Discussion questions for the film Les Miserables

1. Les Misérables

2. Families
• What are examples of the fragility of
families in the story?
• What do you think Hugo would say
causes families to break up?

3. Money
• What attitudes
towards wealth
poverty and
money do we see
in the film?
• Make a mind map.

4. Mercy
• Did Jean Valjean do
wrong by stealing the
silver from the bishop?
Do you blame him for
doing it?
If you don't blame him
for stealing the silver,
where do you draw the
line between crime
which should be
punished and crime that
can be excused?

5. Women
• How are Fantine, Cosette and Eponine
different?
• What do these three women have in
common?

6. Law
• How would you
describe Javert?
• What is Javert’s
main problem?
• Clearly Javert loves
the law, and that’s
not bad, however, in
this story it is. How
can that be?

7. Love
• Victor Hugo states, “The power of a look has
been so much abused in love stories, that it has
come to be disbelieved. Few people dare now to
say that two people have fallen in love because
they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this
way that love begins, and in this way only.”
Do you agree or disagree with this idea?