I’m rereading Les Mis and— I just realized that the chapter where Valjean is first introduced is a parallel to the chapter where he picks up Cosette at Thenardier’s inn. ;_;
In both scenes, a mysterious stranger with tattered clothes enters an inn. The innkeepers lie that there is no room for him, and the mysterious stranger (Valjean) says he will pay to sleep in the stable. During both introductions, Valjean is referred to only as “the traveller,” or “the man,” or “the stranger.”
The main difference is how the scenes end. In Valjean’s introduction, the host has discovered that he is a convict. So he refuses let him sleep in the stable, and orders him to leave the inn:
“Yes,” said the man (Valjean).
“And I,” said the host, “have no room.”
The man resumed tranquilly, “Put me in the stable.”
“The horses take up all the space.”
“Very well!” retorted the man; “a corner of the loft then, a truss of straw. We will see about that after dinner.”
The man seated himself again, and said, without raising his voice, “I am at an inn; I am hungry, and I shall remain.”
Then the host bent down to his ear, and said in a tone which made him start, “Go away!”
Valjean’s conversation with Thenardier begins in a very similar way:
“Ah! see here, my good man; I am very sorry, but I have no room left.”
“Put me where you like,” said the man (Valjean); “in the attic, in the stable. I will pay as though I occupied a room.”
“Forty sous!” said a carter, in a low tone, to the Thenardier woman; “why, the charge is only twenty sous!”
“It is forty in his case,” retorted Thenardier, in the same tone. “I don’t lodge poor folks for less.”
But then Valjean begins giving Cosette presents, and Thenardier begins to suspect that Valjean is secretly an Aristocrat or something– a “threadbare millionaire.” So he refuses to let Valjean sleep in the stable and instead makes Valjean take the most opulent room in the inn (so that he can charge him more money for his stay.)
“Well!” said the stranger, “you are right. Where is your stable?”
“Sir!” exclaimed Thenardier, with a smile, “I will conduct you, sir.”
He took the candle; the man picked up his bundle and cudgel, and Thenardier conducted him to a chamber on the first floor, which was of rare splendor, all furnished in mahogany, with a low bedstead, curtained with red calico.
“What is this?” said the traveller.
“It is really our bridal chamber,” said the tavern-keeper. “My wife and I occupy another. This is only entered three or four times a year.”
“I should have liked the stable quite as well,” said the man, abruptly.
And like yeah, this obviously a Thing™ about bigotry/classism: the same man who has money to pay for a room is treated differently depending on what class he’s perceived to belong to. The mysterious convict with money for a room isn’t even allowed to sleep in the stable, and is thrown out instead. But the mysterious “millionaire” with money for a room isn’t allowed to sleep in the stable, and is given the opulent “special room” instead.
But my main takeaway from this parallel is that….Valjean is just Tired and wants to Sleep….he’s just so tired…. he just wants a bed anywhere……can people just let valjean rest. can we just give him a break. can we just let him go to bed. my otp is valjean X a good night’s sleep
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