Fantine
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Fantine is a character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables.
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[edit] Backstory
[edit] Fantine in the novel
Fantine is first introduced as one in a group of four enchanting girls: the others being Dahlia, Zéphine, and Favourite. Her parents and origins are unknown. She is described as having "gold and pearls for her dowry; but the gold was on her head and the pearls in her mouth," by Hugo. Fantine was passionately in love with a man named Félix Tholomyès, who fathers the daughter Cosette and then abandoned her. She pays the Thénardiers who are owners of an inn, to care for Cosette when she sees their daughters playing outside. Fantine's only will to live is keeping Cosette alive. She is a worker in Mayor Madeleine's (a.k.a. Jean Valjean's) factory but is fired by a woman supervisor, Madame Victurnien, when the latter finds out that Fantine is an unwed mother, without the knowledge of the mayor.
From here, she sells her belongings, her hair, her two front teeth, and goes on to be a prostitute to earn money for Cosette. During a January evening, a dandy called Bamatabois heckles her and shoves snow down her dress when she ignores him. Fantine ferociously attacks him. Javert, the town's police inspector, immediately arrests her while Bamatabois sneaks away. The mayor, Valjean, comes to help Fantine, and comes to find out the reasons she became a prostitute and why she attacked Bamatabois. He feels sorry for the innocent Fantine and Cosette, and comes to Fantine's side when she is on her deathbed, dying of tuberculosis. Valjean promises that he will protect Cosette, and then Fantine dies.
[edit] Fantine in the musical
"At the End of the Day" Fantine, who works in Jean Valjean's factory, is exposed by the other female workers as having a secret daughter. She is deemed a prostitute and sacked by the factory's foreman.
"I Dreamed a Dream" Fantine is abandoned, singing of dreams gone by and the man whom she once loved (Cosette's mysterious father) who abandoned her and her daughter.
"Lovely Ladies" Fantine proceeds to sell her locket, her hair and ultimately herself (she doesn't sell her teeth in the musical). As she must lower herself to the life of a prostitute, she begins to grow ill.
"Fantine's Arrest" One man, Bamatabois, wants to buy Fantine's services, but she rejects and hits him. Javert arrives to arrest her, but Valjean intervenes. He sees that she visits a doctor and not be sent off to jail.
"Fantine's Death" Fantine hallucinates that Cosette is indeed there in the sickroom with her. Valjean comes in and vows to protect and take care of her daughter, Cosette. Fantine dies shortly after.
"Finale" Fantine returns as a ghost and escorts the dying Valjean to Heaven, praising him for having raised her daughter to adulthood.
[edit] External links
- French text of Les Misérables
- Les Misérables, available at Project Gutenberg. – English translation.
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