If I had to pick six songs that tell the story of Les Miserables, I think they would have to be these:
- At the End of the Day (Community)
- Master of the House (Thernardiers)
- Do you hear the People Sing?
- One Day More (The Company)
- Bring Him Home (Valjean)
- Sililoquy (Javert) Javert’s Suicide
I would add The Work Song if I could use seven because it introduces Jean Valjean and his story at the beginning and the way he lived with the convicts in the galleys. But that can be told in a few words. He stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s child. He broke the bakery window. In Napoleonic France that was a crime that got a sentence to the galleys. Most people who went there died there because life was too hard and the food was too little. Jean Valjean escaped once and was caught and his sentence had 18 years added for that.
He is paroled and finds out that living as a paroled convict is worse than living in the galleys. There is no forgiveness. He has given up when the Bishop of Digne finds him sitting outside his house and invites him in to eat and sleep. In the middle of the night, he steals the silver and decides not to kill the old Bishop. He is caught and taken to the Bishop, but the Bishop says he is innocent and reminds him that he forgot the silver candlesticks. Valjean leaves and vows to make a new life. He breaks parole and takes a new name as Mssr. Madelaine, and becomes very successful, a factory owner and the mayor of the town.
At the End of the Day
The song, At the End of the Day, is sung by most of the cast, and it tells us about how the working poor suffer. It tells about the state of the common people, about the working poor and it introduces Fantine. We learn how the foreman has been trying to seduce her and about her child. It is in act one and the theme is poverty and injustice. People are mean, because they are angry and because it makes things better for them. Poverty makes people less human. The first part is sung by the poor of Paris, and it really says there is nothing happy about the poor.
At the end of the day you’re another day older
And that’s all you can say for the life of the poor
It’s a struggle, it’s a war
The factory workers sing the next part and tell about their problems that are mostly caused by a bad foreman. They blame Fantine for not giving in to him, because he makes them all miserable as a result.
- [WOMAN TWO]
- Have you seen how the foreman is fuming today?
With his terrible breath and his wandering hands?
- Have you seen how the foreman is fuming today?
- [WOMAN THREE]
- It’s because little Fantine won’t give him his way
- [WOMAN ONE]
- Take a look at his trousers, you’ll see where he stands!
The factory women steal Fantine’s letter from the innkeepers who have her daughter. It asks for money to get medicine for her child. Fantine and the woman who snatched the letter fight and Jean Valjean (Mssr. M) breaks it up. He tells the foreman to take care of it but be patient. The women insist that Fantine is having men in at night and the foreman now knows she is not a virgin, so he believes them. She is fired. The whole theme of this song is the inhumanity of real poverty and the injustice of living in France at that time. There was so much difference between the rich and the poor and the poor were so poor that they were not human anymore, but more like dogs, just doing whatever they can to stay alive. We do not think a lot about the women in the factory, but they were just looking out for themselves and their children. Getting rid of Fantine would make their lives easier.
Master of the House
After Fantine dies Jean Valjean goes to get her child as he promised her and finds that she is a slave to the Thernardiers. He tricks them and takes the child. This part is the only real comedy in the play and it lifts the sad mood. The innkeepers are very funny. Their song, Master of the House, tells how they cheat people and how Madame Thernardier feels about her husband. It also tells of the terrible conditions in inns then, with lice and mice and charges for everything, including closing the window of the room. It is a very funny song, but it was probably true conditions at that time. People used powder to cover up the smells. Rumors say he got his money by robbing bodies at Waterloo. This tells us that he has no honor and will do anything for money. These are very funny characters, but also very dangerous. This song is sung by the innkeepers who are keeping Fantine’s daughter. They get all her money and treat the child as a slave. Still, it is the comic relief that is needed in this play.
Do you hear the People Sing?
Do you hear the People Sing? This is a song sung by the revolutionaries. (Also called Song of Angry Men) (Revolutionary De Anza Students) I think this song is the best known of the play. It is a song that makes the audience want to sing.
It is a march and easy to sing, so it makes the audience want to sing. The words of the song tell how the people who are singing will not be slaves again and it is sung to get students ready to fight on the barricades. They expect a lot of people to die and say that the blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France. They believe that they will change things. The theme is patriotism and courage. It is sad to find out that this was not really the beginning of the French Revolution.
One Day More
One Day More ends act two, where the thoughts and melodies of several characters or groups work together. This song is a combination of several songs by different characters and it sounds great. The theme is that there is only one day more when things will change for everyone and even though they all have different dreams, they are together now. Jean Valjean is singing about his own trouble with Javert. He believes he will make sure Marius is ok and then disappear from the lives of him and Cosette because Javert will never stop chasing him. Marius and Cosette sing about their plans for a new life after the fight. They know that it is possible that Marius may not come back. They just met and they feel like their lives have just started. They sing about the hope that they will be together. Eponine sings about one more day alone as she knows that Marius loves Cosette and he will never be hers. She has already made sure that Cosette got the message from Marius, even though it means that Cosette will be the winner. She really does love Marius, so she wants him to be happy. She started not to take the message and then changed her mind and made sure it got there. Enjolras, the leader of the revolutionaries sings about the dawn of a new day of freedom after the fight. He asks if Marius will join him. Marius will, but he hates to leave Cosette. Javert sings about his plans to stop the revolution of these “little schoolboys” as he plans to learn their secrets and betray them. The Thernardiers sing about robbing the corpses of the dead after they fall. The other revolutionaries sing about a new beginning, freedom and winning. It all comes together at the end with everybody singing.
VALJEAN
Tomorrow we’ll be far away,
Tomorrow is the judgement day
ALL
Tomorrow we’ll discover
What our God in Heaven has in store!
One more dawn
One more day
One day more!
I counted five different melodies and they blend perfectly. This must have been a really hard song to write. It is beautiful.
Bring Him Home
Bring Him Home (Jean Valjean) is a prayer that Marius, whom Jean Valjean has found and rescued, taking him into the sewer to hide him, will live. Jean Valjean knows that Cosette loves him and he loves her, so he risks everything to save him and then sees that he might die. It is this song that tells us that Jean Valjean has really been redeemed, as he says in his prayer that God has always been there for him and begs for the life of Marius. It is a wonderful song for a tenor. The theme is love and sacrifice. Jean Valjean even says that he does not care if he dies, as long as Marius lives.
Sililoquy
Sililoquy (Javert) Javert’s Suicide is sung after Jean Valjean saves his life. He then has a chance to kill Valjean and he cannot do it. Maybe this is the saddest part. Poor Javert knows nothing but the law. It is his life and then he breaks it by letting Valjean go. He cannot live with the idea that he owes his life to a thief.
I should have perished by his hand
It was his right.
I was my right to die as well.
Instead I live — but live in hell.
And my thoughts fly apart.
Can this man be believed?
Shall his sins be forgiven?
Shall his crimes be reprieved?
And must I now begin to doubt,
Who never doubted all those years?
Javert cannot make the choice between the law and Jean Valjean. He cannot choose to capture or kill a man who has set him free, and who might have earned forgiveness. But the law says he is not free, because he broke parole. Javert always believed in the law, and now he cannot, so he jumps into the Seine to drown.
Picking only these songs was difficult because there are some more that are important. This play did not do like many plays and just add songs about the story. In this play, the songs tell part of the story. If they were left out, we would not understand. The simple staging works, because the music and the story are so beautiful that we do not need fancy special effects of props. It does not even matter when we see part of the chorus on the song One Day More, because they represent all of France from then until today.