Les Miserables Theatre / Tropes A to F

This page is for tropes that have appeared in the musical Les Misérables.

For the rest:

• Tropes G to L
• Tropes M to R
• Tropes S to Z

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• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Depending on the production.
• Accidental Misnaming: Thénardier seems to have a lot of trouble remembering Cosette's name, calling her Colette.
• Adaptation Distillation: As far as attempts at adaptations of the Doorstopper of a book go, this one is probably still one of the most loyal, even if it does cut out a few characters.
  • A very Pragmatic result of the short time frame: Hugo opens the book with a few chapters talking about the Bishop of Digne and his history of generous, selfless acts. Without that preamble, the Bishop's kindness to Valjean is more surprising and meaningful.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Bamatabois in the musical is a customer who makes advances on Fantine, beats her when she refuses, and tells Javert that she attacked him first. In the book, he sees her in public, taunts her and throws a snowball at her, but there's no indication that he was interested in her sexually, and he doesn't report her to the police, but runs away from the scene.
• Adaptational Friendship: Marius is a full-fledged member of the revolutionary group and close friends with all the others, while in the novel he isn't a member and is only really close friends with Courfeyrac. He also treats Éponine as a close friend and is distraught as she dies in his arms, while in the novel he only pities her, can be very cold to her when he's in a bad mood or distracted by Cosette, and doesn't particularly mourn her death.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In the novel, Fantine hardly interacts with M. Madeleine before she's fired. It's his policy that unwed mothers cannot work at his factories that gets her fired, and she develops a bitter hatred for him based on the policy alone. The musical and film version has Madeleine present when Fantine gets in trouble, and he brushes aside her concern and leaves the Foreman to fire her. Thus, when she says to him "Yes, you were there, you turned aside" the line packs a real wallop.
  • In the novel, Marius is not an in-member of the Friends of the ABC; the musical usually treats him like Enjolras' second in command. Also, Novel! Marius barely knows Eponine as a pitiable waif who runs errands for him, and he treats her coldly. In the musical, they come off as friends and he deeply mourns her death.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Some songs have this.
  Javert: ”Stars, in your multitudes, scarce to be counted, filling the night, with order and light. You are the sentinels, silent and sure, keeping watch on the night."
• The Alcoholic: Grantaire. And some productions more than others emphasize Fantine as also getting an alcohol addiction around the time of "Lovely Ladies".
• All Crimes Are Equal:
  • It's bad enough that Valjean gets five years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread (and breaking a window pane to get it)... but then he gets another fourteen for his multiple escape attempts. Ouch.
  • This is the cornerstone of Javert's entire character. He has a Black-and-White Morality that states that anyone who commits any crime for any reason must be evil, while those who defend and uphold the law are inherently good. He can't understand the notion that someone might commit a small offense to help others (in Valjean's case, he stole the loaf of bread to save his sister's dying son). Later, when Valjean lets him go free despite their long history, Javert is so baffled and shattered by the concept of mercy from a "bad" person that he throws himself into the Seine.
• All Musicals Are Adaptations: Adapted from the novel by Victor Hugo of the same name.
• Alternate Show Interpretation: The 2014 Dallas Theater Center production sets the show in contemporary times and played the revolution similar to police riots.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: "Valjean's Confession".
  • There was another, similar-looking man about to go to prison in his place. Valjean proved who he was by giving his prisoner number: 24601.
• Angry Mob Song: "Look Down" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?"
• Antagonist in Mourning: The 2017 London production has Javert visibly saddened by the sight of the dead students strewn across the barricade, crossing himself out of respect, and briefly crying Manly Tears for them before resuming his pursuit of Valjean.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Javert serves as one for the law. He appears whenever the plot requires any type of interaction with an agent of the state, whether it's a prison guard, a police officer, or a spy. He repeatedly says "I am the law" and uses the phrase "answer to Javert" in place of "answer to the law".
• Anti-Villain: In his way, Javert is a kind of idealist himself, being possibly a perfect textbook case of Well-Intentioned Extremist. Overlaps with Villainy-Free Villain.
