the musical is based on the novel by victor hugo, set in france in the early 1800s.
france went through more than one revolution, apart from the more famous one that everyone thinks of (bastille, marie antoinette, etc): [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution]
the unabridged version of the novel is ridiculously long but amazing and well worth plowing through to get the full backstory on the characters- fantine is in love with tholomyes and she and her girlfriends and their boyfriends are all bffs and such. then the guys decide to "go back to society" and ditch their girls. unfortunately for fantine, "she had given herself to tholomyes as to a husband, and the poor girl had his child." so she's single and preggers. she decides to give her baby girl (cosette) to an innkeeper and his wife (the thenardiers) and pay them to raise her daughter in a normal life. except she doesn't know that the thenardiers are awful and are criminals and treat cosette like shit and keep scamming fantine out of more money. anyway so fantine gets fired from her job and has to sell herself (including her hair and her teeth) in order to pay for her daughter's well-being.
that being said, this song is about the loss of youth and innocence, the loss of carefree days, the loss of faith in love, the loss of one's position in society...about being crushed by life being left alone. it's beautiful.
the musical is based on the novel by victor hugo, set in france in the early 1800s.
france went through more than one revolution, apart from the more famous one that everyone thinks of (bastille, marie antoinette, etc): [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution]
the unabridged version of the novel is ridiculously long but amazing and well worth plowing through to get the full backstory on the characters- fantine is in love with tholomyes and she and her girlfriends and their boyfriends are all bffs and such. then the guys decide to "go back to society" and ditch their girls. unfortunately for fantine, "she had given herself to tholomyes as to a husband, and the poor girl had his child." so she's single and preggers. she decides to give her baby girl (cosette) to an innkeeper and his wife (the thenardiers) and pay them to raise her daughter in a normal life. except she doesn't know that the thenardiers are awful and are criminals and treat cosette like shit and keep scamming fantine out of more money. anyway so fantine gets fired from her job and has to sell herself (including her hair and her teeth) in order to pay for her daughter's well-being.
that being said, this song is about the loss of youth and innocence, the loss of carefree days, the loss of faith in love, the loss of one's position in society...about being crushed by life being left alone. it's beautiful.