes it a step further, portraying how she was forced to perform household chores before the age of five. If you know any children of that age, you understand that you don’t want them to ‘help’ with chores, as you'll end up having to redo everything. Peasants did use child labour, but typically for simple tasks. Not for washing dishes and sweeping rooms and courtyards. If the Thénardiers had a child of five sweeping their rooms and courtyard, it's no wonder they eventually went out of business.

Villagers looking at this abused child and praising the Thénardiers for their generosity is a common occurrence in the countryside. Eugene Weber’s "Peasants into Frenchmen" gives the impression of how hardened, unsympathetic, misogynistic, and pragmatic peasants were due to their challenging and unpredictable lives.

And the last passage is absolutely heart-wrenching: “She was called the Lark in the neighbourhood… Only the little lark never sang.” Oh…

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

you know how in the original cast recording (paris 1980) the music during le casse de la rue plumet has no audible lyrics except éponine’s scream? and it always scares the blazes out of everyone?

ok but just. do we have definitive proof that this scene was not originally mimed? i jest. but hear me out right hear me out. everytime i listen to this recording i can so vividly picture everything in my mind’s eye because obviously we have no video but the singing is so beautiful .. until we get to this scene. because i cannot hear any singing, i have this persistent (intrusive) mental image of patron-minette and éponine miming the rue plumet scene, or more accurately doing a silent film esque three stooges style pantomime of it and gesticulating wildly at one another instead of speaking or singing. and then out of the silence, that one genuinely distressing scream. and then clown fisticuffs. this is HIGH theatre. screaming mimes? FIGHTING mimes? in MY early 1980s french rock opera?? it’s more likely than you think! (which is to say, that the very thought of this possibility exists.)

sometimes this hallucination is subtitled with the 1991 revival lyrics like the semaphore version of wuthering heights

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

the fact that pro-monarchy arguments have degenerated, over the past few centuries, from “the king rules by divine right and is accountable to nobody but god”, to “uhm the royals generate a lot of income from tourism” will never stop being extremely funny to me

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

i’m still losing it at ‘crab-like souls which are continually retreating toward the darkness’. next time i get into it with someone really bad i’m just going to recite that whole passage to them

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

i always picture éponine as filipino because of lea salonga - and fun fact when i was a child I thought lea salonga was the PINNACLE of feminine beauty. i saw her singing a whole new world dressed as jasmine once, and i was four years old praying to God like why did you not make look like her. very common little gay thoughts. etc. so when i saw her in that 10th anniversary concert as éponine and her acting was so intense as she was singing so perfectly.. that image was permanently etched into my brain and i’ve no regrets

Does anyone have any SEAsian les mis headcanons cause i want to hear as a southeast asian its so interesting to hear pls drop it

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

First Sketch of Two Unprepossessing Figures. Volume 1, Book 4, Chapter 2.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

On my own (Mon histoire) translation from the new Les Mis version at the Châtelet!

I'm alone once again without a friend on this earth (Je suis toute seule encore une fois sans un ami sur cette terre)

I'm not in a hurry to go back to my solitude and misery (Chui [je ne suis] pas pressée de retrouver ma solitude et ma misère)

I wait for the night to come so I can see him in my memory (J'attends que vienne le soir pour le revoir dans ma mémoire)

Sometimes I walk alone at night the streets of Paris are mine (Parfois je marche seule dans la nuit les rues de Paris m'appartiennent)

He comes to me, I run to him and I put my hand in his (Il vient vers moi, je cours vers lui et je mets ma main dans la sienne)

The city sleep in the dark (La ville dors dans le noir)

I can invent my story (Je peux m'inventer mon histoire)

My story (Mon histoire)

It's a dream beggining (C'est un rêve qui commence)

I see him, he smiles, he comes to me (Je le vois, il sourit, il s'avance)

Eyes closed, Marius finally embraces me (Les yeux fermés, Marius enfin m'enlace)

And I pray that his embrace never breaks away (Et je pris pour que jamais son étreinte ne se défasse)

With him, I am not the same (Avec lui, je ne suis plus la même)

