I: One Mother Meets Another Mother explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Social Injustice and Poverty

  Fantine's descent into poverty and her desperate decision to leave her child highlight the harsh realities faced by single mothers in 19th-century France.

• Suffering and Sacrifice

  Fantine sacrifices her own comfort and sells her belongings to provide for Cosette, embodying maternal suffering and selflessness.

• Love and Compassion

  Fantine's deep love for Cosette drives her actions, and the initial kindness of Madame Thénardier contrasts with later events.

Characters to notice

• Fantine

  Desperate and impoverished, Fantine leaves Paris with her child Cosette, hoping to find work in her hometown.

• Cosette

  Fantine's young daughter, about three years old, who is left with the Thénardiers.

• Thénardier

  Husband of Madame Thénardier, co-owner of the inn at Montfermeil.

• Madame Thénardier

  The innkeeper's wife, a coarse and romanticizing woman, who agrees to take Cosette in.

• Tholomyès

  Fantine's former lover who abandoned her and their child; later becomes a wealthy lawyer.

Key passages

• “She sold all that she had, which produced for her two hundred francs; her little debts paid, she had only about eighty francs left.”

  Fantine sold all her possessions for two hundred francs, and after paying her small debts, she was left with only about eighty francs.

  Illustrates Fantine's extreme poverty and her sacrifice for her child.

• “Will you keep my child for me?”

  Fantine asks Madame Thénardier to take care of Cosette while she seeks work.

  The pivotal moment where Fantine entrusts Cosette to the Thénardiers, setting the stage for future events.