Marius And Cosette's Relationship?

What’s your idea of a mature and good relationship? In this novel and movie there is a relationship that is not very mature. Marius and Cosette are two characters that play a big role in the movie and novel. They are both good characters, but together their relationship is not what is should be. Throughout the novel and movie, Cosette and Marius grew closer, but because of Marius’s pursuit, their first kiss, and Jean Valjean’s death, their relationship is seen as very immature and hypocritical.

Marius and Cosette’s relationship starts out childish, and is seen this way throughout the whole book. “When love has fused and mingled two beings in a sacred and angelic unity, the secret of life has been discovered so far as they are concerned; they

“One kiss, and that was all…. Gradually, they began to talk.…When they had finished, when they had told each other everything, she laid her head on his shoulder, and asked him: "What is your name?"” (Hugo and Wilbour 69) If this isn’t an immature start of a relationship, then I don’t know what is. They kiss, then they start chatting gradually, then you ask each other’s names. The start to a relationship should for sure start with knowing each other’s names, and not by just a glance and then a kiss before you even know the other person’s name. Throughout the whole novel, Marius is seen as juvenile, therefore he makes their relationship seem childish. “Throughout the novel he is immature if not somewhat shallow.” ("Les Miserables: CHARACTER ANALYSIS / DETAILED CHARACTER ANALYSIS by Victor Hugo") Since he is always childish, it caused their relationship and his pursuit of Cosette to be infantile. Cosette sang about how her heart was full, but she didn’t even know his name. This is babyish because you can’t be in love and not even know the person’s name. Cosette sang, “A heart full of love/A night full of you/the words are old/but always true/O God, for shame/you did not even know my name.” (Hooper). Her heart is full of love, and she is only thinking about him, but she doesn’t even know his name. Loving someone, but not knowing their name is very unsophisticated. Something else that is callow is the fact

“Marius’s primary purpose in the novel is to lure Cosette away from Valjean and to bring Valjean to the point of ultimate self-denial and self-sacrifice” ("Les Miserables: CHARACTER ANALYSIS / DETAILED CHARACTER ANALYSIS by Victor Hugo"). They drove him to the point of not wanting to live anymore because he didn’t get to see Cosette. Once he was dying, then they were there. It is pretty adolescent that they didn’t want anything to do with him and stayed away from him until he was on his death bed. It is hypocritical that they were kissing his hands as he was dying, but before they wouldn’t even talk to him. “[Valjean] had fallen back, the light from the candlesticks fell across him; his white face looked up toward heaven, he let Cosette and Marius cover his hands with kisses; he was dead” (Hugo and Wilbour 333). They got there too late. Jean Valjean wanted them there earlier, but they weren’t. “Alone I wait in the shadows/I count the hours till I can sleep/I dreamed a dream Cosette stood by/It made her weep to know I die/Alone at the end of the day” (Hooper). As far as he knows, he was alone at his death. His only dream and hope was that Cosette would have been there for him to say goodbye to. It is pretty juvenile that Cosette and Marius