#Javert was also in Valjean's death

[to23623ken]

I don't like that Javert is not in the Epilogue. I don't like the "he's in hell, the Epilogue takes place in heaven so he can't be in the song" I hate it, I think in Les Mis there shouldn't be hell nor heaven, there should be just afterlife, that's so much beautiful to me. Also Javert not being in the Finale is such a missed opportunity to do a "silent" but really emotional moment between him and Valjean finding each other in paradise

#les mis #les miserables #javert #the production I was in actually included Javert in the epilogue #not only that but Valjean and Javert hugged #Javert was also in Valjean's death

[eddienonense]

Gotta be the wildest Javert suicide scene to exist...

Curtesy of Les Miserables (1978)…I think. This is from my camera roll, hush

#tw: death #tw: suidice #but also this clip is ridiculous #so I think we’ll all be good #unless you hate sick front flips #yes I said front flips #les miserables #les mis #the brick #javert #jean valjean

[secretmellowblog]

As long as it's @valvertweek, here is one of my favorite Valjean and Javert scenes I've written (for my recently updated fanfic Annoyances):

“But I should have expected no better, as this is a false country— I have been compelled to see its falsehoods, to see that all of society and law and government and legislation and magistracy and sovereign authority and civil service and penal codes and all the dogmas on which rest political and civil security, can apparently only be summed up as a great farce someone is playing,” Javert’s words began to blend together into an utterly incoherent snarl of rage, “it is all deceit, deceit from on high, from the very forces ‘on high’ they tell you are incapable of deceit, they lie to their servants, so that their servants believe themselves honest when they are simply party to a great lie—and then they put their empty-headed imps of dandies into the uniforms of lieutenants, and they put their saints in the green caps of galley-slaves and brand them ‘forced labor for life,’ and they trick their honest servants into crime by dressing up the true authorities in the costumes of the false, and the false authorities in the costumes of the true! If there is any ‘true’ authority all! If one can trust in anything! If there is not a rift in the very firmament! If it is not all rubbish, waste, anarchy, a shapeless mass, ruin, chaos—If the very ground beneath our feet does not give way—!” “Oh,” Jean Valjean said, stumbling on a loose paving stone; he lost his balance, clutched at Javert’s coat, and dragged him to the side. Javert staggered.  In a moment the two of them had fallen to the cobblestones in a confused painful tangle of limbs. “Hmm!” Javert said, extricating himself from underneath Jean Valjean. Then he rose to his hands and knees and shook the sewer mire off himself, like a dog shaking the mud out of its fur.  “This is why thought is useless,” Javert explained with a wag of his finger, haughtily dropping his eyelids. “See there! I was too busy thinking over some nonsense or other I have already settled, that I did not see the loose stone. You see what it is.” “Ah,” Jean Valjean said, lying face-down on the pavement.

#when they fall i want you to picture it being like Our Fl*g Means Death #where like #they flop over and bounce and their shoes comedically fly off their feet #thats the energy #this is the Dynamic #les mis #les miserables #valvert #valvert week #jean valjean #inspector javert #also no one has commented about the 'javert shaking the mud of his coat like a dog shaking the mud out of his fur' #but i was really proud of that line. #it gets hard to find more Weird Unique Dog Things for Javert to do. deceptively hard #ya gotta add some variety between all the growling and snarling

[mondschein14]

( i know you can't really read the font but I just think it's neat)

Anyways this isn't a total shitpost for once because today i discovered this BANGER OF A SONG and could practically smell the toxic old men yaoi

GO LISTEN TO THE SONG AHHHH (You Want It Darker by Leonard Cohen)

Also tumblr, when will you let us post bigger videos pls 😔

https://youtu.be/8YTnSfhdJyw?si=csfxYY7m2eQ0LDZb

#Hineni #according to google means here I am #so everytime it's used in the chorus I want to portray someone facing god / death #Les mis #les miserablés #les miserables #les mis 1998 #valvert #yep I said it #javert #jean valjean #also marius i guess?? #but man... that dude is NOT marius #fantine #leonard cohen #Youtube

[corneliushickey]

And then, human society had done him nothing but injury; never had he seen anything of her, but this wrathful face which she calls justice, and which she shows to those whom she strikes down. No man had ever touched him but to bruise him. All his contact with men had been by blows. Never, since his infancy, since his mother, since his sister, never had he been greeted with a friendly word or a kind regard.

