If one were to ask what the basis of human nature and civilization encompasses, I would tell them to read Victor Hugo’s epic novel, Les Miserables (1862). Set in various locations in France, spanning from 1815 to 1832, the novel follows the main protagonist, Jean Valjean. The story begins with the Bishop of Digne and his daily life. Jean Valjean, a released convict, stumbles upon the town where the Bishop lives and is shunned from every inn he goes to due to his status as a former prisoner. The only one who will let him take shelter is the Bishop of Digne. This act of kindness transforms Jean Valjean from being spiteful of humanity to being saint-like towards it, in regards to the Bishops wishes.
Several years later, Jean Valjean becomes the mayor of a small French town, Montfermeil, and goes under the new alias of M. Madeleine. Afterwards, he meets a woman by the name of Fantine, who suffers from a great amount of misery. Fantine, having no way to support her child, Cosette, has given her to a family named the Thenardiers to take care of Cosette until she can support her. Oblivious to the mother, the Thenardiers are cruel and treat Cosette as a slave. Jean Valjean promises to retrieve Cosette for her mother; however, he reveals his true identity when someone in a neighboring town is put to trial under his name. Fantine dies and Javert, a police inspector who follows Jean Valjean throughout the novel, arrests him.
Jean Valjean escapes from prison and finds Cosette. He buys her from the Thenardiers and adores her as his own child. They rent a small room in Paris, but Javert soon discovers them. While being chased, Jean Valjean manages to ascend into a convent of nuns with Cosette. They soon settle into the convent and live the...
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...ground knowledge of French history, thus these chapters were dull. A fifty-page chapter on the battle of Waterloo lead me only to one point of significance regarding the story. However, the story is captivating and the philosophical sermons are very convincing and interesting. Those who can make it past the boring, overwritten, historical lectures will found a moving tale of love, misery, and life itself. The story raises the novel back to a captivating status after a slew of pointless information passes over the reader’s head.
Overall, this book is massive. Adding up to 1,463 pages, only the most persistent and dedicated of readers will be able to finish this in one semester. I was rewarded for never giving up as the story is unlike any other drama told. It is truly heart wrenching, but has shone me how the goodness of the human soul conquers all other endeavors.
This is my personal reflection about this book. First and foremost, I would like to say that this book is very thick and long to read. There are about nineteen chapters and 278 pages altogether. As a slow reader, it is a quite hard for me to finish reading it within time. It took me weeks to finish reading it as a whole. Furthermore, it is written in English version. My English is just in average so sometimes I need to refer to dictionary for certain words. Sometimes I use google translate and ask my friends to explain the meaning of certain terms.
The book is not very long and is organized in chapters, which makes the process of reading more comfortable. Despite being a historical piece of literature, the language is not formally harsh and the readers are given an opportunity to delve into the feelings and emotions that the main character, young slave Celia, has to go through in her daily life in slavery. In the introductory part of the book, McLaurin puts forward the purpose of
Antoinette's story begins when she is a young girl in early nineteenth- century Jamaica. The white daughter of ex-slave owners. Five years have passed since her father, Mr. Cosway, reportedly drunk himself to death. As a young girl, Antoinette lives at Coulibri Estate with her widowed mother, Annette, her sickly younger brother, Pierre.Antoinette spends her days in isolation Discontent, however, is rising among the freed blacks, who protest one night outside the house. Bearing torches, they accidentally set the house on fire, and Pierre is badly hurt. The events of the night leave Antoinette dangerously ill for six weeks. She wakes to find herself in Aunt Cora's care. Pierre has died. When Antoinette is seventeen, Mr. Mason announces on his visit that friends from England will be coming the following winter. He means to present Antoinette into society as a cultivated woman, fit for marriage. Richard Mason offered him £30,000 if he proposed. Desperate for money, he agreed to the marriage. After the marriage everything seemed to be fine but then after a while Antoinettes husband started drifting away from her. This drove her crazy and made her question her marriage. The story ended with Antoinette locked up in England in Rochesters house.
...'s anguishes with obsession, help him to more effectively relate his novel, Les Misérables, to the reader. In the book's ending, Jean Valjean dies knowing he is happy, content and prepared for his death. His adoration for Cosette has left her loving him and satisfied with the life he has helped her create. Before Jean Valjean dies, he says to Cosette and Marius, "I die happy. Let me put my hands upon you dear beloved heads" (399). Like Jean Valjean, Javert's obsessions rule his life, but with negative intentions rather than positive ones. Once Javert realizes his obsessions are nothing but empty promises, he too is empty and chooses to end his life. Three of the main characters of the story, find that their perseverance and obsession to have the life they wish for ends triumphantly.
In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo portrays human nature in a neutral state. Humans are born with neither good nor bad instincts, but rather society affects our actions and thoughts. Hugo portrays the neutral state of mind through Jean Valjean and Cosette. The two extremes of good and evil are represented through Thénardier and the bishop. Good and evil coexists in the society and affects Valjean and Cosette. It is the two extremes of good and evil that dictate the lives of Valjean and Cosette. The bishop represents charity and love. Everything he's ever had, he gave to charity. When the bishop first met Valjean, he said, "You need not tell me who you are. This is not my house; it is the house of Christ. It does not ask any comer whether he has a name, but whether he has an affliction. You are suffering; you are hungry and thirsty; be welcome. And do not thank me; do not tell me that I take you into my house..... whatever is here is yours." (pg. 15-16) The bishop didn't look at him as a convict; he looked at him as a fellow brother. Later, when the bishop found out that Valjean stole his silver, he wasn't mad, but offered all of his silver to Valjean saying, "Don't forget that you promised me to use this silver to become an honest man." Thénardier, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of the bishop. He represents the corruptive nature of society. He's the one that changes people for the bad. An example of how Thénardier represents greed and evil is how he...
