Garner 1 Megan Garner Mrs. Laird H Brit Lit, Per.

9 20 April 2013 A Tale of Two Cites and Les Miserables: Alike in Greatness The French Revolution was an exciting point in history, filled with hardship, heartache, and passion. It is no wonder then that so many great works that the world has come to love have used this as the setting for their tales. The novel A Tale of Two Cites by Charles Dickens and the motion picture Les Miserables, directed by Tom Hooper, both use the time period surrounding the French Revolution and the theme of love and sacrifice as a basis for characterization and plot, creating many noteworthy similarities between the two. Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo, author of the book from which the musical and movie were adapted, both used the history of this great time period to teach and warn their individual present societies. Dickens used A Tale of Two Cites to show how similar his own present day England was to the world of France before and during the French Revolution and warn that his England too might follow a comparable path to that of revolutionary France (Rance 76). Hugo, however, used the turmoil of post-revolutionary France to convince the bourgeoisie of the Second Empire of the virtues of republicanism. (Matzidakis). Likewise though both authors representation of French history is extremely selective in order to concisely get their point across to the reader (Rance 76).

Garner 2 Despite the selective nature of these works, both employ the fact that the law in their prescribed time period was unjust. In A Tale of Two Cities, it would seem that the felons were trying honest men. (Rance 86). This can be seen throughout the work, at Darnays first trail, he quite literally is an honest man being accused of treason by two spies. At Darnays second trail, he is sentenced to death for the crimes of his family, a crime that occurred when he was very young. In the beginning of the novel a boy is maimed and then killed for not bowing to monks, a small and insignificant breakage of the law. Manette spent 18 years in the Bastille for knowing too much about the crimes of the Evermonde family. In that time his harsh treatment by the law caused him to go insane, even to forget his own name and to know himself only by what they called him in that place: One Hundred and Five, North Tower. In no way could the law of this time be considered just or fair. In Les Miserables, this harsh treatment by the law is continued to be seen. Jean Valjean spends 19 years imprisoned for stealing a morsel of bread for his sisters starving child (Lynd). It is in this hard labor camp he is so dehumanized that the guards, an extension of law, cannot even call him by his name, but only by his number, 24601. Fantine loses her job to a rumor accusing her of using prostitution in order to get enough money to support her and her child. This in turn then actually forced her into prostitution and when a man groped her and she fought back, the law still sided with the man of higher standing. The law even falsely identified another man as Jean Valjean, and despite Valjeans try to stop it, the man was sentenced to his punishment anyway. The law through both of these works is unjust, overly harsh and dehumanizing.

Garner 3 In stark contrast the unforgiving setting of these pieces, both A Tale of Two Cites and Les Miserables have a strong theme of love and sacrifice that flows through them (Rance 88). This theme is most easily seen through the characterization of the two works characters, and because of which there are many similarities between both pieces characters and plots. One of the most easily seen parallels are between Dr. Manette and Jean Valjean. They both suffered a long and underserved imprisonment, 18 and 19 years respectively. After coming out of jail, both had lost themselves. Manette was insane, and was recalled to life by Jarvis Lorry. It was Manettes daughter however, Lucie that brought him back to reality and allowed his life to flower. Likewise, Valjean had lost himself, not in his mind but in his sin. The Bishop of Digne brought him back to an honest and religious life, but his life did not truly blossom until he took in Fantines daughter, Cosette, as his own. These two men also worked to save their daughters loves from danger out of the familial love for their daughters. For Manette, his time in France working to get Darnay out of prison was the only time The preceding relative positions of himself and Lucie were reversed (Dickens 211). In Les Miserables, Valjean saves Marius from slaughter at the barricade by secretly carrying the unconscious Marius through the sewers. Another strongly comparable character pair between the two works is Charles Darnay and Marius Pontmercy. Both Darnay and Marius come from wealthy families, yet have refused them. Darnay left the Evermonde name, along with the fortune, to live in England as a simple French teacher (Frante 125). Similarly, Marius leaves his rich grandfather to be a

Garner 4 revolutionary of the common people. Darnay and Marius are also both involved in love triangles, in which they love the main character of their respective pieces daughters. Darnay marries Lucie, but Carton secretly loves Lucie too, and therefore scarifies himself in place of Darnay for love of Lucie. Marius marries Cosette, but Eponine loves him as well; at the barricade, she takes a fatal bullet for Marius in order to keep him out of harm (Declaux). Just as Darnay and Marius have such parallels between them, so do their wives, Lucie and Cosette. Both Lucie and Cosette are quite static characters, changing little throughout their plots. They are the generic female characters of their stories. Lucie is the perfect Victorian female, the ideal home companion, a loving stereotype (Holter 103) and Cosette is just a girl in love more a type than an individual. (Declaux). They both, however, play a key role is the resurrection of their fathers lives from prison. It is only with Lucie by his side that Manette can come out of his fits of insanity, and only through Cosette that Valjean finds full fulfillment in his life (Lynd). Before they find their fathers though, both characters begin as orphans. When Lucie was a child her mother died, and with her father presumed dead in prison, Miss Pross raised her until Lucie and Manette found each other again. Cosettes father walked out on the family, forcing Fantine to have to work apart from her. She was raised by the dishonest innkeepers, the Thenardiers, until her mothers death when Valjean raised her. All of these characters are moved by love and the willingness to make sacrifices out of that love, during a difficult time in history. It is no surprise then how alike the plot and characters of A Tale of Two Cites and Les Miserables appear to be. The most notably comparable

Garner 5 characters are Dr. Manette and Jean Valjean, Charles Darnay and Marius Pontmercy, and Lucie and Cosette. These two works are not lessened though by their similarity, but made greater. For despite their parallels, they tell their own tales, and what wonderful tales they are.