Victor Hugo Essay

The initial impulse of the French revolution was destructive. For those who lived through all, or even part, of these vast upheavals, the shock was overwhelming. Maximilien Robespierre was a proud disciple of the enlightenment and declared that no political writer had foreseen this revolution. Robespierre (1758-1794) was one of the leaders of the Committee of Public Safety, the effective governing body of France during the most radical phase of the revolution. The leaders of this revolution attempted, perhaps more than any other revolutionary leaders before or since, to totally transform human society in every way. (Supreme Being) Although Robespierre began with patriotic intent he still was the face of the Reign of Terror and was viewed as being a radical person.

Everyone has been broken. Maybe some people still are and maybe others have been put back together by friends or loved ones. The fact still remains that everyone is or has been broken, and there is no way to stop that from happening. In Brian Selznick’s book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, he touches on this topic on nearly every page. Many - if not all - his characters are broken in some way or another.

It's a picture book, a graphic novel, a celebration of the early days of the cinema in particular Georges Méliès, the great silent filmmaker who created “A Trip to the Moon” in 1902. And in that tradition all in black and white. Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and filmmaker. later in life he lost all his fortune and his movie studio and make living as a sweets and toy salesman at a train station in Paris.

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 book begins with the convict, Jean Valjean, being released from a French Prison. He has served nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread and subsequent escape attempts. He is set free, but only with his identification papers yellow. This marks him as criminal, and now in the new town, no one is willing to house him. In despair, Jean Valjean goes to the bishop M. Myriel. The kind man allows him to stay, but Jean Valjean repays him by stealing the bishop’s silverware then running for it.

artre and Beauvoir worked closely together, and laced ideas intertwine within their works; however, there was another writer who, though a colleague of Sartre, brought his own views on Existentialism. Albert Camus, a French writer like Beauvoir and Sartre, and one with a tangled relationship with Sartre, created the the philosophy of the Absurd. In The Stranger, Camus displays the Absurd and the indifference of life. In his later novel, The Fall, he discusses the guilt of all men, not only in their actions, but in their inactions as well. The Fall was written three years before Camus’ death. In it, he explores guilt and innocence, and claims that all men are equally guilty of something. This plays with the Post-War gloom of his time; and he

During his eight years in hiding, Valjean became a wealthy factory owner and the mayor of a town called Montreuil-sur-Mer. A worker in Valjean’s factory named Fantine, has her secret of sending money to the Thénardiers, the caretakers of her child, Cosette, exposed, and is fired from her job. Fantine, left with no other options, resorts to prostitution to support Cosette. During an altercation with an abusive customer, now police inspector, Javert, arrests Fantine, but Valjean stops him, and takes Fantine to a hospital where she is diagnosed with a terminal case of tuberculosis. While at the hospital, Valjean learns that a man suspected to be the missing prisoner himself, is put on trial for a crime he

Once Napoleon had taken power in 1802, there was a large amount of speculation over how he would save France from all of their troubles. With various domestic and foreign problems, the people looked to Napoleon reform France back into the dominant power that it was before. There has been plenty of debate over if Napoleon’s implemented laws and ideas while he was the authoritative power depicted him as being a friend or a foe of the Revolution. The question being asked is did his policies on the social structure of society and his desire to restore an absolute ruler, cause him to be perceived as a friend or a foe of the values of the Revolution. This paper will consist of analysis of those two policies which were made in the time of

The French Revolution from 1789-1799 and Napoleonic era 1799-1815 was a period of political reform. Despite the obvious physical damages as well as high death tolls, this period in the world's history had major archival forces that expended a vast imminence on not only lives during the period, but also those of the modern Western civilization. Enlightening the ideas that promote the leaders to adapt more notions to improve their societies and set a more archetype for their future. One of the prime examples of these ideas are transmitted by the French slogan, “Liberty, Equality, and

Even though trusted that the main way France could accomplish a decent republic was through dread, the Reign of Terror was a horrible time for people because the government was poor, people were starving, and many were killed.This Research paper will be about maximilien Robespierre and the Reign of Terror,

Charles dickens does not agree with the results of what happened in the French revolution. They were allover the place with their laws and imprisoned people for no reason. “you are consigned, evre'monde, to the prison of La Force… under what law?... we have new laws and new offences…”[4] an innocent man is sent to prison, exactly how it has been before the French revolution.

Valjean is mistreated by everyone except for the bishop. The bishop is all for redemption, so he wants to help Valjean become a better person. Valjean was an ex-convict who just got out of jail and was walking to town. When he made it to town after four days of walking he was tired and hungry. He traveled to the inn after his long journey and asked for a room and food.

The French Revolution began as an expression of rebellion against centuries of absolute rule in France. After an interim of experimental liberalism under the rule of Jacobins and Girondins and then the infamous reign of terror, the people of French were drawn to a man who promised them a return to stability, and  honor through the expansion of empire. France and it’s people had long yearned for this sens eof honour, it had seemed, and could finally sens eit in a lasting rpesence under the rule of their prodigious, unbeatable general, Napoleon Bonaparte. He would soon take the reigns of civil government as well and become yet another Absolutist ruler, yet this

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.

Charles Dickens is one of the most influential writers in history and was “born in Landport, now part of Portsmouth, on February 7th, 1812”(Priestly 5). Despite being the successful writer that he was in life, Dickens had very humble beginnings and because his Father, John Huffman Dickens, “lacked the money to support his family adequetly” , Dickens lived in poverty through out most of his childhood (Collins). Matters only got worse, however, when Dickens’s Father had to “spen[d] time in prison for debt” causing Dickens to have to “work in a London factory pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish” (Collins). It was a horrible experience for him, but it also helped him to no doubt feel pity for the poor, which is