Les Misérables

Les Misérables is actually a lot of little stories all rolled into one; therefore, the plot structure will be different per story. However, Jean Valjean is without a doubt the hero of our story,...

There are many social and political issues at work in Hugo's novel, but five of the most notable are as follows: 1. Unfair treatment of women: This applies mainly to women of the lower classes,...

Themes in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo include poverty and its impact on people, different treatments of people in various socio-economic classes and the lack of social mobility in 19th century...

The literal meaning of les miserables is "the miserable ones." The characters are french and the book is centered around their lives. The time period is the early 1800's. The main character is...

The play Les Miserables gives an excellent portrayal of the lives of people prior to the French Revolution and showed what led to that uprising. Historically, those are some excellent things to...

Jean Valjean does not kill Javert because he knows that whatever Javert has done to him, whatever Javert might wish on him, killing him is the wrong thing to do. Valjean spent years in prison for...

Candlesticks usually contain candles, which emit light. Light is often associated with spiritual awakening or understanding. For example, in Genesis, God creates light, separates the "light from...

The first reason why Jean Valjean makes the decision to move out of their rented home on the Rue Plumet is that he had seen M. Thenardier repeatedly and was certain that "Thenardier was prowling in...

The theme of Victor Hugo's novel is suggested by its title Les Miserables. If tells about the miserable lives of the poor. The thesis, however, is that one act of Christian kindness can change a...

At the time of Fantine's decision, remember, she is a single mother without a husband in a time when this was socially inappropriate. She was also poor and without means of a direct income. In...

Javert, a police inspector, is Valjean's enemy who pursues him relentlessly after he escapes. He is not a "good guy" however. His kind of justice is to punish with vengeance. Javert...

Les Miserables involves numerous plot lines and has many more than fifteen major events. In fact, it is one of the longest novels ever written. Some editions of the book are nearly two thousand...

The note refers first to the irony of Jean Valjean's life. He lived through countless struggles. He was arrested for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his seven starving nephews and nieces and was...

Les Misérables is a fictional historical novel written by famed French novelist, dramatist, and poet Victor Hugo, originally published in 1862. The novel has several plot lines; however, the main...

In the musical play of Les Miserables, the character of Eponine is in love with the young rebel Marius. Marius, however, has just fallen in love with the main character's adopted daughter Cosette....

Marius lives with his grandfather, a royalist, who considers the boy's father, George Pontmercy "a leper" because of his having been a heroic soldier, but one who served Napoleon. As a child,...

In Hugo's Les Miserables, the young Marius Pontmercy has been raised to believe that his father, Colonel Georges Pontmercy, a distinguished officer in Napoleon's Grande Armee, cares nothing for...

Ultimately, Hugo's view of human nature is a contemporary one. Hugo suggests that the change and ability to transform oneself can be a source of great power within the human being. It is this...

The actions of Inspector Javert make the world a worse place. By insisting on tracking down Jean Valjean for the sake of law and of preserving his deeply held idea of order, Javert also insists on...

Similes are very abundant in Victor Hugo's writing. A simile is a type of analogy made by comparing two things to show a relationship. Similes always contain the words like or as. One simile can be...

Marius rejects his grandfather and his money because his grandfather allowed him to have a negative opinion of his father and kept them apart by threatening to disinherit Marius otherwise. After...

I sense two components to this question. The first would be why leave would Jean Valjean leave the protection of the convent life and need to rent the house in the first place. If Valjean does...

The Bishop of Digne represents the height of humility, mercy, compassion, generosity, love, and kindness. If, to Victor Hugo, the French government represents arrogance, suppression, and...

In Volume I, Book the Sixth, Chapter II of Les Miserables, Javert has traced Jean Valjean for a long time. Having been born in a prison, Javert has spent his life in rigid respect for the law, now...

There are absolutely parallels that can be drawn between Jesus and Jean Valjean. The most obvious one is the merciful nature with which they both treat other people, particularly those who were...

