The scene has switched from the barricades for a moment to
focus on Valjean and Cosette again; they’re hiding in another house for the
time being because Valjean is convinced the police are after him, he’s so
preoccupied with this that he doesn’t even notice Cosette’s upset about leaving
Marius.
That is until he finds a copy of a letter she wrote to
Marius, and then he reacts in a very bizarre way, a way I’m not sure is normal
for a father to feel.
Basically he reacts as if this is the absolute worst thing
that has ever happened to him, losing Cosette to another man is worse than
spending 19 years in prison, having to live on the run from police and hiding
his true identity, his heart and soul are literally crushed by the idea of
Cosette being in love with Marius. Ummmmmm……..Valjean, OVERREACTION MUCH???
Seriously why are all the men in this girl’s life so overly dramatic?
I don’t want to sound harsh but is that really a normal
reaction for a father to have? He must have known at some point he would have
to let go of Cosette, its inevitable! She’s a pretty young girl she can’t be
expected to stay with her father forever. Let her go Valjean, Let her go!!!
I didn’t want to have to say this, but I’m going to…. I think
Valjean is abnormally attached to Cosette, in fact it’s pretty much established
in these pages that he is, he doesn’t just love her as a daughter, he loves her
“as a mother, sister and a wife”…....... UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK
VICTOR HUGO, WHAT THE FUCK????!! That is borderline incest right there!
Actually you know what, that’s going a little too far, I apologise for that. This
is………I don’t know what this is, I’m totally confused by this, this is just
borderline fucked up!
And yes I know that Cosette is the only woman that Valjean
has ever loved, I get that! I’m not arguing that idea! I just think
that Valjeans feelings for Cosette are a little bit weird, it’s not normal for
a father to react this way at all! There's a difference between acting like a father and acting like a nutcase.
Anyway…..after Valjean regains his composure he discovers
Gavroche trying to deliver Marius’s letter, he reads it and then gets happy
because he believes that Marius is going to die and he can then keep Cosette to
himself again. Ummmm no Valjean, just no. That’s not right.
Eventually though he decides to go to the barricades
himself, I’m not really sure why he’s doing that at this point but I’m sure it
will all be revealed soon.
(I really don't know what Victor Hugo is getting at with the relationship between Valjean and Cosette, there's something about it that just feels a bit off to me, maybe I'm making too big a deal about it though, maybe it is just innocent after all.)
Fuck you Victor Hugo!
Been reading your blog and I have to say I'm liking it.....
ReplyDeleteI kind of see what you're getting at with this part. It felt a little creepy, but then I really thought about it and I think what Hugo was getting at is not anything particularly "weird" but just a sort of passionate platonic love. Like the mother/sister/wife thing, I took to mean that he had poured all of that love and dedication (enough for all 3 of those entities) into Cosette, since she was really the only person in his life...the only person he had to care about. If you think back to when he first started taking care of her and their initial connection, and how she trusted him, it was like she saw him as human, and her seeing him like this actually had the effect of humanizing him again, when the world would dehumanize him because of his appearance. And so for him, Cosette is essentially his humanity (she's the one who wants him to eat better and take better care of himself as well). And if he lets her go, I think for him, it's like having to let his own humanity go. He's also thinking to himself that because he's not really her father, he never even had the right to let her care about him. When we see him go downhill emotionally from this point on, it seems to be because he feels like he no longer has justification for his own well-being, since his sense of worth was essentially "borrowed" in the form of Cosette - who he was looking after, but knew wasn't related to him. This probably adds to his pain significantly and inflates his devastation. Also if I remember correctly...She really does think that he's her father. And he's probably thinking about the fact that he has to reveal to her some way or another that that's not true and he has no such relationship to her.
I don't know. I can see what you mean, but I think he's acting like a psycho and making the issue bigger than it is because in letting go of his daughter, he's letting go of his reason to treat himself like a person. That was long-winded I know....
Well first of all Thank you for reading, it's nice to know someone has been paying attention :) Secondly, i'm only being half serious when i say i think the relationship between Valjean and Cosette is a bit incestuous. I do find it a bit odd, but i dont think i can be blamed for that when you consder i'm looking at this through my modern eyes. I dont know if you're in England or not like i am but think about what's constantly on the news right now, it's old men being accused of molesting young girls. When that's what a person is being shown day after day it's really no wonder that i cant seem to look at a relationship between a man and a girl anymore without finding it sinister. I know Valjean would never have hurt Cosette though, but can you see my point?
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