PLOT
DIAGRAM
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A Bishop lies to save the fugitive prisoner Jean
Valjean from being recaptured.
Valjean had been imprisoned for stealing a single loaf of bread.
Inflexible Police Inspector JAVERT hates-> |
Escaped Prisoner, then successful Factory Owner, Mayor JEAN VALJEAN who befriends-> |
Factory Drudge then Prostitute FANTINE who entrusts-> |
her Daughter to the vile Inkeepers Mr. and Mrs. THENARDIER. |
JAVERT vows to return Jean Valjean to prison. |
VALJEAN
outwits his dogged pursuer repeatedly, determined to be free.. |
FANTINE, on her deathbed, asks Jean to take her daughter Cosette into his care. |
THENARDIERS,
angry at losing Cosette as their slavey, hope to unmask Valjean's disguise. |
Valjean becomes COSETTE'S
guardian.
They flee to a respectable life in Paris
where Valjean's past is unknown.
Many Years later, during a student uprising....
COSETTE
loves -> |
MAURIUS
a rebel fighter. |
He is also loved in vain by -> |
EPONINE |
ENJOLRAS is an organizer of the student
revolutionaries and a friend of Maurius.
GAVROCHE is Eponine's brother, the Thenardier's
young son, who is fighting with the revolutionaries at the barricades.
GENERAL LeMARQUE is the unseen leader
whose death galvanizes the revolutionaries.
SYNOPSIS
JEAN VALJEAN has been imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread. He escapes, and is aided in his flight by a kindly Bishop whose silver he intended to steal. Valjean reinvents himself as a respectable factory owner and eventually becomes mayor of a town. JAVERT, an indefatigable Chief of Police, has vowed to capture him. At the factory, Valjean protects FANTINE, but her innocence stirs jealousy in her fellow workers, and she is fired by a spurned supervisor. She descends to prostitution to support herself and her infant daughter. When another man, who looks like Valjean, is arrested, Valjean renounces his disguise to save the man from prison, and is re-arrested. However, he escapes from the courtroom and becomes a fugitive once more. On Fantine's deathbed, Valjean promises to bring up her daughter, COSETTE, who has been left in the care of the wily INNKEEPER Thenardier. Cosette has been taunted by the innkeeper's pampered daughter, EPONINE.
Valjean once again flees, this time with Cosette, but re-establishes himself in Paris and regains his wealth. Cosette grows up and falls in love with the revolutionary, MAURIUS, who is also loved secretly by Eponine. She has joined the revolutionaries, who value her ability to slip unnoticed back and forth through the enemy lines. Eponine selflessly leads Maruius to Cosette, her rival in love. She is eventually killed. Valjean joins the revolutionary forces at the barricades to protect Marius. Javert is unmasked as a spy among the rebels at the barricade, but Valjean arranges his release. Unable to accept this kindness from Valjean, his nemisis, his enemy and his prey, the proud Javert kills himself. Valjean rescues the wounded Marius, carrying him to safety through the sewers of Paris, where Thenardier is stealing jewelry from dead corpses. Marius recovers and is reunited with his beloved Cosette, and the Thenardiers try to steal the silver at their wedding. Valjean dies, and is conducted to heaven by Fantine and Eponine.
Photo panorama montages of Act I and Act II by Traponine@aol.com
Plot diagram and synopsis by Donn B. Murphy, Ph.D.
National Theatre, Washington, DC. Copyright 1999.
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