Sacrificial Character In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables

Despite doing everything to not be overlooked, Eponine somehow does not escape this reality for all the good she did throughout the story Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, perhaps because people were unwilling to look beyond her stereotype. It is evident, in both the musical movie and the novel, Les Miserables, that Eponine Thernardier is the most resilient, sacrificial character while also being the most overlooked. Victor Hugo uses symbolic light references like shadows to emphasize how overlooked and misjudged Eponine tends to be throughout the novel. The Thernardier’s enter into the storyline as con artists; stealing people’s money and possessions. We find that Monsieur Thernardier was found stealing from a dying soldier, but when the soldier …show more content…
As Eponine enters the room to deliver a letter from her mother to Marius, Hugo uses specific light references to show her presence, “the light found its way into the garret was exactly opposite the door, and lit up this form with a pallid light. It was pale, puny, meagre creature, one of those beings who are both feeble and horrible at once…Marius arose and gazed with a kind of astonishment upon this being, so much like the shadowy forms which pass across our dreams” (Hugo 172). Words like pallid, pale, puny, meagre, feeble, and horrible are informing the reader how unimportant and unwanted Eponine is supposed to seem. Even Marius sees her as a shadow and does not remember her name, when she has always known his. All Marius wishes once he has received the letter, is that Eponine will leave and let him be. All Eponine wishes is for Marius to treat her as more than a spy or messenger, but as a friend.
Readers would guess that towards the end of the novel, perhaps Eponine would now be deserving of a brighter light reference rather than a dark, shadowy light, “He stooped and saw a form in the shadow, which was dragging itself towards him” (Hugo 242), after sacrificing her life to fight in the barricade Marius continues to see Eponine as a shadow, showing just how overlooked she truly is up until her …show more content…
If there is anything readers and viewers thought Eponine would not be based on the family she came from, it is being kind and performing selfless acts, “You follow too near me, Monsieur Marius. Let me go forward, and follow me like that, without seeming to. It won’t do for a fine young man, like you, to be seen with a woman like me” (Hugo 204). This is only one example of Eponine’s sacrificial love that she demonstrates towards Marius. She had found the address of Cosette as Marius had asked her for, and as she is leading him to Cosette this is what she asks of him. Most people would take this opportunity, as it may be the last, to at least walk beside their love who they are now leading to their lover’s love which is not them. Instead, Eponine makes sure that Marius’ reputation is not suffered because of her, she knows how everyone views her and does not wish these views to be put on