

As they settle in for the night, they reflect on their friendships and toast to days gone by. The students hold their ground in the first assault. Instead of killing him, he shows him mercy and lets him go. In return, he asks to be given charge of Javert. He kills a sniper and proves to the students he supports their cause. She dies in Marius’s arms as the first victim of the student’s insurrection. Javert pretends to ally with the students, Gavroche identifies he as a spy and he is tied up, to be dealt with later.Įponine returns, but has been shot crossing the barricade. The students, including Marius, build a barricade in the street, and are told to surrender by an army officer. Meanwhile, the students are planning an uprising. Valjean, who has not told Cosette of his past, prepares to move them away, afraid that Javert has finally discovered him. Marius begs Eponine to help him find Cosette, and, heartbroken, she agrees.Įponine grudgingly brings Marius to Cosette’s home, and then stops an attempted robbery by her father’s gang at Valjean’s house. Eponine is in love with Marius, a student, who is in love with Cosette. Valjean and Cosette appear, and Eponine, now a young woman, remembers Cosette from their childhood. Thénardier has moved there, and he and his gang, including Eponine, prey upon others to survive.

Gavroche, a street urchin, mingles with beggars and prostitutes. Nine years later, there is general unrest in Paris. He pays the Thénardiers to let him take Cosette away. Valjean arrives to find a frightened Cosette in the dark forest carrying water from the well. Their daughter Eponine, whom they spoil, is the same age. For five years, Cosette has lived with a horrible couple, the Thénardiers, who run an inn in Montfermeil and treat her miserably. Valjean refuses to let an innocent man go to prison for him, and confesses to the court that he is Prisoner 24601.Īt the hospital, as Fantine is dying, Valjean promises to take care of her daughter, Cosette. However, a man has just been arrested who is to be tried as 24601. Javert remembers the unusual strength of Prisoner 24601 (Valjean), a parole-breaker whom he has been hunting for years. Valjean saves him by lifting the cart, a feat that requires extraordinary strength. Suddenly, an elderly man is pinned under a runaway cart. He recognizes her from his factory and promises to help her.

The mayor (Valjean) steps in and insists she be taken to a hospital instead, for she is ill. Inspector Javert prepares to send her to prison. Her new trade disgusts her, and, when she refuses a prospective customer, he claims she attacked him. She sells her locket, then her hair, and eventually becomes a prostitute. Now without an income, Fantine is desperate for money to pay for medicines for her supposedly sick daughter. The foreman, whose advances she has rejected, fires her. The other women at the factory discover this and demand her discharge, insisting she will be nothing but trouble. One of his factory workers, Fantine, has a secret illegitimate child who lives with innkeepers in another town. To do so he realizes he must change his identity and break parole, and he tears up his yellow ticket.Įight years pass and Valjean, now known as Monsieur Madeleine, is now a factory owner and the mayor of a small town. He decides to start a new life for the better. Valjean realizes he has given him a chance to regain his soul. The bishop then, in addition, gives him two silver candlesticks. When the police catch him, he says it was a gift from the bishop, who goes along with the story.

In desperation, Valjean steals some silver. Only the Bishop of Digne invites him in and treats him with compassion. After nineteen years as a prisoner on the chain gang, Jean Valjean is released on parole with his yellow ticket-of-leave, which he must always carry with him, always branding him as a thief.