Cosette is referred to as a "lark" in "Fantine." It is a nickname she is given by people in the town because she is so small and up before the sun. Sadly, "the lark never sang." In "Cosette,"...

To speak toward the comparison of Eponine to Cosette, I'm afraid there is no comparison. Cosette sacrifices nothing. She is but a "lark" whom Valjean protects so completely that after a few years...

Victor Hugo's language in Les Misérables most certainly has depth. Among other things, it is not only rich with imagery, it is rich with symbolism.One example of rich imagery can be seen in his...

The years following the French Revolution were hardly peaceful. The poor still felt oppressed and many government factions were still fighting for power. Les Misérables is set during the 1800s,...

I had to pare down the original question. Hugo's novel is rooted in the idea of exposing injustice and seeking to bring attention to the fact that it is a condition which must change. I think...

Each of these three characters have their own unique reasons for arriving at the barricades. Gavroche's life is directly affected by the violence of capitalism, of wealth disparity, and of the...

The cinematography in Les Miserables is quite controversial in the world of film and theater. Danny Cohen, the Cinematographer, and Top Hooper, the Director, made some interesting choices in the...

Valjean and Fantine are cursed by two things: one, situation in life; two, bad decisions. Valjean was forced into a situtation of poverty and starvation by forces outside his control. However,...

The portrayal of children and childhood in a fictional work could be considered one of the defining aspects when it comes to determining the work's genre. Hugo's Les Miserables falls, in that...

Though written and directed more than a decade later, the musical, Les Misérables, written and produced in 1985, is very reminiscent of the rock music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber for Jesus...

Jean Valjean finds the address that Marius scratches into the garden wall at Valjean's house on the Rue Plumet soon after having seen Thenardier in London. Valjean feels threatened by Thenardier...

One lesser known type of figurative language that Victor Hugo sometimes makes use of is called an apostrophe, which is different from the punctuation mark. An apostrophe is a moment when an author...

Another example of the relationship between love and self-sacrifice seen in Les Miserables involves Eponine, Marius, and Cosette. Marius instantly falls in love with Cosette when he sees her;...

Two of the central themes in Les Miserables are what one might call redemption, rebirth, or even transformation, and human rights, particularly the lack of human rights found in the social orders...

The last thing the Bishop says to Jean Valjean is Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man. As we read the rest of Valjean's...

When deciphering, analyzing, or summarizing the main plot of a work of fiction, what you want to keep in mind is the plot structure. The plot structure refers to things like the exposition, rising...

These stories would be great for a comparison study. You might also want to look at the differences and similarities between the two societies. The stories take place in different countries but...

The Friends of the ABC, are a group of young men, mostly made up of students (though there are others who are self-educated), who meet as a secret society and discuss revolution in the back room of...

The first most important moment in which religion influenced Jean Valjean's life relates to the Bishop of Digne's mercy and generosity. When Jean Valjean was finally released from prison after 19...

In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Part I, Book V, Chapter V, Monsieur Madeleine reencounters Inspector Javert who is now the police inspector of Montreuil-sur-mer where Jean Valjean has redeemed...

Valjean and Cosette both struggle with poverty and become kinder beings while Thenardier deals with poverty by swindling and harming others. While Valjean does originally deal with poverty by...

I have to agree. The dishonesty in these two characters is a dishonesty against a flawed system, but not against a system of higher morality (in this case, God). Both men act out of a pureness of...

In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo neither ignores human misery nor enters into it in what might be considered a more contemporary approach or spirit (as in the device of deep point of view, or writing...

As a poor student who decidedly lost the grace and the fortune of his grandfather, before meeting Cosette, Marius was a radical who wanted nothing more out of life than to fight for the rights of...

Much like his British contemporary, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo was very concerned about France's social conditions, in Paris--much like the London of Dickens--these conditions were apparent in...