Les Misérables; I. Fantine, Book 2: The Fall, Chapter 7: The Depths of Despair. Wilbour translation.

They carried Marius up to the second story, without anybody, moreover, perceiving it in the other portions of the house, and they laid him on an old couch in M. Gillenormand’s ante-chamber; and, while Basque went for a doctor and Nicolette was opening the linen closets, Jean Valjean felt Javert touch him on the shoulder. He understood, and went down stairs, having behind him Javert’s following steps.

Les Misérables; V. Jean Valjean, Book 3: Mire, But the Soul, Chapter 10: Return of the Prodigal Son - Of His Life. Wilbour translation.

#les mis blogging #les miserables #les mis #jean valjean #javert #valvert #this is not the first time javert touches jean valjean it is the last #but it is the first time he touches him gently #and the first time someone other than cosette touches him gently #🪳 #also valjean thinks javert is signaling for them to leave to take him to prison or death #but javert is taking him home #do not. touch me. do not even LOOK at me #this is the only time javert touches someone other than to restrain them

[nebula-nights-reblogs]

i kinda get why people drew these old men gay about each other now :/

#he speaks! #this is abt les mis. just got to the part where jean valjean spares javert. #the whole movie before that i was like mmmm :/ thats a stretch. thats gotta be a bit of brainrot for them. but then it was like yeah no yeah #its a little romantic to obsessively chase a man down to prove to yourself that the law is equivalent tk god #its also a little romantic to forgive a man obsessively chasing you for years to rove to him that forgiveness and kindness is god #also rip the one guy who drug the main characters who were shot off to the side for whatever reason #WAIT NVM. he lined them up out of the battlefield unlike the soldiers bodies still in a state of violence and conflict even after death 🥺 #oh god they are for sure going to get septis

[gavroche-le-moineau]

I'm late with this translation note for today's chapter but it feels really important. The line I want to highlight in Hapgood reads:

“Suicide, that mysterious act of violence against the unknown which may contain, in a measure, the death of the soul, was impossible to Jean Valjean.”

In French the first part of that line is “Le suicide, cette mystérieuse voie de fait sur l’inconnu...”

The expression translated as "act of violence" is "voie de fait," which is specifically the legal term "assault / battery," and can also be more generally an unlawful act.

"Voie" means way/route/road/lane, and "fait" is a fact/event/occurrence (coming from the verb faire = to do or to make). To help understand the literal meaning of the expression, let's look at its counterpart, "Voie de droit," which has a more straightforward translation in English as "legal recourse," i.e. "path of the law." Now if we turn back to the expression that means "assault" or "an unlawful act," it's describing the path of the fact, the event that occurred, the thing that was done.

The unlawful nature of this act is highlighted by the use of this expression, especially in its direct opposition with "the way of the law" (musical, anyone?). It seems particularly important to me that this expression is used to describe a course of action which Javert, who clings to the law above all else, will soon take.

#les mis letters #lm 5.3.11 #javert #les mis spoilers #tw suicide #les mis language

[ghost-of-diogenes]

I watched Les Miserables live! With a friend who knew nothing about it outside of the song One Day More

they didn’t expect so much death

referred to Les Amis as “the twinks”

thought Javert was hot and shipped him with Jean Valjean

referred to Cosette as Casenoisette and Casoupee

shipped Enjoltaire (they called them the drunk one and human Shrek, they thought the actor plying Enjolras looked like human Shrek)

also in this production when Thenardier sings “this one’s a queer, but what can you do,” instead he said “this one’s a queer, think I’ll try it to,” and swept a guy into a dip. They called this iconic, they are correct.

