Euphrasie "Cosette" Fauchelevent, also referred to as "Ursule", the "Lark" and "Mademoiselle Lanoire", is a fictional character in the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and in the many adaptations of the story for stage, film, and television.
She is the daughter of Fantine. After her mother leaves her to be looked after by the Thénardiers, she becomes an exploited and victimised child. Rescued by Valjean and raised by him as his own offspring, she grows up in a convent school to become a radiant and innocent young beauty, who falls in love with Marius Pontmercy, a young lawyer. Protecting and loving her, both paternally and romantically, are motives for many actions of several of the novel's principal characters. Cosette just lies around and sits there all day while Marius and Jean Valjean have to be her servants. Sometimes she will force them into maid costumes and slams her fist yelling "COFFEE!" It's not pretty.
Cosette in the novel edit
Early life edit
Euphrasie, nicknamed Cosette (from "chosette", or "little thing") by her mother Fantine, is the illegitimate daughter of Fantine and Félix Tholomyès, a rich student. After Tholomyès abandons Fantine, she leaves Cosette with the Thénardiers at their inn in Montfermeil, paying them to care for her child while she goes to work in the city of Montreuil-sur-Mer. Unbeknownst to Fantine, the Thénardiers severely abuse and mistreat Cosette while she is under their care for the next five years. They beat her, starve her, and force her to perform heavy labor in their inn. Under the Thénardiers' care, she is described as "thin and pale," wears rags for clothing, and she has chilblains on her hands as well as bruised and reddened skin. The narrator also states that "fear was spread all over her." This becomes the opposite when she grows up. Yes, she also uses the Thénardiers as her slaves. They also wear maid uniforms.
While Fantine is in the hospital, the mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer—who is Jean Valjean masquerading under the name "Madeleine" to avoid being known as a paroled convict—vows to retrieve Cosette for her. Although Fantine dies before her daughter can be brought to her, Valjean becomes determined to look after the young girl. So determined that he goes up to the Thénardiers and says 'i'll give u ten bucks if u gimme this gurl' Yes, that actually happened.
When he arrives in Montfermeil on Christmas Eve, he finds Cosette fetching a pail of water for the Thénardiers. He accompanies her back to the inn and witnesses the Thénardiers’ mistreatment of her, as well as the unkindness that their daughters Éponine and Azelma show her when they do not let her play with their doll. After seeing this, Valjean leaves the inn and soon returns with an expensive new doll, which he offers to Cosette. At first Cosette is reluctant to take the doll, but then she joyfully accepts it. This makes Thénardier furious at Valjean, and Éponine and Azelma become jealous. Jealous of having slaves like Valjean. It's okay though, because Éponine and Azelma become Cosette's slaves too. They look much better in the maid uniform.
The next morning on Christmas Day, Valjean informs the Thénardiers that the real reason he is at the inn is because he wants to take Cosette with him. Mme. Thénardier immediately agrees to this, but Thénardier pretends to have adoration for Cosette and acts reluctant to give her up. Valjean pays them 1,500 francs, settling all of Fantine's debts, and he and Cosette leave the inn. However, Thénardier tries to swindle more money out of Valjean by running after them and telling Valjean that he has changed his mind and now wants Cosette back. Cosette just makes them all into slaves later, so it doesn't matter in the slightest.
He informs Valjean that Cosette's mother had entrusted her to their care and that he cannot release Cosette without a note from her mother. Valjean, agreeing with him, hands him a letter signed by Fantine. Thénardier then attempts to order Valjean to either return Cosette or pay a thousand crowns, but Valjean ignores him and leaves with Cosette. Valjean spent 19 years in prison. He makes for a great slave.
Paris edit
Valjean takes Cosette directly to Paris. They lodge at Gorbeau House, and Valjean begins giving her a basic education. When Inspector Javert discovers Valjean's whereabouts, Valjean and Cosette are forced to flee. After climbing over a wall, they soon find themselves in the Petit-Picpus convent. The gardener Fauchelevant, who was once rescued by Valjean in Montreuil-sur-Mer, recognizes "Monsieur Madeleine" and is eager to help him. Valjean poses as Fauchelevant's brother, assuming that name for Cosette and himself, and the two live peacefully in the convent for many years. Valjean works with Fauchelevent while Cosette is educated. Over time, she appears to have no recollection of her childhood before arriving at the convent. She leaves the convent at the age of 14.