• Anyone Can Die: Proven true, namely with Gavroche.
• Arc Number: 24601, Valjean's prison number.
• Arc Words: "Look down” and “Tomorrow".
• The Artful Dodger: Gavroche. "This only goes to show what little people can do!"
• Artistic License:
  • There are sometimes moments, such as the line "They were schoolboys, never held a gun" in the song Turning. When you consider that nearly everyone who died had fought on the barricades only two years before in 1830, and some in other riots, the idea that none of them had fought before is a little ludicrous. (The 2012 film discards this line.)
  • In the same song, "No one ever told them that a summer day could kill"... despite the fact that Javert told them this over and over, and the students themselves acknowledge it several times as well.
  • The use of convicts as actual galley slaves in the 25th anniversary staging counts, since this had been abolished in the eighteenth century.
  • Some productions use anachronistic hoop skirts, which came in a few years after the story is set.
• As You Know: Granted, awkward exposition is to be expected of the genre. Still, a particularly noticeable example is Valjean's line "I am the mayor of this town" in "At the End of the Day".
• Ascended Extra: A lot of understudies for the major roles eventually ended up playing the role proper. And the show ran for so long on Broadway—and has run even longer in London—that many of the actors playing the children who left the show when they aged out eventually came back to play one of the adult roles.
• A Taste of the Lash: Depending on production, but some of them show little mercy for the convict soloists in the "Work Song".
• Back for the Finale: The "Do You Hear the People Sing" reprise is sung by the entire cast of characters including the ones who died.
• Backstory Horror: The Tenth Anniversary Concert prominently features Gavroche in the background of "A Little Fall of Rain", looking horrified. This is even more heartbreaking for those who read the book, which explains that Éponine is his sister.
  • The recent Broadway revival makes it even more obvious, as Gavroche is outright sobbing loudly at Eponine's death, to the point where he needs to be comforted by one of the students.
• Badass Adorable: Gavroche, who joins the revolutionaries, even when they don't want him to get hurt.
• Badass and Child Duo: Valjean and young Cosette.
• Balcony Wooing Scene: In some productions, Marius approaches Cosette by throwing a pebble at her window before she steps out onto the balcony to investigate.
• Bait the Dog: Though this was far from M. Hugo's original intent, the musical gives its most upbeat, funniest, and catchiest musical number to Monsieur Thenardier and his wife, as they swindle, cheat, and serve questionable food to the patrons at their inn, and abuse and starve the little girl they're supposed to be taking care of.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Valjean to the Bishop of Digne. Because this man showed him kindness and love he had not known for nearly 20 years, it inspires Valjean to become a better man.
• Big Finale Crowd Song: The production has the reprise of "Do You Hear the People Sing", in which the entire cast of characters returns for the final number, including nearly everyone who died.
• The Big Guy: Varies with the production of course, but Valjean is often cast as this, given his prodigious strength.
• Big "NO!": Depending on the production, there is sometimes one when Gavroche dies.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: Madame Thenardier thinks so.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted; in some productions Gavroche has this attitude towards Eponine who is his older sister. He tries to go to her when she gets shot, and cries after she passes.
• Bittersweet Ending: Well, most of the cast is dead, the rebellion failed and the Thenardiers have gotten away with all their crimes (and will likely continue to do so). But at least our Alpha Couple live happily ever after. And Valjean finally finds absolution at the end of his life. And the ghosts give us hope for a better future.
• Black-and-White Insanity:
  • Javert. Such an extreme case that when he's finally forced to challenge it, he's driven to suicide.
  • On the French Concept Album, "Javert's Suicide" is even called "Noir ou Blanc" (Black or white).
• Black Comedy Burst: "Master of the House" is short for, "Allow us to interrupt your regularly scheduled Breaking of the Cuties for some madcap fun as the Thénardiers cheat, poison, and steal from everyone in their inn!"
