#thernardier | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dolphin1812 · 1 year

Text

This chapter is absolutely heartbreaking. Knowing that Fantine’s situation has gotten worse because she stops sending money as regularly? That she’s still trying to because she thinks Cosette is doing well, even though she’s suffering? Seeing the actual abuse Cosette endures? It’s horrible.

Like we saw with Valjean upon his arrival in Digne, Cosette’s dehumanization is highlighted by comparisons to domesticated animals. She is fed “a little better than the dog, a little worse than the cat,” but whereas Valjean resisted his subhuman treatment to an extent (he cried out upon seeing that a dog had a place to stay for the night while he didn’t), to Cosette, this is just how things are. We see that she eats with the cat and the dog, and from a bowl like theirs, without complaint. She’s obviously not happy, and she has the comparison to Éponine and Azelma to show that this is not the only way for children to live, but can she understand why she’s being treated this way? Does she know that she wasn’t abandoned, or does she think she deserves this somehow? Or is she so worn down that she doesn’t think about this at all? She is only five, and she’s already been made to work.

Cosette isn’t even addressed as a person in letters to her mother. She’s consistently referred to as a “creature” in writing and in speech by the Thénardiers, and over the course of the chapter, Hugo goes from saying “child” to “creature” (”shivering little creature”) as well. It gives the sense that she internalizes this to an extent? Or that this dehumanizing language is so commonplace that no one thinks anything of it anymore.

Another point that infuriates me is the attitude of the populace. To some extent, it’s possible that they don’t know the full extent of the abuse Cosette’s enduring, but given that she’s always wearing rags and is sent to work before daybreak - which they know because they call her “the Lark” - they know that her treatment is far from ideal. And yet they praise the Thénardiers for their charity simply because to them, it would be more natural for no one to care for Cosette at all. She’s an object of pity to them, but not of true sympathy; they don’t see her as a person.

The last line is particularly sad. I hope we’ll see Cosette sing at some point.

#les mis letters #lm 1.4.3 #cosette #the lark #valjean #fantine #thernardier #eponine #azelma

96 notes · View notes

jadetuin · 1 year

Text

On June 6, 1832, the moon was barely past the first quarter. Musical Thérnardier sings, in the concluding line of Dog Eats Dog, "the harvest moon shines down." Even if it was close to the autumnal equinox (it was fucking June), he'd be wrong. He was dramatically staring up at a waxing gibbous.

#les miserables #les mis #monsieur thénardier #thérnardier #monsieur thernardier #thernardier #jade speaks

21 notes · View notes

ironicandpunny · 1 year

Note

I gotta go for the obvious; least favourite song from Les Mis?

Mine is the most obvious one; Master of the House (and it’s subsequent reprise) I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it

I also hate Castle on a Cloud

#ironicandpunny talks #les mierables #Les miz #les miserables musical #least favorite #musical songs #master of the house #this a is a thernardier hate post #I hate them #except eponine obvs

6 notes · View notes

disco-enj · 11 months

Text

am i really about to take in at least one copy of les mis to the library job with me tomorrow (now it’s later today actually but i’m pretending it’s still further away than it is)? yes. at least it’s not as many as it could be, though d:)

#s.txt #I’VE BEEN GOING FERAL ALL DAY #my poor partner now knows more about the sewers + the battle of waterloo plus my parallels theory re musical and the brick with the way #thernardier loots corpses #and about the lore behind the translations #and a breakdown of javert’s soliloquy #and—#i also looked at my grandpa today and said ‘(funky disco music) lamarque est mort’ (i said funky disco music out loud.) and it took him a #second. BUT THEN HE REMEMBERED

3 notes · View notes

sassmill · 2 years

Text

Obsessed with how Turning and Lovely Ladies have the same melody because prostitution and war are just different ways of selling your body. Young boys who never held a gun wanting to fight for better, a young mother who just wanted to provide for her child. “Nothing changes, nothing ever will.”

And then we jump into Empty Chairs at Empty Tables because DAMN the common man just keeps dying under the oppressive ruling class. And like, fuck. It really applies to the fascist capitalism that’s running rampant now and has been for decades but how much time has passed? Terrifying that it should still be relevant, not just since the 1980s when the musical was written but the themes from when it was written in the goddamn 1860s.

