Les Miserables Novel / Tropes E to N

This page is for tropes which have appeared in the novel Les Misérables.

For the rest:

• Tropes A to D
• Tropes O to Z

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• The Eeyore: Grantaire.
  "I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living."
• Embarrassing Last Name: There's an amusing tangent discussing the origins of the name of the Gorbeau House, where Valjean and Cosette end up living, and how it related to a twofold example of this. It was originally the site of a law practice run by guys named Renard (Fox) and Corbeau (Crow), who were widely mocked for their last names due to the combination of those names, especially in combination forbiddingly suggesting that they were amoral attorneys, and because it suggests the fable of the Fox and the Crow, whose verse telling by Jean de La Fontaine is almost universally known in France. Eventually, the two petitioned the king for permission to change their names, and he agreed, decreeing new surnames for them. Corbeau was luckily renamed Gorbeau, but Renard was less luckily renamed Prenard ("taker"), a name suggesting someone greedy and/or a thief.
• Embarrassing Rescue: Valjean sees Javert is slated for execution and requests that he have the privilege of killing the spy. Being killed by Valjean squares with Javert's rigid view of the world and he accepts it, feeling like a martyr. When Valjean unties him, fires into the air, and urges him to flee — after telling Javert his address so Javert can find him after the fighting is over — Javert at first thinks it's a trick, and is so shocked that he later self-terminates due to the ensuing cognitive dissonance. His entire view of the world is crumbling, and furthermore, as long as he is alive he must pursue Valjean, but at the same time he feels he should not pursue a man who saved his life.
• The Everyman: Jean Valjean, who was a simple tree pruner before his imprisonment. His name means, literally, "John, here's John." (as "Voilà Jean" became "Valjean")
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Part of the reason why Javert is Driven to Suicide, although he's far more "rigid to a fault" than "evil".
• Evil Gloating: Thénardier performs a near textbook example to Valjean when he has him captured in his room in Paris.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: One of the meanings of the title is "The Miserable Ones". And boy, is that ever accurate.
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Javert when expecting to be executed by the students.
  • Enjolras and Grantaire facing down the National Guard.
• Faint in Shock: Fantine faints upon realizing that Mayor Madeleine is a genuinely kind man who is willing to help her reconnect with her estranged daughter Cosette.
• Faking the Dead: Valjean escapes prison this way.
• Faux Affably Evil: Thénardier tries this several times.
• Felony Misdemeanor: 5 years for a loaf of bread, definitely not something the author agrees with. Inspector Javert seems to approve of these. He is perfectly willing to throw Fantine, a penniless prostitute who is on her knees begging for the life of her child, into jail for six months on account of assaulting a bourgeois who had deliberately provoked her, and who is unavailable to testify.
• The Fettered:
  • Jean Valjean, albeit more through an insistence on Good than Law.
  • Javert, though with the much more standard insistence on Law.
• The Fighting Narcissist: Montparnasse, who became a vicious street crook for the sake of staying fashionable and prides himself on his beauty even as he murders and steals his way through life.
• The Final Temptation: taken to the extreme with the trip to Arras. Jean Valjean is trying to get there to confess his identity so that another man doesn't mistakenly get imprisoned in his place. The wheel of his carriage breaks - Valjean learns that it's impossible to repair the wheel in time, so he offers to buy a wheel, buy a set of wheels, then buy a cart and two horses, then to buy a riding horse. When he learns all those are not an option, he is relieved and briefly thinks that maybe God is giving him the sign that he has done enough, before he gets another cart anyway. Then he learns there's a closed road ahead, that he will likely get lost in the night and goes forth anyway. Then his new cart breaks too, so he cuts a branch to repair a broken part. Valjean arrives at Arras despite getting about ten excuses to be able to say "I did what I could".
• Flashback: Mostly from Valjean's POV.
• Foil: Valjean and Javert, Éponine and Cosette, Montparnasse and Enjolras, and Enjolras and Grantaire.
• The Fool: Fantine. At first.
• Foregone Conclusion: The June Revolution can't succeed, since Louis gets overthrown 18 years after the novel ends.
• Foreshadowing: Javert has a small mental meltdown after Madeleine tells him to let Fantine go, because from his law obsessed perspective, it's simply not done, and when it is, resorts to just staring blankly into space for a few minutes. It's largely played for laughs, but it shows just how dependant his state of mind is on his worldview being intact, and which is demonstrated once more when he commits suicide when his worldview is completely debunked by Jean Valjean saving his life.
