#thernardier

Like we saw with Valjean upon his arrival in Digne, Cosette’s dehumanization is highlighted by comparisons to domesticated animals. She is fed “a little better than the dog, a little worse than the cat,” but whereas Valjean resisted his subhuman treatment to an extent (he cried out upon seeing that a dog had a place to stay for the night while he didn’t), to Cosette, this is just how things are. We see that she eats with the cat and the dog, and from a bowl like theirs, without complaint. She’s obviously not happy, and she has the comparison to Éponine and Azelma to show that this is not the only way for children to live, but can she understand why she’s being treated this way? Does she know that she wasn’t abandoned, or does she think she deserves this somehow? Or is she so worn down that she doesn’t think about this at all? She is only five, and she’s already been made to work.

Cosette isn’t even addressed as a person in letters to her mother. She’s consistently referred to as a “creature” in writing and in speech by the Thénardiers, and over the course of the chapter, Hugo goes from saying “child” to “creature” (”shivering little creature”) as well. It gives the sense that she internalizes this to an extent? Or that this dehumanizing language is so commonplace that no one thinks anything of it anymore.

 Another point that infuriates me is the attitude of the populace. To some extent, it’s possible that they don’t know the full extent of the abuse Cosette’s enduring, but given that she’s always wearing rags and is sent to work before daybreak - which they know because they call her “the Lark” - they know that her treatment is far from ideal. And yet they praise the Thénardiers for their charity simply because to them, it would be more natural for no one to care for Cosette at all. She’s an object of pity to them, but not of true sympathy; they don’t see her as a person.