lesmisscraper

[lesmisscraper]

@lesmisshippingshowdown

[lesmisscraper]

I'm here to show you my birthday present from my family because they turned my first Fantine sketch into a necklace 🥺🥺

My aunt said my mom sent her many drawings and this is the one she liked the most and I'm so glad because I loved how it turned out despite being just a sketch. It was inspired by the movie so she's not blonde and not how I usually draw her but I loved it anyway 🥺

She also made me a mini Enjolras!! My mom told her I love him haha

[lesmisscraper]

“Between 1825 and 1830 three of them [nuns] went mad.” I can imagine how Hugo was enjoying himself making up an order and its strict and bizarre rules. He claims that the Carmelites are the strictest, so I suppose the Carmelites were the model for his Bernardines-Benedictines of Martin Verga.

This completely isolated and extremely strict religious order feels like a relict in the nineteenth century. It was in the eighteenth century that some states (like the Habsburg Empire) demanded orders to become useful for society under the threat of dissolution. This example was followed by other Catholic countries. It seems that the only social function this order serves is educating girls. Those nuns we have already met in the narrative, like Sister Simplice, were more open to the world and helped the sick in the hospital. Later we’ll learn that these are the last decades of the convent’s existence.

Hugo occasionally drops important plot information, such as only the Prioress speaking to strangers, men not being permitted on the convent grounds except for a gardener, and most importantly, about burial under the grand altar as opposed to the burial in the Vaugirard cemetery.

This is the place and community Valjean will seriously consider leaving Cosette to join.

[lesmisscraper]

The Life of Nuns. Volume 2, Book 6, Chapter 2.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

[lesmisscraper]

The People of the Petit-Picpus Convent. Volume 2, Book 6, Chapter 2.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

[lesmisscraper]

[lesmisscraper]

The many digressions in Les Mis create the impression of lying in bed watching YouTube where you're listening to Jean Valjean's story, and then that video ends and the Next Up is a video essay titled " You won't believe life in this CULT".

Also, your watch history so far includes "Total War: Napoleon - Battle of Waterloo Gameplay Walkthrough MAX difficulty" and "Top 50 things that happened in 1817" and "Real Investigations: How this inspector cracked a cold case with LOGIC".

[lesmisscraper]

amena éponine you silly !!!

[lesmisscraper]

OK I’m going to try to analyze this, but my knowledge of convents in 19th-century France is even less than my knowledge of Waterloo:

This convent is definitely among the harshest possible. I think this paragraph sums it up well:

“The Bernardines-Benedictines of this obedience fast all the year round, abstain from meat, fast in Lent and on many other days which are peculiar to them, rise from their first sleep, from one to three o’clock in the morning, to read their breviary and chant matins, sleep in all seasons between serge sheets and on straw, make no use of the bath, never light a fire, scourge themselves every Friday, observe the rule of silence, speak to each other only during the recreation hours, which are very brief, and wear drugget chemises for six months in the year, from September 14th, which is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, until Easter. These six months are a modification: the rule says all the year, but this drugget chemise, intolerable in the heat of summer, produced fevers and nervous spasms. The use of it had to be restricted. Even with this palliation, when the nuns put on this chemise on the 14th of September, they suffer from fever for three or four days. Obedience, poverty, chastity, perseverance in their seclusion,—these are their vows, which the rule greatly aggravates.”

The only time a modification for “comfort” is made is when the nuns risk death if they don’t alter it, highlighting the extent to which they deprive themselves of any comforts (bordering on depriving themselves of necessities - never lighting a fire could be dangerous in winter). 

On the bright side, they hold elections! Their elections are very limited (only the mères vocales vote), but it’s something! However, given Hugo’s emphasis on men in this chapter (the man who founded this place, the officiating priest, etc), it’s unclear how much influence over decision-making they actually have. This looks democratic, but in reality, it can’t be considered a great democratic system with how limited the vote is and with the difficulties of asking for information. It feels oddly similar to the Restoration; there’s a veneer of change and interest in “reform” there, but the government is still very distant from the people and is inaccessible to them, just as these votes give the impression that the nuns have much more say in the convent than they likely do. This parallel is underscored by the “absolutism” of the prioress, as the other women are expected to practice “absolute” submission to her. 

