June 17, 2009 9:04 PM
Les Miserables - pages 113-239 commentary
Continuing through the section called Fantine, Books 3-6 (pages 114-211 of the Signet edition):
It was seeing the musical version of Les Miserables in 1989 that made me want more - leading me to read Hugo's book for the first time. While the musical was perfect in its own right - capturing the essential characters and themes in stage action and lyrics - the book was able to linger over the back stories of characters. And as a reader, I was able to linger too.
While in the play we meet Fantine when she is betrayed by a fellow factory worker and begins her downward spiral, in the book we meet her at an earlier, happier juncture - as a "working girl" - one of four involved with four Parisian students. Anyone who's lived in or gone to school where there is a marked class distinction between the college kids and the "townies" will see where Fantine's romance with Tholomyes is probably headed.
Though Hugo gives no detail about her background, we learn these things about Fantine which distinguish her from her three friends:
"Fantine was beautiful without really being conscious of it."
"This daughter of obscurity had breeding."
"We have said that Fantine was joy; she was also modesty."
"Although she would have refused noting to Tholomyes, as could all too clearly be seen, her face in repose was supremely virginal; a kind of serious, almost austere dignity suddenly possessed it at times. . . "
Hugo shows us something that Tholomyes apparently never sees - that an individual often carries more potential than that allowed them by those who judge based on breeding and birth. The students' attitude is cavalier, their treatment of the working girls exploitative. And we can sense that Fantine is undoubtedly more invested than her lover is.
Indeed, Hugo shows us exactly how uninvested the lover is: on page 139, as Tholomyes is waxing eloquent, he turns and says, "Kiss me, Fantine!" then kisses her friend by mistake. To the students, these working girls are interchangeable - their purpose only to amuse them during their years at school.
As Hugo introduces us to the four couples, the students have planned a "surprise" for he young women: a perfect day of frolicking in the country followed by the most cynical "surprise: one could imagine: abandoning the mistresses with a letter saying more or less: "Thanks for two years of happiness, but we are returning to our true station in life."
The girls laugh, but back in her room Fantine weeps. Her romance has a more tragic twist: she already has had this cad's baby.
Today, with over 40% of children born out of wedlock and social programs to help single mothers survive - single motherhood is still the greatest indicator that a child will be economically disadvantaged. But two centuries ago - in a harsher, more hostile culture - to be a mother without a father for her child spelled disaster.
Did you have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, knowing that the student would go home to live his life - to marry, to have children, to pursue his career and his dreams - without looking back, with no repercussions, no scars, while Fantine had been irreparably damaged and doomed?
And yet, like most abandoned women, Fantine does what she can. Like many vulnerable people, she is by necessity too trusting. She leaves her daughter and most of her money with an innkeeper and his wife - promising to get a job and send more money each month. My heart is wrenched at how in her desperation, Fantine relinquishes her child's protection, exposing her to evil. In 1956, my mother did the same thing; having been abandoned by my father, she traveled from California to DC, leaving my brothers and me with strangers in rural Maryland while she went to work in the city, sending money but never knowing how resented and grossly abused we would be.
In the musical, the Thenardiers are a mixture of evil and coarse humor. In the book, there is no humor at all.
What were the Thenardiers like? . . .They were among those dwarfish natures, which if they happen to be heated by some sullen fire, easily become monstrous/ The woman was at heart a brute, the man a blackguard, both in the highest degree capable of that hideous sort of progression that can be made toward evil. (page 153 - but continuing to page 155)
The Thenardiers promptly sell Cosette's clothes, subjugate her into servanthood, and use her to extort more and more money from Fantine, who thinks they are caring for her medical needs.
The Thenardiers live in Montfermeil, approximately 16 miles from Paris. After leaving Cosette, Fantine travels north 154 miles to Montreuil-sur-mer (Montreuil-by-the-sea), the town she left 12 years before, in 1806.
Hugo notes that she returned to a town renewed and invigorated since she left: "While Fantine had been slowly sinking deeper and deeper into misery, her native village was prospering."
Montreuil-sur-mer's prosperity is due to a stranger who had wandered into the town in 1815 with some innovative ideas about jet bead production as well as a strong streak of compassion, generosity and self-sacrifice. He is known as Father Madeleine, but we soon learn he is the man redeemed by M. Myriel: Jean Valjean. Within a few years, the villagers make him Mayor of the town.
