It’s interesting that Marius’ devotion to his father which was a religion for him is replaced by his love. I also don’t really know what to make of the fact that Marius’ devotion to his father is gradually becoming dimmer and occupying less of his time, so he needed something else to focus on. Hugo seems to be going with the love as guided by Providence by adding the detail about religion, but it still feels incredibly weird that Marius’ behaviour gets a pass so easily.
I also don’t really like the idea of Marius going to Luxemburg Gardens as a form of duty, since it feels very stalkerish. The only thing that makes it better slightly is that Cosette is also flirting with him and likes having him around. Once again Hugo is pretty weird about Cosette’s ‘virginal gaze’ and it being an ancient ploy that Cosette is using here.
The handkerchief should be pretty funny, but I don’t know reading it this time around, I don’t find it particularly amusing that Marius is picking up someone’s handkerchief. It does however tie back to how he was obsessed with his father’s letter, he is obsessed with the handkerchief in much the same way. He started to research his father and the handkerchief is the only clue about the young girl. Except it’s not even hers and she tries to tell him but Marius in his obliviousness does not pick up on the cues.
I don’t know if we’re meant to find Marius’ wooing cute, I am really not finding anything very endearing in this whole thing.
We get more evidence that Marius really is jealous and while we’re not meant to blame Cosette obviously, somehow, we’re meant to take this as part of Marius’ devotion and him becoming more and more in love, his passion growing.
I don’t like Hugo making light of Marius’ behaviour, sure he’s really trying to show his younger self in a better light, I think the skirt incident did actually happen between Hugo and Adele, but I wish the narrative had not taken Marius’ side, Marius’ anger is not ‘fair and justifiable’ at Cosette.
He is objectifying Cosette here instead of respecting her like a real person and somehow all this is fine and is treated half like a joke, half like he is becoming more devoted and consumed by his passion. Marius seems more in love with love because he wanted something to occupy his time spent doing nothing, rather than in love with a real person.
I can’t help but think of how better Seigneur Aymer handled his courtship with Diana in Champavert written by Hugo’s contemporary and friend Petrus Borel. Instead of stalking he was very frank with her and respected her decisions. This is where Marius seriously loses any sympathy from me, I don’t find his courtship at all cute or funny.
Marius wanting to know more about ‘Ursule’ follows the same patterns of him discovering his love for his father and wanting to know more about him. Obviously, because it is Marius he turns to stalking. Even though Hugo does say that Marius went too far by following Ursule and therefore his relationship may not be perfect, it's still pretty creepy behaviour which the narrative could have criticised more.
Valjean is understandably spooked out about someone inquiring about him and following him. Marius is asked if he is a spy- and I would rather read a whole novel about him as a spy rather than suffer through more of Marius being in love.
This is the second time (or maybe more?) that Marius has forgotten to eat, driven completely by love and it is interesting that his love obsession is described in terms of hunger. It is meant to be a passion that we’re supposed to take seriously.
Marius doesn’t really understand what he’s doing is wrong, he’s only happy in collecting more information, obsessed with the idea of Cosette rather than her as an individual. He does not think at all of Cosette but treats her like an object still to read about and know about. He also really doesn’t find anything meaningful about her, all he finds is a name and where she lives, nothing of what makes Cosette, Cosette.
In the case of his father it was understandable because he had just lost his father, was grieving and had found that he had been raised on lies about his father all his life. Here, he has no justification whatsoever and he still does not find anything wrong with it. I don’t know whether to blame his upbringing or to blame him or both.
To end on something cheerful, I like how Aunt Gillenormand was a really good spy who found where Marius was living and Marius in his turn finds out where Valjean and Cosette are living. Aunt Gillenormand teaching Marius her spy skills needs to be an AU.
