Charlie N.

Doton

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

1. Overview about the Author:

Victor Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. Hugo is
considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. Outside of France, his most
famous works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (French:
Notre-Dame de Paris), 1831. In France, Hugo is known primarily for his poetry collections, such
as Les Contemplations (The Contemplations) and La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the
Ages). Hugo was at the forefront of the romantic literary movement with his play Cromwell and
drama Hernani. Many of his works have inspired music, both during his lifetime and after his
death, including the musicals Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Misérables. He produced more than
4,000 drawings in his lifetime, and campaigned for social causes such as the abolition of capital
punishment. Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the
decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism; his work touches upon
most of the political and social issues and the artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the
Panthéon in Paris. His legacy has been honoured in many ways, including his portrait being
placed on French currency.

2. Biography of the Author

Victor Hugo was born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France. After training as a lawyer,
Hugo embarked on the literary career. He became one of the most important French Romantic
poets, novelists and dramatists of his time, having assembled a massive body of work while
living in Paris, Brussels and the Channel Islands. Hugo died on May 22, 1885, in Paris. Victor-
Marie Hugo was born in Besançon, France, on February 26, 1802, to mother Sophie Trébuche
and father Joseph-Léopold-Sigisbert Hugo. His father was a military officer who later served as a
general under Napoleon. Victor Hugo was the third son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo
(1774–1828) and Sophie Trébuchet (1772–1821); his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo (1798–
1855) and Eugène Hugo (1800–1837). He was born in 1802 in Besançon in the eastern region of
Franche-Comté. On 19 November 1821, Léopold Hugo wrote to his son that he had been
conceived on one of the highest peaks in the Vosges Mountains, on a journey from Lunéville to
Besançon. " This elevated origin, he went on, seems to have had effects on you so that your muse
is now continually sublime.[1]" Léopold Hugo was a freethinking republican who considered
Napoleon a hero; by contrast, Sophie Hugo was a Catholic Royalist who was intimately involved
with her possible lover General Victor Lahorie,[2] who was executed in 1812 for plotting against
Napoleon. Hugo's childhood was a period of national political turmoil. Napoleon was proclaimed
Emperor of the French two years after Hugo's birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored
before his 13th birthday. The opposing political and religious views of Hugo's parents reflected
the forces that would battle for supremacy in France throughout his life: Hugo's father was a
high-ranking officer in Napoleon's army until he failed in Spain (one of the reasons why his
name is not present on the Arc de Triomphe). Since Hugo's father was an officer, the family
moved frequently and Hugo learned much from these travels. On a childhood family trip to
Naples, Hugo saw the vast Alpine passes and the snowy peaks, the magnificently blue
Mediterranean, and Rome during its festivities.[3] Though he was only five years old at the time,
he remembered the six-month-long trip vividly. They stayed in Naples for a few months and then
headed back to Paris.
3. Analysis

SETTING: We begin this story in the area of Digne, which is where Bishop Myriel lives. Later,
we move to the towns of Montfermeil and Montreuil-sur-mer. So far, so good. But Victor Hugo
saves his most vivid and spirited descriptions of setting for Paris, which is the setting for the
entire second half of this book. In earlier descriptions, Hugo might mention a passing detail
about France's small towns and village. But once we get to Paris, we get descriptions like this:
Paris is a sum total, the ceiling of the human race. The prodigious city is an epitome of dead and
living manners and customs. To observe Paris is to review the whole course of history, filling the
aps with sky and stars. (3.1.9.4) Hugo goes on like this for several chapters, giving us one of the
most in-depth portraits of Paris you'll ever find in any book, except maybe Hugo's other books,
like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The guy even spends several chapters just outlining the
Paris sewer system. Hugo's interest in Paris borders on obsession, so you can see why he would
also be obsessed with the welfare of the people living in this city. He believes that Paris is the
cradle of all human civilization, which is why it's so horrifying to him that most of the city's
inhabitants spend their lives starving and freezing.

NARRATOR POINT OF VIEW: Third-Person Omniscient

It's easy to miss, but the level of all-seeing power (or omniscience) that Victor Hugo claims in
this book actually changes as we move from the early chapters to the later ones. In the early
chapters, Hugo steps forward and claims that he, the author, is the narrator of this story. We see
this claim in passages like this: In another essay he examines the theological writings of Charles-
Louis Hugo, Bishop of Ptolémais, a great-great-uncle of the present writer [Victor Hugo], in
which he proves that a number of pamphlets published in the last century under the pseudonym
of Barleycorn are to be attributed to this prelate. (1.1.5.10) In these early stages of the book,
Hugo admits to having limited knowledge of his characters and only knowing about them
through historical documents and stories. When talking about Bishop Myriel, for example, Hugo
claims, "As to the truth in general of the tales that were told about the early life of M. Myriel, no
one could vouch for it" (1.1.1.8). As the novel carries on, though, Hugo starts diving in and out
of character's minds like a dolphin playing in the ocean. Just look at some of his early
descriptions of Thénardier and Inspector Javert and you'll see a clear difference from this early
description: He was cunning, rapacious, indolent and shrewd, and by no means indifferent to
maidservants, which was why his wife no longer kept any. (2.3.2.5). In this case, we find Hugo
much more willing to straight up tell us what his character's mentality is like, rather than leaving
it to us to decide from our own observations. It's almost as if the longer the book goes, the more
Hugo wants to make sure that we sympathize with the right people and the right ideas.