The Google Map below shows
A) Toulon, France - Valjean released from prison
B) Digne - Bishop Myriel provides shelter to Valjean
C) Montreuil-sur-mer - Valjean settles 1815, Fantine returns 1818
D) Montfermeil - Home of Thenardiers
Distances :
Toulon - Digne 98 miles
Digne - Montreuil-sur-mer 572 miles
Montfermeil (16 miles outside Paris) - Montreuil-sur-mer 154 miles
When Fantine, already in debt, loses her job (because it's learned that she has an illegitimate daughter), she begins a descent into a living nightmare. With 145 miles and poverty separating them, it's not hard to see how Fantine dies without ever seeing Cosette again.
There is a third person of consequence in Montreuil-sur-mer: Inspector Javert, who once served as a guard at the prison in Toulon. Although free from vice, Javert is a problematic character because of his harsh legalism. Hugo's portrait of Javert is found on pages 168-173, and we may be referring back to them later in the story to understand why Javert is relentlessly drawn to make some otherwise inexplicable decisions.
The meeting of these three characters - Valjean, Javert and Fantine - is the scene of what I will call the Second Act of Mercy. Fantine, who has been reduced to a terrible wraith of her former self - having sold her hair, her teeth, her body, and her dignity - has nursed a terrible hatred toward the man most loved by her fellow villagers, for she holds him responsible for the loss of her job in his factory. When Javert arrests her and Monsieur Madeleine (Valjean) intervenes, she spits on him. When Monsieur Madeleine insists that Javert set her free, Javert reels from the shock to his rigid legalistic code.
Javert has for some time suspected something not quite right about Monsieur le Mayor. But just when he puts two and two together and makes a formal accusation, he learns that the escaped convict Jean Valjean has been found.
His strong sense of right and wrong cannot abide his own treachery and so he asks Monsieur Madeleine to fire him, which the latter refuses to do - another act of mercy.
Monsieur Madeleine is in crisis. Not only is Fantine dying and begging to see Cosette - whom the Thenardiers are holding hostage for more money - but his conscience is torn between turning himself in to save the innocent (well, not so innocent, but misidentified) prisoner or letting the situation go so as to ensure the economic well-being of the entire town.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This brings us to page 239, where we will leave off until next Monday, when I plan to cover to page 374
Hoping to hear your thoughts, comments, favorite passages and themes.
For entire commentary and helps - including pronunciation keys, maps, timeline, see Les Miserables Book Study
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Comments
I made it to page 154 last night! (yay!) I was so taken back with the way Hugo described Fantine to the reader, it made me wonder if he was writing about her in the way he saw beauty in his wife. So descriptive, so taken with her! Then when those 4 played their little "joke" I had to go back and reread it again, then again. I could not believe they would do such a thing...how terrible!! and the other ladies just laughed?? WHAT? Poor Fantine, goes to her room and weeps. My heart just went out to her. I have been like that, more naive. the one to say "oh poor horse!" when it collapsed and the others barely batted an eye. I have been the one before, hurt by a careless remark, or a "silly joke"...then to learn she had a child by him? hunh? I read on to meeting at the Inn and the child is of "2-3 years old" and i think what? 10 months passed since before....So Tholomyes knew of this child, KNEW this child even, and still, turned away like it was a "summer fluke!" *gasped* the monster! I got so angry with him. Then Fantine came to the Inn and I kept thinking, "no no no no...don't do it Fantine, don't do it.. I'll take her for crying out loud, don't leave your angel!!" and my heart broke...for the baby, and for Fantine who was "crying as though her heart would break." (pg 153) ...and that was pretty much where I left off...I can't wait to read everything you have described so far!
Kristy in Germany
Posted by: Kristy in Germany | June 18, 2009 8:09 AM
Hi Momma!
While I did not join the book club, I have read the book (mostly because you said how much you and your family love it)and so I am following the recaps and insights you have so far.
I have to say, although the whole book gripped my heart forever, it was the story of Fantine that truly gave me that feeling of desperation, of anguish; Hugo really manages to bring the reader alongside Fantine, as if one is living thru her ordeal, or as if one is an invisible witness to the dramatic turn of events after Tholomyes leaves her and her daughter.
My hear was broke for days over the fate of Cosette in the hands of the Thenardiers; I remember reading that part of the story until the early morning hours and then go watch my kids, sleeping safe and sound, and cry a deep cry of gratitude because I was able to care for them every day and keep them safe and pour all my love over them, and silently promise them I would never abandon them, no matter what.
It also gave me compassion for "working" girls; we never really know the reasons that drive them to choose such lifestyles, and we should be careful to assume they consciously took that route because they like it and truly enjoy it. We just never know.