#hoooooly shit I’m les miserables posting like I am 12 again somebody stop me #dog eat dog and beggar at the feast like. the thernardiers are a minor set of characters.#but extremely significant for the social commentary to still land in 2022 #like what the fuck #I haven’t listened to les mis in so long but DAMN #les mis #les miserables

6 notes · View notes

llycaons · 2 years

Text

when a line is really badass but you stop and think about it for a second and realize it's just very sad

#this is about eponine thernardier saying she's the daughter of a wolf #I was in love with her in high school but her story is SO sad and her parents fucking suck #samantha barks was so hot and sang so well so I when I read that line I was all 👀 but it's very sad!!!#cor.txt

0 notes

loverboybrightsideghost · 2 years

Text

if there’s anything victor hugo loves to do, it’s dedicate an entire book out of les mis to describing the exact historical context of characters who contribute to the plot in one tiny tiny (but important) way and then die

#okay to understand the context of THIS post you need to know this:#les mis is comprised of five volumes. in each of the five volumes there are about eight or nine ‘books’ which vary in length #vol 4 has fifteen books but that’s not relevant right now #within those books there are chapters separated by their own sub-titles and roman numerals. i haven’t counted and they’re not listed in the #table of contents of my version of the book (if it was then the ToC would be so much longer. SO MUCH.)#but there can range from just one single page one single chaoter for a book (it only happens once in the novel)#to having like ten or fifteen or even more #probably way more #but anyways.#victor hugo dedicates at least ten chapters (one entire book and the first in the whole novel) to msr myriel #and then in waterloo (first book of volume two) he spends the entire time explaining the battle of waterloo and everything that happes #(buddy boy even told me about a hole in the wall of a building. i googled it and that hole is indeed still in that wall.)#anyways he explains the whole battle and all it’s context and etc just to introduce marius’s dad’s relationship w thernardier #which is admittedly important and does directly impact the plot #i mean so does the bishop having met valjean #but i just think it’s amusing #i wouldn’t have it any other way tbh #its really good build up bc at the very end of the book (gasp! spoilers!) he goes ‘my name is pontmercy’ and then it’s like whoaaaa we know #that name!#which is of course not even how he intended it to be read when he wrote it #he probably meant it like ‘giant neon arrow THE NAME PONTMERCY IS IMPORTANT’ and then continued with colette and then later introducemarius #and have everyone all like :OOOO WE KNOW THIS GUY!! WE KNOW HIS DAD!!!#but its really cool that because of how well known the story is now the line of ‘my name is pontmercy’ has a different (and awesome) effect #what was this post originally about #oh yeah #haha victor hugo writes a lot #bluebird.txt #bluebird reads les mis #les mis #tldr the content of this post is me purposefully ignoring the actual use of those two books to make a stupid joke

0 notes

0zzysaurus · 3 months

Text

The amis get their weed from Eponine and she gets it from Thernardier and it’s the most diabolical evil weed you’ve ever smoked. Valjean grows wholesome beautiful angelic weed

#Les Miserables #Les mis #nyermmmm….#Les amis

202 notes · View notes

dnickels · 5 months

Text

Javert, having just encountered within the span of an hour Thernardier, Marius Pontmercy, and Jean Val-fucking-Jean: Is...is there anyone else in Paris?

#JVJ could easily ask the same but he is too tired #and resigned to the fact that God is playing a funny joke on him #les mis letters

61 notes · View notes

grace-of-spades · 10 months

Text

HOW come no one has made a 'one thing you can't replace' thing for les mis?

Thernardier the asshole

Javert the cop,

Marius the asshole teacher kid

Courfeyrac the narrator(or grantaire)

Eponine saying something something police

Bahorel broke the pool table

Etc.

SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE THIS REALITY

#les mierables #enjolras #grantaire #gavroche #combeferre #courfeyrac #javert #eponine #marius pontemercy #cosette #lesmis #les mis #jehan prouvaire #bousset #bahorel #jean valjean #the one thing you can't replace #feuilly

20 notes · View notes

stupid-lemon-eater · 1 year

Text

i read fantine's descent for the first time last night - i had fallen behind on les mis by 10 days so i read it all in one go when i was meant to be going to sleep, and at several points i just had to Stop and stare across my dark bedroom at the mirror and the faint outline of my face lit up by my ipad and just Breathe for a second.

the thing i found most interesting while reading it was just how horrifying it was. as mentioned in the post i just reblogged, fantine had to choose every single time to carve herself away, to give up more and more of herself until she was unrecognisable, and she did it all out of hope and love for her daughter who she doesn't even know was being mistreated, that all her sacrifice was doing was lining thernardier's pockets while cosette still suffered.

and that would be interesting enough as is, but the thing that struck me the most while reading is how all of the actual horror of fantine's fate is stripped from her in adaptations (or at least in the musical/movie) in favour of the lurid idea of her having to go into sex work. the book itself treats fantine going into sex work as another tragic loss on effectively the same level as cutting off her hair, learning how to live in winter with no heat nor light, losing her modest lodgings for an uncomfortable attic with no bedding, her persistent illness or removing her front teeth — it's, "Let us sell what is left!" — what's one more loss on top of everything else, right?

