Headcanon: the people she worked for at the farm were actually really friendly and treated her well and helped her learn a lot of useful skills; I want this to be true and also it’s the only way I can practically see her learning a lot of the complicated skills she’s obviously acquired by the time she reaches Paris
(who the heck would have taught a street kid the complicated variations of sewing that a seamstress needs to know? when else did she have any access to someone else’s help and materials to practice? to say nothing of the social presentation skills that Fantine is obviously not a natural with)
so I actually believe it
Heartcanon: when she was a gamine herself she made friends with all the little birds she could win over by sharing crumbs off whatever she found; more than a few birds recognized her and would actually follow her around sometimes. She charmed all the chickens and ducks when she was working at the farm too; she’s just got a knack with birds.
Gutcanon: definitely a war orphan. Almost certainly her dad was one of Napoleon’s men. Probably rising up the ranks through Martial Valor before getting cut down in one of the more dramatic battles, possibly even before she was born, and then it was just a matter of her mother being one of the many who got an unlucky roll of the dice in the game of 19C Health Issues.
Spleencanon: ACTUALLY SHE RECOVERED AND MET UP WITH VALJEAN AND COSETTE IN PARIS we just don’t see it because she stopped along the way to kick Thenardier’s ass with her post-recovery super powers, which she has now
While Cosette goes to school at the convent Fantine is out keeping the streets of Paris safe from people like Tholomyes but she sees her daughter every night for dinner and stories and hugs THAT’S ALL
BUT HOGWARTS AU WITH ENJOLSETTE SIBLINGS WHO ARE RAISED BY FANTINE OKAY
so fantine is a muggle, but she’s like super beautiful, and tholomyes is a wizard. and they date for a while, and fantine (who is obviously a smart person) figures out that he’s a wizard and then proceeds to find out more about magic. like she’s DYING of curiosity and he’s a douche who won’t tell her anything about the magical world, even though he claims to ”’love her”’ so then she leaves him because she doesn’t want to be with someone who isn’t honest to her
but then she finds out she’s pregnant with twins. and enjolras and cosette are born. and like the idea that they might be magical doesnt even really occur to fantine for a long time, until one day enjolras and cosette are fighting over who gets the last pancake and cosette makes it magically float over to her plate. and then enjolras retaliates by magically making cosette’s orange juice fly up and hit her in the face. and then they both start tattling on each other to fantine
so then the next day, fantine tries to go to diagon alley, imagining that she can buy some books or something to help her understand more about magic so that she can help her children. but of course she can’t get in, because she’s a muggle. and sits down on the sidewalk for a while. and then a strange looking v tall wizard in a tattered and faded cloak- valjean – walks by and taps her shoulder and asks whats wrong
and she tells him about her life and enjolras and cosette and everything, and she begs him to let her into diagon alley because she really wants to know everything she can about magic so she can do the best for her children. and valjean smiles and kindly tells her that even if she goes in, she wont be able to buy anything, because all she has is muggle money. and she sighs and thanks him for listening and gets up to leave
but then like within seconds, he’s back, holding a bag overflowing with stuff. and she’s like “how did you do that so fast?” and he’s just like “i went in and bought stuff and then used a time turner to get back here. its no big deal.” and she laughs and tears up a little and hugs him and thanks him and then runs back home
and in the bag are things like mini broomsticks, the book ‘the tales of beedle the bard’ and other books like that, and a few wizard history books and a book about hogwarts so that fantine knows what to expect when enjolras and cosette turn eleven
and the next few years are difficult because its hard to raise two children who literally disappear and reappear somewhere else when they dont want to take a bath or go to sleep. but they’re really fun years and then enjolras and cosette get their hogwarts letters and fantine cries because she’s not going to get to see her babies everyday anymore
I’ve been pondering the symbolism behind Valjean’s Christmastime rescue of little Cosette since Christmas Day, because honestly, the odds of Hugo choosing Chistmas randomly are pretty slim. He isn’t exactly subtle.
Cosette is hardly the infamous “Christ-like figure” of literature. But there are some striking elements that (deliberately, I would argue) fit in with the Christmas narrative: Valjean’s second gift to Cosette (after the doll, Catharine) is a gold Louis. Ultimately, he gives her three gifts—Catharine, the coin, and a new dress [i.e., the gifts of the Magi].
Cosette also sleeps under the stairs on a “bed” made up mostly of straw, as Christ slept in a manger; add to this that the Thenardiers run an inn, in which Cosette is provided no room, [though not because there is none]. On Christmas Eve, Mme. Thenardier also tells her husband that the next day, she will force Cosette to sleep outside (presumably in the stables/with the animals).
Valjean and Cosette also flee Thenardier from Montfermeil to Paris in what, upon further reflection, is probably an allusion to the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt.
Less-obviously, but still related to this scene, Fantine is—despite the degradation, desperation, and poverty of her final months of life—described as being pure (or as pure as she can be) and modest, and is a symbol of idealized motherhood. She may not be a virgin, but she’s clearly an “Ave” figure to whom connections with the Mother of God can be drawn. Moreover, though she was almost certainly born before Tholomeyes abandoned Fantine, Hugo almost makes it seem as if Cosette is fatherless from the first.
So yes, we can—and are probably meant to—say, “Aww, Christmas!” and get warm and fuzzies from Valjean’s adopting Cosette that day. But I think it’s really fascinating to dig a little deeper and see the significance of Christmas in the story.
so today I learned that in the french version of I Dreamed a Dream, instead of “and still I dream he’ll come to me and we will live the years together,” it says something closer to “sometimes I dream of him still and he begs me and he regrets” which let me tell you I like so much better.
honestly the slow horror of Fantine’s Descent is so overwhelming every time I read it
Valjean Falls in a single moment of reckless desperation; he makes one bad call and is cast out of society before he can blink, and that’s one kind of horror; the awful fractured feeling of a life changed irrevocably before there’s time to even protest.
But Fantine has to choose, over and over and over and over, to carve herself up bit by bit. She gets the choice, she has to make the conscious effort to sacrifice first every piece of her happiness and comfort– and comfort sounds so superfluous but god it’s so essential, people need fire in the winter and warm clothes and clean living space and enough food and sleep to be comfortable and she gives it all up– and then literally cutting herself up, piece by piece–
and she could stop. She could always stop, right up until her arrest. She could live, herself , on what she gets for shirts, never mind the relatively larger income she gets from prostitution. Every time, even after she’s sold her teeth and hair and become a prostitute–she could just stop sending Thenardier money, and start climbing back out of debt. She has to choose, every single day, every minute, to keep destroying herself, for a daughter she doesn’t even know is still alive– all she has to go on is Thenardier’s word, and even Fantine realizes, in time, that he’s not at all to be trusted. It wouldn’t even be unfeeling for her to give, it would be a totally logical sort of despair if she came to believe Cosette had died, that Thenardier was just extorting her (he would. We all know he would. Even Fantine surely knows he would.).
But she walks clear-eyed into hell, for years, because the one thing she really can’t survive without is her hope for Cosette. And every day the escape hatch is right there, and every day she chooses to ignore it. She’s got more conviction than all Napoleon’s doomed army at Waterloo, because she has to step into that abyss on purpose and with no hope of glory, believing it makes her worth less.
¯_( ಠ_ಠ)_/¯ 