Sunday, March 27, 2016

How does Hugo express human misery in Les Miserables?

In the tradition of the epic novel, Hugo takes the reader through all the extremes of human emotion: squalor, courage, romance, and grief. The novel takes us through a strife-ridden portion of France's history, through a period of unrest and failed revolution. The novel shows Jean Valjean's struggle to survive. He is is imprisoned simply for stealing bread to survive, then upon release cannot find work because of the paper that indicates his status as...

In the tradition of the epic novel, Hugo takes the reader through all the extremes of human emotion: squalor, courage, romance, and grief. The novel takes us through a strife-ridden portion of France's history, through a period of unrest and failed revolution. The novel shows Jean Valjean's struggle to survive. He is is imprisoned simply for stealing bread to survive, then upon release cannot find work because of the paper that indicates his status as a former criminal. We see even more grief as Fantine and her friends are all abandoned by their lovers. Then when her daughter, Cosette is abused and mistreated by those who have promised to care for her. Then, yet again, when her lover's attempts to improve this political climate fail. 


The novel is full of grief for the individual characters, a grief that highlights the injustice and cruelty of the society at whole. The reader slowly begins to feel that the scope of such suffering extends across the nation, and is not merely the burden of the novel's major characters. The scope of human squalor would be too much to absorb if he described it all at once; the focus on these characters becomes a symbol of the larger picture. We see a painting of human misery and grief through a cast of numerous characters, all suffering the tragedies of life while the world they inhabit fails to improve.

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