Nagpala, Ivan Cheeno T. Prof.

Dizon

VICTOR HUGO

Les Misrables

Sypnosis Les Misrables is a story of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict whose life is transformed and turned toward goodness by an act of Christian charity. It is also a history of Hugo's time. With wealth of social and philosophical commentary, the work is an eloquent plea for social reform. Jean Valjean was released after nineteen years in prison. He had been sentenced to a term of five years because he stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and family. Jean's sentenced was increased because of his attempts to escape. During his imprisonment, he astonished others by his exhibitions of unusual physical strength. Freed at last, he started out on foot for a distant part of the country. Innkeepers refused him food and lodging because his yellow passport revealed that he was an ex-convict. Finally, he came to the house of Bishop of Digne, a saintly man, who treated him graciously, fed him, and gave him a bed. During the night Jean stole the Bishop's silverware and fled. The incident was reported , and the policemen immediately captured him with the stolen goods. Without any censure, the priest did not only give him what he had stolen, but also added his silver candlesticks to the gift. The Bishop told the gendermes that those silverware were given to Jean as present. So, the astonished gendermes let the prisoner go. Alone with the Bishop, Jean was confounded by the churchman's attitude; though, the Bishop asked only that he should use the silver as means of living an honest life.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The book "Les Miserables" begins with a man, Valjean, who is a violent criminal. Through the love of his adopted daughter and the acceptance with unconditional regard by the Bishop of Digne, Valjean, undergoes a transformation into a good person of deep moral conscience. He is followed throughout his life by another man of good moral conscience, a detective who needs to capture him. The question of social injustice is a conflict between the detective and Valjean. Valjean saves the detective which makes the detective question is own understanding of what is justice. Should he arrest the changed Valjean or should he let him go? There is no longer a clear line between what is just and what is unjust. Jean Valjean was initially put into prison where he became hardened because he was trying to obtain food for his sister's hungry children and stole a loaf of bread. The theme of social injustice is evident because he is of a lower class and poor and the penalty is extremely stiff for his crime. His misery has caused him to break the law. He is still targeted after his release because he must show a card telling others he is a criminal, so he cannot get work. The classes are significantly divided. When the woman dies, who is Collette's mother, because she is the poor child of a prostitute she will be sent to an orphanage where she will be mistreated and worked as if she is slave labor. Valjean takes the child as his own to prevent her from having a life of misery as a pauper and ward of the state. The prostitute, Fantine, because of her low social status is offered no protection by law after she is badly beaten. She would never have become a prostitute had her husband lived and there was no alternative way for her to make a living. There is a class uprising in the book in which the detective is taken as a prisoner. The population is exhausted by lack of human rights and dignity as they demand change from the government. Many of them are killed during the uprising. To draw another analogy, Victor Hugo is the French version of the English Charles Dickens. Contemporaries in time, both men perceived the tremendous gap between the upper classes and those in the lower. While Dickens described society as a "prison" in which few, if any, could rise above their position in society, Hugo writes of Jean Valjean, condemned unjustly to prison, who escapes the physical prison, but is unable to escape the "prison" of always having been a criminal. For one thing, he must carry a yellow card identifying himself as a criminal. As a result, he cannot find work, and, in desperation--a state which precipitated his first crime--he steals the candle stands from the bishop. It is only because of the charity of the bishop who tells the

