Feminism Approach

Les Miserables

Feminist Criticism

by Honie Clarin

Three main female casts of Les Miserables:
Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway, and Samantha Barks
(from left to right)

The society speaks on how women as today. Women has been respected, honored, valued and has equal rights to men. The soul of womanhood in this generation has a big difference as we trace back our history.

Fantene

            As I’ve seen the movie Les Miserables it is truly evident that women before was abused and marginalized by its society.It has been overpowered by man. For me, Fantine as I speak with her character, she is a type of a woman who is strong yet fragile. Because even how hard life is she still fighting for it. When she and her daughter was deserted by the man she’d love, she fully love her child and did not neglected it despite of what had happened. Until she has no choice but to work and leave her child to the Thenardiers for them to survive, and regularly sends money to make her daughter upkeep. When the woman found the letter and know the secret of Fantine, I feel pity to her because she was being judged as immoral in the society that caused of her being jobless. I think Fantine was distraught and trying to get the letter but she has nothing to do about it. But despite of what had happened she still stood with her dignity when she slapped the face of the foreman because she has been insulted by him. But her fortune as a woman turns down when she has no way to turned in. In order to support her child she has to do something, she works and strive hard for her child, and that was a passion of being a mother and a spirit of being a woman. But to her case when a certain man harassed her she has no right to speak on her side when the prosecutor immediately sentenced her into jail. She was immediately judged and disgraced by its society because knowing the fact that she was only a prostitute. But thank God, when Jean Valjean saved her. But eventually she died, and I think she was happy and contented because she knows that there is someone who will take good care and fully love her child.

Cosette

            Cosette as I speak to her character in the movie, she was a typical woman on the society. She was beautiful and decent when she grew up in the hand of Jean Valjean. Cosette has little personality in the movie and at first struggle on her own when she was a child. For me, she was an outcast and neglected by the hands of the Thenardiers who took her when she was a child. She was forced to work hard at her young age and this is not justifiable because she was a child. They even starved and slaved her. Like her mother, she was brave to stand despite of her misery as child. But Cosette feeling as a child was fragile, she was crying out to God of all her misery. But as she grown up she was the subject of jealousy and hatred for the villainous characters seen in the movie. Although she faced problems in life, especially when she deeply love the man named Marius, she still fought for the love she experienced for the first time of her life, that although she has nothing to do about the decision of Jean Valjean to escaped for their safety, still she leaves a letter which speaks about the place where she can be found. At the end of the day, she was happy and for me she was also contented of her life as woman. For me she is the physical embodiment of the human spirit, of the idea that there is goodness and light even in misery and despair, both in her own childhood with her dreams and when she became grown up.

Eponine

            Eponine’s character as I’ve seen her in the movie, she was a spoiled and pampered child by her parents. She did not suffer any problems in life during her childhood compared to Cosette. But when she was grown up she was ragged and haggard because they were completely impoverished due to the bankruptcy of the inn owned by her parents. As I understood her character I can say that she is not totally the villain in the movie although there are scene in the movie that I can say she was, especially when she kept the letter of Cosette to Marius. For me she was a brave woman but suffered to the unrequited love of a man whom she deeply love. I can easily relate to her character as a woman because she is also seeking for happiness. For me she was jealous because Marius has feelings to Cosette, that is why she planned everything, but at the end, she realized and confessed to Marius on what she did. 

For me, the movie Les Miserables talks about the misery of life especially on the part of the character of a woman, on how they play their role in their society where they belong, how they stand firm despite of the struggles they faced since they are into life of misery and chaos as a human and most especially as a woman.