Marius and Jean Valjean: Romanticism

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Marius and Jean Valjean: Romantic Hero and Antihero The romantic hero is one that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has the self as the center of his or her own existence. Based on this explanation, Marius Pontemercy is truly a romantic hero. In the book Les Misérables, the characters of Marius and Jean Valjean are both truly heroic men throughout the story. However, they are polar opposites in a romantic sense, with Jean Valjean being an antihero and Marius a knight in shining armor. Marius goes against reason, is one who has been rejected in society, and is the center of his own existence… and therefore, even though Jean Valjean’s intentions are noble, Marius is the true romantic hero. In Victor Hugo’s timeless classic Les Misérables, Marius Pontemercy appears as a bound-to-be romantic hero from the start. When Marius is first introduced in the book, he is described as an orphan, living on the streets. “He was a boisterous, pallid, nimble, wide-awake, roguish, urchin, with an air at once vivacious and sickly. He went, came, sang, played pitch and toss, scraped the gutters, stole a little, but he did it gaily, like the cats and the sparrows, laughed when people called him an errand boy, and got angry when they called him a ragamuffin. He had no shelter, no food, no fire, no love, but he was lighthearted because he was free” (Hugo, 219). From early on the reader can see that Marius is a free spirit who does not accept the status quo, and has been rejected at a young age by his parents. This only proves to become truer as he grows. “ Marius was gloomy. He had just obtained a faith; could he so soon reject it?” (Hugo, 254). Here we fast-forward and see Marius contemplating his beliefs with The Friends of the ABC – a political group which Marius was a new member of. He ultimately leaves them when he finally accepts that he
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