Enjolras and Grantaire were perfect.  The actor of Grantaire understood the assignment. So many yearning looks and his desperation to stop enjolras right before he dies. Grantaire last one alive then climbs the barricade finally and then is shot dead.  also he was close with Gavroche which made it really hurt when he died.

also the Javert bridge fall was done in such a freaking cool way it’s hard to explain. I know some of this is just part of the touring production, but it’s my first time seeing the show live since I was six.

Also Jean Valjean had the voice of an angel, but with his grey hair from a distance he looked like Connor Roy

#les mis #les miserables #enjolras #grantaire #enjoltaire #les amis #jean valjean #javert #Jean valjean x javert #enjolras x grantaire #les miserables musical #musical theater #musical theatre #connor roy #cosette fauchelevent

[jelepermets]

Today, as a treat, I am going to walk on well-tread ground and rant about how Grantaire symbolizes the People of France. And how it is this that makes this chapter so sublime.

Three chapters before this one, Hugo speaks about how Revolution does not always find a welcome audience. How, without the People. an emeute is just that. It may have loft ideals attached to it, but it must fail. If the people aren't ready, if they lock their doors and rail at the revolutionaries outside in fear and apathy and anger, then nothing can be done.

Hugo admits that this is natural. We must let humans care about their own lives and not just the future. All of this can be handled, as long as in the end Progress continues.

"A people, like a star, has the right of eclipse. And all is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not degenerate into night. Dawn and resurrection are synonyms. The reappearance of the light is identical with the persistence of the self." [5.1.20]

This is reflective of Grantaire's apathy, his defining trait as a nihilist. It also reflects Hugo's implication that this is not Grantaire's natural state of being. Remember:

"Besides Enjolras, Grantaire became someone again." [3.4.1]

Not only does this tie Grantaire's existence inextricably with the Revolution, but it implies that this existence is superior, is more natural than his current one.

Grantaire also has more interactions with the People than the rest of les Amis do. See when he was meant to stir up revolutionary ideals and instead went to play dominoes. Yes he failed, but he also reflects the prevailing thought. France was not ready for a revolution. Enjolras ignored this. Lofty ideas could not reconcile themselves to the reality.

‌

All this paints a very bleak picture of course. And yet, in Grantaire's death we get that undeniable hope, which makes it all so beautiful.

We, as real people reading this book, understand that Grantaire is probably still drunk. Yet Hugo impressing upon, insisting upon Grantaire's clarity is so crucial. This, at the moment of his death, is the most lucid Grantaire has been.

Another thing that strikes me, is that thought Grantaire asks permission to die with Enjolras, he seals his own death warrant before doing so, by crying out 'Vive la Republique.' He doesn't actually ask permission to join the movement.

When the People rise, they will do so spontaneously. That crucial ingredient that is missing amongst the population has been lit in Grantaire, and it is a sign of what is to come, it is hope. He's leading the pack with his singular death, and like he measured the mood beforehead, his death can be (and to me is) read as an omen of what is to come. The eclipse - in Hugo's words - will end.

Of course, asking permission to die with Enjolras is also crucial. Not only because of the poetry of them being narrative foils, but because it works as a surrogate for the people of Paris acknowledging the bravery of those who push forward towards Progress while they refuse to budge. Again, as Hugo writes:

"However that may be, even when fallen, particularly when fallen, august are the ones who, all around the world, with eyes fixed on France, struggle for the great work with the inflexible logic of the ideal; they give their life as a pure fit for progress; they accomplish the will of Providence; they perform a religious act." [5.1.20]

Through Grantaire's death, the People come out of their fear and recognize this. Not literally, but in spirit. And if not to all of us, then to Enjolras.

Because Enjolras is, of course, crucial to this reading. Speaking of Grantaire as the People when he is merely one of many characters who are the People, it's important to ask for whom is he? Because he's certainly not for Valjean. Or Marius. Or Cosette. Or Javert. Or even the National Guards or the King or perhaps not even to the audience (if you think I'm overdoing it I respect it). But he is to Enjolras.

Enjolras is stoic throughout the whole ordeal. He speaks of glory in death. He is still devoted to his mistress, Patria. And yet his ideals have been shattered. The People were not ready. The Revolution will not come. He will die bravely, but he will have failed.

