Part I, Book 8, Chapter 1
The Mirror in Which Monsieur Madeleine Sees His Hair
We begin Book 8 with a return to the hospital. Sister Simplice has been up all night with Fantine, and when she gets up to get more medicine she’s surprised when she turns around and Madeleine is right there, having entered silently.
Once again, this man is a cat. That is cat behavior.
I want to quickly note that while we ended Book 7 with Hugo referring to this man as “Valjean” again, we have now returned to calling him “Madeleine,” because we’re back in a setting where that’s how all the characters know him. I will be paying close attention to when we shift back to “Valjean.”
Away from Fantine’s bed, Madeleine and Simplice have a quiet, urgent conversation. Simplice, with shock, tells Madeleine that his hair is completely white, which is news to him, and shows him by using the mirror the doctor uses to confirm patients are dead. The SYMBOLISM here!! I am absolutely eating this up.
The bigger issue is that Madeleine clearly does not have Cosette, and Fantine, who is holding on just to see her again, will be crushed if she sees Madeleine without her daughter in tow. Simplice, who cannot lie, suggests that Madeleine not visit Fantine today and proceed to go get Cosette. Fantine doesn’t have to know, she says, that Madeleine had initially returned without her child.
Madeleine responds that he must see Fantine today, and that there may not be much time. Simplice doesn’t know this, but the hourglass is running out on both sides; not only is Fantine dying, but Madeleine has every reason to believe that there’s an impending arrest coming his way. The situation is not ideal.
Madeleine goes to Fantine’s bedside, and Hugo paints a word picture so cinematic you know this man feels constrained by the written medium. RIP Victor Hugo, you would have loved movies.
Fantine, though her breathing is labored and poor, is serene in sleep, possessed of a fragile beauty indicating that she’s on the brink of death. Madeleine is praying by her bed. It is the exact same scene that opened Book 6 two months ago, except Fantine’s hair is now gray and Madeleine’s hair is now white. Omg, are Books 6-8 basically Sonata-Allegro form?? We’re at the recapitulation, baby!
(It is important to me that you all know that I seriously considered making a “Books 6-8 of Les Misérables Part I are the three parts of classical sonata form and here’s why” analysis and pulled myself back. There’s something there, I swear. Javert is the secondary theme. The Champmathieu Affair is the wandering development. Fantine is the tonic. I’ll stop now.)
Fantine interrupts my sonata musings by opening her eyes and asking where Cosette is.
Well, Madeleine, you got an answer for that??
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