Cosette
Cosette (French pronunciation: [kɔzɛt]) is a fictional character in the 1862 novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and in the many adaptations of the story for stage, film, and television. Her birth name, Euphrasie, is only mentioned briefly. As the orphaned child of an unmarried mother deserted by her father, Hugo never gives her a surname. In the course of the novel, she is mistakenly identified as Ursule, Lark, or Mademoiselle Lanoire.
For other uses, see Cosette (disambiguation).Cosette Pontmercy
Euphrasie
- Ursule or Ursula
- the Lark
- Mademoiselle Lanoire or Lenoire
- Madame Pontmercy
- Cosette Fauchelevent
Cosette, Alouette
Female
- Fantine (mother)
- Jean Valjean (surrogate father)
- Félix Tholomyès (biological father)
- Georges Pontmercy (father-in-law)
- Monsieur Gillenormand (grandfather-in-law)
French
1815
She is the daughter of Fantine, a working woman who leaves her to be looked after by the Thénardiers, who exploit and victimise her. Rescued by Jean Valjean, who raises Cosette as if she were his own, she grows up in a convent school. She falls in love with Marius Pontmercy, a young lawyer. Valjean's struggle to protect her while disguising his past drives much of the plot until he recognizes "that this child had a right to know life before renouncing it"[1]—and he must allow her romantic attachment to Marius to blossom.
In the novel[edit]
Early life[edit]
Euphrasie, nicknamed Cosette by her mother, is the illegitimate daughter of Fantine and Félix Tholomyès, a rich student. She is born in Paris c. 1815. Tholomyès abandons Fantine, who leaves three-year-old Cosette with the Thénardiers at their inn in Montfermeil, paying them to care for her child while she works in the city of Montreuil-sur-Mer. Unbeknownst to Fantine, the Thénardiers abuse Cosette while she is under their care. They beat and starve her and force her to perform heavy labor in the inn. Under the Thénardiers' care she is described as "thin and pale", wears rags for clothing, and has chilblains on her hands as well as bruised and reddened skin. She is forced to go barefoot in winter.[2] The narrator also says that "fear was spread all over her".
While Fantine is in the hospital, the mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer—Jean Valjean masquerading as "Madeleine" to avoid revealing that he is a paroled convict—vows to retrieve Cosette for her. Although Fantine dies before seeing her daughter, Valjean becomes determined to look after the young girl.