{"id":2616,"date":"2019-03-14T02:19:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T02:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2023-11-17T10:17:53","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T10:17:53","slug":"les-miserables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=2616","title":{"rendered":"Les Mis\u00e9rables"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"left-column\" style=\"font-size: 12.5pt;font-family: EB Garamond;text-align: justify\">\n<p><strong>Castle on a Cloud \u2013 Les Mis\u00e9rables the Musical<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Castle on a Cloud | Les Mis\u00e9rables\" width=\"470\" height=\"264\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ap2kAV5EX3M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There is a castle on a cloud<br \/>\nI like to go there in my sleep<br \/>\nAren\u2019t any floors for me to sweep<br \/>\nNot in my castle on a cloud<\/p>\n<p>There is a room that\u2019s full of toys<br \/>\nThere are a hundred boys and girls<br \/>\nNobody shouts or talks too loud<br \/>\nNot in my castle on a cloud<\/p>\n<p>There is a lady all in white<br \/>\nHolds me and sings a lullaby<br \/>\nShe\u2019s nice to see and she\u2019s soft to touch<br \/>\nShe says, \u2018Cosette, I love you very much\u2019<\/p>\n<p>I know a place where no one\u2019s lost<br \/>\nI know a place where no one cries<br \/>\nCrying at all is not allowed<br \/>\nNot in my castle on a cloud<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 80%\">\u2018Castle on a Cloud\u2019 by 10<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0Anniversary Concert Cast, licensed to YouTube<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"right-column\" style=\"font-size: 12pt;font-family: Source Sans Pro;text-align: justify\">\n<p>Victor Hugo\u2019s 1862 novel has been famously adapted into the world\u2019s longest-running musical written by Claude-Michel Sch\u00f6nberg and Alain Boublil and debuted in the West End in 1985. The story is set in the early 19<sup>th<\/sup> century. Cosette\u2019s mother, Fantine, leaves her with the Th\u00e9nardiers, hoping that they will give better care to Cosette than she can. Fantine sends money to them believing Cosette is in good hands, unfortunately, Cosette is ill-treated by the cruel Th\u00e9nardiers. Cosette is abused by her \u2018caregivers\u2019 and used as child labour in their inn.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Castle on a Cloud\u2019 is performed during the first act of the musical. This is the audience first encounter of young Cosette after the death of Fantine. This number illustrates the way this foundling is living. When the scene begins the audience sees a grubby Cosette cleaning and tidying the Th\u00e9nardiers\u2019 inn, then she starts singing out a world that she imagines. She pictures all the people around her are nice and care about her. This is, however, the mirror opposite of Cosette\u2019s life. The song is constructed with a number of negatives, which add to the poignant feeling of the song. If the negatives are taken out in some lines, it is exactly the life that she is living.<\/p>\n<p>This solo number is melodic and lullaby-like. It is mainly played by strings instruments in a steady and moderate tempo, which gives a melancholy feeling to the audience. Young Cosette\u2019s voice is innocent and vulnerable, a sharp contrast to other characters, particularly the Th\u00e9nardiers who sound evil. There is a sudden change in the music after this segment. It becomes loud and more up-tempo as Madame Th\u00e9nardier appears on stage and begins shouting at Cosette. At this moment, Cosette\u2019s imagination immediately vanishes.<\/p>\n<p>Cosette sings out that \u2018there is a room that\u2019s full of toys\u2019 in her imagination. In Hugo\u2019s text, it is mentioned that she is not given any toys to play with. The Th\u00e9nardiers refuse to give her a doll. On the contrary, the Th\u00e9nardiers\u2019 daughter, who is the same age as Cosette, is given toys and, more importantly, care and affection. Cosette also wishes that there could be \u2018a hundred boys and girls\u2019, which illustrates her loneliness and how much she longs for company.<\/p>\n<p>In the third stanza, she mentions the \u2018lady all in white\u2019. This is referring to her mother who has passed away in the previous scene. At the end of the musical, Fantine appears on stage again dressed in all white. Cosette does not have anyone who can emotionally care for her. What the Th\u00e9nardiers do is minimal, they only keep her alive to work for them. According to the attachment theory, it is critical to have a strong emotional and physical attachment to at least one primary caregiver for a child\u2019s personal development. In many foundlings\u2019 cases, however, they do not have a primary caregiver. Cosette is treated more like a commodity rather than a child. Although Cosette\u2019s mother Fantine\u00a0struggles to feed her, she is able to provide the love and care that Cosette needs. She is the person that Cosette can be attached to.<\/p>\n<p>The Th\u00e9nardiers deprive Cosette\u2019s chance of having a happy childhood. The only thing they cannot take away from her is her imagination. To understand the life of foundlings, it is certainly important to understand their imagination. With all the hardships and cruelty that they have to bare, their imagination becomes their only escape. Foundlings lack someone or something to develop their attachment to. There is always a gap in their lives waiting to be filled. What appears in their imagination is what they need most. This song is Cosette\u2019s plea for love and comfort in a safe place. She imagines someone would say to her, \u2018Cosette I love you very much\u2019. Foundlings and orphans also use their imagination to account for the absence of their parents \u2013 as Anne of Green Gable famously says \u2018the scope of imagination\u2019 \u2013 and you will see in Tracy Beaker\u2019s extract that she also uses her imagination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world\u2019s longest-running musical based on the novel by Victor Hugo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,25,27,28,29,30,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2018-2019","category-2019-2020","category-2020-2021","category-2021-2022","category-2022-2023","category-2023-2024","category-foundlings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2616"}],"version-history":[{"count":62,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3088,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions\/3088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}