LES
MISERABLES: LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION
Wilhelmina
S. Orozco
Did
Victor Hugo change the idea of love in his book, Les Miserables? When you watch the film you will find various
meanings of love, based on Christian tenets of “Love your neighbor as
yourself.” I watched the film more than four times, the first, only half of it.
I had to repeat watching it because of its musicality. I could not feel the
time passing while viewing scene by scene revolutionary singers, singing in
tune and hearing their with meaningful lyrics. Yes, I would recommend the film
as must-watch especially for Christians who are at a loss as to what Christian
love means.
Mother’s love
Fantine
(Anna Hathaway) exemplifies the adoring, devoted mother who sacrifices her life
and honor just to be able to give sustenance to her daughter, Cosette taken
care of by debauched innkeepers (played by Sacha Baron and Helena Bonham
Carter). After being disemployed and thrown out of the factory of rosary beads
owned by La Mere (played by Hugh Jackman), she enters prostitution, but after
selling her daughter’s locket, her hair and then her teeth, for ten, twenty
francs? So cheap at that time. She catches illness and just as she was getting
worse, Mr. La Mere springs up to save her from the clutches of a brusque
customer and the police, headed by Javert.
Fantine lyrics: “To
love another person is to see the face of God.”
- “Take my hand and
lead me to salvation.”
Love of work
Javert,
the police who hunts down Jean Valjean, the prisoner sent on parole and then
who escapes, not reporting anymore as he has been ordered to do, is a prime
example of the rightist – the individual who upholds the law no matter the
costs. He likens those who flaunt the law like Lucifer who must descend to
hell. For Javert, the law is like the commandments of God, and so he seeks
God’s intercession so that he can catch Jean Valjean. Here we see that Victor
Hugo has placed the idea of God as one who looks after the good and bad guys in
the world, as Javert belongs to the latter in the story.
Javert’s lyrics: ‘Can
this man’s sins be forgiven, Is he from heaven or hell?”
Romantic love
The
love of Eponine, daughter of corrupted couple-innkeepers, for Marius is
typically unrequited love She romantically hankers for him but his sights after
all are for Cosette. And so Eponine sings, “On my own” with lyrics that say
that “I love him but only on my own.” Eponine we might say belongs to the poor
class while Marius, the bourgeoisie in French society. And so her love maybe
characterized as slavish. When Marius requests her to seek the address of
Cosette, Eponine agrees to do so. When Marius was about to be attacked by the
soldiers, she brought herself between them and got killed in the process. Her
song with Marius speaks only of his being with her and not loving her, whereas
Marius offers words of love to make her live.
A child’s love of
country
However,
Javert has a redeeming grace. He is set free by Jean as he was about to
executed by the rebels who had found him acting as an impostor-rebel but giving
the wrong information about the time of attack of the King’s soldiers. It was
the little child who exposes him as the head of the police. As the child
himself dies in the film, upon seeing his corpse, Javert pins his own medal of
honor on him.
Why
did the child die? At that time when the people had deserted the rebels,
knowing the heavy equipment that the State could use against them, the rebel
leaders were wavering whether to continue or not. But a child’s love of country
knows no bounds. It is just pure and simple love without any idea of death at
all. And so he sang the rebels song, “Do you hear the people sing? Singing the
song of angry (ones). It is the music of a people who will not be slaves
again.” As the child sang that, the adult rebels take heart and sing with him.
Unfortunately, a King’s soldier shoots him down.
Rebels’ love of
country
The
way the rebels taunted Marius for his romantic love for Cosette shows that this
is really a universal phenomenon. The rebels told him that to be patriotic is a
higher cause than falling in love with one person, and that Marius cannot
possibly succumb to his vulnerable emotions but should rather use reason.
Thus
in the song about red and black, lyrics go this way, contrapuntally:
MARIUS: Red the color of desire
Black the color of
despair
REBELS: Red, the blood of angry men
Black: the night that
leads to dawn
Red: the world about
to dawbn
Black, the dark that
ends at last.
During
the seventies here in our country, this dilemma of whether to serve the aims of
the revolution against Marcos or remain dedicated to domestic concerns was very
much felt. Many people became afraid to confront the dictatorship, but not
until the 80’s when Ninoy had died and Cory led the movement to restore
democracy in our country.
Thus,
I recommend that every NGO (non-government organization) member learn the
lyrics and sing the song. It helps to know that in the time of the revolution,
even personal desires could rankle anyone.
Love of a surrogate
father
Jean
Valjean’s love for Cosette makes him sacrifice himself – going to the ranks of
the rebels just so he could find out who this Marius is and make him be with
Cosette. Marius is hurt and lost consciousness during the massacre and
confrontation between the rebels and the State police. Valjean carries him away
from the scene so that he will live and be with Cosette.
