3.5.5-3.5.6
3.5.5
Marius continues to meet with Mabeuf, even though it is rare, and Mabeuf continues to decline in fortunes and Marius probably would never ask him about it/or notice it himself.
He finds Gorbeau house and takes up residence there, he still has his pride and vanity which means that he won’t go anywhere unless his shoes are polished to perfection, so he only goes out in the cold or at night. He cares what people think of him, he cares about appearances so much, despite being in poverty as we were told.
We also learn that Marius is not as passionate about Bonapartism as he used to be, did he start believing in constitutional monarchy and think Louis-Phillippe is great? Marius’ political opinions are so vague. Maybe this is a sign that he would be moving in a forward direction in his opinions.
But I would have still liked to know what he thought of the July Revolution, because it seems that for him it was just a passing note. July Revolution happened but did not affect Marius in any great detail except to cool down his passions for Bonaparte. Considering that Marius does not care for the battle of Marengo, which Wikipedia tells me Napoleon won decisively but instead cares about the book of Job (which again good ol’ Wikipedia) tells me is about being patient in suffering during diseases, death, etc. without complaining. I had heard of Job and his story before though as this is part of other religious texts besides the Bible.
His opinions, however, are pretty vague, which sort of are mirrored by him preferring ideas to deeds and poets to heros. He resembles Prouvaire in many ways here- in his preference of infinite reaches, obscurity and pondering over the mystery of the skies- except Prouvaire combines both deeds and dreaminess, whereas Marius is only dreaminess which does not lead to anything concrete in this chapter.
The idea of Marius thinking about women is pretty strange at this junction, since Marius has shown no thoughts towards women, not even towards his mother or his aunt, it seems that once again, Hugo wants us to think of the amis intentionally here, through Prouvaire’s occupation with women and even Combeferre’s larger philosophy about women, it shows that Marius’ philosophy will eventually lead to something resembling the amis’ thoughts perhaps.
I’m not sure I’m impressed by Marius turning into a philosopher as Hugo mentions, once again this feels like Hugo is making Marius out to be someone he’s not yet. It’s the framing of this chapter that like the previous chapters frustrates me, we get little insight into what Marius is thinking except what Hugo tells us from the outside and his views about Marius were pretty skewed in the previous chapters, where he turned Marius into a ‘noble hero enduring poverty’. Honestly I would endure these chapters so much better, without Hugo being weird about poverty in the narrative.
The dazzling of the soul comparison here means that Hugo has all the hope of Marius becoming a very promising young man for his soul is pure and we get the example of Marius making a spontaneous kindness after being told about his neighbours’ poverty by the serving woman. This kindness and Hugo insisting that Marius is good and innocent, is the only indication I have of Hugo setting Marius up for progress and change.
3.5.6
Theodule continues to be so much fun and so much more likeable than Gillenormand, although Gillenormand is good for comic relief. The aunt is trying to lighten the mood in the house by trying to find a Marius replacement and it is obvious that the chapter wants to show us how Theodule is really not that and for us to laugh at him (we don’t care about authorial intent in this chapter :P). He is pretty silly but at least he knows how to flatter people and try and get on their right side.
Gillenormand gives no thought to Theodule and continues to think about Marius. Theodule still has hopes of an inheritance and so is willing to be as agreeable as possible, it makes the whole situation much more hilarious with Theodule agreeing with everything Gillenormand says.
Gillenormand’s speech in this chapter is a whole load of grand nonsense, maybe more coherent nonsense than Grantaire but definitely nonsense like Tholomyes’ big boasts.
I find the references that Gillenormand peppers in his speech hilarious especially Gillenormand thinking that Marius would be at Hernani. I also loved Gillenormand taking a shot at Republicans and Romantics in a single sentence, Bahorel would be so pleased that he could terrify Gillenormand since he is both and I am pleased on his behalf. Gillenormand also describes the hairstyle that was popular with the Romantics/Republicans during that time with a horror, which is pretty amusing.
Hugo through Gillenormand is slyly getting back at his critics by making fun of his own play through Gillenormand. Gillenormand also accuses the Romantics of being badly dressed, Gautier describes his friends’ fashions in his History of Romanticism and Gillenormand would definitely be outraged. It also feels very much like an old grandfather horrified by the fashions of the young generation who are trying new things.
The more he goes on with his over the top complaints, the more the people he complains about seem better and better, to me at least: they have political opinions, are having debates, working to throw out the monarchy and reorder the system, they are actively rebuilding the world; instead of like Gillenormand, only complaining about it.
Gillenormand wants the young people to stop reading the newspapers and having ideas of their own and even for making puns he’s becoming increasingly irrational in his arguments against progress, because he does not want anyone else to move forward in the nineteenth. And perhaps that is one more reason why Gillenormand and Marius had to go their separate ways, so that Marius could grow out of his upbringing in some ways to move towards progress.
Gillenormand calls Theodule an idiot, and it feels that we are meant to cheer when that happens, but I can only think that Theodule is much better in every aspect than Gillenormand, granted it was a low bar but still.
Sidenote: There are lots of references in this chapter, there’s an allusion by Hugo to his own poem written in exile and published in Les Chatiments, there’s the Apollo Belvedere which is a classical statue brought by Napoleon which was probably why it seems to be rejected by the Romantics/Republics on both counts. Pere Duschene was the title given to radical revolutionary newspapers during the July Revolution 1830 and other revolutions as a nod to the newspaper published during the French Revolution.
