#2.3.9

Another chapter of Thenardier being awful! God I’m so glad we’re done with them for a while after this. I don’t think I can take much more of this.

So Thenardier tries to fleece Valjean out of an astonishing amount of money, and Valjean, to his credit, is not thrilled about this fact. I think that lends credence to the idea that he knows full well when he’s being ripped off and goes along with it anyway. Here, he knows he’s being ripped off and is not interested in playing along.

Thenardier then changes tactics and launches into a genuinely nauseating speech about how he actually loves Cosette and will miss her when she’s gone. I don’t even know what he’s going for, other than an attempt at seeming respectable and getting information. Was he trying to get Valjean to offer to pay without having to be asked? Was he fishing for information about who Valjean really is? Did he realize a touch belatedly that without Cosette around there’d be no one to do the housework? I am so confused.

Thankfully, Valjean is having none of it. He’s generous and tends to want to see the best in people, but he has his limits, and the Thenardiers clearly hit those a long time ago. Probably about when he saw Cosette in the forest and realized who she was. He pays the money, probably to shut them up and keep them from raising too much of a fuss, and makes it extremely clear that he will not be keeping in touch. No doubt he’s heard about their letters to Fantine, eternally demanding more money.

And so Cosette, as well as the doll and the coin from last chapter, now has a full set of clothes, complete with shoes. (Although part of me wonders how well it fits her. Did Valjean buy for a normal-sized eight-year-old girl, in which case she’d be swimming in the outfit, or did he have a guess as to the state he’d find her in and deliberately buy small? Honestly, I don’t know which possibility is more upsetting.)

Thenardier draws up an exaggerated bill and Hugo also compares it to the Congress of Vienna giving a huge bill for France to pay. I like these little bits of history interposed between the pages of the characters’ lives. @akallabeth-joie mentioned characters as symbolisms and I can see that in some way here as well, if Cosette symbolises the future and hope of France, then this is also another Congress of Vienna, this bartering for her in this chapter, while it is obviously also utterly gross on Thenardier’s part.

Anyway, Thenardier draws up a huge bill for Valjean’s stay and Madame Thenardier is jealous of the fact that little Cosette has a new doll. It is probably the fact that the new doll symbolises hope and happiness that Cosette has not known ever since she has lived with the Thenardiers and Madame Thenardier seems to not be able to see Cosette happy, so she is determined to turn her out. I do find it amusing that Madame Thenardier would rather be in bed with Louis XVIII than be willing to keep Cosette for one more day. These chapters are so political and symbolic andt I really love this bit. It’s also funnier if they are as Graham Robb says in the bio, representative of Louis-Napoleon III, which I choose to think that they are, that they would rather collaborate with the monarchists at any turn that they find the things to not be working for them and I’ve been watching Victor Hugo- Enemy of the State and this is sort of what Louis Napoleon does, he has a parliament full of Legitimists who oppose anything sensible that the Republicans or the Moderates like Hugo propose.

But to get back to the story, Thenardier is greedy and raises the rent considerably, I find it amusing that Thenardier is called a brilliant actor and in the next instant tells Valjean that he adores Cosette, which no one would believe, considering everything that Valjean has observed of the situation.

Cosette’s situation is a lot like Valjean’s in prison, and it says so much about her character and the light shining from within her, that she hasn’t lost hope, she hasn’t turned to hatred, and maybe he recognises that in the way he tells Thenardier this. Thenardier meanwhile as @pilferingapples has pointed out before, has considered whether Valjean- this unknown man who probably has no connection to Cosette and has suddenly taken a fancy to her is going to use her/groom her as a child labourer or as a prostitute, it’s also a fate that Eponine and Azelma will share later on and since such things were common, not very surprising for Thenardier to come to that conclusion.

From Cosette’s perspective though Valjean is a saint/angel for her. She only needed one person to treat her kindly, to care for her. She is no longer afraid because there is someone for her and that gives me so much hope for the kind of person she is- very much like Fantine – can deal with the world as long as she has a little help and I know I keep saying that, but I really love her so much. Just the change in her attitude is so remarkable here.

I hate that no one in the town recognises her, now that she is in mourning garb and not in her usual rags, she does seem to be the child whom everyone is used to seeing poor and wretched and she really is very much an Omelas child. But the good news is that Cosette is being rescued from the wicked stepmother and is free to start her life, no wonder she looks at the sky and her big eyes have something else other than fear in them, I’m not surprised she also looks at Valjean as being in the presence of the Good Lord – besides the obvious comparisons to Valjean as Jesus, there has been something of Providence in their first encounter in the woods.

 2.3.10

The Thenardiers’ further greed after having satisfied his debts, reminds me of other stories where if you are too greedy it bites back on you. Tolstoy also wrote a short story titled ‘How much land does a man require’ and when the man gets too greedy, he dies, and they bury him in a 6-foot plot of land.

Though in this case it might have turned in Thenardier’s favour had Thenardier remembered to bring his gun. Valjean is strong and powerful and Thenardier is no match for him but with a gun and Valjean wanting to protect Cosette, who knows how that might have turned out?

I still feel that Valjean giving more and more money to Thenardiers each time wasn’t the wisest decision, but I also don’t see how he would have done it without paying 1500 francs at least, so I am a bit torn on that, but here Valjean demonstrates that he could do the math perfectly and calculate the entirety of Fantine’s debt and her payment while walking and talking, and it might have been nice had he used that tactic from the start.

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Thenardier drafts a bill for 23 francs for the stranger in the yellow coat. Madame insists that she is kicking Cosette out today--on Christmas--because she can no longer stand the sight of her.

Madame gives the stranger the bill. He asks whether business is good in town, and she says that it isn’t. She complains that they can hardly support Cosette--the lark, as she is called. The stranger offers to take Cosette off her hands. Madame calls Cosette, and the stranger pays his bill, although he is shocked.

Thenardier reenters and tells the stranger that his bill is 26 sous and that he must discuss the matter of the child with him. He says that he cares deeply for Cosette and that he won’t allow him to take her away. He says that he is worried about what would become of her because he doesn’t know the stranger. He asks to at least see his passport.

The stranger insists that he will take Cosette far away and that she will never see Thenardier again.

Thenardier asks for 1500 francs.

Meanwhile, Cosette has woken up. She finds the coin that the stranger left in her shoe. For the first time that she can remember, she does not feel alone.

In which the Thénardiers are, as ever, the worst.

They start with massively overcharging JVJ for his night's stay. Mme Thénardier has the temerity to complain that Cosette is the cause of their financial woes (because the starving, half-naked child doing all the work is clearly costing them more than the two well-dressed, well-fed kids who are not working).  Does she seriously think anyone would believe this? M Thénardier backtracks on both the bill and Cosette situation, but again their obvious neglect of her belies their actual actions. 

But, at long last, Cosette leaves the Thénardiers, so, on the whole, it's a good chapter. :)

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2.3.8 An earlier post mentioned JVJ's habit of throwing money at  problems to solve them (Fauchelevent and the cart, for instance). Against the Thernardiers, it's an effective strategy.

I have to wonder if the horse guy is personally watering his horse because he's really fond of it, or if he just doesn't trust the Thenardiers at all.

How many times has Cosette put out her shoe on Christmas, only to not receive anything?

2.3.9