Lit Analysis #2

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
**This is the third time I have read this book (fourth if you count the time I read it in Honors English ) and let me just say that if you haven't read it, you're missing out on a gold mine of literature.

1) This book revolves around the life of the ex convict, Jean Valjean as he attempts to run from his convict past and the lives of the people he comes into contact with along the way. All of that while the French Revolution is in its early stages. Young Jean Valjean was taken to prison as a young man because of a small infraction; facing starvation, he stole bread and was caught. Despite this minor infraction he was sentenced to a hard prison. He was also subsequently given more years after trying to escape from the prison unsuccessfully. When he is finally released he is experiencing a lot of emotional turmoil and is going through a bit of a moral crises because while he is a good man, he feels bad and he is distraught by the negative perception the world has of him for being an ex convict. Upon being released he makes his way to a town, where the people all after finding out he is an ex convict refuse to help him in any way. After several attempts at finding a place to stay, he goes to the church where a bishop opens up his home and gives him shelter. Valjean has been told so many times that he is a criminal and that he is a bad man that he gives in to this and steals from the bishop. Even though the bishop helps him, he steals from him. He himself does not even understand why. He leaves the bishop's house and the following morning a nun discovers the theft. She rushes to inform the Bishop and he does not pay much attention to it, even going as far as excusing Jean's actions. The police return Jean the that morning and inquire with the bishop about the silver he has. The bishop covers for Jean and tells the police that it is a gift from him. After that second chance, Jean leaves town and decides to change. In the new town he arrives at, he eventually changes his name to hide his identity and start over. He becomes M. Madeline, a wealthy industrialist and eventually mayor of the town. He employs many people at his factories, one of them being Fantine. At this point we are introduced to her character. Fantine was a poor and unfortunate woman who was in desperate need for money and bored an illegitimate child. Making her way back to her home town, she stopped at an inn where she asked the inn-keepers, the Thénardiers, to please take care of her daughter, as she had to go to her home town to work (she knows she could not find work if the people of the town found out about her illegitimate child) and she promised to send money. The inn-keepers agreed and Fantine said her good-byes to her daughter Cosette and left. Back at her home town, she had to work hard and send money to her daughter. Little did she know that the Thénardiers were using that money for themselves, giving Cosette nothing but leftovers and mistreating her. The Thénardiers began asking for more money from Fantine, who would send anything in order to keep her daughter comfortable. Fantine was sending all the money she had, leaving her with nothing. To her misfortune, her coworkers found out about her daughter and she was fired. Finding herself in such a bad financial situation, she was forced to turn to prositution to supplement her income. During one night, she was caught and was sent to the city jail. After hearing about that, Jean intervened and managed to get her released. He invited her to stay with him and shortly after she fell ill. Her health quickly deteriorated (frankly I suspect and STD) and in no time she was on her death bed. She had Jean promise her that he would bring her daughter Cosette. However, the officer who arrested Fantine for prostitution is a man who worked at the prison Madeline had been held in and recognizes him. Around this time, he also finds out that a man by the name of Jean Valjean has been captured and is going to be tried for his crimes. Madeline is then conflicted, does he come out of his hiding and reveal who he is in order to save an innocent man? He finally comes to a conclusion and at the trial of the man, he reveals that he is the real Jean Valjean. He then returns to Fantine's side. As Madeline is by Fantine's side, Javert comes and arrests him. This scene causes such an impact on Fantine that she dies from a a heart attack. Madeline becomes enraged at Javert, almost blaming him for her death. Valjean is sent to prison, and after briefly attending it, he saves a sailor who was near drowning and in the incident manages to fake his death and escape. He then visits the innkeepers where Cosette is being kept, attempting to keep his promise to Fantine that he would find her daughter. Upon arriving at the inn he basically steals Fantine and in order to escape from the Thénardiers he takes Fantine to Paris, where they live in a big secluded house. Jean becomes very attached to Fantine and he establishes a connection with her that is unlike anything he has ever experienced before. He sees her as his actual daughter and learns to treasure and love her and she begins to feel the same way about him, even though she was a bit hesitant at first. Just as they are getting comfortable they are forced to flee after Javert tracks down Jean. A running scene is presented in which Jean and Cosette are feeling from Javert, Cosette being very young at this point. After running away and just before being caught, Jean and Cosette find refuge in a convent where they are sheltered. At this point we are introduced to a new character. His name is Marcus and he is the grandson of a wealthy man. He has never met his father but has always been told by his family that he was a bad man. Upon learning about the death of his grandfather, Marcus decides to dive into his life and he discovers that his father truly loved him and he only left from Marcus' life because his grandfather threatened to disown him. Marcus discovers his fathers revolutionary ideas and identifies with them. Upon confrontation with his grandfather, Marcus leaves and while in Paris he gets involved with the revolutionary movement as a poor young lawyer. While strolling through the park one day he comes across Jean and Cosette, who at this point was now a gorgeous young woman. Marcus falls in love with her and attempts to court her more than once, only having every attempt stopped by Jean who does not want to lose Cosette to anyone. In order to further prevent them from ever meeting, they move homes. However their paths, as if intertwined by destiny, meet again when Jean goes to a poor neighborhood to help out the locals. This neighborhood also happens to be where Marcus lives. In a shocking turn of events, as Marcus peeps through a hole and spies on his neighbors he sees as Jean comes into their home and promises to help. His neighbors are the Thénardiers who have lost their inn. But since Jean stole Cosette at night, they do not recognize each other. Jean leaves their home promising to return and Marcus overhears how the Thénardier's plan to rob him when he returns. After that Marcus goes to the police and Javert comes to the scene. The Thénardiers are arrested and Jean avoids detection once more. At this point we are introduced to the lesser character of Eponine, who is one of the Thénardier daughters. She is madly in love with Marcus but despite that she helps him discover the new location of Cosette. Marius immediately rushes to her but upon realising the situation Jean decides that its time to move to a more safe and stable place, as Marcus has found them and the revolution is about to being. Marcus and Cosette know that they must act now before they move to England. Marcus seeks his grandfathers approval to marry Cosette but is met with a man who completely disapproves and only an argument is accomplished. When Marcus returns to Cosette he discovers that they have left. This shatters his feelings and without regard to his life he gets two weapons and enters the war. In battle, he is about to be killed but Eponine saves his life, however she dies after taking a bullet for him. As she is dying she gives him a note from Cosette. He reads it and writes back and immediately has it sent back. He continues fighting. During the fight Javert is captured because he was working as a spy for the government. Jean intercepts the note and reads it. He goes to the barricade where the rebels were. Here, he volunteers to execute Javert but he instead lets him go free. After this Javert attempts to arrest him but Jean begs him to at least let him take a dying Marcus who was wounded to his grandfather. Javert lets him and after is conflicted with what to do, let Jean go for saving his life or perform his job? He lets him go and commits suicide. Marcus gets better and marries Cosette after making peace with his grandfather. Everything is okay until Marcus discovers Jean's questionable past. He begins to forbid Cosette from seeing Jean and Jean falls into a deep depression. Marcus then finds out from Thénardier that Jean saved his life during battle. After hearing that, Marcus and Cosette rush to Jean's side. They find him on his death bed and he dies in peace after seeing his beloved daughter.

