#3.5.6

Today was the end of Vol 3; Book 5!

187 chapters read, 178 chapters left

Who is this women frowning at Theodule? I want to hear from her.

Gillenormad references Hernani. Mr. Hugo, sir? Is this allowed? This book is already an exercise in self projection, don’t you think you ought to pull it back some?

I can’t quite discern the nature of the event Gillenormand is so upset about. Students are gathering to have an open forum of sorts concerning the citizen militia and a cannon placed in the Louvre but I can’t follow Gillenormand’s argument in regard to either the debate or the cannon itself. This could be entirely intentional since his point seems to just be: “All these foolish brats have political opinions. They ought to be strictly forbidden to have any political opinions. They fabricate systems, they reform society, they demolish monarchy, they upset all laws...” Young people and their ideas! He then insults Native Americans just to round out his every-white-grandfather mien.

Poor Theodule can’t win. In Wilbour, Gillenormand calls him a fool. He fares worse in Wraxall.

“Vous êtes un imbécile.”

Gillenormand is hankering for a good argument to raise his spirits, if he can’t have the quiet, unquestioning obedience that Marius showed him. Theodule is too obviously sycophantic to satisfy the role Marius left vacant. And, besides, Gillenormand put years of work into poisoning Marius against the world outside the salon; Theodule’s spirit hasn’t been crushed and tethered to Gillenormand’s own sense of self importance. What Gillenormand really wants is someone he can possess entirely and Marius is the only person who can be that for him, someone who never had ulterior motives for obeying G, until he turned Bonapartist. With that in mind, the fact that Marius eventually returns to Gillenormand’s house makes the end of the book a little darker. (And continues to prove my argument that Marius is thematically inconsistent)

Marius is now a snack. He’s the Snow White of 19th century Paris and all the ladies swoon when he walks past. “He thought they looked at him on account of his old clothes, and that they were laughing at him; the truth is, that they looked at him because of his graceful appearance, and that they dreamed over it.” Ah, Pontmercying at its finest.

Courfeyrac teases him mercilessly, as he should.

3.5.5

Marius continues to meet with Mabeuf, even though it is rare, and Mabeuf continues to decline in fortunes and Marius probably would never ask him about it/or notice it himself.

He finds Gorbeau house and takes up residence there, he still has his pride and vanity which means that he won’t go anywhere unless his shoes are polished to perfection, so he only goes out in the cold or at night. He cares what people think of him, he cares about appearances so much, despite being in poverty as we were told.

We also learn that Marius is not as passionate about Bonapartism as he used to be, did he start believing in constitutional monarchy and think Louis-Phillippe is great? Marius’ political opinions are so vague. Maybe this is a sign that he would be moving in a forward direction in his opinions. 

But I would have still liked to know what he thought of the July Revolution, because it seems that for him it was just a passing note. July Revolution happened but did not affect Marius in any great detail except to cool down his passions for Bonaparte. Considering that Marius does not care for the battle of Marengo, which Wikipedia tells me Napoleon won decisively but instead cares about the book of Job (which again good ol’ Wikipedia) tells me is about being patient in suffering during diseases, death, etc. without complaining. I had heard of Job and his story before though as this is part of other religious texts besides the Bible.

His opinions, however, are pretty vague, which sort of are mirrored by him preferring ideas to deeds and poets to heros. He resembles Prouvaire in many ways here- in his preference of infinite reaches, obscurity and pondering over the mystery of the skies- except Prouvaire combines both deeds and dreaminess, whereas Marius is only dreaminess which does not lead to anything concrete in this chapter.

The idea of Marius thinking about women is pretty strange at this junction, since Marius has shown no thoughts towards women, not even towards his mother or his aunt, it seems that once again, Hugo wants us to think of the amis intentionally here, through Prouvaire’s occupation with women and even Combeferre’s larger philosophy about women, it shows that Marius’ philosophy will eventually lead to something resembling the amis’ thoughts perhaps.  

I’m not sure I’m impressed by Marius turning into a philosopher as Hugo mentions, once again this feels like Hugo is making Marius out to be someone he’s not yet. It’s the framing of this chapter that like the previous chapters frustrates me, we get little insight into what Marius is thinking except what Hugo tells us from the outside and his views about Marius were pretty skewed in the previous chapters, where he turned Marius into a ‘noble hero enduring poverty’. Honestly I would endure these chapters so much better, without Hugo being weird about poverty in the narrative.   

The dazzling of the soul comparison here means that Hugo has all the hope of Marius becoming a very promising young man for his soul is pure and we get the example of Marius making a spontaneous kindness after being told about his neighbours’ poverty by the serving woman. This kindness and Hugo insisting that Marius is good and innocent, is the only indication I have of Hugo setting Marius up for progress and change.  

