Cosette: "Haunt" Bastille (Maya)

Cosette: “Haunt” Bastille

Lyrics:
We'll make our agreements
About when to meet
And I'll leave you in the doorway
The cold evening aches
As it leaves in its wake
All the memories left by the day
And I'm questioning why
As you look to the sky
That it's cloudless up above our heads
And thoughts come to mind
How our short little lives
Haven't left the path that they will tread
They will tread

I'll come back to haunt you
Memories will taunt you
And I will try to love you
It's not like I'm above you

The wisdom we learn as our minds
They do burn'll
Entice the naivety in youth
As adults will grow and maturity shows
The terrifying rarity of truth
As you turn to your mind
And your thoughts they rewind
To old happenings and things that are done
You can't find what's passed
Make that happiness last
Seeing from those eyes what you become
Well you become

I'll come back to haunt you
Memories will taunt you
And I will try to love you
It's not like I'm above you

I will see you there
Will see you there
Will see you there
I'll come back to haunt you
Memories will taunt you
And I will try to love you
It's not like I'm above you

Analysis:
“Haunt” by Bastille is about a person who is struggling to move past from and to accept the mistakes of their past. It is essentially a duet between a person’s past and present self, with the person’s current self trying to tell their past that they are trying to accept them. Jean Valjean’s path to redemption and to accepting himself began after his encounter with the Bishop, though he still fights to get out of the “ignorance is bliss” mindset when it comes to the evil within him. It is in this section that we see the beginnings of him reflecting on and facing his past. When Cosette and he are on the run from Javert, Jean Valjean is said to “carry two knapsacks: in one he had the thoughts of a saint, in the other the formidable talents of convict” (Hugo 196). The fact that he acknowledges and is willing to draw upon the qualities of his past life suggests that he’s come to better accept his criminality. Valjean has grown over the years, and with the maturity comes, as the lyrics say, “the terrifying rarity of truth.” He is coming to realize that there is evil inside of him, as there is within all people.

However, this self-awareness is slight, a small seed in need of water. Looking inside himself is painful for Valjean. As the lyrics say, “The cold evening aches / As it leaves in its wake / All the memories left by the day.” Despite the fact that the singer knows that confronting his or her past will bring him or her suffering, this person still persists, because otherwise those past actions will continue to haunt him or her. During Valjean’s meditations in the convent, he, like the singer, chooses to face his past, despite the pain it causes him. “He reverted, again and again, to himself; he felt his own pitiful unworthiness, and often wept” (Hugo 216). Even though Valjean is choosing to begin confronting his past, he will never be able to let go until he accepts what he has done and realizes that that evil will always be within him. As the chorus says, “And I will try to love you / It’s not like I’m above you.” It is time for Valjean to stop running from his past and to accept that it will follow him regardless of where he goes because it is a part of him.

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