3.1 Characters:

 Jean Valjean - Cosette’s adopted father. Valjean is an ex-convict who leaves behind a life
of hatred and deceit and makes his fortune with his innovative industrial techniques. He
finds fulfillment in loving his adopted daughter and helping people who are in difficult
situations, even when it means risking his own life and welfare. Valjean adopts
pseudonyms to evade the police and combines a convict’s street smarts with his
newfound idealism and compassion. His whole life is a quest for redemption, and he
ultimately finds bliss on his deathbed.
 Cosette - Fantine’s daughter, who lives as Valjean’s adopted daughter after her mother
dies. Cosette spends her childhood as a servant for the Thénardiers in Montfermeil, but
even this awful experience does not make her hardened or cynical. Under the care of
Valjean and the nuns of Petit-Picpus, Cosette ultimately blossoms into a beautiful,
 educated young woman. She finds fulfillment in her love for Marius. Cosette is innocent
and docile, but her participation in Valjean’s many escapes from the law show that she
also possesses intelligence and bravery.
 Javert - A police inspector who strictly believes in law and order and will stop at nothing
to enforce France’s harsh penal codes. Javert is incapable of compassion or pity, and
performs his work with such passion that he takes on a nearly animal quality when he is
on the chase. He nurses an especially strong desire to recapture Valjean, whose escapes
and prosperity he sees as an affront to justice. Ultimately, Javert is unable to say with
certainty that Valjean deserves to be punished. This ambiguity undermines the system of
belief on which Javert bases his life and forces him to choose between hypocrisy and
honor.
 Fantine - A working-class girl who leaves her hometown of Montreuil-sur-mer to seek
her fortune in Paris. Fantine’s innocent affair with a dapper student named Tholomyès
leaves her pregnant and abandoned. Although she is frail, she makes a Herculean effort to
feed herself and her daughter, Cosette. Even as she descends into prostitution, she never
stops caring for Cosette. She represents the destruction that nineteenth-century French
society cruelly wreaks on the less fortunate.
 Marius Pontmercy - The son of Georges Pontmercy, a colonel in Napoléon’s army.
Marius grows up in the home of his grandfather, M. Gillenormand, a monarchist. Marius
has an identity crisis when he learns the real reason for his separation from his father, and
this crisis sets him on the path to discovering himself. An innocent young man, Marius is
nonetheless capable of great things and manages both to fight on the barricades and
successfully court the love of his life, Cosette.
 M. Myriel - The bishop of Digne. M. Myriel is a much-admired clergyman whose great
kindness and charity have made him popular throughout his parish. He passes on these
same qualities to Valjean and initiates the ex-convict’s spiritual renewal by saving
Valjean from arrest and making him promise to live as an honest man.
 M. Thénardier - A cruel, wretched, money-obsessed man who first appears as Cosette’s
keeper and tormentor. Thénardier extorts money from whomever he can, and he
frequently serves as an informant to whoever will bid the highest. His schemes range
from robbery to fraud to murder, and he has strong ties to the criminal underworld in
Paris. Blinded by greed, Thénardier is incapable of loving other human beings and spends
every minute in pursuit of money.
 Mme. Thénardier - M. Thénardier’s wife. Mme. Thénardier is just as evil as her husband
and takes special pleasure in abusing Cosette. In later years, she becomes her husband’s
most devoted accomplice and is particularly enthusiastic about his schemes to rob
Valjean and Cosette.
 Eponine - The Thénardiers’ eldest daughter. Eponine is a wretched creature who helps
her parents steal, but she is eventually redeemed by her love for Marius. She proves that
no one is beyond redemption, and she ultimately emerges as one of the novel’s most
tragic and heroic figures.
 M. Gillenormand - Marius’s ninety-year-old maternal grandfather. Gillenormand
prevents Marius from seeing his father, Georges Pontmercy, because he fears that
Pontmercy will corrupt Marius. A devout monarchist, Gillenormand rejects the French
Revolution outright and also rejects Pontmercy’s Napoléonic beliefs. Although
Gillenormand’s classist views sometimes offend Marius, he truly loves his grandson and
ultimately does what is necessary to make Marius happy.
 Gavroche - The Thénardiers’ oldest son. Gavroche is kicked out of the house at an early
age and becomes a Parisian street urchin. He is a happy-go-lucky child who enjoys the
 small pleasures of life and demonstrates unusual generosity toward those even less
fortunate than he is. He is also fierce and brave, and plays a decisive role in the barricade
even though he does not have a gun.
 Colonel Georges Pontmercy - An officer in Napoléon’s army and Marius’s father.
Pontmercy is severely wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, and mistakenly believing that
Thénardier has saved his life, he asks that Marius honor this debt. Although we know
little about Pontmercy’s personal life, his politics greatly influence the young Marius.
 Enjolras - The leader of the Friends of the ABC. Enjolras is a radical student
revolutionary. He is both wild and beautiful. Together with Courfeyrac and Marius,
Enjolras leads the insurrection at the barricade.
 Fauchelevent - A critic of Valjean’s while Valjean is the mayor of Montreuil-sur-mer
under the assumed name of Madeleine. Fauchelevent becomes indebted to Valjean when
Valjean saves him from a carriage accident. When they meet again years later,
Fauchelevent returns the favor by hiding Valjean and Cosette in a convent.
 Petit-Gervais - A small boy whom Valjean robs shortly after leaving Digne.
 Champmathieu - A poor, uneducated man who unfortunately resembles Valjean so much
that he is identified, tried, and almost convicted as Valjean. Champmathieu proves to be
too dim-witted to defend himself successfully, revealing the callousness of the French
justice system.
 M. Mabeuf - A churchwarden in Paris who tells Marius the truth about his father. Mabeuf
and Marius become friends during tough times, and Mabeuf later dies a heroic death on
the barricade.
 Patron-Minette - Actually four people, Patron-Minette is a Parisian crime ring so close-
knit that its four members—Montparnasse, Babet, Claquesous, and Gueulemer—are
described as four heads of the same violent beast. Patron-Minette controls all the crime in
one section of Paris and assists in the Thénardiers’ ambush of Valjean.
 Felix Tholomyès - Fantine’s lover in Paris. Tholomyès is a wealthy student who thinks
much less of his relationship with Fantine than she does. He gets Fantine pregnant and
then abandons her as a joke. Tholomyès is Cosette’s biological father, although the two
never meet.
 Azelma - The Thénardiers’ younger daughter. Azelma grows up pampered and spoiled
but ends up enduring the same poverty as the rest of her family.