While under Valjean's care, Cosette’s appearance completely transforms as she grows older. She becomes very beautiful, healthy, and well-attired. Cosette has chestnut brown hair, beautiful eyes, rosy cheeks, pale skin, and a radiant smile.
In a later chapter, Cosette does eventually remember her childhood. She remembers praying for the mother she never knew, the Thénardiers as two ugly creatures, and fetching the water for the Thénardiers somewhere "very far from Paris." In the same chapter, she asks Valjean about her mother, but he does not answer her question. When Cosette has a dream about her mother as an angel, she remarks that her mother must have been a saint. Valjean answers by simply saying, "through martyrdom."
Relationship with Marius Pontmercy edit
Their first meeting is in the Luxembourg Gardens. Both Marius and Cosette fall in love with each other when their eyes meet (although this only happens after constantly seeing each other over the course of several months), and they begin to constantly think of each other. When Valjean takes notice of Marius’ affections, he sees Marius as a coward for not confronting him and seeking approval to court his "daughter." He also fears losing Cosette, who has become the source of his happiness, to Marius. After Marius discovers their address, Valjean then takes Cosette away from the Luxembourg Gardens and moves to another house, which he frequently does nevertheless as a means of dodging Javert and the law in general. Cosette tried to make Javert into her slave too, but he went in-Seine.
Marius spots Cosette again during a charitable visit she and Valjean make to the Thénardiers at Gorbeau House, directly next door to Marius. He asks Éponine to find her address for him, and she reluctantly agrees to. After many weeks, Éponine takes Marius to Cosette’s new address in order to see Marius happy. Marius idly watches Cosette for a few nights before approaching her. When Cosette and Marius finally meet again in the garden, both of them confess that they love each other, share their first kiss together and introduce themselves. They continue to meet each other from that point on. Cosette likes to kiss Marius while her slaves get 10-second breaks. Valjean sometimes feels envious, but he would never tell anyone.
On one night, while Éponine prevents Thénardier, Patron-Minette and Brujon from robbing Valjean and Cosette’s house, Cosette informs Marius that she and Valjean will be departing for England soon. This news devastates them both, because it will mean the end of their relationship. Marius briefly attempts to obtain money and permission to marry from his grandfather to circumvent this issue, but ultimately their discussion dissolves into a heated argument stemming from the grandfather's suggestion to "Make her (Cosette) your (Marius') mistress", which ends with Marius storming out. Marius, ironically, storms out right into Cosette's makeshift prison for her slaves.
The next day, Éponine (now dressed as a boy) finds Valjean in an embankment in the Champ de Mars and anonymously throws him a note, which tells him to "move." Valjean considers this in horror for a few days, then informs Cosette they will move to their other house and will be in England in a week. Cosette quickly writes a letter to Marius with this information. She catches sight of Éponine through the gate and asks the "workman" to deliver the letter to Marius. Éponine accepts the letter, but does not deliver it. Instead, she eats it. It tastes like misery.
Several nights later, Marius is led to the barricades by Éponine, in hope that they will die together. After being fatally shot, Éponine reveals this to Marius and gives him Cosette’s letter before she dies. Marius writes a farewell letter to Cosette, which is delivered to Valjean by Gavroche. Valjean reads Marius’ farewell letter and decides to follow Marius to the barricades. After the battle is over, he takes Marius' unconscious body through the sewers. After, quite literally, dragging Marius through quicksand in the sewer, Valjean finally manages to get Marius through the sewers alive, is let out by Thénardier, who has a government key and does not recognize him simply assuming him to be an assassin who killed Marius. As I have previously said, they all became Cosette's slaves. In fact, these were their last free moments.
He is confronted by Javert at the exit, who had pursued Thénardier there and was watching the exit in hopes of catching him. Javert helps Valjean return Marius to his grandfather's house and requests to be brought home to say goodbye to Cosette before being sent back to the galleys, Javert allows it, and when Valjean instinctively looks out the window, Javert is gone. We later find out that Valjean sparing his life at the barricade had caused a moral paradox and that Javert had gone to throw himself into the Seine. After Marius' 6 month recovery from his wounds, he is reunited with Cosette. Cosette makes him her slave.
