Many literary critics have presented theories on the meaning of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Most critiques and criticisms focus on individual characters, a more insightful intuitive criticism of the true nature of Les Misérables can be drawn simply by analyzing the key relationships between characters, such as relationships dealing with women and issues of femininity. These connections allow a level of meaning that analyzes not only the events of the novel, but the latent importance of gender.
First published in 1862, many consider this novel to be the frontrunner of 19th century literature with praise directed to it from around the world. In 19th century literature, female characters are generally introduced in novels and stories to complement the male protagonist. Often times in those novels, female characters don’t drive the plot, only used to aid the men. Women in 19th century literature are frequently shown as mothers, daughters, a wife, or a possible love interest and shown in a passive light.
That being said, every female character in Les Misérables has a male counterpart. Eponine talks of almost nothing but her unrequited love for Marius, then dies in his arms after running errands to enable his relationship with Cosette. Cosette has spent almost her whole life locked away, falls in love with Marius at first sight, and spends the rest of the novel swooning over him. Madam Thenardier is a counterpart of her husband, the comic relief of the story, his wife only really serves a purpose as an accessory to their scenes. You’d think Fantine would be the closest to becoming an independant character, however she sings about how her husband would return to her, and the rest of her story is framed entirely by Jean Valjean.
Compared to the men, it’s pretty bleak for the female characters when the novel and musical has so many complex and compelling male characters. For example, Jean Valjean struggles on how to be a good man, Javert has a similar struggle. The students are all incredibly passionate about politics and freedom. Even Marius gets time to be devoted to his friends and show concern for the revolution. Yet, the female characters seem to all be about romance, and be some sort of accessory to the male protagonists.
Hugo introduces Cosette as a beautiful lady with traditionally feminine ideals. Throughout the novel, we see that Cosette is quite passive and seems to exist only to bring pleasure to Marius and her care taker Jean Valjean. Often times, readers believe that Cosette represents anti-feminist ideals, painting Hugo in a fairly negative light. However, when we see characters such as Eponine and Fantine, we can see that Hugo represents women as proactive characters with their own driving storyline. By having female characters shown in such stark contrasts, we can see that Hugo shows sympathy and admiration for women. Cosette in Les Misérables is a traditional female character, who often times is looked down upon in feminist critiques. She is shown as a passive, but beautiful girl. Nonetheless, Hugo also shows Cosette as a strong and enduring child. An example of this would be her early childhood life. At a young age she was sent to live with the Thenardiers by her mother in order to safely raise her. The Thenardier family treats Cosette as a servant, even at the age of five. The book tells us that “Cosette was made to run errands, scrub floors, sweep the yard and the pavement, wash the dishes and ever carry large burdens”. Even after Jean Valjean releases Cosette from her burdens, she doesn’t change overnight. As the novel reveals, "The sad fact was that at the age of eight her heart had been cold and untouched, not through any fault of hers or because she lacked the capacity to love, but because there had been no possibility of loving". Later on, the narrator remarks that for most of her life, Cosette is ugly and distorted, both in spirit and in appearance. This is unusual for a female character, especially one in 19th century literature. Her reasoning for her low-self esteem is directly related to past trauma. Often times in 19th century literature, authors would shy away from giving young female characters scarring backstories, however Hugo dives straight in. Over the course of the novel, Cosette slowly realizes her inner worth and outward beauty catching a sight of herself in the mirror and believes she's become quite admirable, "and the discovery threw her into a strange state of perturbation". However these smaller realizations reveal her true transformation, loving the stranger who loves her back. When Cosette first notices Marius, she doesn’t really understand what romantic love is. While she is growing up biologically, her mind is undeveloped. Cosette is pretty enough to attract boys around her, however she doesn’t quite understand her feelings towards them. This is something that was different for 19th century literature. Most female characters, regardless of upbringing, had some indication of what romantic love was. However, Cosette is clueless. Hugo doesn’t show Cosette’s bravery as a young girl, but rather as a person. Cosette should be defined by her actions, not her gender. Her character may be seen as anti-feminist for some, but Hugo uses Cosette to represent another type of woman in society.
Hugo also draws attention to another, more underrepresented woman of Paris. Hugo expresses us a lot of his ideas through the character of Fantine, a symbol for the numerous good but poor women driven to despair and even death by society. She symbolizes someone who is not a victim of her actions, but a victim of society. Fantine is the definition of a suffering mother, selling her teeth, hair, and eventually body to keep up with the money owed to different people. From an audience’s point of view, her plight is obviously due to the awful men in society. However, I believe that rather than the man being the centre of her problems, it all really boils down to the current social and economic burdens of 19th century France. Sure, there’s been some awful men in her life, however her problems boil down to the social injustice of France.
Eponine is a complicated example of feminism. On one hand, she is a quick witted, strong woman despite her upbringing and current socio-economic class. Eponine’s unrequited love for Marius is dreadfully painful, however she is still a strong female character. Despite her feelings for Marius, she leads him to Cosette and stays to fight behind the barricades, the film showing her binding her chest during “One Day More”. During the battle at the barricade, she pulls the rifle away from Marius so that she is shot instead. She’s incredibly sacrificial, independant and strong, and does what she needs to for herself, Marius, and her community. Her plight moreso reflects the oppressive system of social classes rather than weakness of femininity.
In the midst of the commotion of the barricade there is a group of students who barely missed being historic. These students were concerned with the current conditions of France and advocated towards social justice. Although the revolutionaries weren’t too prominent in the novel, the students exhibited traditionally feminine traits. Jehan Prouvaire is a prime example of a male character breaking the gender roles. He is described as “shade more soft-hearted than Combeferre” and a “lover”. The narrator reveals that he “…cherished a pot of flowers, played the flute, wrote verses, loved the people, pitied women, wept over the lot of children…” many of these pastimes that Jehan has are reserved for traditional female characters. Another male character who has drifted away from the traditional masculine stereotype would be Grantaire. Throughout the short time the students are present in the novel, Grantaire is revealed to be a sensitive art student who often poses questions to his own sexuality. He only shows up to meetings to be near someone who he admires. “But, sceptic that he was, he had one fanatical devotion, not for an idea, a creed, an art or science, but for a man– for Enjolras. Grantaire admired, loved, and venerated Enjolras.” A man posing almost romantic feelings for another man was unheard of and scandalous in the eyes of 19th century literature. Many of the students of the barricade posed traditionally feminine traits and behaviors, which was mainly reserved for female characters.
Throughout the novel, Hugo’s message for us readers is to keep fighting until the end. Although many believe that Les Misérables might be anti-feminist, this novel is a critique of current social injustice, poverty, and oppression, as well as the advocation for the equality of men and women– and that sounds like feminism to me.