But then Grantaire stands up and says he's with them and requests permission to die by Enjolras' side.

And in that moment Enjolras' convictions are justified. If someone who has been the object of scorn, who has been apathetic, who has done little at all except annoy Enjolras and fail to stir up revolutionary thought; if Grantaire can rise up and die with him, then others will too. Perhaps not now, but in the future.

Grantaire becomes someone again when he dies next to Enjolras. And someday the people will rise.

#for every barricade that falls one hundred will rise tomorrow I'm sorry I'm so emotional lol I hope y'all like this absolute sea of words #les miserables #les mis letters #enjolras #grantaire #enjoltaire #1.5.23 #bern speaks

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

what are your honest opinions on Les Mis 2000

Before receiving this ask, I had only seen a little under half of Les Mis 2000 (French version). In order to provide a fair and complete response to this question, I started over and watched the entire show from beginning to end over the course of 5/6 weeks.

I will provide more details below the cut, but my completely honest opinion on Les Mis 2000?

Looking at the show as a whole, without considering adaptational value, it's scattered and confusing. A lot of storylines get picked up or dropped with little to no explanation, the characters and their motivations make little sense, and the time skips are inconsistent at best (Félix abandons Fantine when she is still pregnant, JVJ is released after Cosette is already 4yo and just being left at the Waterloo Inn/Fantine is already on her way to Montrieul-sur-Mer, Immortal Gav is 12 for ten years, meanwhile Javert undergoes a dramatic appearance change many scenes into the time skip, Cosette ages up when I assume the time skip takes place, and Depardieu [I refuse to call him Valjean] never ages until after the wedding). If you look at the context, it makes sense: they decided to (rather than dubbing after the fact) shoot everything in French and then again in English, so of course performances are going to flag, editing is going to be a mess, and the storyline is going to get lost in the changes they've made while shooting two shows at once.

Which takes me to my next point: as an adaptation, it's also incredibly weak. I don't know if I should be blaming the writer, director, or a terrible combination, but so many elements are not only not accurate to the book (fair enough, if you want book accuracy watch '25 Les Mis or '64 I Mis, or '72 Les Mis for accurate barricades specifically) but seem to totally miss the messages of the book altogether! Fantine was always in trouble before she gets fired (undermines Hugo's message that even doing everything "right" Fantine was still put in an unwinnable position), Javert gets his usual "obsessed with JVJ specifically and also treated as unusually cruel by everyone else" treatment, Gillenormand looks out for this fellow old man who was a gardener and has now been joined into his family by marriage, and Depardieu's character is going to get an entire section below. The Thénardier sex scenes are a lot but ultimately harmless compared to, say, the part where Javert cuts his hair (?) and attends law school with Marius and Enjolras as himself (?), and then later arrests the entire class for treasonous speech. This kind of belongs in the previous editing section, but a lot of the reveals (Marius knowing his neighbors are the Thénardiers, the Thénardiers recognizing the old man in the sewers, Cosette knowing her dad saved Marius, Gillenormand and Marius knowing Cosette's dad's background, Depardieu's character knowing about Javert's death) happen WILDLY out of sequence, and since they are plot-driving sequences, the motivations become confused, the choices make no sense, and you get scenes like Éponine trying to coerce Marius into having sex with her. I kind of liked the switch from jet beads to stinging nettle fabric except again, it didn't matter because Fantine's downfall was so badly done (forget that she turns to sex work immediately, only later selling TEN TEETH and her hair to make ends meet — Javert threatens to [and later does] arrest her for the completely legal profession of sex work before showing her where she can sell her teeth???) and Madeleine was so opposite from everything his character is supposed to be and show.