And how I wished Hugo would have giving us the joy of reuniting mother and daughter on last time, even for a few seconds.....
Great job so far Momma! Keep it coming.
Posted by: LadyLovas | June 18, 2009 10:46 AM
My heart broke too that the last moments of Fantine's life should end in horror and shock!! The character of Javert just strikes me with such disgust that I find myself examining my thoughts and actions now for any trace of his merciless "legalism" towards people in my life. It broke my heart that Fantine did not get a chance to hold Cosette one last time. All I can wonder now is, "What is happening to Cosette now that Valjean is imprisioned?"
I did read/ skim my way through the Waterloo pages. Very moving description of the battlefield, and all those men and horses lost from the French cavalry in the recessed roadway! Oh what a horrible death! I'm not really sure why Hugo took us down that path though, aside from setting the grave loss of men and the historical context, I did not see it as advancing the story line very much. Anyone have any ideas on why he gave the battle such a long treatise in his book? Maybe it was for them what 9/11 is for my generation...
Thanks for the book club Barbara! I'm plowing through this novel!
Posted by: Sarah | June 18, 2009 1:12 PM
What a moving section! Reading through these pages, I often find myself breathless. Last night, I stood in my kitchen reading the book for over a half hour, unable even to move to a chair.
I was a bit confused about the birth of Cosette. If she was already born (which it seems she was), where was she when Fantine was frolicking through the country? Who was caring for her then? How was Fantine able to work if she did not have the support of someone? Why did everything for her have to change when Tholomyes cast her aside? Perhaps someone will have some theories.
I was absolutely outraged by the Thenardiers, but equally disgusted by Fantine's naiveté. I have failed in being able to put myself in that place and time to understand why she made the choices she did. It's difficult for me to accept that Fantine truly had no other options. For instance, I was angry that she did not go to Mayor Madeleine to plead her case and beg for her job back. I have not been able to connect with her in the ways that I have with the Bishop and Valjean.
That aside, I have just completed the section ending on p.236 (Signet) where Valjean is agonizing within his soul of the decision he has to make. By reading the comments above, I have now learned that Fantine has died and Valjean is in prison. Oh, I don't know if my heart can take this! I'm not at all surprised, just saddened.
But I may have to wait an extra week before reading the comments so that I can maintain that element of surprise as I read. I'm rather glad that I have yet to see the play. Reading this is a wondrous experience.
Posted by: Treska | June 20, 2009 10:49 AM
As Fantine leaves Cosette behind Hugo says, "These partings appear tranquil, but are full of despair," making my heart ache in despair for Fantine, knowing she is in a desperate situation, and in trying to protect her daughter this decision will come to no good for either. I also was confused about the timeline and Cosette's birth. Once I realized Tholomyes leaves KNOWING he has a daughter and fully aware of how society would treat them...complete disgust! How can someone with the means to support not care one bit for the lives he is to let be destroyed.
On page 177, when Fantine rents a room and furnishes it on credit "a remnant of her former disorderly ways," I had such a sinking feeling knowing this very small, naive mistake would probably bring disproportionately severe consequences. And of course her downward spiral from pps 183-188 is completely heartbreaking. The injustice of her hardships...at the loss of her job I wanted to cry out, "Don't be proud, go to Monsieur Madeleine," and maybe it would have played out differently. Real tears shed on my part at the pulling of her teeth, for the last of her beauty is gone and from this point she seems to lose all hope. It feels in vain, that although these losses bring some comfort to Fantine, all the while Cosette still suffers. I wonder if Cosette is even able to remember her mother, that she is loved, and will she ever know all her mother sacrificed?
I couldn't agree more with Valjean on pg. 199 when he tells Fantine, "...you have never ceased to be virtuous and holy before God." Valjean has thankfully not forgotten the mercy shown him and now has the chance to show it to someone else. It is also bittersweet, however, as he tells her all he will do for her, and knowing (since I've seen the musical a few times) that this promising future with her child beside her will not come to pass.
Lastly, Javert's speech gives a glimpse into his character. "In my life I have often been severe toward others. It was just. I was right. Now if I were not severe toward myself, all I have justly done would become injustice." A hypocritical Javert would be easy to dislike, but this look into his mind shows that he is all justice toward others AND himself. I think this is a rare quality in a legalist, and humanity actually. I feel we usually judge others on a much harsher scale than ourselves.
Posted by: Crystal | July 23, 2009 2:31 AM