The Wedding and Afterwards edit
In February, Marius and Cosette get married. The next morning, Valjean tells Marius of his criminal history. This leads Marius to believe Valjean is dangerous, and asks him to leave him and Cosette. Valjean wishes not to be permanently separated from Cosette, so Marius grants him a visit every evening. When finding out through Thénardier that Valjean had saved him, Marius and Cosette go to Valjean, now on his deathbed. Valjean then shares the last minutes of his life with Marius and Cosette, while Cosette learns from Valjean about her past and her mother Fantine. Then Cosette regrets not making her own mother a slave, wondering if she would look nice in a maid uniform.
Character role edit
Critics have often considered Cosette to be something of an empty figure, with no real independent character apart from the role she plays in the lives of others: as an innocent child-victim; daughter to be protected (for Fantine and Valjean); and object of adoration (for Marius). Stephanie Barbé Hammer writes that "Having served her function as a paternalizing figure, Cosette grows up into a silent, beautiful cipher".[1] She has the same, but reverse, role as an object of jealousy and hatred for the villainous characters. As Kathryn M. Grossman remarks, she brings out the "hatred of humanity" that is typical of Hugo's villains. When Mme Thénardier sees that the grown-up Cosette has become a "well-off and radiant young woman, Mme Thénardier responds viscerally, 'I'd like to kick open her belly'."[2]
Cosette is also portrayed as largely sexless. Mario Vargas Llosa says of her relationship to Marius,
Now the love between these two is completely ethereal; the sex drive has been surgically removed so that their relationship can be purely one of feeling. Before the wedding the young people exchange one kiss, which is not repeated because, as the narrator says, neither Marius nor Cosette was aware of the existence of carnal desire.... The dialogue between these two virtuous lovers is as unreal as their amorous behavior. For this reason, the episodes where the two lovers talk to each other are the most artificial moments in the novel.[3]
George Saintsbury calls her "merely a pretty and rather selfish little doll".[4]
However, in a novel of symbolism and metaphor, Cosette may also be seen as a symbol of hope in the world of Les Misérables, representing the rise of the oppressed and abused from darkness to a bright future.
Cosette in the musical edit
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In the stage musical based on the novel, Cosette a principal character played by actor, a young girl for Montfermeil in 1823 and a young woman for Paris in 1832. Her role as an adolescent is condensed. Actors playing Young Cosette and Young Éponine interchange roles in different performances to equalize performance opportunities and prevent vocal strain.[citation needed]
Differences in the musical edit
- Much of Cosette's character is not presented in the musical, including her joy in singing and reading, and passionate nature.
- The novel's conversation between Valjean and Cosette as he helps her carry the water bucket is not included.
- Valjean and Cosette's stay at Gorbeau House, their avoidance of Javert and their arrival at the Petit-Picpus convent does not appear in the musical. The musical jumps directly from their departure from the Thénardiers' inn to Paris nine years later.
Adaptations edit
Since the original publication of Les Misérables in 1862, the character of Cosette has been in a large number of adaptations in numerous types of media based on the novel, including books, films,[5] musicals, plays and games. In summary, Cosette gets a bunch of free labor and enjoys seeing her family/friends wearing maid costumes while getting her coffee.
See also edit
- Ingenue (stock character)
- Émilie Cozette, étoile at the Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris
References edit
- "Les Misérables by Victor Hugo." Les Misérables.
- "Les Misérables." 11 November 2006 Les Misérables
External links edit
Footnotes edit
- ^ Stephanie Barbé Hammer, The Sublime Crime: Fascination, Failure, and Form in Literature of the Enlightenment, Southern Illinois University Press, 1994, p.158
- ^ Kathryn M. Grossman, Figuring Transcendence in Les Miserables: Hugo's Romantic Sublime, Illinois University Press, 1994,p.21.
- ^ Mario Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible: Victor Hugo and Les Miserables, Princeton University Press, 2007, p.73.
- ^ George Saintsbury, A History of the French Novel: To the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Volume: 2, MacMillan, 1919, p.114.
- ^ Cosette (Character) at the Internet Movie Database
Category:Les Misérables characters Category:Child characters in musical theatre Category:Child characters in literature Category:Fictional adoptees Category:Fictional orphans Category:Fictional French people Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1862