With emphasis on individuality “the romantics valued emotion, intuition, and feeling over logic” (Milne) so in the case of “Les Miserables”, Valjean lets Javert go because of his overall feeling. Logically Valjean should want to kill Javert but because he judges the situation on feeling that he comes to the conclusion to free him. Various characters rely on their emotions to give them purpose. Each characters “happiness does not reside in material advantages and pleasures but in the reciprocal love of human beings” (MacMillan). Meaning that the various characters throughout the novel base their happiness on the ones they hold dear and not material items they obtain. For example Jean Valjean sacrifices everything for the love of Cosette in hopes to find happiness. When Valjean “saw Cosette… [he] carried her away and rescued her” (Hugo 183) and then he begins to care for the young like a father. Valjean felt “his heart moved… [a] strange emotion of [the] heart in its first love” (Hugo 183). Jean Valjean for the first time experiences the emotion love and because of this he does everything in his power to bring happiness to Cosette. During the Romantic Movement in France it is thought that “seeking satisfaction in personal melancholy were ingredients of the sentimental complex of romantic love” (Rineke). Finding happiness in another person is what Hugo exemplifies throughout the novel “Les Miserables”. Another Example of a character seeking happiness from another is Marius. Marius falls instantly in love with Cosette and begins to desire her. His emotion of desire and lust is what drives him to live another day but when he learns that Cosette leaves for England in a couple of days, grief overcomes him. The two months of the infatuat...
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In conclusion, it has been shown that the primary vehicle for the expression of an authors ideas and concepts about a character is the emotional response which is depicted by the characters actions. In romantic works, because of the importance that emotion played in the romantic revolution, the appeal to emotions is the distinct and definitive factor of a good romantic play.
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Secondly, we come to the element of Self-Sacrifice. This is also another widely used theme in Les Miserables. One such example of this element is with Valjean. He lets Marius and Cosette marry, and for a while, he seems all right with that fact. Later on however, he goes to Marius, and confesses to his past. He tells Marius his whole story, and thinks it best if he never sees Cosette again. Marius agrees…but allows Valjean the occasional visit. Only at the end, does Marius realize what a good man Valjean is…and by then it was too late. Valjean dies shortly after Marius and Cosette visit him to ask him to come back and live with them.
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Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).
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