Les Misérables is a work that deeply explores human goodness and evil, atonement, and sacrifice. This blog post examines how the novel portrays human nature.
Les Misérables Summary
Les Misérables is Victor Hugo’s magnum opus, a work he carried in his heart for a staggering 35 years and completed over 16 years. This work is a historical novel in that it depicts the June 1832 Paris uprising, a novel about the life and love of one individual, Jean Valjean, and could also be considered a detective story about the cat-and-mouse chase between the criminal Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. Victor Hugo himself used the term ‘social epic,’ which might be the most fitting definition.
Whatever its nature, Les Misérables, alongside Notre-Dame de Paris, is Victor Hugo’s most widely known work. It is his definitive masterpiece, having achieved enduring popularity and vitality that continues to this day. As evidenced by its countless adaptations across film, theater, musicals, and other genres, the work’s greatest vitality lies above all in its profound and rich depiction of the sublime emotions of humanity. It unfolds as a drama of sublimation, where a man ultimately ascends toward the light through the process of compassion, spiritual atonement, and self-sacrifice.
Les Misérables reflects a vast social panorama, satirically depicting religious, philosophical, historical, social, and psychological contemplations alongside all manner of deviance, indulgence, and the conflict between good and evil.
This novel depicts the sacred transformation of a man who, starting from a criminal act committed in a historically grounded society, rises to the status of a saint through endless atonement and sacrifice amid his torment.
In this novel, we witness, precisely as author Victor Hugo intended, the sacred power of love manifesting in a person’s journey of self-fulfillment, the sublimity of self-sacrifice born from that love, and the infinite capacity for endurance. We witness the majestic dignity and reverence of humanity as a man, who initially lacked the ability to clearly discern good from evil, ultimately reaches the highest state of purity through the awakening of the inherent goodness within his nature.
The protagonist Jean Valjean in the novel is likely Victor Hugo’s own incarnation. Victor Hugo himself faced numerous opportunities and temptations to live an honorable and comfortable life, much like Jean Valjean. Yet he prioritized his fellow man and society over his own comfort, thinking first of humanity suffering from hunger and destitution. Even when he himself faced hardship, he showed endless concern for the marginalized, dedicating his entire passion to correcting the injustices and improving their status.
Les Misérables is a work as vast in scope as its lengthy writing period. Under a meticulously structured framework encompassing the entire work, numerous human characters surrounding the protagonist Jean Valjean appear, and a significant portion is devoted to depicting historical events and the social conditions of the time with meticulous detail that aligns with reality. Consequently, the lengthy and sometimes verbose descriptions of other issues—which likely captured the interest and curiosity of readers at the time—can sometimes disrupt the consistent immersion of modern readers, cutting through the urgent unfolding of events.
Les Misérables Book Review
The inner world of a human being contains all layers of existence: goodness and evil, nobility and baseness, joy and sorrow, love and hate, courage and wretchedness. It is impossible to determine whether these are innate to human nature or whether the human world transforms a person into such a being of diverse traits.
What choice will a person, utterly alone and in an extreme situation, make at a decisive moment? What should be done if there are people who repeatedly commit mistakes where the word “error” is not permitted? What is the everyday narrow-mindedness of people who brand a person for past mistakes and condemn them forever? Can we truly change once we realize this about ourselves?
This novel captivatingly conveys, through narrative, the multidimensional inner lives of each individual constantly facing choices, and the inner workings of the social strata formed by these individuals. It moves us, offers solace, provokes chilling self-reflection, denounces injustice, and inspires change. Within the masterpiece Les Misérables, a classic made thrilling by its masterfully woven world, lies ‘life’ itself. It is both a lyric poem of individual human lives and an epic of events experienced by social groups. Through ‘the story of life,’ we come to know and understand ourselves, humanity, and the world.
Victor Hugo stated, “I wrote this novel to eliminate human misery, banish poverty, and educate the ignorant.” This likely explains why, alongside personal lyricism, the novel so frequently incorporates epic poetry reflecting France’s political climate, which yearned for liberty and equality. Considering Hugo’s deep interest in real politics—evident in his role as a parliamentarian—the novel’s progression becomes understandable.
It is impossible to know how Victor Hugo’s desire for self-aggrandizement, his thirst for glory, his skill in boldly displaying his talent, his political transformations as a man who held humanism as the highest value, his exile imposed by others and his self-chosen exile, his womanizing, and the death of his daughter in the prime of her youth affected his life and work. Separate from the emotional impact of his works, one might sense the contradictions within a human being.
Yet, his statement, “I demand prayer from the soul and believe in God,” likely holds a sincerity unseen in the life he presented to the world. By acknowledging his writerly spirit, forged through sincere and relentless creative passion, and accepting his works themselves, we may reach yet another level of understanding humanity.