• Forgotten Trope: The penal system in 19th-century France; the Bourbon Restoration.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason for Javert's extremely harsh black and white world view and his complete inability to relate to other people. The trope is very interestingly used in Javert's situation, as he was born in prison the child of a prostitute and a thief, but completely rejects the idea that circumstances rather than evil nature can explain crime.
• From the Mouths of Babes: The 2018 miniseries presents another reason why Fantine should've realized leaving Cosette with the Thenardiers was a bad idea. In the third episode, Cosette calls a nosy neighbor a bitch, and it's strongly implied she picked the word up from Madame Thenardier.
• Garden of Love: Marius first sees Cosette when she is walking with Valjean at the Luxembourg Garden, and instantly falls for her beauty. Later, the two secretly meet in the garden at her house on Rue Plumet, where they eventually profess their love for one another.
• Girls with Moustaches: Mme Thénardier has one.
• Good Shepherd: Bishop Myriel.
• Go Out with a Smile: Enjolras gives one to Grantaire, showing he finally accepts him as part of the rebellion and is happy for them to die together before they are both shot.
• Great Escape: When Thénardier and his gang escape from La Force prison, it fills many parts of that trope. Apart from maybe the fact that it's far from being central to the plot.
• Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: Jean Valjean. He's just a really poor guy who steals bread to survive and ends up serving nineteen years in prison. When he came there, he's afraid and crying, when he leaves, he's hardened and considered dangerous. And the narrator agrees! He does undergo a heel face turn later, though.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Fantine, at first. Then she cuts nearly all of it off, and what's left turns gray.
• Happily Adopted: Cosette.
• Have a Gay Old Time: Valjean does not like being stuck under douches.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Gavroche isn't actually an orphan, but he still fits.
• Heel–Face Turn: The biggest one from Valjean after the bishop pardons him for stealing his silver. Another one from Javert after Valjean refuses to kill him. One from Marius after learning the truth about Valjean's past.
• Hellhole Prison: Well, it is the 19th century.
• The Hero Dies: The novel ends with Jean Valjean's death and a description of his grave.
• Heroic Bastard: Cosette, who is born to Fantine and Félix Tholomyès, her lover. She's also one of the most heroic characters to be found in the novel.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Valjean and Fantine's relationship gets twisted by the media after his identity is revealed.
• Hidden Supplies: When the Thénardiers and their gang take him hostage and attempt to blackmail him, Valjean attempts to escape by sawing through his bonds with a tool — a watch spring, hidden inside a coin — which Hugo informs us is an item invented by convicts. This means that Valjean has had this tool on him all day, every day, for God knows how long — just in case he were ever arrested. This also makes him Properly Paranoid.
• Historical Domain Character:
  • Napoleon. He features (obviously) in the long description of the battle of Waterloo, but he also has a chance meeting with Myriel, who accidentally flatters him ("I see a great man"). This leads to Myriel's promotion to bishop in Digne, setting him straight in Valjean's path at the beginning of the book.
  • Also Wellington, Ney, Cambronne, and several other participants in the Waterloo battlefield.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Rather than arresting Valjean the moment he recognizes him, Javert decides to toy with him and let him think he's going to get away. It ends up giving him enough time to find a way to escape.
• Holding Hands: How Enjolras and Grantaire die.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Played mostly straight with Fantine, who resorts to prostitution as her only available way to provide for herself and her daughter. Throughout, she still retains her love for Cosette, but her general attitude and comportment become a lot less outwardly sad and sweet than the trope usually entails.
• Hope Spot: Fantine's health suddenly improves when she thinks Valjean has gone to get Cosette. Then Javert arrives to arrest him, and the ensuing argument reveals that Cosette is not there and that Valjean is a convict. The shock kills her.
• Hypochondria: Joly is described as a malade imaginaire and often worries about his health throughout the novel.
• Icon of Rebellion: Two of them — the flag Mabeuf dies waving, and Mabeuf's bullet-ridden coat afterwards.
• Identical Stranger: Champmathieu, who almost takes the rap for Valjean.
• If I Can't Have You…: Éponine to Marius. When Marius thinks Cosette is gone forever and is emotionally vulnerable, Éponine gives him a false message that his friends are expecting him at the barricade. Distraught due to the belief that Cosette had left for England, he goes there. Éponine goes back there herself, hoping that they will both die there together. Although she does belatedly redeem herself somewhat by throwing herself in front of a gun aimed at him, and admitting her dishonesty, Hugo makes it clear that part of her act was just that she did want him to die, she just didn't want to see it so she chose to go first. And as she's dying in his arms she does say "We're all going to die, and I'm so happy".
