Les Miserables

“Just being wicked is not enough to prosper.”

This quote characterizes Thénardier as relentlessly wicked and rarely prosperous. In this sense, Les Misérables dismisses the idea that there is a clear link between wealth and morality. The most moral figures, for example, are often those who have the least. Thénardier is neither wealthy nor moral. His poverty is not the cause of his wickedness, as Fantine is poorer than Thénardier but retains whatever morality she can. Nonetheless, society treats Fantine and Thénardier as one when all they have in common is their poverty.

“What is this story of Fantine about? It is about society buying a slave.”

The narrator illustrates the hypocrisy of a society that turns Fantine into an outcast for its own benefit. Fantine is driven to sex work by her desperate circumstances. Her clients are the young men who can afford their services. These relatively well-off young men are not ostracized by society for taking advantage of the poor and desperate women; their souls are not condemned. Instead, the narrator decries a society that creates a permanent underclass for its own benefit.

“The truth's the truth.”

Javert prides himself on living by a strict, unshakeable moral code. He enforces the law to a ruthless end, refusing to compromise or entertain the idea of nuance. He justifies himself by insisting that the "truth's the truth" (171) when asking for Valjean to fire him. However, the fundamental flaw in Javert's worldview is revealed in his statement. He does not know the truth. He is misinformed. The information on which he bases his actions is incorrect, which would mean in turn that he is incorrect. Javert cannot entertain this idea for a moment, so he cannot see the hypocrisy of his words. The man who deals in absolutes offers no room to entertain nuance.

“He wrapped up the bishop's candlesticks.”

Valjean makes a virtuous decision to sacrifice his freedom to spare the life of an innocent man. While reaching this decision, he feels the symbolic value of the bishop's candlesticks near to him. These candlesticks represent the bishop's investment in Valjean's reformation, and by offering himself up to the authorities, Valjean is making good on this investment. Still, however, he does not believe that he has achieved redemption. They still remain the bishop's candlesticks—a down payment on a level of grace which Valjean does not believe he has yet achieved.

“Cosette was beaten black and blue–this was the woman's doing. She went barefoot in winter–this was the man's.”

Cosette's mistreatment by the Thénardier family shows the insidious way she suffers from different types of violence. Madame Thénardier inflicts physical violence on Cosette while Monsieur Thénardier offers a perhaps crueler and more psychological alternative. He starves and freezes her so that he can extract more money from her mother. He is motivated by money and happy to abuse a child for a few francs, while his wife enjoys the vicious pleasure of taking out her anger on an innocent young girl. Cosette is subjected to both forms of violence, distinguishing her as an innocent and tragically targeted child in an unfair world.

“Never as we have said, had she known what it means to pray. Never had she set foot in a church.”

Cosette's innocence is heightened, not diminished, by her distant relationship with religion. The cruel treatment of the Thénardier family has denied her access to God. She retains her innocence despite being so far from God's grace. In the same sense, however, she has not been corrupted by the untrustworthy religious institutions. The rituals and physical spaces of religion are not necessarily the religion itself, but Cosette manages to retain her innocence despite never stepping foot inside a church. She embodies the ideal of religion, even if she has no idea about its formal ideas.

“At the same time, given certain circumstances, certain disturbances bringing his underlying nature to the surface, he had everything it takes to be a villain.”

Throughout the novel, the narrator illustrates how individuals' worst behavior is brought about by their material conditions. Poverty and desperation drive people to commit crimes. Thénardier resembles many other characters in this respect. He sees crime as a way to draw a level playing field against the rich and the powerful, enriching himself by rejecting society’s rules. He has “everything it takes to be a villain” (322), but he is compelled to be so villainous by his desperate desire to escape poverty.

“This is a book whose main character is the infinite.”

The narrator frequently pauses the narrative to flesh out the world of Les Misérables. To understand the characters' world, the narrator believes, the audience must understand the infinite nuance of their lives. Everything from sewer systems to slang to essays reflecting on the moral condition are included in the book, and each provides context and discussion on the moral fiber of the characters. The main character of the book is the infinite—in part because of the allusions to God and religion, and also because of the infinite and necessary complexity of the world the novel portrays.

