Les Misérables

"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." What a miserable story it could be? Why it has been a part of the major European influence on Broadway since the 80's? As a foreigner who visited New York at first time, what I expected the most must be enjoying a Broadway opera. The houselights became darker and darker. An impressive music convulsed the whole luxuriant theater…

Les Misérables is a story about Valjean, who had been kept in a captivity for 19 years because he was too hungry and filch a bread when he was a little boy, was released on parole and moved by a saintly Bishop. Henceforward, he kept his identity hidden and leaded a new life. He became a factory director and a mayor in a city. At that time, unfortunate Fantine, who has a secret illegitimate child, Cosette, asked him to take care of the little Cosette when she was dying. However, Javert, who has been tracking Valjean for years, pressed him to escape away again. Nine years later, Cosette falls in love with Marius. Then they experienced love and war, live and death…

Les Misérables faithfully shows the underclass life and fills the sunshine among the dark clouds. In 1800s, the most serious social problem in France is the inequality between aristocracy and bottom-feeder. Most people lead a miserable life. It seems that anyone can not help it. Hugo shows how even the lowliest among us — the homeless, the hungry, the destitute, the fortuneless— have something important to contribute to society and are therefore worth to be respect. Valjean may be a demoralized criminal forever but he changed his life by himself and spread the favor which he received. Humanity is the reason why the story has touched people’s mind for hundred years. Human nature creates all tragedies and miracles. As a gear wheel in the world I ask what I can do more often than why I live. It remind me a poem
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference
--“The Road not taken” by Robert Frost --

My friends asked me why I choose Les Misérables from hundreds of Broadway. In fact, just for a simple reason, the picture attracted me a lot. At first sight, it stuck into my mind without reason. I've ever read the original work“Les Misérables”when I was a teenager but it did not leave a strong impression to me. I also wonder what a miserable story it could be and how the best artists around the world express its spirit.

Victor Hugo said: "I condemn slavery, I banish poverty, I teach ignorance, I treat disease, I lighten the night, and I hate hatred. That is what I am, and that is why I have written Les Miserables." The composition against human suffering, poverty, and ignorance. Its purpose is as much political as it is artistic. It condenses history, art and life. Literature is not only Literature, so does art. That is why it brings up immortal.