The Thernardiers

----Valjean escapes from prison! Ha! And this time, he's presumed dead, so he won't be pursued.

----Anyway, he still feels like he owes Fantine, so he goes to pick up her daughter, Cosette. When he arrives in Paris at the inn where she lives, he changes into a tramp's outfit. He always pretends to be a tramp, but is way too generous with money. Way to blow your cover!
----Once inside, he meets M. and Mme. Thernardier, who should be addressed independently.
----Monsieur Thernardier is a short, thin, sickly, brilliant, conniving, greedy little man. He reminds me of Vizzini from the Princess Bride. He is deep in debt and charges the inn's patrons for every little thing to try to pay it off.
----Madame Thernardier is an ogre: square, red, beefy, bossy, abusive, and masculine. She lavishes money on her two daughters, Eponine and Azelma, but completely ignores the bawling of her baby son. What a nice woman.
----And finally, Cosette. She's eight years old, but looks no more than six. She is made to do all the chores, Cinderella-style, is dressed in rags, and goes barefoot, even in winter. In short, she's completely miserable.
----Valjean is in the inn, pretending to nibble some bread and cheese while really (and quite obviously) watching Cosette. After paying Madame Thernardier for Cosette to play (yeah!), he watches her pick up a cast-off doll of Eponine's. Of course, Mme. Thernardier is outraged and orders the child to put down the doll and beats her soundly. Without a word, Valjean leaves. All hope seems to be lost.
----Until he walks back in, holding a doll! A beautiful lifelike doll, clothed in a pink linen dress, with real auburn hair and green glass eyes! "Here, this is for you," he says, presenting the ridiculously expensive doll delicately to the incredulous Cosette. He sits back and watches lovingly as she hesitantly begins to play with her new and only friend, who she names Catharine. The Thernardier family is stunned and watches jealously; the doll is worth about half of M. Thernardier's debt. Yes!
----Later, Valjean is wandering the house while everyone else is asleep. He finds Cosette's tiny form sleeping in the even tinier space under the stairs (like all child heroes, Harry Potter for one.) She's so sad, lying there with the spiders, he feels compelled to do something.
----I would also like to add that the last time Valjean watched someone sleep, his life changed dramatically. He was contemplating the bishop and how holy and childlike he looked in sleep. A very old man, gentle and kind, looks even older, gentler, and kinder unconscious. This was when Valjean first became intent on good. He was a good person all his life and didn't go looking for trouble, but after meeting the bishop, he had to be proactively good too. This time, as he watches Cosette, he changes again. He realizes he needs desperately to guard this tiny angel, and that she will in turn help him. He still loves Fantine as a sister, and not just wants, but needs to take care of her child, as a fatherly instinct. It's so sweet, because he's never, ever had love before, and it feels amazing.
----So, to get his peaceful vengeance on the Thernardiers for their inhuman treatment of the butterfly Cosette, Jean Valjean creeps into the main room, where in front of the hearth are three small pairs of shoes, for it is Christmas eve. In France, the children put their shoes out to be filled by Perre Noel as we put out stockings for Santa Claus. In Eponine and Azelma's fancy white shoes are each a silver coin, one franc. Cosette's shoe, however, is empty. Valjean stealthily draws out from the depths of his threadbare jacket a gold louie piece and drops it into her muddy clog. He has just given her the family's income for a month. Ha! Poetic justice strikes again!
----In the morning, Valjean negotiates with M. Thernardier to take Cosette, finally presenting a signed letter from her mother. He takes the oblivious child and they set out, walking in the cold, with Cosette clutching Catharine. We watch them go, two backs shrinking in the distance. The book could even end here; both of them are at peace, and heading towards a new, happy life.
----But if we turn around, back to the Thernardier's grimy window, we see M. Thernardier himself, scowling as they go. He knows more money is there for the taking, more than enough to settle his urgent debts and support the family for life. He takes it upon himself to keep an eye on the pair, who are his key to the gates of Easy Street. Duhn duhn duhn...