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Who is Bishop Miriel who saved Jean Valjean? From "One Hundred and Six Scenes from 'Les Miserables'" by Shigeru Kashima
From this article by Shigeru KashimaOne Hundred and Six Scenes from "Les Miserables"to provide a character description that will be helpful in viewing the musical.
In a musical, there will inevitably be parts that cannot be fully expressed due to time constraints. Therefore, in order to get to know Remisée more deeply, I would like to look at each character, using Hugo's original story as a guide.
In the original work, he is referred to as Jean Valjean, but from this time on, he will be referred to as Jean Valjean in accordance with the musical.
Who is Bishop Miriel?
In this article, we will talk about who Bishop Myriel is, the man who saved Jean Valjean, the protagonist of "Les Miserables".
Jean Valjean, a man who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for stealing a small piece of bread.
When you hear the name Jean Valjean, most people probably say, "Oh! I've heard of him!" I am sure that most of you have heard of him. There may be few protagonists in the world as famous as Jean Valjean.
The musical and film start this story with the scene at Jean Valjean's execution, as shown in the video above.
After being released from prison, Jean Valjean wandered around and met Bishop Miriel, whom we will introduce here, when he was in despair due to the terrible treatment he received from the people.
Bishop Miriel warmly welcomes Jean Valjean, who had been devastated by mistrust and hatred, and even gave him a silver candlestick after he had stolen. He was converted by the great mercy of the bishop.
In the musical and the movie, the story progresses rather quickly due to time constraints, but if you read the original story, you will be surprised at the surprising developments that await you.
Previous ArticleLes Miserables ㈠ Part I: Fantine" Synopsis - Who is Jean Valjean, the great protagonist?But I talked about it, so I will quote that passage.
When you start reading this book, you will be in for a surprise.
What a surprise, the main character, Jean Valjean, does not appear at all.
The first character depicted in this work is Bishop Miriel.
He is a virtuous high priest, in a word, too good to be true.
The story begins with the story of who the supremely good Bishop Mriel is.
He always gives most of the money he has on hand to the poor and devotes himself to the city in secret.
What a tale of his goodness that goes on for 111 pages.
This means that by the time the main character appears, we are shown more than 100 pages of episodes about the bishop that seemingly have nothing to do with the story.
In musicals and on stage, this crap is cut and never known.
However, this Bishop Miriel is the person who decisively changed Jean Valjean's way of life after 19 years in prison, and without his presence, Jean Valjean would never have existed.
In the film, he appears out of the blue to save Jean Valjean, but in the original, we spend more than 100 pages looking at Bishop Mirière's character.
This strengthens the weight of the moment of Jean Valjean's salvation by exactly 100 pages.
How great a man Bishop Miriel is, and Jean Valjean's emotional struggles and salvation as he suffers from despair.
This area is depicted in the original work without any excesses.
Les Miserables ㈠ Part I: Fantine" Synopsis - Who is Jean Valjean, the great protagonist?
Amazingly, the main character, Jean Valjean, does not appear in the original story for more than 100 pages after it begins.
I did not tell you any more about Bishop Miriel in the above article,One Hundred and Six Scenes from "Les Miserables"Then it says the following
Les Misérables, like many long novels of the nineteenth century, begins with the life story of Charles-François Villeneuve Millière, the bishop of Digne, who seems to have nothing to do with the story at first glance. The only word that would suffice to describe the character of Bishop Millier, the man who would provide Jean Valjean with the opportunity for rehabilitation after his release from the penitentiary, is the word "charity. He believed in the human conscience and extended a helping hand to anyone who mourned and suffered.
However, as the saying goes, "Fact is stranger than fiction," Bishop Myriel had a real-life model. The actual Bishop of Digne, Charles-François-Merciol-Billenvenu de Mioris, was the actual Bishop of Digne. Like Bishop Myoris in the film, the real Bishop Myoris is said to have been a benevolent and warm-hearted man with no personal interests. For example, a governor of the time said, "The Bishop of Digne is an old man of over eighty whose ignorance is the talk of the diocese, but he is respected by all because of his compassion and purity of heart.
Bungeishunju, Shigeru Kashima, "Les Miserables" One Hundred and Six Views, p.20-22
Bishop Miriel, a man who could be described as "charity" itself. It is surprising that this man had a real-life model.
And Mr. Kashima continues.
By the way, we Japanese who are not familiar with the Catholic hierarchy may have no idea how important the bishop is, but there are only about 100 bishops in all of France, so they are quite important.
Incidentally, assuming that a priest is equivalent to a village head and an archbishop is equivalent to a regional governor today, a bishop in the middle of the two would be, in essence, a prefectural governor today. However, during the period from the First Empire to the Restoration of the monarchy, when the story begins, clergy were treated much better than officials, so they were treated much better than prefectural governors. Bishop Miriel was given a spacious bishop's palace and a salary of 15,000 livres a year, which was about the same as that of a director of a central government office.
However, Bishop Michael converted this luxurious bishop's residence into a charity hospital, and they (he, his sister, and their housekeeper) stayed in the former poor charity hospital, spending most of his salary for the relief of the poor and the rehabilitation of prisoners, and spending only 1,000 livres a year for personal use. He lived on 1,500 livres a year, including his sister's life pension of 500 livres, an extremely modest living expense equivalent to that of a common official at the time.
