Writing Tips from Les Misérables, Part 2
But Les Misérables accomplishes a lot more than all that. Here is part two of my dissection.
Explores Complex Character Relationships
Les Misérables is loaded with complex relationships.
When Valjean takes in Cosette, he is suddenly awakened to what it is like to have someone to love and to have someone love him. And he’s “afraid of failing” her. Their relationship is so precious to him that he doesn’t want to mess it up, so, he refuses to tell Cosette about his past, afraid she will think less of him, that it would somehow ruin what they have. Sure, Valjean gives other excuses for not telling her, but they’re just cover ups.
I get the strong impression that Cosette wouldn’t mind so much about his past, after all, he was stealing bread to save a starving child. Valjean is far more self-conscious and ashamed of his origins than Cosette would ever be. So he hides it from her. This makes his death scene all the more powerful because he hears Marius, one of the only people who knows his true life story, tell Cosette that he is saint. Not a thief. Not a convict. A saint.
But even then, even then, he still can’t bear to tell Cosette his backstory. He asks her to read it after he has passed away.
