Whats the play le miserables about?

Question

this year at my high school they are doing this play. and i want to try out. but im not exactly sure what its compleatly about.

Answer 1

Les Misérables contains a multitude of plots, but the thread that binds them together is the story of the ex-convict Jean Valjean who becomes a force for good in the world, but cannot escape his past. The novel is divided into five parts, each part divided into books, and subdivided into chapters. Each chapter is relatively short; usually no longer than a few pages. Nevertheless, the book in its entirety is quite lengthy by usual standards, well exceeding twelve hundred pages in unabridged editions. Within the borders of the novel's story arc, Hugo fills many pages with his thoughts on religion, politics, and society, including his three lengthy digressions, one being a discussion on enclosed religious orders, another being on argot, and most famously, his epic retelling of the Battle of Waterloo.

The story starts in 1815, in Toulon. After five years of imprisonment in the bagne of Toulon for stealing bread for his starving sister and her family, and fourteen more for numerous attempts to escape, the peasant Jean Valjean is released. However, he is required to carry a yellow passport, which marks him as a convict. Rejected by innkeepers, who do not want to take in a convict, Valjean sleeps on the street. However, the benevolent Bishop Myriel takes him in and gives him shelter. In the night, he steals the bishop’s silverware and runs. He is caught, but the bishop rescues him by claiming that the silver was a gift and at that point gives him two candlesticks as well. The bishop then tells him he must become an honest man and must perform good deeds for others. As Valjean broods over these words, he steals a child's money, and chases the child away. Soon after he realizes his mistake, and decides to follow the bishop's advice. He searches the city for the child whose money he stole. At the same time, his theft is reported to the authorities, which now look for him as a repeat offender.

Six years later, Valjean, having assumed the pseudonym of Monsieur Madeleine to avoid capture, has become a wealthy factory owner and is appointed mayor of his adopted town of Montreuil-sur-mer. Valjean meets the dying Fantine, who has been fired from her job at his factory and has resorted to prostitution. She has a young daughter, Cosette, who lives with a corrupt innkeeper and his selfish, cruel wife. Separated from Cosette, Fantine is slowly dying from an unnamed disease (probably tuberculosis). Valjean, seeing in Fantine similarities to his former life of hardship, promises her that he will take care of Cosette, despite the imminent threat of arrest. The town's police inspector Javert had already suspected the identity of Madeleine and Valjean, whom he had seen in jail but this suspicion is momentarily dispelled when another man, mistakenly accused of being Valjean, is put on trial. To save the man, Valjean reveals himself to the court and is sent to jail. During his incarceration, Valjean fakes his death and escapes. He pays off the innkeeper, Thénardier, to obtain Cosette, and flees with her to Paris. Once in Paris, they find shelter in a convent.

Ten years later, as Cosette and Valjean are leaving the convent, students, led by Enjolras, are preparing an anti-Orléanist revolution on the eve of the Paris uprising on June 5–6, 1832, following the death of General Lamarque, the only French leader who had sympathy towards the working class. They are also joined by the poor, including the young street urchin Gavroche. One of the students, Marius Pontmercy, who has become alienated from his family because of his liberal views, falls in love with Cosette, who has grown to be very beautiful. The Thénardiers, who have also moved to Paris, lead a gang of thieves to raid Valjean’s house while Marius is visiting. However, Thénardier’s daughter, Éponine, who is also in love with Marius, convinces the thieves to leave. Valjean, believing that he has again been found by the authorities, plans to move to London.

The following day, the students revolt and erect barricades in the narrow streets of Paris. Marius, believing that Cosette has gone to London with her father and that he will never see her again, goes to die with his friends. Valjean, learning that Cosette's lover is fighting, joins them, not certain if he wants to protect Marius, or kill him. Éponine also joins to protect Marius and ends up taking a bullet for him and dying happily in his arms. During the ensuing battle, Valjean saves Javert from being killed by the students and lets him go. Valjean carries off the injured Marius, but all others, including Enjolras and Gavroche, are killed. Valjean escapes through the sewers, carrying Marius' body on his shoulders. At the exit, he runs into Javert, whom he persuades to give him time to return Marius to his family. Javert grants this request and another, and then realizes that he is caught between his belief in the law and the mercy Valjean has shown him, as he can no longer give Valjean up to the authorities. Unable to cope with this dilemma, Javert throws himself into the Seine. Marius and Cosette are soon married. Valjean confesses to Marius that he is an ex-convict. Marius is horrified. Convinced that Valjean is of poor moral character, he steers Cosette away from him. Valjean loses the will to live and takes to his bed. Marius learns of Valjean's good deeds too late and rushes to Valjean's house, where he lies dying. Valjean reveals his past to the pair and in his final moments realizes happiness finally with his adopted daughter and son-in-law by his side. He expresses his love to them, and then dies.

Answer 2

les miserables is one of the most brilliant musicals ever written

it's essentially the story of 19th century france during the napoleonic wars

it's very depressing  and every character's storyline is tragic in someway or another

it's about human emotion and behavior under times of crisis

that's the best way i can put it

i know that was an awful answer

just check out the wikipedia page

it'll tell you everything that happens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%...

