Les Misérables: A Call For Revolution?
...ll, a humanity which sanctions wars, seem to me an inferior society, an inferior religion and humanity, … I condemn slavery, I banish poverty, I teach the ignorant, I treat disease, I lighten the night, and I hate hatred. That is what I am, and that is why I have written Les Misérables” (Ciccarelli 232). Victor Hugo utilizes his ability to accurately convey feelings through his characters to his advantage in order to express feelings of love and compassion even in the most seemingly hopeless conditions. One re-occurring theme in Les Misérables is the importance of just that: love and compassion. Hugo successfully uses all the characters to illustrate the power and necessity of compassion, which is needed to sustain life in such dismal times. Valjean’s transformation from a hardened criminal into a well-respected human being symbolizes Hugo’s emphasis on love; for it is only by learning to love others that Valjean is able to improve himself. Victor Hugo also makes it clear that loving others, although sometimes difficult and a needed lesson for many characters in his novel, is not a thankless task, illustrated by Jean Valjean and Fauchelevent. While serving as mayor of Montreuil-sur-mer, Valjean heroically saved the life of Fauchelevent when he was hopelessly pinned beneath an overturned carriage. Years later, Fauchelevent repays Valjean for his unwavering kindness by offering him refuge in the convent of Petit-Picpus. Hugo employs these characters solely from their brief encounter during which Fauchelevent was rendered helpless. His intertwining plot eventually causes these two to cross paths again, which allows Fauchelevent to repay Valjean. Hugo’s purpose for this is to illustrate the necessity of compassion among all people and to show how important reliance on other people can sometimes be. Valjean finally feels safe and at rest in the convent, forever grateful of Fauchelevent’s abiding kindness. Hugo emphasizes Valjean’s appreciation, “Everything around him, this quiet garden, these balmy flowers, these children, shouting with joy….His whole heart melted in gratitude and he loved more and more” (Ciccarelli 233). In Les Misérables, the subject of love can only be described as infectious: one person showing compassion to another, and in turn, it is passed on to someone else. Hugo manages to carry the message of love entirely throughout Les Misérables from character to character, bringing it full circle by the end of the novel. Bishop Myriel begins to transform Valjean with his acts of trust and kindness; and in turn, Valjean imparts this compassion on Cosette when he rescues her from the cruelty of the Thénardiers. Cosette’s love then reaches complete fulfillment with her marriage to Marius. Their love for each other is so strong that it leads them both to forgive Valjean for his criminal past, focusing only upon his newly improved out look on life and newfound compassion for others. Thus, the message of love and compassion has come full circle. Hugo sums up the true power of love: “To love another person is to see the face of God” (Chew). Love is only one subject concentrated highly upon in Les Misérables. Most importantly, another one is social injustice. This provides the foundation for Hugo’s argument and is the basis for his reasoning behind writing Les Misérables. “Hugo employs his novel to condemn the unjust class-based structure of nineteenth-century France, showing time and again that the society’s structure turns good, innocent people into beggars and criminals” (www.sparknotes.com). Hugo focuses on three areas that need particular attention: education, criminal justice, and the treatment of women. In Les Misérables, education is a social problem that Hugo addresses in order to bring attention to the necessary changes that need to be brought about. During this time period, education was lacking, leaving many citizens with insufficient knowledge and understanding. As a result, whether indirectly or directly, many people were left without the proper knowledge necessary to gain any sort of reputable social rank, or perhaps more importantly, any proper knowledge necessary to earn a living. Because of this, many people were left to live poor, destitute lives. All throughout Les Misérables Hugo scatters examples detailing poverty, cruelty, and oppression to help inform the reader of the unnecessary conditions forced upon the residents of nineteenth-century France. More critical attention is cast upon law enforcement and criminal justice throughout the novel. Jean Valjean serves as a prime example to reveal how the French criminal-justice system transforms simple crooks into long-term criminals. While Valjean is punished for his minuscule crime of stealing bread to feed his family, as well as trying to escape, for nearly 19 years, this only transforms him into a sneaky and vicious person. In truth, all he required was an act of kindness, such as was shown by Bishop Myriel, to transform him and set him on the right path. However, unlike Valjean, the Patron-Minette crime ring are “real criminals who rob and murder on a grand scale” (www.sparknotes.com), but they receive only short sentences in low security prisons. The society in Les Misérables illustrates how justice is inept at best. It hardly punishes major criminals yet tears apart the lives of people who are guilty of minor crimes, even those committed exclusively to feed the hungry. Hugo’s genius use of characters helps illustrate his main points of the novel. He uses them to convey to the reader what it is he is trying to say; in essence, the characters deliver his message of social justice. Each character in Les Misérables holds its own place and importance in the general message of Hugo’s classic literary masterpiece. Jean Valjean illustrates the emblematic change from criminal to upstanding citizen, despite his misfortunes and shortcomings. Javert is used to demonstrate the negligent, cruel, and often unjust treatment demonstrated by the police force. The most notable and most obvious message is embodied in the character of Fantine. Fantine is used to illustrate the weaknesses of women and is used to “symbolize that being female and poor in this society can drive a good person to despair, and ultimately, lead to death” (www.sparknotes.com). Jean Valjean is ultimately the hero of the novel and displays to the reader the admirable change he is able to undergo as a result of his newfound freedom and the compassion of others. Through him, Hugo is able to convey the true necessity of compassion and show how love from one can branch into unwavering concern for many. Because of Bishop Myriel’s example, love is passed on from one person to another and is shown to be steadfast throughout the most seemingly dismal circumstances. As a parallel to Valjean, Hugo introduces Javert, the pol...