I feel like the scene where Valjean has dinner with Bishop Myriel and his sister has so many echoes of Valjeanās broken relationship with his own sister? It's like Myriel and Baptistine are who Valjean and Jeanne might have been, if theyād had wealth and privilege.
Both Myriel and Valjeanās families were scatteredā the Myriels by the French Revolution, the Valjeans by illness/poverty. But after everything fell apart the brother and sister stuck together. They took care of each other. They stayed by each other even in the midst of poverty (although yeah it is important to note that the Myriel householdās poverty is voluntary, and is extremely different from the actual poverty of the Valjean household.)Ā
Ā Ā It feels like a commentary on the way the revolutions/Napoleonic wars/upheaval of the past decades affected different classes very differently. You have the Myriel family representing the trauma of the aristocrats, and then the Valjean family representing the trauma of the peasants.Ā
Both Valjean and Myriel were also in a situation where they lost contact with their family for a while and had to survive by laboringā Valjean during his imprisonment, Myriel during the Revolution. Valjean's family was broken in 1795, Myriel's in 1793. Ā āOur family was ruinedā¦.In ā93 one had no relatives,ā Myriel says to Valjean about his experience. āOne had only oneās arms.ā Heās trying to reach out to Valjean by implying that he understands something of what he's going throughā that the pain aristocrats like him experienced during the revolution has something in common with the pain that peasants like Valjean have experienced as a result of poverty. Myrielās also been separated from his family, heās also been exiled from the places where he used to live, and heās also been forced to labor in order to survive. And If he survived it then thereās hope for Valjean too.Ā
But because Myriel is an aristocrat and Valjean is a peasant, Myrielās situation was and is radically different, less painful, and less dire. And Myriel seems to understand that, but itās still⦠well, itās still a thing!Ā I donāt think Myriel is doing anything āwrongā here, but there are clearly limits to how much he actually understands. He talks about how he had āno relativesā during the Revolution, but a moment before he was talking with his sister about their many many relatives. He talks about laboring and having nothing but his armsā but heās never been in the galleys; has he really experienced that? Like yes, Myrielās family has been through terrible trauma. Myrielās wife died in exile, for reasons we never learn, and his family was scattered/broken in a way that utterly changed him as a person.Ā But he doesnāt know what it actually means to lose everyone. He doesnāt know what it means to lose everything. Myriel might have felt like he did at one point, but he doesnāt.Ā
Because Myrielās sister is still here.
1.2.4 is written from Baptistineās point of view. She happily describes her brother to one of her friends, and seems content to be living with him.Ā
But Valjeanās sister is gone. She might be dead, or might as well be deadā he will never see her again.Ā
I donāt think Myriel is doing anything wrong here at all. Heās being a perfect kind host. Heās doing all he can to help Valjean without being condescending or preachy. Heās talking to him as a friend, and trying to help Valjean talk about his own past without shame by revealing some of the struggles heās been through. But at the same timeā¦when Valjean says he has nothing, it doesnāt mean āheās lost a lotā it means he has nothing. When Valjean says he has no family, it doesnāt mean āhe has some distant cousins he rarely talks toā it means that literally everyone he has ever loved is dead or gone forever.Ā Ā
Myrielās aristocratic family may have lost a lot in the Revolution, but it's not even comparable to what Valjeanās family has lost as a result of poverty and prison.Ā
Myrielās original plan was to give Valjean a good nightās sleep and breakfast, then send him on his way to Pontarlier and hope heāll get hired to work with the cheesemakers there. And that was a great plan! It was probably the best thing he could do in that situation. But likeā¦would the people of Pontarlier have been any less bigoted towards Valjean than the people of Digne? Valjean probably doesnāt have hope that will happen. Again, I think Myriel was doing everything ārightā-- itās just that heās only one person and doing everything he could might not have been enough.
Itās like that earlier scene where the Bishop helped the man who was on Death Row. The Bishop thinks the Death Penalty is a moral evil, but he doesnāt have the power to get rid of it or even the power to rescue someone from it. He does all that he can to help the man on death row, by comforting himā¦. but it isnāt enough. And Myriel's aware that it isn't enough, that there are limits to how much he can help.
Ā In 1.2.4 Baptistine praises her brother for treating Valjean as an equal. At the same time, in her own narration, she portrays Valjean in the same pitying kinda-condescending way that she praises her brother for avoiding.Ā
Valjean spent nineteen years in prison because he was trying to help his sister and his sisterās children.
Myriel calls Valjean his ābrother.ā Myrielās sister seems amazed that Myriel treats Valjean as his equal; itās as if she doesnāt think that anyone could have ever genuinely treated Valjean as their brother.