Day 2: Jean Valjean: A Slave
Now
every door is closed to me
Another
jail. Another key. Another chain
For
when I come to any town
They
check my papers
And
they find the mark of Cain
In
their eyes I see their fear
`We
do not want you here.'
(Jean Valjean)
I wanted to do something different.
Something other than chronological order. Les Misérables deserves different. Deserves
spectacular and something that has never been done before.
But
it’s Les Miz’ sameness that makes it powerful. Instead of a story that has
never been told, it tells the story that we all know so well. It tells our own
story.
It
tells the story of bondage. Circumstances may change, but the feeling of being
a prisoner can remain. Jean Valjean discovers after his release from prison
that he’s the same prisoner he was before. Only this time, instead of being
locked in, he’s being locked out. He was kept from society for nineteen years,
unfit to be amongst honest, god-fearing people.
Once
released into the world, his curse remains. Unfit to be paid the same salary as
other men. Unfit to sleep in the same hotel as other people. Unfit to be in the
world.
He
has no place.
The
parting words of his fellow inmates prove to be prophetic.
Look
down, look down
You'll
always be a slave
Look
down, look down
You're
standing in your grave.
Jean
Valjean might as well be dead. He is no use to himself and no use to society.
Slave or grave. It makes no difference. They are the same thing.
Despair.
Nowhere to turn. No way to rise above the circumstances. No possibility of
improvement or making a change. Helpless and hopeless.
I
can’t say that I’ve never felt this way.
I
can’t say that there have never been times, even today, when death seems
sweeter than life.
In
the times I’ve seen this play, I’ve been tempted to blame society for Jean
Valjean’s depravity. But, let’s say for a moment that it’s not society that
keeps Jean choking at the bottom of a very dried up well. What if that’s Jean’s
own doing?
What
if Javert is right?
Every
man is born in sin
Every
man must choose his way
(Javert, from Confrontation)
Can you blame Jean Valjean for
trying to change his circumstances when an opportunity presents itself?
Would any of us run from an
opportunity to save ourselves?
Quoted:
Overture/Work Song/Look Down and Confrontation