Les Miserables - Reconciliation between a Man and Himself
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Les Miserables - Reconciliation between a Man and Himself
The ending of the Victor Hugo novel, Les Miserables, contains a reconciliation between a man and himself, and his family. This is, in many ways, the entire purpose of the book. Goodness or saintliness can be achieved, despite difficult or unwholesome beginnings. This theme is an enduring one, because of both its truth and its presentation. Fay Weldon may as well have been describing Les Miserables when she said "The writer, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer happy endings through moral development .... some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death."
The hero Jean Valjean undergoes quite the transformation throughout the course of his story. He begins as a criminal and convict with absolutely no scruples. A kindly prelate forgives him after a theft, and simply turns the other cheek. This act of unexpected generosity inspires Valjean...
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and Jean Valjean
"Is there not in every human soul, was there not in the particular soul of Jean VaIjean, a primitive spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world, immortal in the next, which can be developed by good, kindled, lit up, and made resplendently radiant, and which evil can never entirely extinguish." (Hugo, p. 78)
Victor Hugo's 1862 epic novel Les Miserables ranks among the literary greats of the 19th Century. Despite its awesome length, it has