#gilliatt

Back to hugoposting. Some things I thought were cool from the exhibit:

Fantine

14. Ingrained habits/force of habit

1. For a while after she lost her long hair she would still get up and think of brushing her long locks before remembering she had sold her locks. She would then take some little comfort in the fact that Cosette was at least warm. Although it did make her deeply unhappy to lose the little beauty she cherished and the book also says she grew bitter after this. 

2. She liked to wake up early even during her grisette years because she had worked on a farm and that had trained her to wake early and make sure everything is fine. When she had Cosette she would wake up early to talk to the baby and fuss over her, singing her songs and lullabies to soothe her crying, since Tholomyes barely acknowledged or interacted with the newborn child. He was only interested in spending time having fun despite becoming decrepit as a 30 year old. 

3. She has a habit of thinking of past events for a while, for instance she may have thought of the dead horse for a day or two and was heartbroken equally about it as well as the situation Tholomyes left her in.

4. She gestures while talking out of habit and is also used to people not taking her seriously at first but she is able to charm them and endear them to her when she wants.

5. She had been apprenticed as a farm hand from a gamine due to the fierce bravery of life that she is known for, and probably had a somewhat happy farm life. Her way of trusting people and thinking they are telling her the truth and not taking advantage of her, did not hurt her for the duration of the time she was working on the farm. She made enough to be able to reach Paris from the farm near MsM at 15.

Gilliatt

20. What-ifs/Alternate Timelines

Look, we agree that Hugo’s characters are touched by the fatality and Romanticism. Some of them have to die, and Gilliatt died when the thread connecting him to the society was severed by Deruchette marrying Ebenezer, the very hot priest. But, Gilliatt and Deruchette would really really have been a not a great marriage, on account of they don’t know each other at all and Gilliatt is doing massive massive projections, creating an ideal in Deruchette. So, alternatives, Gilliatt’s mom and him are treated kindly by the Guernsey folk from the start and the rumours about her being possibly a witch or Gilliatt being able to talk to witches does not start/does not threaten the fact that the people still are kindly towards them.

Or, and we discussed this, Mess Letierry marries, hires Gilliatt to work for him managing his ships and treats him like a son and heir of his business, and Gilliatt slowly comes out of his shell and starts making connections with the people who think he is a hero for saving Durande. He starts getting more and more involved in the town and its affairs, and probably becomes the kindly Mayor. I can’t help comparisons to Valjean. Anyway, he can still die, death is very Romantic, just not walking into the sea because a projection of his crush that he had built up ended up not working out, (just a word of advice) talk to the girl, Gilliatt, next time, instead of playing bugpipes for 4 or 5 years with her favourite tune.

Maybe he becomes successful and invents a better ship and then is lost at sea/drowned (Drowning metaphors are a thing with Hugo, poor Leopoldine;_;). Still, at least Deruchette got her happy ending, she deserved it. I can see that this is very much about Hugo’s second daughter, Adele II.