While watching “Les Mis”…

    While watching this version of the musical, I felt as though it was more realistic, in sense. With live performances of plays and musicals, I tend to feel that the acting can be forced.  When the acting, to me, is more believable, then I can become lost within the story and enjoy it more.
    When the acting is more realistic, it can be easier to forget that the entire show is sung entirely throughout. If I focus less on the constant musicality, I can recognize the reality that is mixed in with this story of tragedy and  romance. It kind of taught me that while something made be largely based in the real world, with a fictional story, we still tend to miss the reality being shown to us; whether it be a truth of the past, or one that continues to run along today.
    For example, a concept from “Les Mis” is how most people will put themselves and their families, before others; as is demonstrated by the worker girls trying to throw Fantine under the bus at the beginning of the musical. And the truth of the matter is, that often times, people will get away with such acts, whereas those who try to do something for others may be punished.
People’s minds are warped but the influences that they are surrounded with, be it poverty, wealth, power, etc.
    Something like that is often emphasized in fiction, making it seem overdone, when in reality, many such scenarios of bribes, corruption and secrecy occur amongst society, usually concerning those in positions of power.

Key Scenes to Me

    After the battle, when Javert walked past the bodies of the deceased, it really touched me when he placed his medal of honour on Gavroche’s jacket. Tears started to form in my eyes at that specific point, because what he did was honourable and noble, and made Gavroche‘s death all the more sensitive. He acknowledge Gavroche as a soldier for the people and realized that Jean Valjean had been right, that the law could be wrong and was unjust. This lead to Javert having a change of heart, in the context of the battle, as he saw his own mistakes and their consequences.

    Master of the House stood out to me for a few reasons. The first, being that I had seen part of it on you tube, some time ago. I didn’t watch the whole video and I only vaguely remember it, but I when watching the entire musical at school, I had a feeling that Helena Bonham-Carter was going to appear, and of course, she did. So the fact that I had indeed seen a part of  "Les Mis", albeit a small one, makes me feel much less like I live under a rock, though to be honest, I do. Another reason that Master of the House sticks with me, is because in the version we watched, it was a humorous, “happy” scene. It broke the cliché of romance and love being the only “happy parts” in a story of tragedy. I thought it was a nice change  that added to the story.

Themes and Motifs

    Love is usually an underlying theme in most musicals you see, and compassion is often there, in turn. For “Les Mis”, these two emotions are a key part of a this musical, as they are displayed in contrast to the anger and fighting shown.
    The Bishop was the first character to display this theme, and he did so in many ways. He shows compassion to Jean Valjean when he is found without shelter or food. The Bishop didn’t know exactly what “crime” Valjean had committed, or even if he was truly guilty of his action; he helped Valjean in the name of the Lord, showing compassion to him when others left him to suffer. As well, the Bishop continued to show compassion to Valjean when he not only dismissed the constables who had caught Valjean running away with all the Bishop’s silver, but gave every last bit of it to him, and sent him away with the goods, and a prayer for Valjean to use it to start a new life as a free man.
    Valjean has shown compassion and love throughout the story of “Les Mis”, and even before the musical began. Our story begins because Valjean is being released from prison after 20 years of punishment, all for stealing a loaf of bread to help feed his sister’s starving child. And despite although his judgement was crowded from the unjust imprisonment, Valjean regained his senses of love and compassion, thanks to that of the Bishop, and went on to show such kindness to many others in future years. He displays this in many ways, like rescuing the man in the cart crash, and saving Fantine from Javert and the court system. He revealed himself to save another poor man’s life, at the risk of ending his own, and took little Cosette away from the Thernardiers, and raised her as his own, as he had promised to Fantine. These scenes were only a few of the many kindnesses that were displayed throughout the musical, as Jean Valjean continuously put others ahead of himself, and constantly displayed the theme of love of compassion in “Les Misérables”.

    All throughout the musical there‘s a motif of people being unwanted; sometimes it’s the poor, other times it’s corrupted figures in power. However, when I think of “the unwanted”, my mind tends to go to Fantine.
    In “At the End of the Day”, Fantine loses her job because the other workers discover her daughter and then twists the truth to the Foreman, in order to have her fired. This happens because Fantine is unwanted by the other workers; whether its because they think that she’s earning extra money elsewhere while they struggle, or because the think that they’ll be paid more if she’s gone, the other workers do not want Fantine around.
    On the flip-side of the “unwanted” motif, I think that characters with power, like Valjean, the officers, and the French monarchy, apply to this motif. It’s most notably displayed with the revolutionaries and their battle against the French army. This revolution starts because the actions, or rather, lack of, made by the monarchy have left many people to suffer in poverty and starvation; the one man who stands up for these people dies, and the students believe that the only way to get what they want, which is to expunge the monarchy, is to take matters into their own hands.