gendarmes that Valjean was given these valuables by him that Valjean, a "miserable," a chance in life. And, with this chance, Valjean redeems himself in many ways, practicing the same charity towards other "miserables" such as Fantine and Collette. Nevertheless, he remains condemned by society and is constantly pursued by Inspector Javert until the end of Javert's life. Similarly, in Dickens's "Great Expectations" in which Magwitch, an unfortunate "wretch"-a "miserable" who also has stolen to keep from starving--escapes from the prison ship on which he has been sentenced after his complicity with a gentleman who has taken advantage of him and strives to redeem himself in New South Wales. After he becomes a wealthy sheep farmer, he acts as Pip's benefactor, but he is still condemned by the "prison" of society, and cannot escape the fate of England's laws. Thus, both Dickens and Hugo write of the miserable fate of the poor, who albeit good in soul, cannot redeem themselves in society. Hugo's title seeks to identify the portion of society that most tend to forget. The downtrodden, the poor, the lower rung, and the dispossessed could very well be described as "the miserable ones. Literally translated, the title can be seen as "the wretched" and "the criminals." In focusing so much attention on those who might not receive any, Hugo seems to be making a very strong statement about the nature of social judgment. When the reader analyzes, like Valjean does, the nature of crime and punishment, need and excess, and justice and fairness, there is a sobering reality that those who are deemed as "the miserable" individuals of society possess an equal chance at happiness as anyone else. Valjean's condemnation is dubious and disproportionate given the circumstances, and Fantine's hopes of justice are dashed for as a prostitute, she falls under the socially constructed blanked of "les miserables." To a great extent seen in the conclusion of the play, Hugo's title is a reflection of what is into what should be, in that all individuals are entitled to equality within the law and of opportunity.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Although Victor Marie Hugo s Les Misrables is now considered a scholarly classic, it began as a popular romance novel. When it first appeared in 1862, long lines outside bookstores in France and Belgium heralded the public success of this epic novel in four volumes, a novel that brought its author unrivalled renown. In September 1862 he was honored at a banquet, the first of its kind, at which over 2,000 authors, scientists, and statesmen praised him and his work. The novel was published in over forty countries in its first ten years and became the subject of six stage and film productions, most recently the Tony Award-winning musical. At least part of the novel s success is due to its humanitarian themes and part also to affection for Hugo, whose open protest of Emperor Napoleon III had exiled him to the English Channel island of Guernsey, where he completed it. But its success is due also to the engaging adventures of the saintly convict, Jean Valjean. Unfortunately, Jean Valjean has become a well-known but seldom-read character, Les Misrables, mere plot. This curriculum unit seeks to unravel some of the novel s complexities and present it in light teachers and students will find thought-provoking and engaging. Both students and the elite literary world criticize Les Misrables for the same things: it s long, rambling digressions; sentimentality; and too-frequent use of coincidence. In his biography, Victor Hugo: A Tumultuous Life, Samuel Edwards notes, It would be gross understatement to say that Hugo exaggerated. He was incapable of reporting anything, trivial or important, in factual terms, and described any and every event in his own grandiose manner. . Eugene Ionesco attacks Hugo and his work as insincere, posed and clichd and states that he never took the trouble to think. He explains Hugo s popularity by

characterizing readers as the semi educated amorphous mass that constitutes the romantic pub1ic. But among this amorphous mass of admirers are some noted figures. Early on, Chateaubriand praised Hugo s work. Tolstoy saw him towering over his century as a model of the highest moral and artistic consciousness. According to Sartre, he was a man endowed with almost superhuman power and Dostoevsky even compared him to Homer as a voice of spiritual regeneration. Indeed even Hugo himself noted his own grandeur. His son Charles brought these words from his exiled father. I find it consolation that I am regarded as more than a writer of verse by my fellow countrymen. To them I am a national institution embodying in my one person all the best that is France. Ego Hugo, the motto he wrote for his own family crest is not one of his exaggerations.

