Victor Hugo, the eminent post napoleon era writer, puts forth a story of human instinct and the inner struggle which faces everyone “les miserables”. The characters offer a strong base for the story and are also fuelled by the political instability which ruled France for quite some time.
The story is dominated by the character of Jean Valjean, who has been in prison for the last 19 yrs for stealing a loaf of bread and further on several attempts at a prison break. He is released only into a world of people who condemn his kind. The first night he finally gets shelter in a church where bishop Monseigneur offers him refuge. Valjean steals his silverware that night and flees only to be caught by the police again. When he is presented in front of the bishop, he claims that it was a gift and asks him to be freed as he has promised to mend his ways. This trust haunts him after he does his next theft and takes the right road. He changes his identity to M. Madeleine and sets up a factory in that town. At this moment another character is introduced, Fantine, a young girl with a child of an unknown father. She comes to the town of Montreuil to search for a job; on the way she leaves her daughter with the Thénardiers who are the innkeepers. She starts work with the factory and experiences reprieve, but is soon laid off and is forced to take up prostitution to pay the Thénardiers for her daughter. After an episode, she gets arrested but is freed on the demands of Madeleine. She starts losing health and gets bedridden. Death is inevitable. Madeleine promises her that he will get her daughter back. But Madeleine faces another serious issue of a person being arrested on the charge of being Valjean and is up for execution. At the set of the trial, he saves him and flees. Later is arrested at Fantine’s death bed. This shock kills the woman. Valjean manages to escape but is recaptured and deported to a military port. In an act of bravery, he saves a sailor from falling and pretends his death by drowning/ soon after he frees Cosette from the innkeepers and manages to escape to Paris. He lives with her in a house outside Paris and even with all the necessary steps to avoid attention the police track him down. He escapes the police and seeks refuge in a convent as an assistant gardener as the gardener is the person he saved earlier. Cosette is enrolled as a pupil and they spend several years there.
Another major character in the story is Marius, who is 17 yrs of age and lives with his grandfather. In a family dispute Marius’s grandfather M. Gillenormand forces his son Georges Pontmercy to leave Marius with him or else he shall disown him. He also feeds Marius with stories of his hate towards his father and makes him numb towards him. Even at his death, he does not react. After an argument, Marius finds out how much his father loved him and the lies his grandfather told him. He leaves his house in anger. He joins a radical students group called the friends of the ABC and shifts his support from monarchy towards napoleon under the influence of his father, intellectually confused and materially dishonored he finally manages to get a job and earn a modest living. His peace gets disturbed when he falls in love with Cosette. He does not spill the beans at first and then the family moves without a trace from their house. The curious Marius one day peeks through a hole and observes the neighbors and discovers their plan to get ransom in return for a daughter from Leblanc. Teamed with the police Marius foils their plan but in confusion of who to arrest they vanish. But the Thénardier’s daughter finds her for him. After a while of distant affection he confesses his love and she accepts it. For a month they live in secrecy. Valjean gets a warning about the political unrest and decides to flee to England with Cosette and makes it to a safe place at first.
There is an imminent insurrection which Marius is unaware of because of his love affair. His friend Enjolras directs the setting up of a barricade in front of a wine shop. In their search for spices, their first victim is revealed to be Javert who is the police officer. Marius maddened by despair decides to seek death in the revolution. He fights bravely; Valjean also joins in due to his reasons. He discovers the relationship between Corsette and Marius and wants to see them united for her sake.
Before the final assault, Valjean offers to execute Javert and frees him instead, comes back to the shop picks up the bruised Marius and flees into a manhole, makes it through the sewers of Paris, and comes out the other side to see a team awaiting their capture. Javert later releases Valjean and Marius but kills himself for doing so.
Marius comes back to normal shape after some days and overcomes his grandfather who was against his marriage. Valjean confesses all he was to Marius and Marius estranges her from him using his charm. Valjean’s life slowly fades away but Thénardier tells them that he was their savior. They arrive at his death bed and thank him.
“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilisation, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age — the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night — are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless” (Hugo, 1987).
The historical moment that the novel is centered around would be the great French revolution. This novel is based on the backdrop of the Paris Uprising of 1832. People were agitated and scared; the government was unfair and oppressive. It was a time where the oppressed could no longer take it. The turning point of the novel, which changes the lives of all of them, can be identified as the assault at the wine shop when they set up a barricade and made it their base. These men were trying to fight for liberation or in those days the illegal, ideals that we live with today. The fight mentioned in the book gives a pragmatic feel to the whole book. The whole fight scenario builds up the interpersonal communication between Marius and Cosette and with that, the interpersonal responsibility of Valjean’s towards Cosette. The author how cleverly erases the dialogue and difference between the revolution and his story.