Answer 3

Les Miserables is an amazing musical it was my first ever production

PROLOGUE: 1815,DIGNE

Jean Valjean,released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang,finds that the yellow-ticket-of-leave he must,by law display,condemns him to be an outcast. Only the saintly Bishop of Digne treats him kindly and Valjean,embittered by years of hardship,repays him by stealing some silver. Valjean is caught and brought back by police,and is astonished when the Bishop lies to the police to save him,also giving him 2 precious candlesticks. Valjean decides to start his life anew.

1823,MONTREUIL-SUR-MER

Eight years have passed,and Valjean,having broken his parole,and changed his name to Monsieur Madeleine,has risen to become a factory owner and Mayor. One of his workers,Fantine,has a secret illegitimate child. When the other women discover this,they demand her dismissal. The foreman,whose advances she has rejected,throws her out.

Desperate for money to pay for medicines for her daughter,Fantine sells her locket,her hair, and then joins the whores in selling herself. utterly degraded by her new trade,she gets into a fight with a prospective customer and is about to be taken to prison by Javert when the Mayor arrives and demands she be taken to hospital instead.

The Mayor then rescues a man pinned down by a runaway cart. Javert is reminded of the abnormal strength of convict 24601 Jean Valjean,a parole breaker whom he has been tracking for years but who,he says,has just been recaptured. Valjean,unable to see an innocent man go to prison in his place,confesses to the court that he is prisoner 24601.

At the hospital,Valjean promises the dying Fantine to find and look after her daughter Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him,but Valjean escapes.

1823,MONTFERMEIL

Cosette has been lodged for five years with the Thénardiers who run an inn,horribly abusing the little girl whom they use as a skivvy while indulging their own girl,Eponine. Valjean finds Cosette fetching water in the dark. He pays the Thénardiers to let him take Cosette away and takes her to Paris. But Javert is still on his tail....

1832,PARIS

Nine years later,there is great unrest in the city because of the likely demise of the popular leader General Lamarque,the only man left in the government who shows any feeling for the poor. The urchin Gavroche is in his element mixing with the whores and beggars of the capital. Among the street gangs is one led by Thénardier and his wife, which sets upon Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are rescued by Javert,who does not recognize Valjean until after he has made good his escape. The Thénardiers daughter Eponine,who is secretly in love with the student Marius,reluctantly agrees to help him find Cosette,with whom he has fallen in love.

At a political meeting in a small cafe,a group of idealistic students prepare for the revolution they are sure will erupt on the death of General Lamarque. When Gavroche brings the news of the General's death,the students,led by Enjolras,stream out into the streets to whip up popular support. Only Marius is distracted,by thoughts of the mysterious Cosette.

Cosette is consumbed by thoughts of Marius,with whom she has fallen in love. Valjean realizes that his "daughter" is changing very quickly but refuses to tell her anything of the past. In spite of her own feelings for Marius,Eponine sadly brings him to Cosette and then prevents an attempt by her father's gang to rob Valjean's house. Valjean,convinced it was Javert who was lurking outside his house,tells Cosette they must prepare to flee the country. On the eve of the revolution,the students and Javert see the situation from their different viewpoints;Cosette and Marius part in despair of ever meeting again;Eponine mourns the loss of Marius;and Valjean looks forward to the security of exile. The Thénardiers,meanwhile,dream of rich picking underground from the chaos to come.

The students prepare to build the barricade. Marius,noticing that Eponine has joined the insurrection,sends her with a letter to Cosette,which is intercepted at the Rue Plumet by Valjean. Eponine decides,despite what he has said to her,to rejoin Marius at the barricade. The barricade is built and the revolutionaries defy an army warning that they must give up or die. Gavroche exposes Javert as a police spy. In trying to return to the barricade,Eponine is shot and killed. Valjean arrives at the barricades in search of Marius. He is given the chance to kill Javert but instead lets him go. The students settle down for a night on the barricade and in the quiet of the night,Valjean prays to God to save Marius from the onslaught which is to come. The next day,with ammunition running low,Gavroche runs out to collect more and is shot. the rebels are all killed,including their leader Enjolras.

Valjean escapes into the sewers with unconscious Marius. After meeting Thénardier,who is robbing the corpses of the rebels,he emerges into the light only to meet Javert once more. He pleads for time to deliver the young man to hospital. Javert decides to let him go,and his unbending principles of justice having been shattered by Valjean's mercy,he kills himself by throwing himself into the swollen River Seine. A number of Parisian women come to terms with the failed insurrection and its victims. Unaware of the identity of his rescuer,Marius recovers in Cosette's care. Valjean confesses the truth of his past to Marius and insists that after the young couple are married,he must go away rather than taint the safety of their union. At Marius and Cosette's wedding,the Thénardiers try to blackmail Marius. Thénardier says Cosette's "father" is a murderer and as proof produces a ring which he stole from the corpse in the sewers the nigh the barricades fell. It is Marius' own ring and he realizes it was Valjean who rescued him that night. He and Cosette go to Valjean where Cosette learns for the first time of her own history before the old man dies,joining the spirits of Fantine,Eponine,and all those who died on the barricades.

it is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!