9. Valjean’s punishment certainly did not fit his crime. Neither did Fantine deserve the treatment she received in his factory. Discuss Hugo’s purpose in using these situations in his social commentary.
Meursault, the main character and the narrator of the story, is a 30-year-old shipping clerk who lives an ordinary day-to-day existence. We see him as a son (at his mother's funeral); as a friend; as a solitary creature pursuing simple experiences from moment to moment; and as a prisoner, first on trial, then awaiting execution. Physical sensations of sun and wind and physical activities such as swimming or running mean a great deal to him. Larger experiences in his life- the death of his mother, a chance for marriage, and a change in job- mean relatively little. We learn almost nothing about his past, though he is a curiously candid person, speaking of experiences in the present that most of us, if we felt them, might keep silent about. He has a detached attitude toward other people. This annoys most people, but some are attracted to him because of his silence and his habit of not offering judgments. The central event in his life, at least as far as it influences others, is killing an Arab. His most intense experience, however, is his attack on a chaplain while in prison.
When Meursault returns home he decides to take another day off and relax at the beach. On his way out he sees an old man beating his dog and cussing at it ruthlessly. Normally most people would be bothered by the fact of a man beating a small dog, but Muersault watches as if nothing bad were happening. When Meursault is at the beach he meets a girl, named Marie, which he finds very attractive. Meursault and Marie become very close. As the story progresses they begin taking part in sexual activities. Marie tells Muersault that she loves him and asks if he loves her back.
This book is a very interesting read, if you have some self discipline. I mean that you need some self discipline because this book didn’t really captivate me in the sense that I couldn’t put it down. But after reading it for a while, I started to appreciate the author’s way of describing the characters and actions in this book.
Several people in Jean Valjeans life allow him to rediscover the meaning of love. The good bishop is the one responsible for initiating this rediscovery. Jean Valjean's new life begins when the bishop utters the words, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!” (30). This opens Jean Valjean to the good of the world and allows him to immerse himself in the love Cosette offers him, something he couldn't do without the help of the bishop. The bishop assists Jean Valjean in seeing that there are people who will help him despite his rocky background. This creates a reason for Jean Valjean to act on the experience to rebuild his life and become an honest man. This change of heart helps him feel the love that Cosette displays for him, which he has never known. He slowly begins to love and care f...
The relationship shared by Pierre and Helene is best described as a lustful charade. It is no coincidence that Pierre, one of the most introspective characters in the novel, first marries a shallow, inwardly-ugly adulterer. His first recorded attitude towards Helene is one of admira...
Les Misèrables was written by Victor Hugo, and published in 1862. It has been translated into many different languages, and turned into a play and movie as when as being a book. When a friend asked Hugo why he wrote the book he replied as follows, "I condemn slavery, I banish poverty, I teach ignorance, I treat disease, I lighten the night, and I hate hatred. That is what I am, and that is why I have written Les Misèrables." The book Les Misèrables tells of Hugo’s life, and of France in the early 1800’s while telling a tale of change, conflicts between classes, and justice. Hugo wanted this book to be as our government is for us, for the people by the people.
The story begins with the Marquise de Merteuil corresponding with Vicomte de Valmont regarding a luscious new act of ‘revenge’, as she describes it, against the Comte de Gercourt. The young Cecile de Volanges has just come home from the convent and her marriage to Gercourt has been arranged. However, before he can wed the innocent child, Merteuil proposes Valmont ‘educate’ her, thus spoiling Gercourt’s fancy for untarnished convent girls. Valmont is uninterested in such an easy seduction and is far more aroused by the thought of lulling The Presidente’ de Tourvel, the very epitome of virtue, into submission. And so the tale unfolds.
Humans think one way yet talk another, feel one way yet expose another and that is incomprehensible complexity by itself. This habit we embrace reveals our multifaceted nature inside. At some point after Falk returns, he lies down on a rigid, stiff bench. Mrs. Terrenoire, even with all the contempt she displays towards her child's executioner, feels sorry for him. Upon seeing him she says: "That bench can't be much good for sleeping… God knows why I'm letting you spend the night here." Another point of interest is when Nicole converses with Falk and discloses to him how "Father had no love for Jean" and how her and jean both "never cared much for each other." It was very obvious that to her and to her father Jean did not matter at all. However, "Danielle howled for days. We couldn't get her to eat or take her dirty clothes off. She adored Jean." By the end of the story, Nicole demands that Falk joins her in a dance. To our surprise, she was actually just driving him to his hopeless demise. Meanwhile, Danielle tries to warn Falk's by pulling his arm and yelling in an attempt to spare him from the threat she has detected. Before any of this happened she tried to take him inside, but he replied by saying "Soon," this is a mystery in itself. Soon was his imagination of Danielle and himself inside and alone, away from all of the burdens, troubles and obstacles. This is all what he has ever wanted and asked
How do Jean Valjean’s actions and words in the final reading (pp. 548-595) relate to or develop a theme of the novel?