HP and Les Miserables

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 55931

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richasi" <richasi at a...> wrote:
> > Okay, so I was recently skimming my ratty old copy of Les 
> > Miserables, and I kept noticing similarities with HP.  Not in 
> > a "Hey, JKR is ripping off Hugo" sort of way, but in the "Hmm, 
check 
> > out the common themes and archetypes" sort of way.  
> 
> Actually, i found this quite stimulating. I'm not in the same camp
> as many of the other folks here so I won't even begin to debate
> this but I do see similarities between Les Mis and HP. Though,
> the child-is-a-slave bit is nothing new really.

Well, when it comes right down to it, I think both Harry and Cosette 
are direct literary descendants of Cinderella.

> 
> I have one question though, and it is Off-Topic somewhat.
> Who in the HP universe is Javert? ;)

Good question.  There doesn't seem to be a direct parallel.  In the 
past, some posters have compared Snape to Javert, and they do share 
some characteristics.  So it Snape is both Valjean and Javert, that 
makes him his own worst enemy and persecutor.  Which fits really 
well, if you think about it. :-)

Of course, this raises the question of whether Snape will end up 
like Valjean -- learning to love and coming to peace with himself; 
or like Javert -- succumbing to despair and suicide when his world 
view is overturned.  They both end up dead, so things aren't looking 
too good for poor Severus, are they?

Marina Rusalka
rusalka at ix.netcom.com