“I dreamed that my life would be very different from this hell that I am living.” This quote comes from the movie Les Miserables, directed by Tom Hooper. The film is based on a novel by Victor Hugo. The movie was set in the 1800s during the Restoration period. The main events were taken in Paris, but some of them took place in neighboring towns. This review focuses on the character who symbolizes the good but misery-stricken woman driven to despair and death by a cruel society: Fantine.
Les Miserables presents Fantine as a mother who was abandoned by her lover, Tholomyes. Knowing that she was pregnant, she had no choice but to take care of her child alone. She gave up her daughter under the provision of the Thenardiers. She started working in a factory, owned by Monsieur Madeleine. During her stay there, her co-workers stole a letter and it is written that her daughter needs money because she is sick. Her co-workers told her foreman the news, and she was ultimately fired from her job. As a result, she began to find ways to support the daughter from her, then began selling her locket, her hair, and her teeth. When she had nothing else to sell, she sold herself as a last resort. One night, a man told the inspector that she was trying to harass him. Undoubtedly, the inspector retained Fantine to imprison her. Monsieur Madeleine instantly jumped into the situation to save Fantine only to discover that she is fatally ill with tuberculosis. She was taken to the hospital where she was promised by Madeleine that he would take care of Cosette and then Fantine faced her death.
The film shows the inferiority of the female gender in society and that women were seen as sexual objects. Hugo demonstrates the hypocrisy of a society that does not educate girls and excludes women like Fantine while encouraging the behavior of men like TholomyeÌ€s. As it was the 19th century, it is a shame for a woman to have an illegitimate child. So Fantine had two choices: leave her child in the care of a willing family so she could earn a provisional salary, or abandon the child at the local hospice and leave the baby in the ward of the state. So why did Fantine choose the former? Because leaving Cosette in a hospice, although cheaper, easier and faster, would have been a death sentence for the little girl. At that time, half of all illegitimate children were turned over to the state, and more than half of those children ended up dying within their first year. The hospices were dirty, understaffed, underfunded, and overcrowded. That’s why Fantine decided to let her son stay with the Thenardiers. A mother’s determination, sacrificial love, and perseverance were greatly displayed in this film. Yet when we look at our culture, we see a society that discards the virtues of motherhood that it embodied: the virtues of sacrificial love and enduring loyalty. In the last part of the movie, Fantine was fired from her and started selling her hair, her teeth and herself. Over time, a man called her by her names and she defended herself against her, the man later told the inspector, and Fantine was supposed to be jailed for defending herself against harassment. This plot illustrates the “nobody” of a woman and her impotence. Although the society was in the 19th century, nothing much has changed over the years. We still live in a community where men are considered superior to women.
The film did not fail to retell the events of the past. The actors gave respect and dignity to their characters and performed very well. Also, the set design, costume design, and soundtrack were really effective in understanding the movie better, as the designers used the clothing that was worn during the 19th century in line with the set design. I highly recommend this movie to all people in our society, especially government officials, teens, and adults. A highly believable creation of an imagined world, Hugo’s style of imaginative realism emphasizes the two main predicaments of the 19th century: the degradation of men in the proletariat and the oppression of women. In this case, we can see that nothing much has changed over the years, these predicaments remain to this day. However, the movie is full of life-changing lessons, it was a great movie, and definitely worth your time.