Which brings us to our next point: yes, in both the English and French versions, Depardieu's performance falls flat, but more importantly, there is an inherent misunderstanding of who and what Jean Valjean is at each phase of his life. I'll be honest, there was a lot going on when he was in prison with Javert tormenting JVJ for fun and the fire that Cochepaille needed saving from and Myriel announcing that he was buying JVJ the same way Judas sold Jesus and Cosette already being with the Thénardiers, so I don't have much feedback about JVJ's characterization or the paper that was yellow like sunshine at that point, but (ignoring the fact that Fantine apparently shows up in Montrieul-sur-Mer with no established factory in sight) then he becomes the most corporate businessman possible, with no regard for the wellbeing of his employees or town who spends all of his time running numbers? The hospital is underfunded, he only rubs elbows with other government officials/bankers, he is painfully out-of-touch with the people of his town, and apparently he doesn't even pay enough for Fantine to be making ends meet even before she is fired. A big part of what JVJ goes through in the book is that he feels like he cannot safely express his feelings about the system to anyone, leading him to act like a scared animal after Petit-Gervais, living in constant fear of being kicked ( @secretmellowblog has a great post about this here), but this Madeleine is CONSTANTLY venting and complaining to anyone who will listen. Not only that, but after he leaves M-sur-M, the police admit to Javert that they knew who he was and just decided to ... leave him be? This isn't a man who's living in fear, and this isn't a man who has to make hard choices in order to do good and help his fellow man. For some reason, Sister Simplice seems to be like 85% of his morality? (and we are very much skimming over the romance subplot that was going on there) So it doesn't even feel like he helps Fantine altruistically, it feels like Sister said "Please help" and Depardieu sighed and went, "Fine, I'll see if I can't pull some strings." When he gets Cosette and begins taking care of her, it feels ENTIRELY self-serving and creepy, and he later confirms with his own words from his own mouth that his feelings for her are not fatherly. He cares about prison reform because he experienced it, not from any sense of altrustic human kindness, and Toussaint ends up robbing him for having taken a chance hiring an ex-convict? (because ofc this Toussaint is a mute manservant, not a maid who can actually help Cosette, because all of Depardieu-Dad's choices are to serve himself, not to keep Cosette safe or happy). By the time Marius is sending Depardieu's character away, it's the only only adaptation that you're cheering on Marius, because this man calling himself Cosette's father who bought her for 1500 francs and still sometimes shares a bed with her and locks her in various rooms and has just admitted his love is not fatherly needs to LEAVE.

Finally — and I will freely admit that this is the pettiest section — the historical accuracy is in shambles. Electricity in the 1820s? 1840s fashions in the 1830s? The hair and makeup are given as errors, but how do you have accurate men's shirts and repeatedly let them wander around without cravats? And no one, not a single person, thought to check 1800s French currency? Sending Cosette off to buy bread with FIVE FRANCS (~$100USD)? Leaving one hundred thousand francs for the funeral of someone who canonically doesn't even have a marked grave? Even the part where Fantine sells her teeth: these were simple numbers they could have checked (two teeth, one napoléon aka twenty francs each — not ten for four each). All of the prices and amounts were in the book. It is not that hard to call the imaginary coin being passed between two characters a sous instead of a franc: we couldn't even see it.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would respond to this ask before finally answering, but ultimately, I was asked for my honest opinion, and this is it: it missed the mark for me in every way. I'm sure there are some people who enjoy it, and I am happy for them, but it is not an adaptation that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good Les Mis adaptation or a well-executed show.

#I try very hard to be objective under the cut in my reasons for this opinion #but it is multiple paragraphs and may feel a bit harsh so opting out after seeing the tldr .gif is totally fine #answers and shitposts #salieri27 #les mis 2000 #les mis

[maripr]

Also also also and this is not coherent at ALL but I will never be over the contrasts in the manga character design for JVJ and Javert and for Enjolras and Grantaire and how they even parallel BOTH DUOS!

Javert and Enjolras have blue eyes and blond golden hair, reminiscent of the artistic depiction of angels, a shining gaze that can pierce the soul, the light of their ideal moving them.

And JVJ and Grantaire have a lot of black in their design. Black clothes, black hair (tho JVJ's become grey as he gets more trauma :c) and brow eyes that look basically RED in the color illustrations, and they have a sad cynical demeanor even tho they're inspired by someone else and they ultimately defy their own desperation and cynism to die for someone else and for a higher ideal!