• Book Ends: "One Day More" begins and ends with a Title Drop.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In "Master of the House", Monsieur Thénardier refers to himself as "comforter, philosopher, and lifelong mate''. Mme. Thénardier makes an Ironic Echo of this by calling him "comforter, philosopher, and lifelong shit".
  • Immediately after this, she describes him, saying "Cunning little brain. Regular Voltaire. Thinks he's quite a lover, but there's not much there."
• Break the Cutie: Fantine. Also Éponine, and little Cosette. And Marius. Given how the title literally means "The Miserable Ones", this is to be expected.
• Broken Bird: Fantine starts out as an honest factory worker, motivated by love for her daughter, but when her reputation is ruined, the only route for her is prostitution. In the space of a couple of songs, she's reduced from a kindhearted dreamer to an alcoholic, embittered wreck who spits on Valjean's face.
• BSoD Song: "What Have I Done?", Valjean asks. The Bishop's kindness has put him to such shame that Valjean is driven to a complete reckoning of his life and soul. In the end, he decides to break his parole and start a new life.
• Bystander Syndrome:
  • See Adaptation Relationship Overhaul above: Valjean was present when Fantine got into trouble, but he handed the matter over to his Foreman. When they meet again and Fantine brings this up to him, Valjean is horrified and resolves to make it up to her.
  • "The Runaway Cart" sequence: a cart full of pottery pins down a random pedestrian. The bystanders tell one another to look away, because there is no way to save him. Subverted, then, when the Mayor arrives and lifts the cart a fraction, whereupon everyone rushes to help.
• Call-and-Response Song: The first "Look Down" is sung this way among the prisoners; "Red and Black" turns into one, first Marius talks about love and Grantaire mocks him, and then Enjolras calls the Amis to arms and they take up the refrain.
• The Caretaker: Valjean, briefly, to Fantine (he blames himself for her reduced circumstances) and, on Fantine's deathbed, he swears he will look after her daughter. Valjean adopts Cosette and becomes a good, loving father.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: The deaths start out slowly, with Fantine being the only major character to die in Act 1. Then Act 2 comes, and we get, in fairly rapid succession, the deaths of Éponine, Gavroche, all of the students except for Marius, Javert, and Valjean himself, though the final death is at least partially from old age. Only four major characters survive the play: Cosette, Marius, and M. and Mme. Thénardier, the latter two of whom are the least sympathetic characters in the entire story who basically get off scott-free.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the 25th anniversary staging, "Stars" is sung on a bridge over the Seine. Javert later commits suicide by throwing himself off of this bridge.
• Colorful Song: "Red And Black".
• Compressed Adaptation: The book is a proper Doorstopper. Some elements that got cut include the Bishop's backstory and history of good works before meeting Valjean, Fantine's love affair and meeting with the Thenardiers, how exactly Valjean became Mayor of M-sur-M, detailed character profiles of every Friend of the ABC, a whole plotline with Marius' father and grandfather, and a wee kerfuffle called the Battle of Waterloo.
• Connected All Along: A meta-example: The original novel mentions that Gavroche is Eponine's brother, but the modern plays seldom mention this.
• Consummate Liar: Valjean lives under false identities during most of the story.
• Contrived Coincidence: Usually the fact that all important characters happen to show up in the same place at the same time.
• Counterpoint Duet: "The Confrontation", "A Heart Full of Love" and its reprise "Everyday".
• Criminal Doppelgänger: Champmathieu gets arrested in Jean Valjean's place because he just happens to look exactly like him. Of course, depending on the actors portraying them on stage, this can range from entirely believable, or you needing to have a Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
• Cross-Cast Role: In professional productions Gavroche is sometimes understudied by an adult female member of the cast.
• Crowd Song: "Red And Black", "One Day More" and "Do You Hear The People Sing?"
• Crucified Hero Shot: The death of Enjolras.
• Daddy's Girl: Cosette to Valjean. As long as he allows her to.