(one could even make an argument that the tooth removal was treated as the most horrifying part of fantine's descent - it certainly was for me, as someone who had two wisdom teeth removed recently! the imagery of her bloody smile with the hole where her front teeth should be lit up by candlelight is definitely one that's going to haunt me.)

but in adaptations, we don't see that slow chipping away of personhood, of identity, of belongings and comfort. it's kicked out of the workhouse - hair cut off - prostitute - dead. bamatabois is changed from an arrogant, wealthy asshole with nothing better to do with his time than torment those less fortunate than him for the crime of merely existing to a potential customer who gets angry when fantine turns him down. by adding that dynamic to their interaction it softens bamatabois' cruelty, makes it less about an act of completely unprovoked dehumanisation and, well, cruelty against someone vulnerable that was answered by that person snapping and lashing out.

bamatabois in the book did not just target fantine because she was a sex worker, but also because her hair was cut, because she had no front teeth, because of how she dressed, how she behaved - in short, she was an acceptable target.

it feels as though the people adapting the novel don't understand that the tragedy and horror of fantine's fate was not the fact that she had to sell sex for money, but the fact that she had to give up everything of herself to the point where she was an unrecognisable wretch drinking brandy to keep the misery at bay with the only thing keeping her alive being her love for cosette. even the tooth removal, when it is adapted, is changed to her back teeth, making fantine's loss less visible and more palatable, and is oft ignored in favour of focusing on fantine's work as a sex worker in a way the book never does, not realising that the sex work was a symptom, not the disease.

#les mis #meta #les mis letters #trying to word the bits about bamatabois without making it sound like i think fantine in any way deserved it was so hard #my brain ain't 100% online so i really hope i worded it properly #anyone should be able to say no to sex regardless of who they are or what their job is #but the dynamic as an observer changes when there is no interaction beforehand to an active conversation before the precipitating event #and that dynamic change is one that reduces the cruelty of bamatabois' actions #anyway petition for filmmakers/musical makers to learn how to write about someone being driven to sex work #WITHOUT the sex work being the focus of the tragedy of their circumstances #lovely ladies is a banger but it misses the point of fantine imo #and i get part of it is shortcuts need to be made in favour of fitting things into the time given #but ehhh #could be done better in future #andie reads books

52 notes · View notes

medicallymercury · 15 days

Text

I’ve been thinking about the fact that Di Botcher played Madame Thernardier (the crimes I’d commit for just an audio recording of her Master of the House!!!!) and I just feel the need to point out that most of the staff of Holby would be very capable at karaoke because British acting school seems to always include singing.

#theoretically**** they are well great at it #tipsy has become drunk lol

2 notes · View notes

musical-failgirl-fight · 9 months

Text

MUSICAL FAILGIRL FIGHT ROUND 1

you all know the drill. here we go. i used edit.org to make this

voting for this is based on who you think encapsulates the "girlfail" trope best - who is the messiest and most pathetic. i will reblog any attached propaganda beyond "vote [x]" and i will post any asks i get.

this is just for the funnies, please be civil. please do not make jokes like "ill kms if [x] doesnt win" or threaten anyone for liking [y] - they are upsetting and not in the spirit of the polls.

links to the brackets are under the cut.

Helene Bezukhova (Great Comet) vs Maria (West Side Story)

Delia Deetz (Beetlejuice) vs Persephone (Hadestown)

Trina Weisenbachfeld (Falsettos) vs Sally Bowles (Cabaret)

Brooke Rodgers (Goosebumps) vs Riley Williams (We are the Tigers)

Jane Doe (Ride the Cyclone) vs Katherine Plumber (Newsies)

Rose Red (Ghost Quartet) vs Alana Beck (Dear Evan Hansen)

Eurydice (Hadestown) vs Veronica Sawyer (Heathers)

Sara McRae (Murder Ballad) vs Ruth (Pirates of Penzance)

Beatrix Campbell (Adamanti) vs Ariadne Minos (Ulysses Dies at Dawn)

Eponine Thernardier (Les Miserables) vs Nellie Lovett (Sweeney Todd)

Regina George (Mean Girls) vs Lee Green (Vide Noir)