• Important Haircut: The first thing, in the book, that Fantine sells for Cosette's sake.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Fantine develops a "dry cough". The disease is never named. Arguably a case of Victorian Novel Disease, except that it doesn't make her more beautiful.
• Infallible Narrator: Most of the time. He has the ability to describe a character's mental state and thought process (usually Valjean's), even if the character himself/herself is not able to do that.
• Injured Self-Drag: After Éponine takes a bullet for Marius, she drags herself out of the fray of battle and lies alone until Marius come near her, then drags herself over to him.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • "Jean-le-Cric" (Jean the Jack), Valjean's prison nickname.
  • Similarly, the convict Chenildieu is nicknamed "Je-nie-Dieu" (I deny God).
  • Charles-François Bienvenu Myriel comes to be known in Digne only as "Monseigneur Bienvenu" (meaning "Welcome").
  • Fantine is nicknamed "The Blonde" by Tholomyès. His friends' lovers all have nicknames as well: Favorite, Dahlia, and Zéphine.
• Inspector Javert: The character for whom the trope is named, of course.
• Institutional Apparel: Red jackets and colour-coded caps get mentioned. History says it was yellow trousers, white shirt, red vest and jacket and a green cap for lifers or a red cap (like the Phrygian cap) for non-lifers.
• Interclass Romance: Played with. Cosette becomes a well to do commoner while Marius is a poor boy with the title of Baron.
• In Which a Trope Is Described
• Ironic Nickname: Fantine names her baby Euphrasie in a moment of romantic inspiration, but soon calls her "Cosette" all the time (which means "Pampered" or "Indulged"). Then she leaves her child with the Thénardiers, who verbally and physically abuse the child, starve her, and force her to work for her keep — all the while still calling her "Cosette," little Indulged.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: When Fantine is in the hospital and close to dying, she sings "an old cradle romance with which she had, in earlier days, lulled her little Cosette to sleep, and which had never recurred to her mind in all the five years during which she had been parted from her child."
  She sang it in so sad a voice, and with so sweet an air, that it was enough to make anyone, even a nun, weep.
• Irony: Fantine is fired because she has an illegitimate child. She's then forced to turn to prostitution to make ends meet.
• I Have Many Names: Jean Valjean. To take directly from Wikipedia's page, "Jean Valjean: a.k.a. Monsieur Madeleine, a.k.a. Ultime Fauchelevent, a.k.a. Monsieur Leblanc, a.k.a. Urbain Fabre, a.k.a. 24601, a.k.a. 9430."
• It's All My Fault: Valjean has a tendency to accept blame even when his involvement was minor at best. Goes hand in hand with his refusal to defend himself at his trial or in front of Marius.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Valjean, although he didn't think that maybe his daughter might be happier with him around.
  • Éponine helps Marius to find Cosette, despite the fact that she's also in love with him. She doesn't manage to keep it up, though, and slides into If I Can't Have You… later.
• Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: Perhaps the Trope Codifier, as Valjean's life of crime was set in stone from the moment he stole a loaf of bread.
• Justified Criminal: When you've got the choice between stealing and starving, few people would hesitate.
• Just in Time: When Valjean and Cosette escape from Javert and his squad by climbing over the convent wall, the narration mentions that they hear them arriving just as they reach safety at the top of the wall. In the 2018 Masterpiece Mini Series, the camera angle shows Cosette being pulled to safety just as Javert and company come around the corner.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Thénardier is never made accountable for his various crimes (which include graverobbing, attempted murder, child abuse, kidnapping, torture, theft, and more child abuse) during the book, and in the epilogue, he takes the money Marius had given to him to travel to America and become a successful slave trader.
  • Tholomyès, who abandons Fantine, becomes a successful lawyer. (Though he does get a come-uppance in a deleted scene to the original novel, where his wedding gets called off because a young Cosette (who just happens to be in the audience) calls out 'Papa!') It's suggested that he eventually matures into an honorable man, but that certainly doesn't save Fantine.
• Kick the Dog: The Thénardiers do this in just about every scene they're in. Javert also gets a moment when he inadvertently frightens Fantine to death by telling her the mayor is a convict. You'd better believe Valjean wasn't happy about that.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Gavroche, you little Ankle-Biter.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Mid-song, in the case of Gavroche. Yes, this happens in the novel.
