#LesMisWeek: Characters and my opinions.

After seeing the stage version of Les Miserables I wanted to write about the different characters in the book and, how the stage show changed my perceptions of them. I'm not going to include all the characters just the ones that really interested me and those that I want to share my opinions on. I would really love it if people would comment and share their own opinions. This is definitely meant to be a discussion post, so get involved :D

All character descriptions taken from Spark-notes.
CONTAINS SPOILERS

Marius
Character description: The son of Georges Pontmercy, a colonel in Napoléon’s army. Marius grows up in the home of his grandfather, M. Gillenormand, a monarchist. Marius has an identity crisis when he learns the real reason for his separation from his father, and this crisis sets him on the path to discovering himself. An innocent young man, Marius is nonetheless capable of great things and manages both to fight on the barricades and successfully court the love of his life, Cosette.I have issues with Marius that I didn't fully realise until after I had watched the Musical. Only then did I fully understand my frustration with his character. His relationship with Eponine is so unfair, I really got the impression that he knew how Eponine felt about him, and enjoyed stringing her along.
"I love the way you always tease"

Marius as played by Rob Houchen
Les Miserables on the West End

There was also, bearing in mind that the majority of this is based on the Musical, I have yet to see the film, a lot of physical contact between the two, predominantly initiated by Marius. There was a lot of grabbing her hands, hugging her and hair stroking. The only time that I really thought that this was appropriate was at the Barricade ... I felt like he was a bit of a 17th century player (apart from, of course, when he found Cossette). He was a good looking guy, who enjoyed the attention. He definitely had a friendship with Eponine and he definitely benefited and enjoyed it, but he definitely didn't even attempt to spare her feelings.


Eponine
Character description: The Thénardiers’ eldest daughter. Eponine is a wretched creature who helps her parents steal, but she is eventually redeemed by her love for Marius. She proves that no one is beyond redemption, and she ultimately emerges as one of the novel’s most tragic and heroic figures.

Recently, I came across a Les Miserables character quiz on Sparknotes and it got me thinking. The questions had multiple choice answers and asked questions relating to important events in the characters storyline, however I found some of the answers to be a bit ambiguous. One of the questions asked why Eponine went to the barricade, a simple enough question but the choices given as answers included 'because she was in love with Marius' and 'because she was suicidal', and with that we come to the crux of my issue. I do believe that towards the end of the story (and, tragically, her life) she was suicidal, because of, among other reasons, her love for Marius.

Eponine as played by Carrie Hope Fletcher
Les Miserables on the West End

"One more day all on my own
...
One more day with him not caring
...
What a life I might have known

...
Eponine: But he never saw me there!"

She realised that she was never going to be with him and that there was a high chance that she would be forgotten once he and Cossette were married. She wanted to help hem, protect him, and forever be remembered by him. That is the main reason why she wanted to go to the Barricade. I know a lot of people agree with me, but there are also a lot of people who view her as nothing more than a love sick teenager, somewhat under-educated and with no real comprehension of what was going on. Yes, Eponine is a little 'love sick' but she's also a strong, independent character who is fully aware of her situation both romantically and socially, she understand that change needs to happen and she decides to - please excuse the expression - kill two birds with one stone. If she can die, which she knows is very likely to happen, thus ending the pain of seeing Marius with Cossette, whilst helping to give power and change to the people - then she was going to do it. She is the first character I have ever encountered to achieve something both completely selfless and totally selfish in one foul swoop and I admire her greatly for that.

Javert
Character description: A police inspector who strictly believes in law and order and will stop at nothing to enforce France’s harsh penal codes. Javert is incapable of compassion or pity, and performs his work with such passion that he takes on a nearly animal quality when he is on the chase. He nurses an especially strong desire to recapture Valjean, whose escapes and prosperity he sees as an affront to justice. Ultimately, Javert is unable to say with certainty that Valjean deserves to be punished. This ambiguity undermines the system of belief on which Javert bases his life and forces him to choose between hypocrisy and honor.

Javert as played by Russell Crowe
Les Miserables 2012 re-make

I have always considered Javert a complex character, especially concerning his relationship with Jean Valjean and his own place in society. It is indisputable that he is hellbent on recapturing Valjean. However, I feel like his desire to right all the crimes he saw as a child were not the only thing driving his animalistic and, eventually completely irrational, desire to re-capture someone who yes, did wrong, but did he really deserve that degree of persecution? I think, some how, Jean Valjean became Javert's symbol of everything wrong in the world and that was what he was trying to pursue - not the man but the symbol that he had become. I also believe that Javert recognised that the system of law and society that he worked so tirelessly to uphold was wrong, rotten and in need of changing, but he was so stuck in his ways and so damaged by his childhood that he didn't know how to shed his identity. For that's what Javert was, and the only thing he knew how to be; A policeman. His childhood, surrounded by criminals and injustice shaped him so severely and definitely that he was always going to be one side of the law or the other. His suicide, although played to seem as though it was all Valjeans fault was really about what his freedom at the barricade had symbolised. There was no way he could have returned to the force knowing that he had come so close but then had let Valjean go, and he couldn't cope knowing that change was coming. Again, Jean Valjean was the symbol for all the things that Javert couldn't cope with and everything that he wasn't ready to accept and deal with.