3.5.6

Theodule continues to be so much fun and so much more likeable than Gillenormand, although Gillenormand is good for comic relief. The aunt is trying to lighten the mood in the house by trying to find a Marius replacement and it is obvious that the chapter wants to show us how Theodule is really not that and for us to laugh at him (we don’t care about authorial intent in this chapter :P). He is pretty silly but at least he knows how to flatter people and try and get on their right side.  

Gillenormand gives no thought to Theodule and continues to think about Marius. Theodule still has hopes of an inheritance and so is willing to be as agreeable as possible, it makes the whole situation much more hilarious with Theodule agreeing with everything Gillenormand says. 

Gillenormand’s speech in this chapter is a whole load of grand nonsense, maybe more coherent nonsense than Grantaire but definitely nonsense like Tholomyes’ big boasts. 

I find the references that Gillenormand peppers in his speech hilarious especially Gillenormand thinking that Marius would be at Hernani. I also loved Gillenormand taking a shot at Republicans and Romantics in a single sentence, Bahorel would be so pleased that he could terrify Gillenormand since he is both and I am pleased on his behalf. Gillenormand also describes the hairstyle that was popular with the Romantics/Republicans during that time with a horror, which is pretty amusing.

Hugo through Gillenormand is slyly getting back at his critics by making fun of his own play through Gillenormand. Gillenormand also accuses the Romantics of being badly dressed, Gautier describes his friends’ fashions in his History of Romanticism and Gillenormand would definitely be outraged. It also feels very much like an old grandfather horrified by the fashions of the young generation who are trying new things.  

The more he goes on with his over the top complaints, the more the people he complains about seem better and better, to me at least: they have political opinions, are having debates, working to throw out the monarchy and reorder the system, they are actively rebuilding the world; instead of like Gillenormand, only complaining about it.  

Gillenormand wants the young people to stop reading the newspapers and having ideas of their own and even for making puns he’s becoming increasingly irrational in his arguments against progress, because he does not want anyone else to move forward in the nineteenth. And perhaps that is one more reason why Gillenormand and Marius had to go their separate ways, so that Marius could grow out of his upbringing in some ways to move towards progress. 

Gillenormand calls Theodule an idiot, and it feels that we are meant to cheer when that happens, but I can only think that Theodule is much better in every aspect than Gillenormand, granted it was a low bar but still.

You know, I almost feel bad for Theodule here. It’s not really his fault that he’s so out of his depth, and it’s not like he’s here of his own volition. And sure, he wants money out of it, but I can’t imagine he was entirely prepared for the long, semi-coherent rant about politics that he got. Theodule doesn’t do politics and, even if he did, I doubt it would be these.

Theodule returns to Paris. Aunt Gillenormand thinks that he will be able to cheer up her father as a sort of substitute for Marius. When Theodule comes to visit, Gillenormand is already in a bad mood because he has been reading in the paper about student “deliberations” regarding the National Guard’s artillerty that are to take place. Gillenormand paces back and forth, ranting about the students and ignoring Theodule, who just keeps agreeing with everything Gillenormand says.

In which we get more Théodule (yay!), more Gillenormand (not yay), and product placement by Hugo: Luc-Esprit Gillenormand, the grand bourgeois himself, condemns Hernani by name, along with republicanism, Romanticism, youth, and the whole of the 19th century. 

To be fair, this is my favorite bit with Gillenormand. And Wilbour gets credit for making Théodule say “zounds”. Again, the ‘replace Marius with Théodule’ reminds me of the similar metaphor employed for Fantine’s grisette friends’ previous love-affairs.

Back in the Gillenormand household, Aunt G attempts to improve her father's mood by bringing in another young relative for him to fuss over. It turns out Marius is not fungible.

The line about book errata, "c'est un simple erratum comme j'en vois dans les livres; Marius, lisez Théodule" reminded me of Fantine's grisette friends and how their past romances/affairs were described in a similar way. Just substitute one name for the next.

I started giggling at the Hernani mention.  Gillenormand is definitely old school, calling out those young whippersnapper Romantics. And turning the artillery debate into an armed assault on classic art!

What I found most interesting about this chapter was that I felt sorry for Théodule, but at the same time I was wondering whether this was intended by Victor Hugo at all. Looking back at the chapter, it rather feels like Théodule is in it only to support M. Gillenormand’s rant as a comic relief and a contrast to Marius. I think this impression mostly stems from the “punchline” in the end - “You are a moron” - after we were given the impression that Théodule’s presence wasn’t even noticed during the rest of the scene.

To me, it felt like the “moral” of the chapter is supposed to be that Gillenormand values (loves?) Marius even though he disapproves of his actions - that he maybe has respect for him following principles, even though he despises them. He clearly sees through and does not approve of Théodule trying to please him, so we could guess that he wouldn’t approve of Marius trying to please him either. But does that mean Gillenormand would also have criticised Marius if he had put aside his “obsession” only because he asked him to?