• Kill Him Already!: Justified, because much as the rebels would like to kill Javert, they have a reason for holding him prisoner for an extended length of time: they are conserving their powder and bullets, and consider killing him any way other than shooting him to be reprehensible and beneath them.
• Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: Javert to Valjean. Javert does not take it well.
• Knight Templar: Javert.
• The Lady's Favour: Played with; Marius finds a handkerchief after Jean Valjean and Cosette pass by and thinks Cosette dropped it for him to find, but actually it's Jean Valjean's handkerchief and he lost it entirely by accident.
• La Résistance: Les Amis de l'ABC.
• Last-Name Basis: Justified as this is the 19th century. It gets jarring when all the students call Marius Pontmercy "Marius", but refer to any other of their group by last name only.
  • The only member of Les Amis other than Marius to get a first name is Jean Prouvaire. And not only does he get a first name, but a nickname too- 'Jehan'.
  • One Amis member goes by many names- Lesgle, Bossuet, Laigle, Legle, L'Aigle de Meaux- none are his first name.
• Last-Minute Reprieve: We don't know if it was last minute, but Valjean gets a royal pardon before his death sentence can be executed. Since he did not appeal, only a few days would have passed between his trial and the execution date, giving the King not much time to pardon him.
• Last Request: After Taking the Bullet for Marius, Éponine requests a kiss on the forehead from him after she dies. He grants her request.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Fauchelevent: "How in Chri—stmas are you going to get out of here?"
• Last Stand
• Living Emotional Crutch: Cosette to Jean Valjean, and Marius to Eponine.
• Load-Bearing Hero: Valjean, both literally and figuratively.
• Locked into Strangeness: Valjean's hair turns completely white the night after he makes the difficult decision to turn himself in so that Champmathieu doesn't get sent to the galleys in his place; it stays white for the rest of the book.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: When Fantine sells hers, she hides her shorn head under a cap so she still looks pretty.
• Longing Look: Marius and Cosette exchange a few of these.
• Lost in Translation:
  • Hugo makes use of untranslatable puns and argot/slang. An example of a pun is the name of a bagnard named Chenildieu, who's nicknamed je-nie-Dieu, "I deny God"; another is a character admiring the "glaces" (mirrors) in a restaurant, and another replying that she'd rather have "glacés" (ice cream) on her plate.
  • The title is generally left in French, as it means "The Downtrodden", "Those Unfortunates", and "The Children", and there is no single English equivalent.
  • The student revolutionary group, Les Amis de l'ABC, literally translates as "the friends of the ABC." However, ABC in French would be pronounced ah-beh-sey, sounding like abaissé — the French word for "abased," also translated as "wretched" or "oppressed." So the name of the group actually means Friends of the Oppressed, since they are all about helping the poor.
  • The "bagne" in which Valjean was imprisoned has created a lot of problems in English translation/adaptation, as it literally means "galleys", giving the misleading impression that Valjean served in a Slave Galley during his imprisonment (the French name derives from the fact that the Bagne replaced the use of prisoners as galley slaves). To avoid the confusion, the 2013 translation by Christine Donougher uses the term "prison hulks" instead, which is also historically accurate, as prisoners continued to be "housed" in ships even after they were no longer used as rowers.
  • The fact that Grantaire signs his paintings as "R" can be confusing for English readers, but in French the capital R is called "grand R", phonetically pronounced "Grahnd Air".
• Love at First Sight: Inverted with Marius and Cosette. The narrator emphasises several times that the only reason Marius even noticed Cosette is the contrast of her black dress to the incredibly white hair of the man accompanying her. Then he doesn't see her for a couple of months, and suddenly she's turned from a relatively ugly little girl into a beautiful young woman. And Marius still doesn't care.
• Love Triangle: Marius, Cosette, Éponine.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Fantine from "enfantine", childish. Derived from the Latin "enfans", 'one who cannot yet speak'. Éponine's (derived from the Greek "épos", 'word') and Euphrasie's ("beautiful way of speaking", Latin) names are also related to the concept of voice, and many critics consider this a mark of Hugo's feminists (for his time) views.
  • Valjean is an abbreviation of "Voilà Jean" (Here's Jean). It doesn't help that it's the single most common French first name.
  • Marius after Victor Hugo's own middle name, Marie.
  • Bishop Charles-François Bienvenu Myriel becomes known only as Monseigneur Bienvenu (Bienvenu means welcome).
  • Montparnasse is named after the quarter of Paris he operates in.
  • Euphrasie (Joy), known as Cosette (probably as a diminutive of "chose", thing, or from the word "cosset"- to cherish and indulge).