• Dark Reprise:
  • Thenardier waltz - The robbery
  • Castle On a Cloud - Attack on the Rue Plumet
  • Eponine's Errand - A Little Fall of Rain
  • Little People
  • Valjean's Soliloquy and Stars - Javert's suicide
  • Bring Him Home - Bring me home
  • The first time Valjean's melody plays is after his soliloquy where he declares he will devote himself to goodness. All subsequent appearances of his melody gets sadder in context. On "Who Am I?", he must expose his identity to save an innocent man. His melody plays again when Cosette and Marius meet. On "One Day More", Valjean is weary of always running. Finally, "Who Am I?" is reprised when he reveals his identity to Marius and leaves Cosette to him.
• The Darkness Before Death: During Fantine's death scene, she mentions "a darkness that comes without a warning" and after things grow dark for her she spends her last moments in a happy, feverish delirium.
• Death by Despair: Jean Valjean, after being separated from Cosette.
• Death of the Hypotenuse: Eponine
• Death Glare: Valjean and Javert typically exchange a few of these.
• Death Song: Oh, dear God. Take your pick.
  • "Come To Me" Fantine
  • "A Little Fall Of Rain" Eponine
  • "The Second Attack" Gavroche
  • "The Final Battle" The students
  • Javert's Suicide
  • Valjean's Death
• Defiled Forever: Fantine's one lover abandoned her and the child. She's trying to live honestly in Montreuil-sur-Mer, but once word gets out of her child out of wedlock, it's enough to get her fired. Then she can't get work anywhere else in the town... except prostitution.
• Delicate and Sickly: Fantine is reduced to a "ghost of herself," suffering from a never-exactly-named disease (implied to be tuberculosis, which was rampant at the time), and acts as a motivator for Valjean to go and retrieve her daughter, and then dies.
• Demoted to Extra: Inevitable, in this show, but Gavroche gets a lot less screen time in the play than in the book because his subplot's cut, going from one of the more memorable characters to a few solos and glossing over the fact that he's a Thénardier. Barring a change in songs, though, his death scene is kept mostly intact.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • "I dreamed a dream..."
  • "Please do not send me out alone / not in the darkness on my own."
  • "Men like you can never change / A man such as you. / Men like me can never change. / Men like you can never change."
  • "Good evening, dear inspector, lovely evening, my dear. / I know this man, my friends, his name's Inspector Javert."
• The Determinator: Both Javert and Valjean.
• Died Happily Ever After: After his adoptive daughter is finally married to the man she loves, and is set for a happy life of her own, Jean Valjean passes away peacefully in Cossette and Marius' arms as the spirits of Fantine and Eponine come to collect his soul and guide him to his eternal reward in Heaven.
  Fantine: Monsieur, I bless your name,
  Monsieur lay down your burden,
  You raised my child in love,
  And you will be with God.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Éponine dies in Marius's arms in "A Little Fall of Rain."
• Dissonant Laughter: It's common to have Thénardier let off some cackles during the "Dog Eats Dog" number.
• Distant Duet: Marius and Cosette (who are actually distant lovers longing for each other), Eponine and Enjolras (who is joined by Marius deciding what to do) on "One Day More".
• Doomed Moral Victor: Les Amis.
• Double Entendre:
  • Opening "Lovely Ladies" is, "I smell women, smell 'em in the air / Think I'll drop my anchor in that harbor over there..."
    • The same number has the lin "Old men, young men, take 'em as they come!"
  • In "At the End of the Day", one of the factory workers, when talking about the foreman, says, "Take a look at his trousers, you'll see where he stands.'
• Downer Beginning: The first song in the entire musical is about a group of prisoners singing about how miserable they are doing slave labor and being tormented with the knowledge that they'll be stuck there for the rest of their lives. And it just gets worse from there, kiddies!
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Valjean is trying to explain his theft to Javert in the first song.
  Valjean: "My sister's child was close to death, we were starving—"
  Javert: "You'll starve again!"
• Dressing as the Enemy: Javert disguises himself as an insurgent and lies low in order to spy; Valjean wears a French National Guard uniform so he can cross the barricade.
• Driven to Suicide: Javert, because of the cognitive dissonance caused by having his life saved by Valjean.
