Brick Club 3.5.6, 3.6.1
Who is this women frowning at Theodule? I want to hear from her.
Gillenormad references Hernani. Mr. Hugo, sir? Is this allowed? This book is already an exercise in self projection, don’t you think you ought to pull it back some?
I can’t quite discern the nature of the event Gillenormand is so upset about. Students are gathering to have an open forum of sorts concerning the citizen militia and a cannon placed in the Louvre but I can’t follow Gillenormand’s argument in regard to either the debate or the cannon itself. This could be entirely intentional since his point seems to just be: “All these foolish brats have political opinions. They ought to be strictly forbidden to have any political opinions. They fabricate systems, they reform society, they demolish monarchy, they upset all laws...” Young people and their ideas! He then insults Native Americans just to round out his every-white-grandfather mien.
Poor Theodule can’t win. In Wilbour, Gillenormand calls him a fool. He fares worse in Wraxall.
“Vous êtes un imbécile.”
Gillenormand is hankering for a good argument to raise his spirits, if he can’t have the quiet, unquestioning obedience that Marius showed him. Theodule is too obviously sycophantic to satisfy the role Marius left vacant. And, besides, Gillenormand put years of work into poisoning Marius against the world outside the salon; Theodule’s spirit hasn’t been crushed and tethered to Gillenormand’s own sense of self importance. What Gillenormand really wants is someone he can possess entirely and Marius is the only person who can be that for him, someone who never had ulterior motives for obeying G, until he turned Bonapartist. With that in mind, the fact that Marius eventually returns to Gillenormand’s house makes the end of the book a little darker. (And continues to prove my argument that Marius is thematically inconsistent)
Marius is now a snack. He’s the Snow White of 19th century Paris and all the ladies swoon when he walks past. “He thought they looked at him on account of his old clothes, and that they were laughing at him; the truth is, that they looked at him because of his graceful appearance, and that they dreamed over it.” Ah, Pontmercying at its finest.
Courfeyrac teases him mercilessly, as he should.
I love outside perspectives of Valjean and Cosette because it illustrates how close and loving they are and I think it’s just the most wonderful thing in this entire book. The fact that he so obviously cares for her, “an unutterable expression of fatherliness [ineffable paternité],” and that she trusts him so implicitly and feels comfortable sharing her thoughts with him...it’s just so pure and lovely.