“The whole wretched place showed signs of upheaval.”

Gribier is a newly hired gravedigger who believes himself to be above other people. He chastises men whom he believes are common or lower class. When Fauchelevent visits his home, however, he discovers that Gribier is trapped in the same impossible poverty as everyone else. Despite his education and his pretensions, Gribier is subject to the same material forces as everyone else.

“The sweetheart was a tomb.”

Marius prays at the grave of the father he never really knew. His cousin watches on, spying on behalf of Marius's aunt and realizing that the reason for Marius's strange behavior is not—as they suspected—a lover, but the tomb of his father. This intimate moment, glimpsed from afar, represents how people are trapped into tragic circumstances by their love and devotion. Like Fantine, he cannot give up on the love he has never really known, so he consoles himself by embracing the tragedy. Love is a tomb which traps the living, but like death itself it is unavoidable.

“This handkerchief was marked with the letters UF.”

Throughout the novel, people change their names and identities to escape scrutiny, judgement, and attention. Marius, opposite to the other characters in many ways, differs in the way he treats identity. Without knowing her name, he loves Cosette from afar and projects different identities on to her. Doing so focuses his attention, allowing him to love her more if he knows—or, at the very least, tells himself that he knows—her name. Most characters change their names to escape from others; Marius changes Cosette's name to draw her closer to him.

“Marius was poor and his room was meagre, but just as his poverty was noble, his garret was clean.”

Throughout the novel, the living quarters of many poor people are described. Marius—at this point in the novel living without his family's money—lives next door to the Thénardier family. They live in the same slum, but their rooms are markedly different in terms of cleanliness. Marius's rooms are clean while the Thénardier rooms are filthy. In this sense, cleanliness is equated with morality, rather than poverty. Being poor does not mean living in an unclean home. The Thénardiers, as in many respects, have rejected any form of responsibility and embraced the filth of their existence.

“I want cash, I want a great deal of cash, I want enormous quantities of cash, or I'll kill you, God damn it!”

Thénardier has a simple desire: He wants "enormous quantities of cash" (579) and is willing to break any law to achieve this dream, blaspheming in his attempt to prove his willingness to kill for Valjean's money. Fantine, Valjean, and other characters are all poor, but they do not want money for money's sake. They want money to feed themselves and their loved ones or to afford themselves other simple pleasures. Thénardier wants money for money's sake. His desires are ruthlessly simple and—just like Thénardier himself—have no redeeming qualities.

“She opened her fingers and let the coin fall to the ground.”

Eponine defies her material conditions as a demonstration of her love. In a move that would shock her father, she refuses to take Marius's money because she loves him, but he does not realize this. For someone so poor and hungry who was raised by Thénardier, to refuse money is a colossal gesture. Marius, who has pride, does not understand the profundity of this act. Eponine's gesture is wasted on a man who understands what it is to be poor while never truly understanding poverty itself.

“Cosette had no mother. She just had many mothers, plural.”

The stark reality of Cosette's bleak and brief existence is revealed by her having no mother, but her strong character is portrayed by her choosing to reinterpret this tragedy as positive. Cosette never knew Fantine, but she credits her upbringing to her “many mothers” instead. These alternative parenting figures may have been abusive (such as Madame Thénardier) or kind (such as the nuns), but each one taught her something. Rather than acknowledging a single maternal influence, Cosette chooses to take a positive view of her tragedy by being thankful for the many women who helped shape her personality in some way.

“What a glorious thing, to be loved! And more glorious yet, to love!”

Marius's love letter to Cosette frames love as an act of charity, revealing a similar set of beliefs to Valjean’s. After being the beneficiary of charity, Valjean discovers that being the benefactor is far more rewarding. Like Marius's view of love, Valjean believes that charity can be good to receive but even better to give. This egalitarian view of romance and society illustrates the fundamental call to selflessness at the heart of the novel.