• Drunk Rolling: In his song "Master of the House," Thenardier cheerfully admits to robbing his patrons when they're too drunk to notice, alongside all his other shady business practices.
  Master of the house, keeper of the zoo
  Ready to relieve 'em of a sou or two
  Watering the wine, making up the weight
  Pickin' up their knick-knacks when they can't see straight
• Dying Declaration of Love: Éponine, to Marius, in the song "A Little Fall Of Rain".
• Due to the Dead: In some productions, especially those that don't make use of the turntable, Javert finds the bodies of Enjolras and Gavroche. He is clearly moved by both, but especially the latter, who had taunted him throughout. He briefly kneels by his body and does the sign of the cross and carries Gavroche onto the cart where Enjolras has already been laid.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The original 1985 production had some major differences from the musical as most of us know it today. "Stars" was placed rather awkwardly between "Waltz of Treachery" and "Look Down" as opposed to its more familiar location after "The Robbery".^note The film restores it to this place. "Little People" had almost entirely different lyrics, was substantially longer, and was sung prior to "Drink with Me" instead of before "A Little Fall of Rain". A song called "I Saw Him Once" which is no longer present at all preceded a shorter version of "In My Life". A lot of smaller lyrical differences also existed, but these ones are definitely the most blatant ones. The show was edited into its more familiar format once it was brought to Broadway in 1987, and though some edits have been made since then, its structure remains more or less the same as it was once that change was made.

• "Everybody Dies" Ending: Well, mostly anyway. The exceptions are Marius, Cosette and the Karma Houdinis.
• Everyone Has Standards: The revolutionaries refuse to let Gavroche put himself in the line of fire, because he's the youngest of all of them. He has to sneak past them to get the shells they need, ignoring their protests.
• Embarrassing Rescue: Valjean sees Javert is slated for execution and requests that he have the privilege of killing the spy. Being killed by Valjean squares with Javert's rigid view of the world and he accepts it, feeling like a martyr. When Valjean unties him, fires into the air and urges him to flee, Javert at first thinks it's a trick, and is so shocked that he later self-terminates due to the ensuing cognitive dissonance. His entire view of the world is crumbling, and furthermore, as long as he is alive he must pursue Valjean, but at the same time he feels he should not pursue a man who saved his life.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Miserable People.
• Exact Words: Thenardier wasn't lying when he said he served "food beyond belief" or when he said he treated Cosette like "one of [his] own".
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Enjolras, just as in the book, stands tall before a firing squad.
• Faux Affably Evil: Thénardier tries this several times. He instead comes off as a nasty and distasteful crook, while still being Plucky Comic Relief.
• Final Love Duet: "A Little Fall of Rain" serves as one for Eponine: she dies in Marius' arms and even expresses her love for him, while Marius sings comfort in counterpoint.
• Flanderization: It's inevitable with such a Compressed Adaptation... but there is more to Javert than chasing Valjean (snuff, for instance) and there's more to Éponine than loving Marius (mental illness, for instance.) The barricade boys also have a bit more character that the little that actually gets sung.
• For the Evulz: The woman factory worker who tells lies about Fantine and delights in her consequent firing, for no apparent reason.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: A Subverted Trope. Marius and Cosette are sighing that they were born to love each other after about twenty minutes of conversation. But after Marius is gravely injured, Cosette nurses him during a convalescence of at least several weeks, and their relationship grows much stronger for it.
• Foreshadowing: In the 25th Anniversary staging, "Stars" is sung on a bridge over the Seine. The bridge shows up later.
  • Also, prior to "Master of the House," Thenardier's guests sing about Thenardier's past in which he stole from the dead soldiers after the Battle of Waterloo. He later does exactly the same thing after the rebellion fails.
• Friendship Song: "Drink With Me", an ensemble number where the Friends of the ABC remember the good times and raise toasts to one another.
• Funny Background Event: In the 25th anniversary staged concert at the O2, the performers do a hand dance during Beggers at the Feast.

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