Bungeishunju, Shigeru Kashima, "Les Miserables" One Hundred and Six Views, p.22
In the original story, the goodness of Bishop Miriel is described in more than 100 pages, but the most important part of the story is here. As Mr. Kashima summed up, Miriel was in a position to live extravagantly, but he used the money to help those who suffered and lived a miserable life for himself.
Knowing or not knowing this fact, the image of Bishop Miriel that we see in musicals and movies may change again.
Bishop Miriel's gaze on sin: Hugo's experience in speaking out against the death penalty
Why did Bishop Michael warmly welcome Jean Valjean, a former convict, and why did he forgive him for stealing and even give him silverware? We will look at the background.
In Part I, Chapter 1, "The Righteous Man," Bishop Miriel, who was present at the execution on behalf of the chaplain, is greatly shocked. Bishop Miriel asks himself: "Death belongs only to God. Death belongs only to God. What right do human beings have to touch this unknown thing?
In fact, these shocks of Bishop Miriel are none other than Hugo's own.
If one believes Madame Hugo's testimony, Hugo says that when he witnessed the guillotine of Revel, the assassin of Lord Berry, in 1870, he "felt his hatred for the assassin turn to pity for the condemned."
The shock of this experience directly led to the publication of "The Last Days of the Death Penalty," an anonymous book of impeachment against the death penalty, nine years later, in 1896. The novel, translated by Yoshio Toshima and well known in Japan for many years, describes the anguish of a condemned prisoner from the moment he was sentenced to death to the moment he was sent to the guillotine, in the form of the prisoner's own memoirs. Many of the themes that would later appear in Les Misérables, such as the prisoners' misery in the prison of Bicêtre, the misery of their families, and the cryptic language used by the prisoners, are also present in the book.
Bungeishunju, Shigeru Kashima, "Les Miserables" One Hundred and Six Views, p.24-26
Bishop Miriel's shock at the execution was actually felt by Hugo himself. Featured here.The Last Day on Death Row.has been previously featured on this blog, so please refer to it.
To return to the story, at the end of this passage from "The Righteous Man," Hugo writes casually, "In time, these impressions must have faded and perhaps even disappeared. But even then," he casually notes, "people noticed the bishop's avoidance of the place of execution. In fact, this passage is probably more important than any other episode of Bishop Miriel's mercy. The reason for this is, of course, the illustration on the previous page. Each chapter of Hugues' version of Les Misérables begins with an illustration that illustrates the essence of the chapter, and the door illustration for the chapter "The Righteous" is none other than this image of Bishop Miriel comforting a condemned man on the decapitation table. In short, the foreshadowing of the forgiveness of Jean Valjean for the theft of the silverware by Bishop Miriel is placed here.
Although Bishop Miriel is generally regarded as an ideal figure of the Christian spirit, he is better thought of as embodying a Hugoan view of society. Hugo believed that to lead people in the new society, one must be a reformer of society as well as a savior of souls, as evidenced by the transformation of the rehabilitated Jean Valjean into a social entrepreneur, Madeleine, rather than a Christian evangelist.
Bungeishunju, Shigeru Kashima, "Les Miserables" One Hundred and Six Views, p.26
Why did Bishop Miriel forgive Jean Valjean? It was because of his thoughts on capital punishment, that is, on sin and punishment. Do we condemn people who have committed crimes and consider them irredeemable? Is such condemnation appropriate even for those who have committed crimes because they were placed in miserable circumstances?
No, any human being can be born again. Bishop Miriel showed by his life that the salvation of souls is the way of the Christian.
It was because of these encounters with Bishop Miriel that Jean Valjean was able to be saved.
When you think about it this way, I think you can feel the significance of their meeting in Remisé.
Jean Valjean was touched and saved by the mercy and kindness of Bishop Miriel.
Jean Valjean then pours out his mercy on Fanchine, Cosette, and Marijus, who are also saved by Jean Valjean.
Hugo shows in this story the importance of compassion being passed on from generation to generation.
Bishop Miriel's presence is an important pillar in the remise in conveying this message.
Although he is a less prominent figure in the musical, Jean Valjean always has the mercy of Bishop Miriel in his heart.
Bishop Miriel, who saved the devastated Jean Valjean, is not merely a gentle priest. He is an overwhelming presence who embodies the mercy itself that has served people for many years.
In the following article, we will look at the past of Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Remisé.
The above is "Who is Bishop Miriel who saved Jean Valjean? From "One Hundred and Six Scenes from 'Les Miserables'" by Shigeru Kashima.
*Addition on July 22, 2023
The silver candlestick is famous as the episode in which Bishop Miriel saved Jean Valjean, and Dr. Shigeru Kashima has written about this candlestick and candle.Paris Time TravelHe gave a very interesting commentary in a book called I too was astonished to read this commentary. The meal between Bishop Michael and Jean Valjean, which is depicted casually, was filled with the depth of Bishop Michael's mercy. This episode sums up why Jean Valjean met the bishop and was converted. Please refer to the following article for a partial explanation.
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