Fantine didn't appeal to Jean Valjean to get her job back and instead resorted to becoming a prostitute. Valjean so much as confronts her with this when he finds out the depths to which she had descended.
And why were all of those bitches so mean to her, anyways?! Was it because she didn't want to sing along to their Hi-Ho songs everyday and would rather work to support her daughter?
Fantine didn't appeal to Jean because she was always a ho deep inside and the soaring misery of "I Dreamed...well you know," a ruse.
Jordan, those factory bitches were mean to her because they were factory bitches. I don't know how much clearer that could be. I understood that right off the bat the 27th time I saw the show at age 30.
She has no personal relationship with Valjean until later when she is too ill to return to work. Accordingly, she didn't think she would have any success. She doesn't know that Valjean is an accessible ally who would help her or that he's someone with a sufficient sense of justice. Even now fired workers usually don't appeal to the head of the company. It's not as if she were in a union. Nor was she living in a world in which appeal to the government was an option or one in which government concerned itself - Valljean's relative virtue notwithstanding - with the plight of the unemployed and wrongly terminated. Hence, a wretchedness - une misere - which foments a revolution.
But she could have gone on People's Court. And Judge Judy would have listened.
And when Maury Povich brought out that foreman from behind the set, the audience would all stand up and boo.
I don't think people understand today that nobody gave a sh*t about "average folks" back then. Not just talking about France, either. You had one shot at a job, and if you lost your "position," you were done. There were no other jobs available to you anywhere. That was true for men and women. If you were fired, you were finished. Usually out on the street after that.
@ besty: I will go with your answer as it was concise and very well thought out and truly put things into perpective. Thank you sooooo much. Now I can sleep better at night!
In the novel, she thinks that Valjean was behind the decision (she was fired by her female boss after gossipy coworkers turned up the truth and Valjean had no idea about it). In fact, she hates Valjean and when he rescues her she keeps thinking that it was Javert who turned her free, when she realizes the truth the shock of it makes her faint. It's why she spits in his face.
She applied to other jobs but no one would hire her because she had a reputation now. She also couldn't leave the town because she was in debt for her furniture.
Valjean even asks her why she didn't appeal to him.
I love the musical, but Fantine's whole saga makes so much more sense in the novel. Guess that's what happens when you condense a 1500 page novel into a two and a half hour musical!
^ That makes a whole helluva lot more sense. Thank you SporkGoddess. I'm going to download the novel to read on my iPad maybe it will fill in the gaping holes left by the musical adaptation.
CarlosAlberto, I read the novel after I saw the original Broadway production. It took me 6 months to read that book! Without spoiling the novel for you, there are a lot of gaping holes between that and the musical interpretation.
I've always wondered how . . . Jean Valjean hid from Javert after avoiding capture and rescuing Cosette. Was he no longer the mayor of the town nor owner of the business? Did he change his name?
@ Dottie: Thanks. This where I think the musical's faults lie. I know they couldn't cram everything from the novel into it but it's those little details that would have made more sense.
I guess the powers that be figured/assumed that everyone had already read the original novel or would be interested in doing so after seeing the show and that those questions would be readily answered by doing so.
Glad I could clear things up for you, Carlos. The musical has a lot of plot holes, but the book does not.
"I've always wondered how . . . Jean Valjean hid from Javert after avoiding capture and rescuing Cosette. Was he no longer the mayor of the town nor owner of the business? Did he change his name?"
In the novel, he's recaptured, put back on the chain gang, and fakes his death by jumping into the sea to save someone. So everyone thinks Valjean is dead.
After getting Cosette, he sneaks back into Paris and gets into the convent where Fauchelevant (sp?) covers for him, says that he's his relative, and lets him live there. So he gets a new alias then and he's safe in the convent, which is very secluded. After Cosette gets older they leave the convent, move to the house on Rue de Plumet, and he takes another alias.
Spork - thanks for your detailed and informative reply. It's obvious I'll need to spend some time with the source material to fill in all the pieces.
Regardless, I'm surprised the screenwriters didn't exercise their right to invent some new plot point to explain what I always felt was a glaring hole in the story on stage.
Or, was there some script update that I missed (a different name on the mailbox or some mention of JVJ's new line of work or ...) ?
No problem! He doesn't get a new line of work because he hid all of his money before he turned himself in at Champmathieu's trial. Basically he made so much money as Monsieur Madeleine that he's set for life.
Something I'm wondering is what the heck the convicts were doing at the beginning of the movie. Pulling in the ship? I don't know if the novel discusses it, I'll have to reread the part about Valjean's imprisonment.
Fantine's storyline in the novel is absolutely heartbreaking. Even though she exercises a momentary slip in judgement in engaging in intimacy with a balding, runny-eyed (uck - winced as I crossed this part), arrogant, and cruel thirty-something-year-old, I feel she is a sympathetic victim who did not deserve her fate.
If you are a fan of this musical, this lengthy novel is worth your time. So many minute details enrich the experience of the musical. For instance, I was very intrigued in finding out that Bamatabois was not soliciting Fantine in any way. Instead, he smashed a snowball into Fantine's bare back because he is a smug bastard with nothing better to do. Also, Fantine cuts her hair but also has her top incisors broken out of her mouth to generate income - how awful. LIttle details like that just saturate the musical with emotional depth for me.
JC - I think she did pretty good with the HI-HO's singing! It's when she got mouthy about the "bit on the side" that done did her in.
Thank you for the info from the book, Spork. I had wondered some of the same things.
I believe the convicts at the beginning are pulling the ship into dry dock for maintenance and repairs. Without a motor (and steam boats were just being invented during the period of the plot), a large sailing ship would be unlikely to sail smoothly into a confined space with only a few feet of water.
(This is just my impression of what I saw. I have no inside info on the subject.)
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Posted: 12/27/12 at 11:11pm