marius vs ignorance?? — Page 2

I've always thought that if Marius had administered first aid instead of singing, and bound Eponine's wounds with bandages instead of words of love, her chances of survivial would have increased dramatically.

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I think that's meant to be tongue in cheek.

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I think that Les Mis has a story... but it's way too complex. There are a lot of characters that need to be explained and have their own story in this musical. Each person needs to be explained and emotionally connect to the audience.
I agree that Broadway stories usually are less complex (you can explain what the story is about without confusing yourself... I can't explain it to fellow classmates when they ask me about the musical, it takes a lot longer than they expect... and they start to get uninterested after a while), and I think that is why people watch Les Mis so many times. Each time you can learn something new about one of the main characters.

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But yet she loves him anyway. I think that (know I understand you're argument) maybe the producers felt Cosette was unnecessary to give her a real emtional part in this musical. I dont' really know the reason why, obviously the movie with Liam Neeson is very different. I just realized this also: that if indeed Cosette has been in a convent, like in the movie, then basically... the first man she sees is Marius. Who knows, maybe she doesn't really like him. That is the thing that is different about this show, you don't really know what this one character is thinking.

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When I explain Les Mis to people who have never seen it, read it, etc...I just use everything Valjean does as the through line...which ultimately leaves out the Eponine-Marius-Cosette love triangle intricacies...but oh well!

I got to work on Les Mis at my high school - ruined the show for me for a while.

I wasn't really allowed to explain each role - so a lot of them were messed up. Not to mention we had a girl playing Grantaire - but we actually changed the role a lot!

I think the part of Cosette needs a little bit of rewriting and depth, then Marius wouldn't seem so clueless.

The part of Cosette was certainly watered down for the musical, but in the book, if I remember correctly, she really wasn't much better. Pretty and bubbly and not particularly intelligent. But definitely in the book Marius is a big jerk. He actually was the one who made Jean Valjean go away and stop visiting Cosette. And with his usual good timing, finally realized his mistake just minutes away from Valjean's death. =/

I view the original work ( or at least the translation that I read) of Les Miserables by VICTOR HUGO as less of a dramatic novel but more of a collection of commentaries ( essays with plots and sub-plots, if you will) on the political, social, religious, and cultural issues of those days. The setting for the book was years after the French revolution when France was going through many political and social changes. That Victor Hugo had chosen the day-to-day impact of these changes on some French characters of the day was probably meant to make his commentaries more dramatic and thought-provoking.

Re the musical - didn't Boublil and Schonberg say that they were first inspired by the musical OLIVER which brought back all their recollections of characters from boyhood - people they had read about in school ( can you imagine going through that huge novel as a schoolboy) - referring to Gavroche and Cossette - and then deciding to compose their masterpiece while drawing from all those characters from Mr. Hugo's book.

Marius - there is more focus on the family of Marius in the book as he belonged to the higher class ( his grandpere was a baron or something). There is also more focus on the ABC, the association of young men with Enjolras as one of the leaders ( there is much more focus on Enjolras in the book, too) in their impassioned yearnings for a more open society, as only the young can. I think the love affair with Cossette and even the connection with Eponine were really only secondary. That Boublil and Schonberg chose to give it more romantic and dramatic importance, I guess, made the musical more appealing to the public. It is ironic that in the first act, the more sympathetic character was the poor and oppressed Cossette and that in the second act, Eponine became the one who stood out because of her unrequited love and final sacrifice for Marius.

And I if recall right, the song we eventually knew as Eponine's ON MY OWN was originally called L'AIR DE LA MISERE and sang by Fantine at the beginnning of the French concept album, before the Mackintosh version reworked the musical.

Updated On: 1/12/05 at 10:57 PM