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Les Miserables Synopsis






It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!


1815...Jean Valjean is released from the prison in Toulon after 19 years,


for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family,


the actual sentence being 5 years, extended by several escape attempts.


However, this parole didn't really mean freedom; wherever he went, Valjean was required to show his yellow ticket of leave, which told that he was a dangerous ex-convict...not to be trusted.


Thus, he was not entitled to the same rights or wages as "honest" men. He was not even accepted at the lowliest inns, although as he insisted, he had money.


After walking for miles without food or rest, he was at last taken in by a kindly old bishop, who called him "brother", gave him food and a place to stay the night.


Valjean repaid him by taking off in the wee hours with the bishop's silver cutlery.


The police caught him and brought him back to the bishop, to confirm the ex-convict's story that the silver had been a gift.


Not only did the bishop confirm it, but he said Valjean forgot the pair of silver candlesticks that went with the set, insisting that he take them. The police left satisfied.


The bishop reminded Valjean of the "promise" he made to use the silver to "become an honest man",and that Valjean's soul now belonged to God.


Valjean was deeply moved, and after a fashion, decided to keep the promise leading to his salvation...Of course, he had to break parole to do it. He changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine, and eventually became a wealthy businessman, as well as the mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer.





During this time, Valjean did many good deeds, most notably rescuing Monsieur Fauchelevent when his cart came down on top of him.


Nobody else in the crowd would help, so M. Madeleine got under the cart and pushed, arousing Inspector Javert's suspicion.


Javert recalled only one other man with the kind of physical strength necessary for such a rescue...a convict from the Toulon prison...Jean Valjean.





And there was the matter of Fantine.


Fantine was once a beautiful young lady...Lovely blond hair, perfect teeth...but misfortune had brought her to a tragic existence.


She had been in love,but the man was only interested in a good time, and left her with a child and no money.


She was compelled to leave her child with Monsieur and Madame Thenardier, an unscrupulous innkeeper and his wife, whom Fantine had met in her travels.


The Thenardiers treated the child, Cosette, like a tiny slave, while their own daughters were spoiled.


The Thenardiers demanded more and more money from Fantine, who sold her hair and teeth to pay for medicines for her sick daughter. (The illness was a lie.)


Fantine was forced into prostitution, since she'd lost her job at M. Madeleine's factory, due to a dispute that he allowed to happen, since he delegated the problem to the factory boss who was less than sympathetic to Fantine's plight.


Fantine was arrested for assaulting a citizen...no matter that the man was definitely the one at fault...he taunted her and threw snow at her until she retaliated, and he conveniently left the scene as soon as he could.


Naturally, since Fantine was a prostitute, she had no rights, and Javert was quite ready to send her to prison. She begged him for mercy, but to M. L'Inspecteur, all was black and white.


M.Madeleine arrived, believed Fantine's story, and set the poor woman free, in spite of Javert's protests...the Mayor pulled rank.





That very night, Javert reported his suspicions to the prefecture of police...he suspected that M. Madeleine, the respected mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer was really ex-convict Jean Valjean.


Meanwhile, Fantine was taken to the factory infirmary where she spent the night with a high fever, and remained there since she was not recovering.






M. Madeleine started paying Fantine's debts, and attempted to send for her daughter, but the Thenardiers saw this as an opportunity for more money, and so delayed accordingly.


Madeleine decided he would have to go get Cosette himself, so Fantine dictated a letter of permission to him, that she signed. The Thenardiers would have to release the child.


As the mayor made preparations to leave town, Inspector Javert went to see him. He requested his own dismissal, because he had reported Madeleine as an escaped convict, but had later found out that the "real" Valjean had already been apprehended.


A man fitting Valjean's description had been caught stealing. He called himself Champmathieu and had never heard of Jean Valjean. Of course such a man would be sentenced to life imprisonment.


The mayor refused Javert's request, much to the policeman's displeasure. He now had more important matters to attend to.


Could he in good conscience just allow this to happen? If Champmathieu was convicted, Madeleine...Jean Valjean...would truly be free in the eyes of the law.


It would be as though Valjean never existed, except as an obscure prisoner, locked away forever.


Except that now Valjean's soul belonged to God, and to allow this to happen, would be the cause of his eternal damnation.


After making an agonizing decision, Monsieur Madeleine, Mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer, made the journey and revealed his true identity to the court.





When he returned, his gray hair had gone completely white.


Fantine had been quite ill, but since she thought the mayor had gone to get her child, she was in good spirits. Due to her frail condition, she was allowed to believe it.


M. Madeleine was visiting Fantine when Javert came to arrest him. He announced that there was no Monsieur le Maire, only an escaped criminal...there was no child, and that Fantine herself was undeserving of such care, because of what she was.


The shock was too much for Fantine, and she fell dead, her eyes open in a horrified expression.


Valjean threatened Javert with a makeshift weapon, so he could arrange Fantine in an attitude of repose, after he softly spoke to her. Then he allowed Javert to arrest him.


Valjean was thrown into the town jail, from which he quickly escaped. He returned to take care of a few things, such as withdrawing his money from the bank and concealing it.


