In his novel, Les Miserables, Victor Hugo identifies the principle social evils of French society through the actions and qualities of his characters. By depicting each of his characters’ struggles through destitute and oppressed measures, Hugo is able to identify the social errors of 19th century France. The fact that characters such as Valjean, Javert, Fantine, and Cosette, attempt to rise above poverty and redeem themselves indicate that such inequalities did, and still do, exist to this day. Through the use of feminist ideals and the criminal injustice system, Hugo attacks the principle social evils that each of his characters face in Les Miserables.
In the early 19th century, most women were subject to gender discrimination and viewed as weaker components in France. One of the first characters attacked by such injustice is the former factory worker and prostitute, Fantine. Having been discovered as a mother of an illegitimate child, Fantine is thrown out of the work place and turns towards prostitution instead. Deprived of hope and redemption, Fantine endures through much suffering and harassment from her male superiors in order to provide for her child. While walking down the street one evening, Fantine passes by a man, who, “taking advantage of the moment when she turns... seizes a handful of snow from the sidewalk, and throws it hastily down her back between her naked shoulders” (69). Enraged, Fantine lashes out at the man, only to be blamed later on for attacking
Among the classes of New France, Angélique was at the very bottom, disadvantaged on three fronts. Not only was she a slave, but she was a black female slave. After the black slaves were the Indian slaves, or Panis (P 81)1, free blacks, indentured labourers, and then the traders, bourgeois, and Nobles that made up the high society. Though the class structure was quite rigid, there was room for movement in the ranks. Angélique was romantically involved with Claude Thibault, an indentured labourer in the same household as herself. Though Claude was not a slave, he was contracted for three years and was paid for the work he did, he wished to escape the colonies and return to France. The pair did escape once, but were caught, and he was believed to be Angélique`s accomplice in setting the fire.
The play Cyrano de Bergerac written by Edmond Rostand was written based off the life of the real Cyrano de Bergerac. Even so, the setting of the story itself contributed greatly to the character Cyrano de Bergerac and the development of the story itself. Overall, the play has very specific stage directions and gives a very detailed description to the setting for every scene. This helps the character develop as the story continue and while also giving background and mood to that scene in which it describes. For example, things like the season being autumn in act five and “the green lawn has turned red” (page 199) and “spots of darker color formed by box shrubs”(page 199) showing how death is coming and being represented by the falling leaves and it’s change in color. The setting of the play also gives cultural background to the society in that time period.
The play Cyrano de Bergerac, written by Edmond Rostand, was written based on the life of the real Cyrano de Bergerac. Even so, the setting of the story itself contributed greatly to the character Cyrano de Bergerac and the development of the story itself. Overall, the play has very specific stage directions and gives a very detailed description of the setting for every scene. This helps the character develop as the story continues, while also giving background and mood to that scene in which it describes. For example, things like the season being autumn in act five, stage directions stating “the green lawn has turned red” (Rostand 199) and “spots of darker color formed by box shrubs”(Rostand 199) showing how death is coming. It is being represented by the falling leaves and its change in color. The setting of the play also gives cultural background to the society in that time period.
Fantomina is a novella describing how a young woman Fantomina goes about trying to seduce Beauplaisir.Fantomina details the events of how a young woman curiosity leads her into “faked prostitution” and ultimately falling in love with Beauplaisir.The novella chronicles how the young woman does whatever she can through disguising her identity to be always with the one she has fallen in with, Beauplaisir.The story ends when Fantomina gets pregnant and is sent to a monastery in France. Haywood’s Fantomina represents an important moment in the evolution of gender constructions in the eighteenth century.This research essay is from short story Fantomina.Eliza Haywood Fantomina perceives that gender
From the start the novel is laden with the pressures that the main characters are exposed to due to their social inequality, unlikeness in their heredity, dissimilarity in their most distinctive character traits, differences in their aspirations and inequality in their endowments, let alone the increasingly fierce opposition that the characters are facing from modern post-war bourgeois society.
Teens in the stage of growing up needs the trust and support from their family and friends to be able to survive in this world. Most teens are like puppets who become the person that their parents want them to be, but as they mature into adults, they have their own desires and ways of thinking, which enable them to break free from the puppet control and become who they really are. In the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the playwright used the Nurse, Lord Capulet, and Friar Lawrence to show how taming the wills of the teens and forcing their wishes upon them could turn the play Romeo and Juliet into a tragic love story.