And the chapter where Enjolras tells Javert, now a prisoner, that he's willing to die for his belief and Javert looks impassively and the reader GETS that Javert is also willing to die for his, except he doesn't get his wish in that very same chapter.

If Enjolras is the Achilles of the republic and freedom, Javert is an Achilles that chooses to serve the regime that oppresses him. They have the same fervor and the same almost religious faith in ideals that aren't compatible.

And when the imperfect, tormented Patroclus introduces greyness to their worldview, makes them open their eyes to how they were mistaken, they break but differently. Enjolras breaks gently in the moment of his death, shared by Grantaire, in an embrace that unifies love for humans in general and love for a person in particular.

Javert breaks many minor times thanks to Jean Valjean and the result is never pretty. It all accumulates into him understanding that whatever he does, he's making the wrong choice so he condemns himself. Jean Valjean also condemns himself to death, for the happiness of Cosette.

And though they came SO CLOSE, they never fully managed to comprehend each other. They felt compassion at the end, maybe even love, but couldn't understand. There wasn't time.

#valvert #exr #enjoltaire #enjolras #grantaire #jean valjean #javert #les mis #les mis manga #les Miserables #ramblings #les mis meta #mari reads things

[lenievi]

I decided to translate the Czech version of Javert's Suicide from the musical.

[translation of Stars]

---

What is this? Oh, God, who is that fool? He could get rid of Javert and yet he rid him of the shackles. He already had me in the palm of his hand, why didn't he use it? The Redeemer, now to be in his debt! He let me live/go****, the bullet cut through the air, whether it was a trick, whether he renounced (his) revenge, (let) the God judge.

No! If I owe a debt to a thief then all laws are smoke. Either it will be night or light and day, [right or left]* and nothing in between. We go after each other, take it as it is, either Valjean or Javert!

Why was it he who took actions with me** as if he was something more than me, as if he was washing away my sins when he gave me my life, that long-time rival. And at the same time he took my life, it was his right. I wanted to die and I'm still here, yet only a little step away from hell.***

If the wrongdoer should become honourable, (if) crime should be forgiven where would the moral order be?

Why do I have doubts today? When I have never known them before. Such a tough guy and now I'm reeling and my certainties, those are gone today. And what if I've lied to myself and the God is with him? That man gave me life just like that, and with that he killed me, just with that.

I've failed, unfortunately, you know it, stars in the darkness. I wanted to soar too but I did not reach you. I'll leave this wretched/sinful**** world, where Jean Valjean is a saint. There is nowhere else to go,***** stars, I'm coming (there) to you.

*in here words that are used on horses to tell them to go to left or right are used, and because it's either left or right, they're used as an idiom to mean complete opposites, people who can't agree with each other, who have opposite points of view

**this line is the same as the one Valjean sings after he meets the Bishop for the same melody

***I'm not using the capital letter here because it doesn't refer to the literal Hell but to "the place of the dead". In Czech, the plural for "hell" is used here and that indicates that it's not the literal Hell (blame the Bible for that). In my opinion, Javert himself doesn't sing that he's a step away from the literal Hell, but that he's a step away from the death anyway (while suffering because Valjean let him live). After all, at the end, he'd going up to the stars. (the plural for "hell" in Czech is used to mean the underworld as well, hence not real Hell... so maybe I should have used "a step away from the underworld" idk it might carry across the meaning a bit better) But anyway, the English "Instead I live, but live in hell" also doesn't mean the literal Hell here (imho anyway), so it's like that-ish (probably an unneeded explanation but anyway)

****there are tiny changes depending on a theatre.

*****literally:

There is no other there / stars, I'm coming there to you

#les miserables #javert #don't make fun of him for calling himself a tough guy #it's not supposed to flow well. i wanted to carry across the meaning #idk if i always chose the right equivalent #translation notes are under the read more #anyway thinking about the words so much to be able to translate them makes me (hopefully) really digest them #also the lyrics always force me to look up phrases and they always lead to some quote in the bible kshdkhfkjhsjhgj #translation

[secretmellowblog]

Another reason I dislike Les Mis adaptations that make Jean Valjean constantly openly angry/violent is because they miss that Jean Valjean is not allowed to be angry. The fact he is forbidden from expressing anger is, I argue, actually a very important part of his character in the novel!