2) The theme of the novel is miserable people. He uses unhappiness to criticise French society at the time. The characters are all unhappy in this story because of something caused by society.

3) It's hard to describe his tone because there isn't much of one. Victor Hugo goes to great extents to make the book as little about him as possible and all about the characters. He describes more than anything and then tells their story in a tone that doesn't leave much room for interpretation. However if anything, the theme is negative because he's describing unhappy people.

4) * Situational irony: When the Thénardiers are living next door to Marcus and Jean Valjean visits, then Marcus calls the police and Javert shows up. All the characters are at the same place at the same time.
*Deus ex machina: Just as Marcus is about to die and it seems as if everything is lost, Jean comes in as if by divine intervention and saves the day.
*Satire: Victor uses his whole novel as satire. He tries to bring attention to all these social issues using Jean, Fantine, Cosette and Marcus as the martyrs.
*Stream of consciousness (sort of): I don't know exactly how to call this. But then Victor immerses himself in a character, the characters thoughts are playing as he is thinking them.
*Foil: We get to know characters through several different ways, but one of the best is through foil. For example, we get to know about Jean's bad and good natures through his interactions with others. He saves Marcus and the sailor but steals from the bishop.
*Symbolism: In two situations we see how Jean is saved by the church. First when he could not find where to stay and second when he is running from Javert and Javert is not allowed in to get him because it is a convent for women only (Jean sneaks in). The church symbolises Jean's salvation.
*Direct characterization: During several instances Victor directly tells us about a characters traits. At the beginning of the Jean book, he describes Jean's physical features.

CHARACTERIZATION
1) Two ways in which Victor tells us directly about our characters traits can be found in every book, when he physically describes our characters as well as describes their personalities. However, he also uses indirect characterization. For example, when he tells us about all the feats that Jean performs, such as climbing a tall wall and lifting a wagon. He does not directly tell us Jean is strong but we can infer from the text. I believe he does both because he wants us to go in to the book having a background about the characters, followed by examples of what he has already told us. (ex.telling us Jean is strong then giving us examples later on in the book.)
2) He has a dark tone through the book because it is a dark subject, but when he becomes the character he turns more lugubrious and dark than usual because he is telling the story of people who are miserable.
3) The main protagonist is dynamic. Throughout the book he is constantly changing. He goes from being a good man to bad after stealing bread, then he reforms and becomes good again and this becomes an ongoing trend throughout the book as he is being shaped by the events he experiences.
4) After reading the book I came away feeling like I met Jean. He was well described and I almost felt like I took on this journey with him. He was a great character and continues to be my favorite. I like his personality and the way he tries to be tough in a tough world, but his good nature always wins.