Les Miserables is a story of redemption, forgiveness, charity, salvation and moral obligation. The main character, Jean Valjean, enters the novel as a thief for only a loaf of bread, having spent nineteen years in prison. After he received his "second life" from M. Myriel, a prominent bishop, he, alone on earth, rebels against the tyranny of his fate. He always takes the side in sacrificing his own well-being for other people's welfare. Through Jean Valjean's life, he tries to answer one question: "how we could be decent men in an indecent time?"
However, is Les Miserables (The Miserable Ones) really with a happy ending that Cosette (the miserable little girl) married Marius finally? There are doubts. For Jean Valjean, his whole life is a quest for redemption, and he ultimately forsaking his only love to Cosette on his deathbed.
Cosette is the daughter of Fantine. Fantine leads a life of suffering because of her wrong trusts on people. She has dreams that never match with the reality. In order to fulfill the greed of Cosette's guardians, not only is she involve in prostitution, she sells her beautiful hair and her prized prettiest feature - the non-decayed teeth.
In the contrary, Jean Valjean always faces the cruel reality, yet still he takes the side in sacrificing his own well-being for common goods. He reveals his hidden identity as a fugitive in saving an old man's life under the wheel. He gives up all he built for years only because he does not want an innocent man who would be convicted as him mistakenly. He rescues Fantine from the hand of Javert in prison and promises to take care of her daughter Cosette. He redeems Cosette from the hand of Thenardies - the guardian that treated Cosette as a slave. And he raises Cosette from childhood to adult in a peaceful life. He loves Cosette despite that their age difference should be over 30 years. Cosette and Jean Valjean, they have the love of lovers, but in a completely pure way. Jean Valjean loves Cosette with all the love that he has and is truly keeping it up until his death. In first receiving Cosette, Valjean had never really experienced love. At night ... "He would approach the bed where she slept, and would tremble there with delight. He felt inward yearnings, like a mother, and knew not what they were. For it is something very incomprehensible and very sweet, this grand and strange emotion of a heart in its first love."
Jean Valjean loves Cosette with a "desert of love, "unconditional that never stopped". When Jean Valjean finds out about Cosette's love affair with Marius, he hates him. Yet because of the love he has for Cosette he spares Marius' life and brings him to her. In the end when Jean Valjean does not get to see Cosette he literally wastes away of sadness, but then gets the chance that her mother Fantine did not, to see Cosette before his death. Then ......
"He sleeps, although so much he was denied, he lived; and when he lost his angel, he died. It happened calmly on its own. The way night comes when day is done."
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother.
William Shakespeare's Henry V
Requiem For A Soldier
You never lived to see
What you gave to me
One shining dream of hope and love
Life and liberty
With a host of brave unknown soldiers
For your company, you will live forever
Here in our memory
In fields of sacrifice
Heroes paid the price
Young men who died for old men's wars
Gone to paradise
We are all one great band of brothers
And one day you'll see we can live together
When all the world is free
I wish you'd lived to see
All you gave to me
Your shining dream of hope and love
Life and liberty
We are all one great band of brothers
And one day you'll see - we can live together
When all the world is free