Les Misrables comprises ideas Hugo found impressive. Preoccupied with the condemned man, he visited prisoners just prior to execution, and from this study emerged the convict Jean Valjean. He wanted to show that the executioner should not order society, and thus he created Inspector Javert, who dutifully and unquestioningly delivers men to the galleys. He was impressed with a report that a bishop in the Midi aided a convict in 1835, and he based his theme of religion superseding and transcending societal laws on this report. Also included are his early political themes: opposition to the death penalty and poor prison conditions and the need for improving the quality of women and children s lives. Tragedies in his family, mental illness and premature death, increased his interest in religion, especially mysticism and the occult, and in Philosophie. Commencement d une livre, originally intended as the novel s preface, he states that he originally wanted it to be a religious book.9 Indeed, with its wide range of themes, Les Misrables is a social, historical, as well as religious book. Les Misrables is set during one of the most tempestuous times in history, the period of the French Revolution and beyond. Gausses for the revolution are many and complex, but quite simply, revolution was born of dissatisfaction with social injustices of the day. While the ruling class lived in extreme opulence, the peasants Stan Ed. In addition there had arisen a merchant class, the bourgeoisie, who despite growing wealth and position, were forced to endure injustices the ruling class placed upon them. Revolution began when on July 14, 1789; the people of Paris stormed the Bastille and freed its political prisoners. Thus began a bloody time during which royalty and revolutionaries were guillotined. With the reign of Louis XVI came the Reign of Terror, when anyone who aroused the least suspicion to the new government was executed. During this period France was threatened from both within and without, giving Napoleon Bonaparte the opportunity to gain recognition on the battlefield. In 1795 a group of moderates gained power, ending the revolution and forming a constitution, which lasted only until Napoleon returned from Egypt proclaiming himself emperor. Napoleon I ruled from 1804-14, after which the Bourbons regained power under the rule of Louis XVIII, who ruled from 1814-15. Napoleon returned from his exile in the Elba to rule for the Hundred Days in 1815. He was again ousted, however, by Louis XVIII, whose reign ended in 1824 with the succession of his brother Charles X. Charles X tried to restore absolutism to France, and revolution ended his reign in 1830. The revolutionists placed in power Louis-Philippe, a member of the House of Orleans, to replace the House of Bourbons. They hoped that LouisPhilippe would be a king of the people, but Louis-Philippe s interests did not rest with the people, who exiled him in 1848. The nephew of Napoleon Bonaparts, Louis Napoleon was

elected president but proclaimed himself emperor Napoleon Ill in 1851. He remained in power until the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The Third Republic was established in 1871. Victor Hugo s life spanned the period from Napoleon s reign as First Consul to the Third Republic, and Les Misrables is his attempt to explain the violent fluctuations between control by royalty and by the people, revolution and restoration. Though perhaps overly sentimental or exaggerated, it is based on his reading of things as they were. His interpretation of history is based on the personal, political, and religious, and it was through the weaving and unravelling of these threads that he saw meaning. Throughout his life Hugo would experience the tension between innocence and romantic conquest brought on by his parent s affairs and battles over the children and his own relationship with Adle Foucher, a childhood friend, whom he married in 1822 after obtaining money from his first book of published poems. Like his parents marriage, his was not to last long. Although he was to have many affairs throughout his married life, his fifty-year relationship with Juliette Drouet, accepted by all of France, weathered them all. His innocence/romance conflict appears in Valjean s ambiguous relationship with Fantine and later Cosette, Whom he reluctantly gives to Marius. Hugo s political career, inspired by his belief that a poet must fulfill his obligation as a leader, led to his nineteen-year exile from France, an exile that finds its parallel in Valjean s nineteen-year imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread. On a visit to Brussels in 1860, Hugo resumed work on Les Misres, begun in 1845. There on the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean, he wrote the Waterloo chapter and reshaped Les Misresto become Les Misrables. He intended to complete Les Misrables on the battlefield of Waterloo and in the month the battle occurred. Only in 1870, when he thought his country needed his help after France s defeat to Germany at the battle of Sedan, did he return to Paris. He was elected to the assembly which met to form a new government after the fall of Napoleon III in 1871. Les Misrables is based on a chain of beneficence that builds as characters intentionally or unintentionally assist one another, linking all to the overall Good. Although the religion is part of the chain, the law is not. The bishop protects Valjean from the law When Valjean has, in fact, stolen from him. As historical fiction, Les Misrables entwines the fictive and the factual to offer an explanation for the turbulence of the age. Though Valjean is named mayor under the pseudonym Monsieur Madeleine, he is anti-political in his role and quickly drops into hiding, relinquishing his office. He remains outside of politics. Political views are instead expressed through Gillenormand, Pontmercy, and Marius. Gillenormand, Marius s grandfather represents