  • Valjean's alias of M Madeleine, chosen after Mary of Magdala (Marie-Madeleine in French), the repentant sinner.
  • Cosette names the doll Valjean gives her "Catherine". Catherine was among the first names of Hugo's eldest daughter – nicknamed "Doll" by the family.
  • Éponine is the French version of Epponina, the name of the wife of the anti-Roman Gaulish resistor Julius Sabinus. The historical Epponina did everything she could for the man she loved, and while Éponine falters between selfishness and selflessness in her love for Marius, she ultimately takes a bullet for him and dies in his arms. It's also ironic, as it's a highly romantic and aristocratic name for a street waif.
  • Enjolras can be read as "il enjôlera", meaning he is the one who "will seduce/coax" which makes sense since he's one of the leaders of the riot. Meanwhile, Grantaire's name could be interpreted as a pun on the name of the letter R (it's homophone to "grand r", 'capital r') or on the idiom "avoir grand air" ('to be distinguished, to be elegant'), as Hugo describes his as an ugly, cynical drunkard.
• Merciful Minion: Reversed (heroes intending to kill villain) with Jean Valjean asking to personally execute the spy Javert. He takes him out of sight, fires a pistol into the ground and tells him to run.
• Messianic Archetype:
  • Jean Valjean.
  • Enjolras, to a lesser extent.
  • Bishop Myriel specifically endeavors to emulate Christ. He's admittedly as close as a human being could be to being perfect. The author seems to consider his political opinion (he's a royalist) his biggest flaw. Then Myriel meets with a former Revolutionary and even that changes.
• Missed Him by That Much: When Valjean and Cosette escape from Javert and his squad by climbing over the convent wall, the narration mentions that they hear them arriving just as they reach safety at the top of the wall. In the 2018 Masterpiece Mini Series, the camera angle shows Cosette being pulled to safety just as Javert and company come around the corner—if he'd looked up, he would have seen her.
• Moral Event Horizon: Discussed In-Universe:
  • Valjean himself feels he's crossed it after robbing Petit Gervais, and he realizes that society will also see it that way.
  • Javert's mindset is that being guilty of any crime instantly puts one over it, which is why he doesn't believe that criminals can reform.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: Maybe slightly deficient towards the black side, as there is no real Always Chaotic Evil. Even the worst characters have some justification or at least believe to have done the right thing. But from there on, you've got every shade is represented.
• Must Make Amends: Valjean's new purpose in life.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Valjean after robbing Petit-Gervais, leading to his big Heel–Face Turn.
• Naïve Newcomer: Cosette after growing up in a convent.
• Narrator: Switches forth between speaking of himself in first person singular, third person singular (then usually calling himself "the author") and first person plural and does not stop at telling stories that happened to himself.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Thénardier goes to Marius to blackmail him with his knowledge about Valjean, but ends up telling Marius that Valjean a) did not rob M Madeleine (as he WAS M Madeleine), b) did not kill Javert (as Javert killed himself), and c) saved Marius from the barricade (although Thénardier believed him to have killed Marius to rob him). Although Marius and Cosette arrive too late to save Valjean, he dies with Cosette at his side and the knowledge that the two know that he was not a bad man.
  • When he tracks Valjean to where he and Cosette are living, Javert doesn't arrest him the moment he recognizes him and instead decides to cruelly toy with him and let him think that he can escape. This is what causes the prolonged chase in this chapter. However, this gives Valjean just enough time to indeed figure out a way to get away.
• Nightmare Dreams: Valjean has a particularly crazy one in the night before going to Arras.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Where to start, poor Jean Valjean.
• No Help Is Coming: The student revolutionaries know they can't prevail by themselves, but are counting on their actions inspiring others to join the fight. As the siege on their barricade drags on, it becomes increasingly apparent that they're on their own. They refuse to surrender, and are eventually overwhelmed.
• No Name Given: Inspector Javert (fans like to joke about Javert's first name actually being "Inspector"), Fantine (rare case of first name only), both Thénardiers, all of the students except Je(h)an Prouvaire and Marius Pontmercy, and many more.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Marius and Mabeuf just want to commit suicide by barricade. Valjean is just there to save his daughter's lover. Grantaire just hangs out with the students because they're his friends and he loves Enjolras.
• Not What It Looks Like: Happens to Marius twice, firstly when his visits to his father's grave are mistaken for illicit rendezvous with "some petticoat". The second time he is following Thenardier in order to find out more about the planned Gorbeau robbery when he is seen by some of his friends, who assume he is stalking a girl.

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