Valjean’s lyrics: “I
can die in peace for my life is blessed.
”
n “Take
this children Lord in thy embrace and give them grace.”
Cupid-style
Love
at first sight sparked between Marius and Cosette, to the despair of Eponine.
This might have been a compromise of Hugo to the general notion that Cupid
could play tricks to anyone at anytime. The love between the two is blessed by
Valjean who was feeling his age catching up on him. However, with regard to his
true background as a prisoner-parole escapee, Valjean keeps from Cosette, for
fear that she will be disgraced.
Valjean’s lyrics:
“Truth is given by God in our time, in our term.”
Debauched Love
The love between the Thenardiers, the innkeepers is one of "You use me, I use you" type. The man uses the woman to run the inn and at the same time freely liaises with others he may fancy, while the woman, pretends to like a customer but steals money from him. One of her customers is that soldier who heads the group that attacks the rebels at the barricade. Actually the life at the inn is like hell -- where you have sex, violence, lying, stealing, child abuse, and all kinds of Luciferic activities committed by people from all walks of life including the clergy.
Love of life
Not
only did Valjean save the lives of a worker pinned down by a pillar, Cosette,
of and Marius, he also saves the life of Javert. In the process of executing
Javert, the rebels meet Valjean who because of his alert reaction killed a
traitorous pro-royalty standing atop one of the towers. In exchange for his
valiant act, the rebels asked him what he wanted, and he asked for the life of
Javert. However, instead of killing him, Jean Valjean sets him free. True to
form, Javert did not consider it an act worthwhile for he warned Valjean that
he would still hunt him down later on. Valjean gave him his address where he
could be found.
In
this instance, friends’ and enemies’ lives are both important to Valjean as he
himself has been the recipient of the unconditional love of that priest in the
convent who gave him shelter.
By
the way, after his release from prison, Jean Valjean could not find work, was ostracized
by society, which denied him a room at the inn. (Here Hugo seems to liken
Valjean’s search for an inn to the travels of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem
So
that priest’s belief in his capacity to change, transformed Valjean himself
into a new man and became a very rich businessman owning a rosary factory.
The
priest’s Christian love – undiscriminating – became a model for Valjean to
become a good citizen even to the point of setting free his nemesis, Javert.
French belief in
Christianity
I
am completely surprised by the very Christian outlook of Hugo here, and which
was given justice by the filmmakers, maybe by director Tom Hooper or maybe as
ideated by Cameron Mackintosh, the producer. In the dialogue, there is frequent
mention of Jesus, of God. Fantine says: “if God knew me now, he would let me
die instead.” Javert prays to God to be able to catch Valjean. Valjean prays to
God to let him bring home Marius to Cosette. In that scene where Fantine is
hallucinating over Cosette, she sees the image of her child approaching her
through a gauzy curtain but with the cross to her right.
The cross
Actually
the cross is very visible all throughout the film. From the factory where the
rosary is being strung, the rosary which Jean Valjean gives to Javert who
visits him in his office, the room of Jean Valjean at the end of the film where
a cross hangs by the wall.
God as savior and
friend
But
God is not some kind of an entity that is too high and omnipotent to be
reached. Valjean and the other characters speak, mention or even talk to God as
a friend just standing by or sitting down with them everyday. Even the rebels
reveal their theistic upbringing.
I
think that the film is very good material for the youth of our country,
supposedly the only Catholic country in Asia ,
so that they may understand the real meaning of having faith.
The
film shows us that amid poverty and struggles for transformation, we do not
lose our faith in God and in fact it inspires us to live and be humane to
fellow human beings.
As a last note, I scanned the pages of Les Miserables the book and found some scenes of which the filmmakers have taken liberty, meaning they had changed some of the actions. For example when Valjean gets Cosette, in the book, he stays overnight at the inn and gets her in the morning. But in the film, the deed is done right away, perhaps to show that urgency of the situation, whereby Javert could surface at any time and catch Valjean.
In the book also, Fantine dies because she hits her head on something, but in the film she just loses consciousness. That scene is very moving and dramatic and perhaps there is reason to change the writings of Hugo. Then, there is an extensive portrayal of Marius as the son of the nobility in the book whereas in the film, the treatment of him centers on being a suitor to Cosette and a hesitant comrade to the rebels.
I think that the film should have been titled "The Miserables" with a caption, based on Hugo's book. When great liberties are taken of the contents of a book, then that film because an entity of its own, albeit adapted from the original. Most of all, the film is musical, which the book did not have, and hence the filmmakers -- director, composer, lyricist, scriptwriter, and everybody elses, have produced a semi-original film. By having a title of its own, then the people involved credited for their visually and aurally satisfying portrayal of the plot in the book.
May there be more of this film, historical, touching and musical.
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