3.2 Plot

a. Introduction- Meet Jean Valjean. He's a paroled convict just trying to make a new life for
himself … and not having a great time of it. When he steals the silverware from a too-
good-to-be-true Bishop Myriel, it looks like his short-lived freedom is over. But—in the
first of many surprises Hugo lays on us—it turns out that the Bishop is willing to forgive
Valjean and even let him have the silver if he promises to become a good, honest man.
Which he does, with one exception: in order to build a new life, Valjean discards his
parole papers and takes a new name, soon becoming rich and saint-like enough to rescue
a dying prostitute and promise to save her daughter. Everything is going swimmingly
until Valjean has to be true to his new self by revealing his true identity in order to save a
man falsely accused of being, well, him. Die hard cop Inspector Javert is soon on his trail,
while Valjean runs off to make good on his promise to save Fantine's daughter Cosette.
Whew. Got all that? Good, because this whole Valjean-on-the-run situation will drive
most of the action for the rest of this book.
b. Rising Action- Valjean manages to track down Cosette and make off with her, but their
little adopted family doesn't live in peace long before Javert tracks them down. Valjean is
 barely able to elude Javert by sneaking Cosette into a convent and living there with her
for the next few years. Once they're out, Valjean takes on yet another new identity and
tries to fly under the radar. But Cosette has to ruin it all by growing up, getting pretty,
and falling in love with a young man named Marius. Valjean is so worried about the
attention this will bring that he decides to take Cosette and move to England to be rid of
the French police once and for all. Oh, did we mention that this whole time there's been a
student-led revolt growing on the streets of Paris? Yep, (some of) the people of Paris are
fed up that France is slipping back into the aristocratic ways that were supposed to have
been guillotined off with the French Revolution a few decades ago. So, when Marius
hears about Cosette's move to England and decides that life isn't worth living, he runs off
to join a revolt that has broken out in the heart of Paris. Fortunately, Valjean finds out
just in time what he's done and decides to go rescue him.
c. Climax- As the rebellion hits its climax, Marius is conveniently shot through the shoulder
and passes out as the French army slaughters all of his rebel buddies. Lucky for Marius,
Jean Valjean carries him into the Paris sewer system. Just when it looks like they'll make
it, Inspector Javert catches them. Is this finally it for Valjean? Nope. Javert lets them go
because Valjean saved him from being killed by French rebels a little earlier in the book.
Unfortunately, this merciful actions confuses by-the-book Javert so much that he kills
himself by jumping off a bridge, since that's the only logical response to having your life
saved by a convict.
d. Falling Action- Fittingly, the "falling action" of this book begins right after Inspector
Javert literally falls off a bridge. Valjean is in the clear, but now that Marius and Cosette
are married, he feels obligated to tell Marius about his criminal past. When he does, he
gets himself banished from Cosette's life. Nice, Marius. Valjean sees little reason for
living without Cosette, so he stops eating and slowly wastes away.
e. Resolution- Marius eventually finds out that Valjean was the one who saved him from the
French army, thanks to some inexpert manipulation from Villain #2, the innkeeper
Thénardier who abused Cosette when she was little and keeps showing up at the most
inopportune times. Enlightened, Marius grabs Cosette and runs to Valjean's bedside. Too
late! Jean Valjean dies. In his final moments, though, Cosette and Marius tell him how
much he's meant to them. He also gets one last chance to tell them to love each other
always. The final lines of the book tell us that Valjean ends up buried in an unmarked
grave, which shows just how humble he was, even in death.