the royalists who tried to deny the revolution, a denial symbolized by Gillenormand s attempt to raise Marius as a royalist, unaware of his father s existence. When Marius discovers his father he discovers the value of revolution as a necessary part of progress. Hugo uses the laughter motif to illustrate the ironies of Truth. In the Waterloo digression, he shows Napoleon on the battlefield laughing at his presumed victory. Napoleon fails to take into account the Infinite; however, for as the narrator states, The perfect smile belongs to God alone. God is Waterloo s victor. Later in the novel Gavroche dies amid a burst of laughter, laughter that represents the young, passionate, emerging Paris. Hugo uses Napoleon to show that God controls even the political world. Hugo constructed Les Misrables to advance his theme. He believed the world has two readings: historical and cyclical. The historical reading interprets events as following one another in a line; the cyclical reading interprets them as circling to the point of origin. The idea of forward movement links up to the point of origin. The historical reading accounts for the fluctuation between revolution and restoration; the cyclical reading accounts for consistency in the way things are. The novel s fluctuation between plot advancement and digression mirrors this forward and backward movement; its reaffirmation of Valjean as passerby mirrors a return to the point of origin. Study of Les Misrables could take from six to eleven weeks depending on the level of students and depth of study. The unit is adaptable for tenth grade honors and college preparatory classes, and eleventh and twelfth grade honors, college preparatory, and basic classes. Unfortunately the novel s massive length makes teaching it in its entirety nearly impossible. This unit seeks to enable students to read, understand, and enjoy Les Misrables, as well as improve their skills in literary analysis, writing, and listening. Through study of biblical and historical allusions, symbols, metaphors, and other figurative language, students will be able to trace the theme of salvation from below.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A conclusion is all commentary; no facts. You should have already made your point in your body paragraph. The conclusion is there to make your reader think. Clarify your theme, evaluate alternate ideas, or explain how the theme applies to the world. Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables, spent the majority of his life as an exile during the time period that immediately followed the reign of terror. Les Miserables pinpoints the problems in society and the rift between good and evil. Hugo s masterpiece stands as a reminder to us all that, no matter the consequences, good must prevail.

Jean Valjean, despite being a convict, is essentially noble. After changing his name, Valjean settles down in a small town, always fearful that he will be discovered. When the police arrest another man in his name, Valjean must decide whether to turn himself in, or to keep silent in order to retain his liberty. In the end, Valjean reveals himself to save the innocent man from life imprisonment. Jean Valjean would rather die, abased and despised, then allow someone to suffer on his behalf. Jean Valjean would rather re-enter into hell and there become an angel than, "remain in paradise and there become a demon!" It is human nature to judge. But a person's heart is impossible to discern. It doesn't matter who they were or what we think they might become, but who they are now. We must judge, but we must do so righteously. As it says in the book, "...what is said about men often has as must influence upon their lives...as what they do." Be cautious of how you label others; the label could become a brand. A present time situation might be soldiers killing other soldiers. It is legal, but is morally wrong. In conclusion, the novel, Les Miserables, is a universal book with themes that many people from many countries can relate to. That is why it is put in the class of classics. It is also popular because it can be related with present time situations and events. Les Miserables is the story of four people. Bishop Myriel, Jean Valjean, Famine, and Marius Pontmercy, who meet, part, then meet again during the most agitated decades of nineteenth-century France. It also tells the story of the 1832 revolution and describes the unpleasant side of Paris. The novel is in essence a plea for humane treatment of the poor and for equality among all citizens.