. . .
Since the title translates to “The Miserable Ones”, it is not a surprise
that misery is present throughout the story. This particular film adaptation
did, in my mind, a better job of displaying the ugly truth than other attempts
I have seen. You start to feel compassion as a man laments that he was arrested
for taking bread to feed a starving child. You seethe at the injustice as a woman is
turned out onto the streets because she left one man’s lust unsatisfied. I was
disturbed and horrified at that particular scene when Fantine gives in and
sells herself for the first time. The same feelings hit me when I saw the abuse
suffered by an innocent child. And the feeling only continued throughout the
film with the sights of poor people reaching for relief and getting none, a
man’s foot stepping into a river of blood in the street, and a young boy lying
in a row of corpses. It is almost impossible to look at these horrors and not
wonder where God was. That is really
what I want to write about. If Hugo was a Christian trying to tell a tale with
a present God, where is God in it?
A lot of “Christian” tales use Christianity or conversion as the final
solution to fix whatever problems the characters have been having. In Les Mis,
while Christianity is present from the beginning and offers some relief, it
doesn’t solve the main problems. The mercy and kindness of the bishop inspire
Valjean to change his life, but don’t erase the crimes he committed or the
consequences for breaking parole. Likewise, Valjean shows mercy to Fantine which
gives genuine hope and at least gets her out of prostitution, but too late to
save her life, and too late to allow her to be with her child. Mercy is even
shown to Javert, but he is too engrossed in justice to be able to accept it.
Another popular theme in Christian fiction is that the Christians are
the ones who have the answers and can lead to solutions, but in reality,
Christians fail just as often as non-believers and sometimes make things worse.
In Le Mis, imperfection in Christians is not ignored and blatant hypocrisy is
evident. Valjean is not fully redeemed even after committing his life to God
and changing his whole identity to fit. Valjean’s fear shows that his
Christianity does not perfect him, he still felt he had to hide and lie and run
all his life. The more obvious example of imperfect Christianity is in Javert
who truly believes he is following God, but has become so lost in the law, he
can not acknowledge grace. Then there are the Thenardiers who, at one point,
claim they took Cosette in because it was “no more than we Christians must do”
which is so obviously ridiculous it requires no more comment.
I have heard protests against the story from Christians as they claim
it is too sad and want to look at happier things. This is when I need to slow down because my
instant reaction is to shout profanities of a frustrated nature at them.
Focusing on joy is important, but so is recognizing and not being ignorant to
the miserable things God allows. It is plaint that the film is not happy and it
truly doesn’t have a “happy end”, in the traditional sense. The revolution has
failed, Javert was so unfamiliar to mercy that he chose to kill himself rather
than try to accept it for himself. Valjean is dead after running and being
afraid his whole life. There are still dozens of innocent dead, and dozens more
suffering oppression. I see why this doesn’t seem very uplifting and could turn
off certain audience members. My argument though, is that the film does not contain
a traditional happy ending, but it delivers THE happy ending.
Mercy from men was not the answer. Rising against oppression certainly
didn’t solve things. Even the Christians were not perfect. Redemption, peace,
and Joy were reached in the ultimate happy ending of being delivered from
misery on earth and being untied with Christ in Heaven. When Valjean sings
about “this wedding night” during his final scene, I believe that he is not
just taking about the marriage of Cosette and Marius, but of himself as a bride
of Christ’s church going to meet the bridegroom. Christian kindness can lesson
pain, choosing to follow God results in better circumstances, but it can not
perfect a person or their circumstances. God’s mercy redeems the soul and uniting
with Him ends the misery for eternity.
It may seem jaded or cynical, but suffering no longer surprises me, in
fact, I am sometimes catching myself wondering why there is not more of it,
knowing the condition of the hearts of man. This doesn’t bother me though as
much as you may think it should. I just know that suffering is not the end and
I try to set my focus on the much larger portion of existence rather than this
tiny one. Jesus said that there will be trouble. Some trouble is worse than
other, some lasts longer, but it all seems the same when I consider what comes
after this. The end of a war, justice, grace, healing, peace, and the end of all
types of misery is the true “happy ending” of the story of all of the miserable
ones.
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