Soon he was recaptured and sent back to the prison. Jean Valjean eventually escaped again in a daring rescue in which he saved a man's life, but fell to his own "death" in the sea.


He resurfaced in Montfermeil, the town where the Thenardiers lived with Cosette. He arrived at their inn, and after some negotiations, took Cosette to live with him in Paris.





Some ten years later, Cosette falls in love with Marius Pontmercy, who is involved with a group of politically active students who want to start a revolution.


The Thenardiers are always lurking. M. Thenardier sets his sights on Valjean, hoping to use his past against him.


Javert is also a constant presence, and Valjean is forced to stay out of sight.


Thenardier's daughter, Eponine, in love with Marius, thwarts her father's plan to rob Valjean's house, as well as making it possible for Marius to contact Cosette.


Valjean makes the decision to take Cosette out of the country, while the revolutionary students, led by Enjolras, build a barricade from which to fight. Eponine is killed in the crossfire, taking a bullet that was intended for Marius.





Javert was at the barricade as well, posing as a volunteer, but was actually a spy for the police. Gavroche, Thenardier's neglected son, who was as much a revolutionary as the students, pointed that fact out to Enjolras, who saw to it that Javert was bound in the tavern to be executed later.


Valjean intercepts a letter from Marius to Cosette, declaring his love for her.


In agony that he's lost Cosette already, Valjean joins the battle. Nobody recognizes him as he fights alongside the students and other volunteers, and Valjean's heroics afford him the chance to blow Javert's brains out.


Valjean releases Javert, much to the policeman's horror, and allows him to go free. Valjean tells Javert where he can be found if he's not killed on the barricade.


The outcome of the battle is grim. Enjolras and his followers are all killed. Even Gavroche does not survive this night. The only living souls are Jean Valjean and the gravely wounded Marius Pontmercy.





In order to rescue Marius without being seen and recaptured, Valjean carries him through the sewers.


It is a grueling, exhausting journey. Finally, Valjean approaches the gate. He is unable to open it. Thenardier meets him there, and believing that Valjean has killed Marius in order to rob him, makes a deal with him. Thenardier, who has the master key, lets Valjean escape with the body in exchange for half the take.


Valjean allows Thenardier to rob Marius, and Thenardier lets them go. Just as Valjean gets the half-dead Marius out of there, Javert finds them. Valjean convinces Javert to help him bring Marius home to his estranged grandfather, M. Gillenormand, and then convinces him to make a brief stop at Valjean's home before taking him into custody. Surprisingly, Javert agrees to this, and tells Valjean he'll wait for him.


But when Valjean looks out the window, Javert is gone.


Unable to reconcile Valjean's merciful act, and indeed, his own response to it with his rigid sense of justice, Javert sets his affairs in order and commits suicide by throwing himself into the Seine.





Marius slowly recovers, reconciling with his grandfather, and being nursed by Cosette. They plan their wedding.


Realizing that if the truth about his past is discovered, Cosette would be disgraced, Valjean decides that his best course of action is to remove himself from her life. He tells Marius only enough of the truth so that Marius agrees, and Valjean simply fades out of their lives.


The cost of this arrangement proves to be too much for the old man, however. His heart is broken for the love of Cosette, and he gradually weakens and is soon dying.


Meanwhile, M. Thenardier resurfaces. He has news to sell to Marius, M. le Baron Pontmercy. Marius, thinking he knew the story, tells Thenardier so...Valjean, an ex-convict, had robbed M. Madeleine, mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer, and forged his signature. He also murdered Inspector Javert. Of that, Marius believed he was a witness.


Thenardier corrected Marius, informing him that Valjean WAS Madeleine, and that Javert had murdered himself, and he had the paperwork to prove it. However, even though Valjean had not killed Javert, he was still a murderer.


Thenardier went on to describe the events in the sewers the night the barricades fell. Valjean was seen carrying a corpse he had robbed. Thenardier showed Marius a scrap of cloth he'd kept from the corpse's coat. Marius recognized it as his own. Valjean was the man who'd brought him home from the barricade. He was not a murderer, not a thief, but a saint!


Marius was overjoyed! He threw money at Thenardier, telling him to go at once, paying his way to America with his daughter Azelma, NOT his wife, who was already dead.


Thenardier did as he was told, and went into the slave trade in America.





Marius quickly gathered Cosette to see her father. They were going to bring him back to live with them forever, but it was not to be.


Jean Valjean was simply too far gone. He made his peace with Marius, told him and Cosette the entire truth, and died peacefully, his hands resting on their heads, the light from the two candlesticks shining on his face.





Four lines of verse chalked upon a stone in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise:


Il dort. Quoique le sort fut pour lui bien etrange,
Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n'eut plus son ange.
La chose simplement d'elle-meme arriva,
Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.


He sleeps. Although so much he was denied,
He lived; and when his dear love left him, died.
It happened of itself, in the calm way
That in the evening night-time follows day.


from the novel by Victor Hugo. ("The hidden grave")




Bring Me Home


This synopsis is based on the novel. It is my own impression of the story put into my own words. It is my hope that reading this, you will want to go and read the novel for yourself! It is most definitely worth it!