“To rioting belong what is mightiest and what is lowliest: the totally excluded lurking on the outside waiting for an opportunity.”

For the poor and disenfranchised people of Paris, rioting is a language all its own. To riot is to express themselves through defiance and violence, by limiting the rulers' physical access to certain spaces and to upend the monopoly on violence enjoyed by the state. The riot inverts everything the state holds to be important, which is why it is such an important tool for the poor people to stake their claim for equal treatment. These disenfranchised people are, through the act of rioting, reminded of their innate power. At the same time, those ruling over them are reminded of the fragility of their positions.

“Oh! I'm so happy! Everyone's going to die.”

Eponine has spent her whole life in abject poverty. Growing up in the Thénardier household, she has even been denied access to ideas of grace or redemption, which give hope to Fantine and Valjean. As such, her dying moments reveal the effect poverty has had on her view of the world. To Eponine, the only true equality is death. She cannot imagine a world where everyone has the same money or privileges. Instead, the only privilege and power that everyone can truly enjoy is to escape from the misery of life. Eponine dies to save a man she loves, who she knows will never love her. Her death is a quiet tragedy, but through the act of dying she asserts agency for the first time in her life. The equality of death is its finality, but Eponine uses this finality to take control for the first time, even if this control is only fleeting.

“Just let things take their course.”

Valjean hates Marius at this point in the narrative, and on reading Marius's letter to Cosette he is thrilled that Marius thinks he will die. This death would allow Valjean to get what he wants through inaction, meaning that he does not have to risk falling from grace by acting in an immoral manner and trying to stop a relationship between two young lovers. But the nature of this thought worries him. He does not believe that he can stand by and do nothing when he has the capacity to do something. Inaction is not enough for a man in a relentless pursuit of redemption.

“What the father had done for his father, he was doing for the son.”

Gavroche dies on the barricades, only moments after Marius learns of Gavroche's relationship to Thénardier. This death is a tragic inversion of Thénardier's relationship with Marius's father. Thénardier, while trying to loot corpses, accidently saved the life of Georges Pontmercy. Marius, while trying to stand up for the rights of the citizens of Paris, tries and fails to save Gavroche. Gavroche's death is a bitter irony.

“I've considered myself your prisoner since this morning.”

Valjean tells Javert that he views himself as Javert's prisoner, having already placed himself into Javert's care that morning. In a wider sense, however, he has been Javert's prisoner for many years. The pursuit of the police inspector and the threat of his real identity being revealed have trapped Valjean is a cage of paranoia and fear for many years.

“This was the total demolition of selfhood!”

Javert is a man who has lived his life with total conviction. For many years, he has dedicated himself to the enforcement of the law without mercy, nuance, or compassion. When Valjean spares Javert's life, however, something changes in Javert. His views of redemption and goodness are fundamentally shaken, so much so that he suffers a complete existential breakdown. Javert suffers from ego death, completely losing his subjective self-identity: Everything he thought to be true is now demonstrably a lie, and the person he thought to be Javert, the righteous enforcer of immutable laws, is revealed to be a complete invention. Javert cannot tolerate this challenge to his self-identity so he embraces his own absolutist world view by throwing himself in the river. Javert would rather die than live in a world where he cannot be rigidly sure of right and wrong.

“It is by degrading myself in your eyes that I raise myself in my own.”

Valjean goes to Marius after the wedding and confesses everything about his past. Marius is furious, demanding to know why Valjean could not have held this secret forever. Valjean explains himself, describing his quest for penitence and absolution. Despite his good works, he has always struggled to remove his view of himself as the ex-convict with the yellow passport, who robbed the bishop and Petit-Gervais. Part of his self-loathing is rooted in others’ tendency to apply this same judgment to him. He degrades himself by obliterating Marius's opinion of him, believing that this is a moral act which will move him closer to redemption and invite the judgment he believes he deserves. Valjean's confession is an act of self-sabotage which reveals that he still does not view himself as someone who has achieved redemption.