Bring Him Home

Warning: This post wasn't supposed to be so rambly. I wrote this last night, and saved it with the intention of editing it. But adding all my thoughts would be way too much, so I'm publishing it as it is. Enjoy, and yes, there will be a short story today. I promised.
When I saw the musical, I thought the song "Bring Him Home" was about Jan Valjean, and how he wanted to return to God after having lived through so much, pleading for heavenly interception. Only after I looked up Les Miserables on wikipedia today did I discover that the song was about Marius. Jan Valjean wanted Marius to return home. It isn't about Valjean wanting peace, it's him pleading God to protect Marius, a boy who is "young and afraid."
Which reminds me of "I Dream a Dream" when Fantine says "When I was young, and unafraid..." Fantaine wasn't afraid when she was young, and that makes me think that Fantine was this brave, strong, almost goal-getting in her good old days, before "the foul dust" of her dreams forced her ambition back, and despite what she might think, she still holds her pride however indignantly. You could call it her hamartia, or the only remaining factor of her former self. It gives her the audacity or the courage (whatever you could call it) to refuse to acquiesce to her peers desires in the factory, to deny the foreman the right to screw around with her, to claw a potential customer's face when they want to screw her, etc etc. The only times she sacrifices these things is for her daughter, Cosette. You could argue that Cossette is the reason she is so humiliated and downtrodden, forced to sell her hair and teeth and body for treatment that isn't even ncessary. Supposedly, if it weren't for Cossette, the letter that caused all the drama in the first place wouldn't have existed. Materially, she would have been free. What makes Fantine so tragic, especially in "I Dream A Dream" is that she still holds her pride, that despite it all, she refuses to accept the state she's in. She sings in sadness and anger of what has life has done to herself. For Fantaine, the worst thing life did to her was shorten her ambition, force her to cut back on herself and be complacent to the shitty circumstances surrounding her. Each time she refuses, society punishes her, ununderstanding. It's only till Valjean can see past that (Fontaine essentially spits in his face after recognizing what he did to her) that someone is lenient and forgiving towards her. For her, she dies quickly after regardless, but if "I Dreamed A Dream" was about the cruelties God had done her again and again (in her mind), what came after was forgiveness and redemption. (through John Valjean)
Marius, at least in the musical, is just a kid. Well, not technically (the adorable Eddie Redmayne from the great movie My Week With Marilyn) , but he hasn't been jaded and stomped on like Fontaine has. Those who have been end up protecting him in order to prevent the same thing from happening to him. (Valjean and Eponine come to mind immediately) In Les Miserables, every action affects the other. Mercy begets mercy, life begets life, etc etc. There's a whole sense of responsibility, of debt of one person being returned to another and rippling outwards.
It's those who are loyal to something other than love that suffer the most, you could say. Javert, because of his core loyalty to the law, is torn apart because his humanity interferes with his enforcement of his own strict moral code. It's said during one of those songs that he was born in a jail, raised with "scum like you."
Javert genuinely believes, as was proved every day in his childhood, that justice is right, and one must follow the law. The law is supreme, and Javert's job is to enact it. In this case, due to the complexity of the situation, the law is wrong. Javert can't live with that, as that was the one thing he always counted on as his constant. Without the law, nothing makes sense, and thus, Javert falls.

This is rambly. Hmph.