Oct. 17th, 2007

[identity profile] evewithanapple.livejournal.com

When the book was adapted to the musical, a lot of changes were (understandably) made. The most obvious ones were to the characters, and as a result, a lot of characters tend to be misinterpreted. For instance:

Eponine in the musical is a brave, good heroine. She's in love with Marius, and sacrifices her life for him. She stops the attack on Rue Plumet (for selfish reasons, but that seems to be overlooked a lot) and gives her life for Marius at the barricades. She also has That Song, which is unfortunately become the signature song for the musical. Personally, it makes me gag. She's generally viewed as a tragic romantic heroine

Eponine in the book is a half-crazed child prostitute. She stalks Marius, and tries to get him killed by sending him to the barricades. The reason she takes the bullet for him is because she wants them to be in Heaven together. Pretty big difference, eh?

Enjolras in the book is a charismatic fanatic. He has extremely strong ideals, and doesn't care about anything or anyone but them. He's willing to kill people or the Republic, and we see him doing it.

Enjolras in the musical is a charismatic leader, but there's almost no mention of the bloody details of what the revolution entails. There are some suggestions of fanaticism ("With all the anger in the land/How long before the judgment day?/Before we cut the fat ones down to size!") but he's generally seen as the charismatic, handsome revolutionary leader, without mentioning the negative aspects of overthrowing the government, i.e. killing people.

Fantine in the novel is a young girl who thoughtlessly gets pregnant, leaves her child with strangers (out of desperation, but still), and is generally silly, albeit a good person. Musical!Fantine is more mature and motherly.

The Thernadiers in the book are conniving, evil criminals. In the musical, they're the comic relief.

Marius in the book is weak and melodramatic. In the musical, he's brave and passionate. He also believes in the revolution.

Thoughts?

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