Who Are Les Misérables?
Response to a reader who asked my thoughts on TheChaostician's A Comparative Book / Movie Review of LES MISÉRABLES
A Comparative Book / Movie Review of LES MISÉRABLES
It's interesting. I agree with a lot of the comments about losing complexity, but I don't have as much of a problem with the character changes (partly because I'm used to the stage version, where Gavroche is less political and the Thénardiers are funny, but still dangerous)
Éponine's probably the biggest change that isn't just a simplification, but I think her role in the story still works, even if the details have been changed.
I do have a problem with the finale, because it's not Jean Valjean's heaven by any stretch of the imagination. It works better on stage, where it's more like a curtain call for all the characters who have died.
it's not Jean Valjean's heaven
The main place I disagree with the post, though, is about the theme and title.
The book does not use the phrase "the miserable" until over halfway through. This is clearly a title drop, so it is important to pay attention...Who is this [passage] referring to in particular? The Thénardiers... The musical is a call for liberty for people who are unjustly suffering. The book is a call for compassion for people who are justly suffering.
Listening to The Les Misérables Reading Companion talking about how the word is perceived in French makes it clear that all of the main characters are "miserables" and Hugo is linking the sympathetic wretched like Valjean and Fantine with the clearly evil wretched like the Thénardiers because, as far as society is concerned, they're the same. Society looks at Fantine and thinks she's just as depraved as Thénardier.
The Les Misérables Reading Companion
And Hugo is arguing that they all deserve compassion, that they all should have a better life, that society should treat them all better, whether they turn to evil when they fall or not. Including the Thénardiers, yes, but not only them.
So the musical is less of a complete inversion of the theme and (once again) more of a simplification
— Kelson Vibber, 2022-09-24T11:50:00-07:00
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Thoughts and commentary on Victor Hugo’s masterpiece.