I love rain, and when we walk together (J'aime la pluie, et quand on se promène)

Our two shadows, like two loving giants (Nos deux ombres, comme deux géants qui s'aiment)

Stretch at our feet and walk together on the Seine (S'allonge à nos pieds et marchent enlacés sur la Seine)

I know well that I inevented everything (Je sais bien que j'ai tout inventé)

I know well that he is never with me (Je sais bien qu'il n'est jamais à mes côtés)

And yet, I keep believing (Et pourtant, je continue à croire)

That with him I'm living a story (Qu'avec lui je vis une histoire)

Yes, I love him, but when the day begins (Oui je l'aime, mais quand le jour se lève)

The morning erased my dream (Le matin a effacé mon rêve)

And the world, back to itself (Et le monde, redevenu le même)

Lost its colors and the rainbow [lost] its tiara (A perdu ses couleurs et l'arc-en-ciel son diadème)

Yes, I love him, but I am alone in the world (Oui je l'aime, mais je suis seule au monde)

All my life, I waited for a shadow (Toute ma vie, j'ai attendu une ombre)

My story is an empty shell (Mon histoire est une coquille vide)

A world full of happiness, in which I never had a part (Un monde plein de bonheur dont je n'ai jamais eu ma part)

Yes, I love him (Oui je l'aime)

Yes, I love him (Oui, je l'aime)

Yes, I love him (Oui je l'aime)

All alone in my story (Toute seule dans mon histoire)

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

The Leaving Mother and the Child Left Behind. Volume 1, Book 4, Chapter 1.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

Still thinking about how in the Théâtre du Châtelet production of Les Mis, when Thénardier was trying to rob Valjean's house, he asked Montparnasse to stand guard/be on the lookout, which he worded as "Montparnasse, fait le guet", which in French sounds like he said "Montparnasse be/act gay" and Montparnasse did a double take, hit the fruitiest pose with his hand on his hip and looked around like "I mean, okay ?".

And I was like. They did a "___, can you serve ? No, serve the country !" type of joke. Icons.

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

"Life is a hideous invention of I know not whom. It lasts no time at all, and is worth nothing. One breaks one's neck in living. Life is a theatre set in which there are but few practicable entrances. Happiness is an antique reliquary painted on one side only." - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Photography by Kyle Thompson

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

You’ve hear of cracking open a cold one with the bishop now get ready to crack one open with Fantine

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

A very important compilation

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

Agere Eponine moodboard

Requested by: anon

x x x x x x x x x

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

éponine’s pov during the rue plumet scene is like a nightmare you’d have about being a teenager again. it’s really as if every single one of your personal demons were to show up at once. first you bring your crush off to a romantic location… to meet his beloved… at his request (probably hoping that he sees you as a second place consolation in case he says something stupid as usual and that said beloved tells him never to talk to her again ergo driving his beautiful stupid face into your waiting arms). INSTEAD they are actually the most in love two people have ever been. GREAT! AND she turns out to really be an estranged relation that you bullied in childhood?? and she’s gorgeous now and you’re wearing literal shit??

and THEN your DAD shows up to rob her house???

WITH YOUR SITUATIONSHIP FUCK BUDDY??

AND A GANG OF ROBBERS? WHOM YOU’VE ALSO KNOWN SINCE CHILDHOOD??

And THEN you get into a PHYSICAL FIGHT WITH YOUR FATHER WITH ALL OF THESE PEOPLE WATCHING??

the fact that éponine in the book does not scream is actually the strongest thing she ever did. anyone would scream

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

this one?

that one illustration of eponine in marius’ room is so fucking scary it looks like analog horror

[thenardierfamilytherapy]

big fan of the fact that in hugo’s novel which he himself said is a reflection of a world becoming slowly more just and its characters likewise redeemed or punished over time, arguably the most explicitly unredeemable character in the entire book emigrates to america instead of dying in prison with his wife. he doesn’t even get the luxury of death or whatever afterlife is in store for them.

hugo really said i’m sending that man to hell and hell is america