Javert, the inspector who chased Valjean, had one major turning point in Victor Hugo’s novel. Throughout the novel Javert hunted Valjean with a sense of justice and law. Javert believed in enforcing society’s law to such an extent it made him not think whether the laws were just. However, throughout the novel it became evident that Javert not only wanted to follow the law, but also started to enjoy hounding Valjean. “Then, with a demonic and sensual pleasure, he settled down to enjoy himself. He played his man knowing that he had him, deliberately postponing the climax, granting him a last illusion of freedom, relishing the situation like a spider with a fly buzzing in its web or a cat letting a mouse run between its paws – the ecstasy of watching
In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo shows that benevolent people have strong trust in others and are easily taken advantage of and manipulated which makes them especially vulnerable. Fantine is shown as being naïve with a strong faith in the goodness of others, which the Thénardiers instantly take notice of. Fantine willingly gives up her beauty and dignity so that she can afford for all of the extra costs coming from the Thénardiers, oblivious to the fact that they are asking for this money with selfish intentions (Hugo 66). Her all-encompassing love for Cosette and her immediate trust in people makes her an easy target for the Thénardiers. Jean Valjean is also taken advantage of by the Thénardiers when he goes to pick up Cosette. Monsieur Thénardier
When Fantine was found to have a child, she was immediately fired because the man in charge of her area of the company didn’t want to hire that type of woman. This places her in a very unfortunate situation where she must choose between her dignity and her child’s needs. When she explains her predicament to her landlord and her inability to pay full rent, he replies by telling her “‘You are young and pretty, you can pay’” (Hugo 53). Because of how she looks and the fact that she is a female, her landlord tells her that she should basically offer herself as a service to pay for rent. If she was a man, he most likely would have refrained from telling her to sell herself to various people and might have even helped her get back on her feet, or might have cancelled her debt. While Fantine is giving herself up for money, she “enjoyed a moment of happiness” as she brushes her hair (Hugo 54). But when
People have always viewed others who have made mistakes in the past as lesser beings. Victor Hugo uses Valjean as an ideal figure to represent mistreatment given by the community for his past mistakes. When Valjean first arrives at Digne, he enters the Croix de Colbas inn and is forced out without service because it was known that he was an ex-convict. As he is forced out, Valjean, “ would have seen the innkeeper of the Croix de Colbas, standing at his doorway with all his guests, and passers-by gathered about him, speaking excitedly, and pointing him out, and from the looks of fear and distrust was exchanged ”(10). Valjean being an ex-convict is rejected by society without a true reason. The people of Digne have no trouble pointing out that Valjean is an outcast, a person that is less than them and should be frowned
My artifact for this paper is the book Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. This artifact is important because within the book there are stories of numerous characters that tell people how they should love their lives. Les Misérables and the key take away messages Hugo vividly describes through his character’s struggles and triumphs are all equipment for living. Specifically, Les Misérables teaches its readers about the need for equality within a society by exposing what it is like to live in an unjust society (the poor are the target of abuse and manipulation). Hugo attempts to teach the audience of the faults of having a society with an extreme hierarchy in an attempt to create better societies (hierarchy and inequalities lead to the poor being suppressed, famine, unhappy lives,
The Old Summer Palace, known in Chinese as Yuanming Yuan. Emperor Kangxi named the garden as "Old Summer Palace". The first “yuan” means round, which hints the hoping to be a perfect person that like a round, without a gap. "Ming" imply the wish that to govern the dynasty and politic bright and clear. It was originally called the Imperial Gardens and located in western suburbs of Beijing China. I will introduce this famous Chinese great art because it described by Victor Hugo as “dazzling cavern of human fantasy with the face of a temple and palace” (Jenkins, 2016) Throwback to the Qing Dynasty, during summer, emperor Qing moved to here to avoid the heat. This is the reason that emperor Qing named it "Summer Palace". The old Summer Palace
Every day she smiles and act like there is nothing wrong with her. She puts everything behind so she can take care of the one thing in this world that is worth living for. Fantine is a strong woman in a world full of hatred. In the book “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo, even though Fantine leaves Cosette with the retched Thenardiers, she is an extremely sacrificial mother who cares deeply about her daughter. Fantine went to the city alone, she sold her hair, teeth, and body, and she couldn’t keep her mind off of Cosette.
Iago has been frequently judged as an evil villain for the meticulous acts he makes after Othello betrays him. Though he was never a murderous villain until his downfall he is unfairly viewed as the antagonist in the play. Since the commencement Iago was an honest military man who never wronged anybody up until they wronged him. He was stripped of a military promotion he had been looking forward to accepting by Othello the general and not only this he was also informed that Othello might have been having relations with his wife Emilia. Iago felt betrayed due to the fact that the person elected (Cassio) did not even have battlefield experience of any sort compared to Iago and used the fact of Othello and Emilia being together as a further reason to propel himself to take action. He knew this decision had to have some sort of favoritism encouragement by taking into account that Othello’s wife Desdemona is dear friends with Cassio. Iago was not going to be an onlooker in this demeaning situation so he rightfully took action by ingeniously and harmlessly instigating critical emotional situations in the lives of his trusting targets leading to their own heedless demises. I dispute that Iago should not be viewed as malevolent as the play depicts because when critically analyzing the tragedy it is evident that he was just an honest Christian man rebelling to seek justice for his betrayal from
Unfortunately, to this day, societies still need to hear, understand, and implement the morals held within the novel Les Misérables. People are not effectively communicating with one another and not making others presents. Meaning they are not seeing others for who they are, which is as unique individuals that have their own way of viewing and functioning within society in order to accept differences within society. When being closed minded and are rejecting the other poor communication, relationships, and qualities are bound to exist. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Martin Buber’s concept of personal making present is essential to one’s communicative life. Personal making present and its power are illuminated through an examination of Victor Hugo’s classic novel Les Misérables.