Throughout the movie Les Miserables directed by Bille August, Paris is shown as an unforgiving society in the late 1700's and early 1800’s. Once a person has done something wrong, they will never be trustworthy citizens, or even a part of society. The cruel nature of society is on display by the prejudice shown by Javert to both Fantine and Jean
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.
"It is precisely of him that I wished to speak. Dispose of me as you please; but help me first to carry him home. I only ask that of you." Upon examination of Les Miserables, it is clearly evident that the elements of Forgiveness, Self Sacrifice, and Courage are only a few of the main themes Hugo wanted to develop.
single women with children may have to deal with. Beginning with a dismal statement from women working in a dank factory, “At the end of the day you’re another day older, And that’s all you can say for the life of the poor…”, it then ties into a single mother named Fantine. Fantine was abandoned by her lover and was struggling to scrounge enough money to provide for her ailing daughter, who is staying with innkeepers. None of the woman favor her due to her beauty and refusal to bed the foreman, “With his terrible breath and his wandering hands? It’s because little Fantine won’t give him his way…”. Discovering she was not as chaste and pure as she appeared, the women convinced the foremen to fire her, and she had to turn to prostitution to
The CEO of Microsoft once said that “We must ensure not only that everyone receives equal pay for equal work, but that they have the opportunity to do equal work”. This belief does not seem to carry into the French 1830s. In Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, contrasts between male and female character’s lives are used to show how people in extreme poverty find different ways to live and make money depending on their gender. This is shown by the treatment of Fantine, and the stark contrast of how Marius was treated when placed in a similar situation.
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.
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.
In his novel Hugo addresses the need for social reform and change in the crumbling and corrupt streets of French society. He specifically emphasizes improvement in education, the justice system, and the attitude of society towards women, and their political impact on French culture. Hugo does this particularly through Fantine, a woman who resorts to prostitution after being dismissed from her job as a factory worker; in addition to the existence of her illegitimate daughter, Cosette, her blemished reputation disables her from working in another reputable place. Because of Fantine’s shortage of an education and of society’s negative view of women abused by noble men, she is representative of the social injustices against women during this time. She’s illustrative of the gulf in France’s hierarchical system. Her condemnation to a life as a prostitute after being used by an aristocratic man highlights the social shortcomings present in the nobility’s attitude towards the lower classes, which continued to suffer. The misfortune that falls on Jean Valjean, an innocent man who only stole bread to help his dying sister, also represents the crookedness of France’s justice system. Valjean is likened to a habitual criminal and thrown in jail for nineteen years, an absurd sentence for only a loaf of bread. What’s worse is that he’s
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.
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.
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
Throughout Othello by William Shakespeare, Othello makes numerous poor decisions due to his jealousy. Hitting Desdemona, trusting Iago, and killing Desdemona are among a few of the poor decisions that he makes. The word jealous can be defined as feeling or showing suspicion of someone's unfaithfulness in a relationship. Othello feels suspicious of Desdemona’s and Cassio’s relationship because of the lies that Iago tells him. Many people try to tell Othello the truth but he only believes the words of Iago. Even Emilia, Iago’s wife, tells Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are not having an affair and their interaction is business only, however; he does not trust her. Without Othello’s jealousy he would not have made these horrible decisions.
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,
Les Miserables is a characteristic romantic work in both theme and form. In theme the novel assaults the traditional social structure, glorifies freedom of thought and spirit, and makes a hero of the average individual. In this novel the several characters were portrayed as heros. It follows the lives and interactions of several French
Revenge can be analyzed, as it becomes the exhibited behavior of the Widow resulting from a number of causes. First cause is the harm done to her family; second cause is the Widow’s perception of violence during that time; and the third cause is her aggression toward the killer of her son. The first cause of her revenge is the most obvious reason why she avenged the death of her son, and this is because the killer caused pain to her family. Any mother would be committing the act especially that her son was the only company she has. The second cause pertains to the Widow’s perception of revenge during that time, and because at the time, wars and feuds were still evident in the French society, bloodshed for the Widow is not something to be scared of, given any means. This story was only successful in showing to its readers how the society thinks of death during those times, which can be achieved through any means, by which losing one’s life was not something to be thought of carefully. This just proves that during that time, morality was not given high regard as it is now. Death by any means can be accomplished by anybody, regardless of age, gender, and status in society. The third cause of the Widow’s behavior is her aggression toward the killer of her son, which was not literally shown or described in the story, but was evident based on