Les Miserables Literary Analysis

SUMMARY > Les Miserables Literary Analysis

Colorado Christian University COM 212A LES MISERABLES BY VICTOR HUGO: FREE LITERARY ANALYSIS / SUMMARY OVERALL ANALYSIS CHARACTER ANALYSIS Cosette Although a pivotal character, Cosette is almost static and flat. She is innocent throughout, passive with respect to the men in her life, and obedient to a fault even when such ...[Show More]

Colorado Christian University
COM 212A
LES MISERABLES BY VICTOR HUGO: FREE LITERARY ANALYSIS /

SUMMARY

OVERALL ANALYSIS

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Cosette

Although a pivotal character, Cosette is almost static and flat. She is innocent throughout, passive with

respect to the men in her life, and obedient to a fault even when such subservience makes her

unhappy. The brief moments of self-awareness occur when she first realizes that she is pretty and

when she meets Marius in her garden.

Even then, she is powerless to do anything other than what Valjean wants. Her passivity is transferred

to Marius once they are married. She is the doll, the saint of blind goodness and purity, the Cinderella

who cannot function without her prince. The narrator simply presents her, allowing the other

characters to fawn over her. He offers less editorial comment about her than any of the other major

characters. Her saintliness is entirely the perceptions of others.

Eponine

Eponine is the opposite of Cosette in many ways, but the contrast is ironic. Eponine is the legitimate

daughter of the Thenardiers while Cosette was born out of wedlock, the offspring of a naive, love-sick

girl and a playboy type student. Yet Eponine is submerged in the criminal element and only escapes

drowning in it through her own high spirits and courage born of necessity. Cosette has almost anything

she could want while Eponine has nothing, and the one thing Eponine does want (Marius) can never be

hers. Eponine is the daughter of a known criminal, while Cosette is being foster-fathered by a secret

one.

Cosette’s innocence and purity is the result of a very sheltered life, of a lack of exposure to anything

that might be a negative influence on her. Eponine has an understanding of human nature far beyond

her years, and is not afraid to fight for what she wants. She knows how to manipulate people and

situations to her own ends, yet she does so without malice. She is the same age as Cosette, but she

acts much older. In reality, she is a child herself, starving for a touch of humanity and maintaining her

own dignity in the face of overwhelming odds.

Gavroche

Little Gavroche reveals Hugo’s soft spot of the neglected waifs of Paris. Like his sister, he is immersed

in the criminal element of Paris, but while he uses it to his own ends for survival, he is untainted by it.

He is a bundle of spunk, of courage, and