| “ | Quite the little nun, ain't she! | „ |
| ~ Thenardier mocking Cosette. |
Monsieur Thénardier is one of the secondary antagonists (along with his wife) of the 1862 novel Les Misérables. He is a greedy, sleazy innkeeper who was assigned by Cosette's poverty-stricken mother to look after her.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Extorts and cons numerous people, including Fantine, by claiming that her little daughter, Cosette, is ill. He demands more and more money from Fantine until she is driven to prostitution, and eventually dies.
- Abused Cosette and forced her to work.
- Tried to swindle more money from Jean Valjean while he is taking Cosette from Thenardier and going away, and expresses regret that he didn't bring his gun, implying he would have killed him.
- While looting the corpses of dead soldiers after the Battle of Waterloo, M. Thénardier accidentally saved the life of a Colonel, The Baron Pontmercy, lying that he was a sergeant of Napoleon's army. This causes Marius to wrongly sympathize with Thénardier in the belief that he owes him a debt.
- Abandoned Gavroche to the streets.
- Sold his own two little sons to Magnon to replace her two dead sons.
- He, along with his family, assumed the name Jondrette and sent letters begging for money to well-known philanthropists.
- It's implied that he prostituted Eponine and Azelma in order to bring in money.
- When Eponine states that a philanthropist, along with his daughter, is about to come visit, he broke a chair, put out their fire and forced Azelma to punch the window's pane, resulting in her cutting her hand.
- He, along with the Patron-Minette gang, abducted Jean Valjean and ordered him to write a letter to Cosette, telling her to return to the apartment, and they would keep her as a hostage until Valjean delivers 200,000 francs to him. To make it even worse, he did this even after Valjean had promised him financial support to help him out of poverty.
- Tried to kill Valjean for not giving him Cosette's location. He then tried to shoot Javert when he comes in to arrest him. However, his gun misfires, and he is arrested and sent to prison.
- He, along with the gang, escaped from prison and attempted to rob Jean Valjean's house, but were scared off by Eponine.
- Attempted to blackmail Marius by claiming that Jean Valjean was a murderer, but failed.
- Used Marius' money to escape to America, evading all consequences for his crimes, and became a successful slave trader.
- Though he claims his acts are justified because he fell into poverty, he was already a bad person before this and other characters suffer from poverty but don't act the way he does.
Trivia[]
- It has to be noted that only the original novel incarnation of Monsieur Thenardier can be classified as Pure Evil as the other incarnations of him usually being introduced as a humorous comic relief man.