One of the subtler political messages of the story is that some people are given freedom to express anger, while others are forced to be excessively meek and conciliatory in order to survive.

Wealthy conservatives like Monsieur Gillenormand can “fly into rages” every five minutes and have it treated as an endearing quirk. Poor characters like Fantine or Jean Valjean must be constantly polite and ingratiating to “their superiors” at all times, even in the face of mockery and violence, or else they will be subjected to punishment. If Gillenormand beats his child with a stick, it’s a silly quirk; if Fantine beats a man harassing her, she is sentenced to months in prison.

(Thenardier and Javert are interesting examples of this too. Thenardier acts superficially polite and ingratiating to his wealthy “superiors” while insulting them behind their backs. Javert, meanwhile, is completely earnest in his mindless bootlicking. But I could write an entire other post on this.)

The point is that….Jean Valjean has to be submissive and self-effacing, or he puts himself in danger. He can’t afford to be angry and make scenes, or he will be punished. The only barrier between himself and prison is his ability to be so “courteous” that no one bothers to pry into his past.

Jean Valjean is excessively polite to people, in the way that you’re excessively polite to an armed cop who pulls you over for speeding when you secretly have a few illegal grams of marijuana in the your car trunk. XD It’s politeness built on fear, is what I mean. It’s politeness built on a desperation to make a powerful person avoid looking too closely at you.

It’s politeness at gunpoint.

Jean Valjean has also spent nineteen years living in an environment where any expression of anger could be punished with severe violence. That trauma is reflected in the overly cautious reserved way he often speaks with people (even people who are kind and would never actually hurt him.)

So adaptations that have Jean Valjean boldly having shouting matches with people in public and beating cops half to death without worrying about the repercussions just make go like “???”

Because that’s part of what’s fascinating about Jean Valjean to me? On one hand, he is a genuinely kind compassionate person, who cares deeply about other people and behaves kindly out of altruism. But on the other hand, he was also “beaten into submission” by prison, and forced into adopting conciliatory bootlicking behaviors in order to survive. And it can sometimes be hard to tell when he is being kind vs. when he is being “polite” — when he is speaking and acting out of earnest compassion vs. when he is speaking and acting out of fear.

The TL;DR is that I think it’s important that even though Jean Valjean is very (justifiably) angry about the injustice that was inflicted on him, his anger is harshly policed at all times— by other people, and by himself. He has been told his anger is wrong/selfish so often that he believes it. His anger takes weirder more unhealthy forms because he has no safe outlet for it. His rage at society becomes a possessiveness towards Cosette and silent hatred of Marius, but primarily it becomes useless self-destructive constant hatred of himself. And while I might be phrasing this wrong, I think that’s what’s interesting about Jean Valjean’s relationship with anger— the way his justified fury at his own mistreatment gets warped into more and more unhealthy forms by the way he’s forced to constantly repress it.

#les mis #les mis letters #jean valjean #don’t mind me just Valjeanposting #you know I’m doing okay when I’m Valjeanposting #but yeah I can’t remember the first person who started talking about this concept with me #(it was years ago) #but now I think about it constantly #when you read the book looking through that lens #of certain charcaters being forced to act conciliatory and polite ‘under threat of violence’ #you notice it constantly #it’s such a running Thing #and you could write tons of posts about it on www.tumblr.com

[cliozaur]

The one in which Valjean practices being undead—lying in a coffin and trying to maintain his famous stoicism. “The four planks of the coffin breathe out a kind of terrible peace. It seemed as though something of the repose of the dead entered into Jean Valjean’s tranquillity.” After all, this is not the first time Valjean has lives through a near-death experience—he had already ‘died’ when he fell from the Orion.

It’s also thrilling how he follows their route, feeling the changes of the road surface, and he can even guess when they crossed the Austerlitz bridge. Although, as far as I can remember, Valjean could not have known Paris well enough after just a couple of months living there. But the Austerlitz bridge was a significant site for him, marked by Javert's relentless pursuit.