There exists a multiplicity in communication ethics. It is a story about how the good escape its evil past. The author makes us realize how difficult it is for people to change, not because they cannot but because society won’t let them. After serving his time in prison Jean Valjean tries to become the savior of the common man, he becomes their savior but finds it impossible to free himself from the webs of his past. This transformation from bad to good makes us realize how judgemental society is, people always doubt one’s actions. We start learning about the society around us.
The philosophy of communication lies around the historical moments that happen in the novel. Ever wondered what made us different from each other. I guess it is the way we think and the way we process information. This trait helps to a difference between a good writer and a great writer like Victor Hugo himself. The way he describes the protagonist’s crisis and the decisions that he makes. The way he put things helps us to see many points of view. “I am not in the world to care for my life, but for souls.” (Hugo, 1987) Continuing with the discussion of crisis communication one can say that the author changes roles as the novel progresses. He starts by being an analytical scientist but mostly in the novel he is a conceptual theorist.
Also, the book is highly subjective, i.e. one take away from the book depends on one’s personality and understanding. There exists a great amount of dialogic theory in the book as well. The author has experimented with post-modern literature. The book is very less on narration and emphasizes more towards delivery. “A discussion is good… a quarrel is better” (Hugo, 1987).
“Les miserables” is not just a story it is the point of view of the author. He vividly writes about religion, politics, and society, their interrelationships, and their interdependencies. In the case of communication ethics, the author has crossed the line couple of times. But then that is why we read books, they need not be politically correct. Victor Hugo has a message he wants to spread, he is not afraid to hurt anyone’s emotions or sentiments. His ignorance towards Contextual communication ethics can surely attract some disapproving nods.
“Thus, during those nineteen years of torture and slavery, did this soul rise and fall at the same time. Light entered on the one side, and darkness on the other” (Victor Hugo, Chapter 2). Narration is not an easy task. Narratives can and do change from the actions of communicative agents and shifts in the historical moment ideologies resist alteration from the outside and stories fail to move people to the point of active support. So in this book, we can see the changes in the style of delivery based on the mood of the story.
“I have just met Marius’ new hat and coat, with Marius inside. Probably he was going to an examination. He looked stupid enough” (Hugo, 1987). In this statement and many others like these, we can see that the author is trying to pay emphasis on the exteriors and trivialities and not on what’s inside. The way he describes an incident is sometimes very serious at the same time very sarcastic. He brutally rips open a hidden fact to reveal what is inside. This explains the dialogic coordinates of the book and the author emphasizes it.
A good writer thinks and an awesome writer can make their readers think and Victor Hugo is an awesome writer. The way he uses democratic communication ethics, by which he creates an open platform where his characters discuss their feelings and emotions. The book is about feelings and misses on many minor details. The author does not theorize the scene, instead of telling who all are present, he emphasizes emotions.
The author is a highly intuitive person like “Why can’t we be free from our past?” or “But who ever does attain to his ideal?”, (Hugo, 1987). But at the same time, he has answers. He provides us with a completely different portrait of society. We might be different in our actions but the mob mentality is still the same. His philosophy of communication helps us to reason things out. To know the reason why anybody would do what he did.
“Commonsense in not very common” no matter how much we might defy this statement is sure holds. The book leaves no room for assumption, the only assumption it makes is that you can read English and can comprehend it. The uncommon sense of Common Sense can be taken for granted. Since the author takes care of what inference you make he leaves no room for ambiguity or doubt.
“To have a why is to bear any how”, as said by Nietzsche (Frankl, 1963). A responsible writer is one who not just answers the question but who fosters learning. Les Miserables is a book that affects one’s mind, after reading it one can no longer remain the same as they were before. It even follows the dialogic ethic of communication. “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved”, (Hugo, 1987). This makes us realize that love is all that matter and the materialism follow.
“It is a pity that I am ignorant, for I would quote you a crowd of things, but I don’t know anything.” (Hugo, 1987) Victor Hugo is very clear in his judgments. He acknowledges his biases and his stand on the happenings and works the novel around it. Finally, he finds ways to promote the natural dialectic of public and private communicative life, foregoing the temptation to blur them by trying to create “nice” or friendly spaces from places that require some professional distance, avoiding the overrunning of reality (Buber, 1966).
The novel is based on a time of political uncertainty and turmoil. The author has stated many revolutionary incidences in the book most of them like the anti-Orleanais revolution are realistic. In the book, he tries to create an open platform where people can raise their opinion and at the same time the author also states his stand on the entire fiasco. Hence this way he creates a distance between each communicative partner. This way the author can maintain and respect individuality at the same time helps one to know and understand the reasons for one’s actions.
Work Cited Page
Arnett, Ronald C. Dialogic Confession: Bonhoeffer’s Rhetoric of Responsibility. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005.
Buber, M. The Way of Response: Martin Buber: Selections from His Writings. Schocken Books, 1966.
Frankl, Victor. Maris Search for Meaning. New York: Washington Square Press. 1963.
Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables. Unabridged version. Signet Classics Publishers, 1987.