Marius Pontmercy In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables
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Marius Pontmercy is a character ruled by his emotions in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables. In the film adaptation, he is portrayed as more composed and mature whereas in the novel, he acts childish and emotionally unstable. He lets his emotions run wild and control him to an almost instinctive level, making him unrelatable and obnoxious. Throughout the movie, his character was altered in many ways in order to make him more relatable, which in turns makes him a better character. The changes that were made to Marius in the film adaptation of Les Miserables enhanced his character.
Marius demonstrates more restraint in his dealings with Valjean upon learning of Valjean’s true identity. When Valjean admits his past to Marius and offers to stop visiting Cosette, readers see Marius heartless personality. “‘I think that would be best,’ answered Marius coldly” (Hugo 307). With just what Marius says, that could be interpreted in a multitude of ways, and not necessarily as him being unkind to Valjean. The addition of the word coldly shows that Hugo is telling us Marius agrees because he does not want Valjean near them and implies that Marius is looking down upon Valjean. In the movie, we do not get the feeling of cold bitterness we receive from the book. Marius gives off an aura of understanding at Valjean’s predicament, and though he still agrees, he agrees out of his acknowledgement that this is what Valjean wants.
Similarly to his encounters with Valjean, movie Marius better