Curious that even this strong, fearless, and stoic man could not withstand the horror of the prospect of being buried alive and fainted.

#les mis letters #ln 2.8.6 #les miserables #jean valjean #javert

[dolphin1812]

“There is something of the apocalypse in civil war, all the mists of the unknown are conmingled with fierce flashes, revolutions are sphinxes, and any one who has passed through a barricade thinks he has traversed a dream.”

The word “apocalypse” takes me back to Enjolras’ introduction, where it was said he had “traversed the revolutionary apocalypse.” Here, we get an idea of what that might have looked like, with the “terrible” violence of revolution mingling with the hope for a better future, but also being unclear in the aftermath. 

The comparison to a ship is also ominous in Hugo’s work especially, where comparisons to drowning are common. If there’s no escape from the barricade, then a metaphorical drowning awaits anyone who loses sight of that, and that metaphorical drowning still ends in death (like it did for Gavroche, who did leave the barricade in search of cartridges). 

Feuilly is the main architect of the barricade! It’s always nice to know what specific Amis contributed (and he gets dialogue!). 

Seeing Valjean say he’s going to attack someone is so strange given his pacifism, but it’s also such an intense line. Enjolras is very matter-of-fact about this, but Javert’s silent laughter is so disturbing. The prospect of Valjean acting violently is reassuring to him, as it reinforces his worldview, and he’s glad that the barricade seems doomed even though he’s in just as much trouble. His lack of respect for his own life is scary, although his comment that they’ll meet again (in the afterlife is what’s implied) is very dramatic and, therefore, somewhat funny.

#les mis letters #lm 5.1.18 #feuilly #jean valjean #javert #enjolras

[alicedrawslesmis]

Today's chapter really is like... Excuse me she's literally dying over there can you two please have some decency and figure your shit out outside.

But jokes aside, we have here two motifs that keep repeating themselves, an echo of the Conventionist, of words and reactions spoken between life and death, and this theme of Divine authority versus mundane authority. Fantine is the conventionist and Valjean is the bishop come to bless her but being the one who is blessed

And since Javert instinctively obeys the highest authority in the room because he's literally a dog (and at this point they thought this was how dogs worked) he obeys Valjean's divine mandate. Tho also he had an iron bar with him, you get my point.

It's very interesting how Javert's loyalties change because he doesn't think for himself and only reacts to outside forces. This character is fascinating as like an idea. I've seen this idea play out in Stefan Zweig's The Royal Game but it isn't the only time I've seen it, it's also a repeated theme is the Star Trek original series, to name a couple examples.

It's also something that ties into orientalism (I've been reading Edward Said shh) and like this contrast of the learned enlightened Western man versus the base, thoughtless, purely instinctual and reactive Oriental. And the oriental of course is not a set thing but a vague definition that can change meanings depending on context. For Stefan Zweig this man is represented by an eastern european peasant contrasted to an intellectual austrian royalist. The entire novella is about the futile battle between the two extremes, the internal journey and the purely external. In Star Trek the contrast is between a being of pure unfeeling logic, a computer, and its inherent inferiority to a man according to Roddenberry's point of view. The computer always loses to the greatness of man's empathy and instinct. It's also like, wish fulfillment. To try to make yourself believe you can't be replaced by a computer.

Anyway this was a bit of a tangent because I have some thoughts about Star Trek's orientalism re: Spock. But also because Hugo looooooves an illuminism VS barbarism contrast and he loooooves orientalism. And I argue that Les Mis is actually a turning point for him. Because if you read Toilers of the Sea what you get is actually a kind of reversal or culmination of his ideas on the grotesque and the barbarian. Maybe because he left France and actually saw that there are other people in the world with different worldviews and he was able to grasp them because they were still European

edit: Edward Said talks a lot about Victor Hugo, Flaubert and Nerval in Orientalism btw and an attentive reader can very clearly see the aspects of orientalism that stil permeate Les Mis even when he isn't even talking about the orient itself. The orient presents itself as a dramatic trope or a creation of the ""West"" for their dramas... Good book btw