4. Themes

 The Glory of France- A primary focus of the novel is the glory and importance of France.
Hugo characterizes the country as exhibiting all the finest qualities of humanity - though
it also encompasses all of its worst features. The novel makes frequent references to
historical French persons and events, and the events of the novel are shaped by the
French socio-political landscape. Hugo also spends a great deal of time describing the
places and people of France, painting a vivid portrait of the country in the early 19th
century.
 The Dignity of the Poor- Many of the characters in Les Misérables are impoverished or
outcast. Jean Valjean is an ex-convict; Marius and the ABC Society are impoverished
students; and both Fantine and the child Cosette live in the direst poverty. Yet the novel
suggests that even the most impoverished and trodden down maintain a sort of dignity:
despite her status as a prostitute, Fantine retains a kind of purity because she does this for
her daughter; Marius' poverty inspires him to greater heights of moral goodness. Even
Monsieur Mabeuf, who faces hideous poverty, maintains his humanity. His situation
 eventually leads him to make a last stand on the barricades that inspires the other
revolutionaries. Throughout the novel, Hugo emphasizes the dignity of the poor and
outcast.
 Morality and Righteousness- Les Misérables offers a number of moral lessons, evident
through the decisions of the characters. When Champmathieu is wrongly identified as
Jean Valjean, the real Valjean decides to intervene; though it will mean a return to prison,
Valjean cannot live with himself if he allows an innocent man to go to prison in his stead.
On the other hand, the Thénardiers offer an example of an immoral path; they constantly
trick and cheat everyone they meet, but they eventually end up in the most squalid kind
of poverty. Hugo suggests that morality is eventually rewarded, but immorality is always
punished.

5. Reflection

Les Miserables Les Misérables, which means “The Miserables Ones” in English, is a musical
portrayal of the French Revolution. The musical is an epic tale and portrayal of the spirit of the
very poor, people who have suffered throughout their lives. There are four main characters
acknowledge the adversities they have faced. Their privations were distinct to them. Fantine is a
woman whose life was miserable; she was held captive in a bog of poverty and public shame and
was compelled to abandon her child to foster parents. Cosette, the most naive of the miserables,
was raised in poverty, having been born to a poor and unmarried mother. Valjean, one of the
major characters in the story, certainly experienced the most. The song “Master of the House,”
shows people are always greet. Madame Thernardier calls her innkeeper husband, “Comforter,
philosopher, and lifelong mate! Everybody’s boon companion, everybody’s chaperone.” The
Thernardiers offer a welcome dose of comic relief from the tragedies of this song, especially as
there are so much of them in Act I; up until this point, it has been riddled with imprisonment,
poverty, desperation and death. The Thernardiers struggle to survive through engaging in
immorality, thievery, and cruelty, rather than with kindness, like most of the desperate peasants.
They seem to thrive more effectively on thwarting the law rather than obeying it. The song
reveals how, as an innkeeper, Thernardier takes advantage of his patrons by providing them with
poor food and lodging, charging extra money for the mice in the beds. The themes of the misery
of the poor are highlighted in this song, and its portrayal is more humorous way than the
previous characters’ songs. The song “Stars” provides an important insight into the psychology
of Inspector Javert. Without it, we might see Javert only as a cruel and relentless persecutor of
Valjean. In this song, however, we learn that Javert thrives upon the idea of order in the cosmos,
like the stars “filing the darkness.” Javert can see the darkness and the misery of the world
around him, but rather than a revolution, he wishes that the law and order of society could bring
about a better world.