Their constant repentance for sins is likely meant to be read as extreme and/or intense, but it’s also quite fitting for Jean Valjean, who shares this mindset of needing to constantly repent for his supposed “sins.” Of course, we as the reader know how trivial these “sins” are and how much good he’s done, but he still devalues himself in an explicitly religious light (as after the bishop, Catholicism has framed many of his mindsets). The self-abnegation and punishment Valjean and these women inflict on themselves stands in sharp contrast to the welcoming, optimistic Catholicism of the bishop. 

The nuns, though, are even more extreme than Jean Valjean, as they pray for all the guilty. However, they’re also in a religious institution, so to an extent, it makes sense that they would take greater responsibility for sins (including the sins of others). 

Others have mentioned how Valjean’s focus on Cosette’s privacy in the Gorbeau House reflects his lack of that while in prison. This convent, then, is like a prison. The women do not have rooms to themselves, are not allowed to form attachments, and are encouraged to lose their sense of self. Again, there’s the possibility this was voluntary (although women could also be sent to convents by relatives or other means), so it’s not exactly the same, but the parallel is chilling. They can’t even communicate with family members in several cases, just like Valjean was separated from his family in prison. Another commonality is that the women are punished severely for the smallest infractions, like a broken glass or a torn veil, just as Valjean’s been condemned for life for stealing bread. 

I love that the nuns are all very bitter about their conflict with the government over burials. Maybe they’re not supposed to have many individual opinions, but they can collectively insult the government together.

[lesmisscraper]

all Enjolras in my art !!!

[lesmisscraper]

"These nuns are not gay, rosy, and fresh, as the daughters of other orders often are. They are pale and grave. Between 1825 and 1830 three of them went mad."

From how horrific life in this convent seems to be, I like to imagine people put a board outside the convent saying "Days since a nun went mad here: 0".

[lesmisscraper]

ROUND TWO OF BEST LES MIS SONG!!!

It took wayyy longer than I had originally thought to do just one round (since November 💀). But we eventually managed to eliminate 50% of the competitors.

First up: Valjean Arrested, Valjean Forgiven vs. Valjean's Soliloquy/What Have I Done?

[lesmisscraper]

Victor Hugo peppering in some foreshadowing in the convent digression:

The nuns of the Petit-Picpus had made a vault under their grand altar for the burial of their community. The Government, as they say, does not permit this vault to receive coffins so they leave the convent when they die. This is an affliction to them, and causes them consternation as an infraction of the rules.

They had obtained a mediocre consolation at best,—permission to be interred at a special hour and in a special corner in the ancient Vaugirard cemetery, which was made of land which had formerly belonged to their community.

[lesmisscraper]

LM 2.6.1

chinese wallpaper was expensive, and, according to the v & a, sold in sets of 25 or 40 sheets. assuming a set of 25 since it’s a small room, that’s 18 francs 15 sous. unfortunately i have no idea what that means today

the stairs and parlour, despite the convent being generally described as sombre, funereal, sepulchral, like a tomb etc, seem quite alive in their descriptions. like, the paint is "following you with a peaceful tenacity". the flowers on the wallpaper are calm and orderly, and apparently have the capacity to be startled. the fixtures of the iron bars resemble closed fists. it’s unsettling. it continues the contrast between the smiling threshold and the praying, crying house, but also. the nuns aren’t alive but the building is

"the most walled of all" and he proceeds to tell us about the school they run. "storytellers have never seen" good thing all the women you spoke to about convent schools don’t count; that might undercut your drama

[lesmisscraper]

Round 1, Matchup 101: II.v.6 vs IV.i.5

[lesmisscraper]

Round 1, Matchup 100: II.v.5 vs III.i.4

[lesmisscraper]

Round 1, Matchup 99: II.v.4 vs IV.vi.3