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Les Misérables
In Victor Hugo's classic historical novel, Les Misérables, the protagonist, Jean Valjean, is first introduced in Book Second, Chapter VI, "Jean Valjean." Valjean is described by the author as...
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Les Misérables
In many ways, it is the tension between these two characters that create much of the conflict of the story and outline its message about the shortcomings of justice. Valjean is a man who has always...
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Les Misérables
Consider that the actions of the Bishop are the catalyst to the change in Jean Valjean, which in turn begins a chain reaction of positive changes in many lives throughout the novel. Through his...
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Les Misérables
In Hugo's depiction of a world where human rights are not even close to be recognized, the presence of children help to enhance this idea. When we consider the most innocent of society, children...
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Les Misérables
I think one of the strongest points of social relevance is that Hugo brings out the reality of those who are on the lower end of the social and economic spectrum. The social relevance of Les...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
In "Saint-Denis" book 12 (Corinth), the student revolutionaries build a barricade out of everyday items. Others join the group. When it is done, they wait for the attack. Gavroche is the one who...
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Les Misérables
There are two reasons why Victor Hugo chose to title Book II of Les Misérables "The Fall." One reason is because it is in this book that we first meet the story's protagonist, Jean Valjean. We...
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Les Misérables
Here are some opinions on the musical's aesthetic value: The essential theme of the injustices against Jean Valjean is presented adequately in the musical. The marking of Valjeanas a criminal for...
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Les Misérables
Euphrasie Fauchelevent is actually Cosette's full, legal name. We learn this in Volume 1, Book IV, Chapter I: "One Mother meets Another Mother." In this chapter Fantine has already been...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
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,...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
Victor Hugo's novel demonstrates how one man's life is changed by an act of Christian charity. Valjean was a dangerous ex-convict who stole some silver from the Bishop who had sheltered him for the...
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Les Misérables
In this novel, Hugo honors the humanity in man. His hero is a man who has lied and stolen, but who is heroic for his devotion to helping others and for his faith. Other characters, who are...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
There is a thorough character anaylsis here at Enotes. Here is an excerpt on both Thenardier and Javert that speaks to their morality (or lack thereof). I have "bolded" the parts that...
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Les Misérables
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,"...
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Les Misérables
I am contributing my suggestion for a revision of your thesis statement. As answer 1 suggests, I don't believe he actually criticized the lack of education in France. He probably couldn't have...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
The main theme of this work is that the human condition is universal, and that all humans are capable of compassion and all deserve dignity. The lives of the poor and downtrodden are portrayed in a...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
A Savoyard is the name for a person from the mountainous Savoy region of France. Savoyards were typically migrant workers because farming was not possible in the rocky, mountain soil. Many...
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Les Misérables
The thematic relationship between self sacrifice and love is best shown through the character of Jean Valjean in this novel. He is shown the link between sacrifice and love through the treatment he...
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Les Misérables
Gavroche, a streat urchin, got caught up in the movement of Revolution and went to the Rue Saint-Denis to help build a barracade to fight in the Revolution to defend his poverty. He was then sent...
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Les Misérables
In Victor Hugo's epic Les Miserables Colonel Pontmercy is struck with a brain fever. But, on the first day, he has enough presence of mind to ask for his son to come. Having received his message,...
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Les Misérables
This complex novel has a number of different things to say about parental love. Parental love is used to both show the redemptive power of the action of loving and also the moral injustice of...
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Les Misérables
Basically, most of the novel addresses social issues, speaking of injustice, class conflict, and the necessity of revolution. One particularly insightful portion of the text comes from Fantine's...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
Jean Valjean is often referred to as a Christ-like character, and there are several examples of how this comparison is drawn. The one difference, to note immediately, is that Jean Valjean has a...
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Les Misérables
It is really not so much the clothing that teaches Jean Valjean a lesson as it is Cosette herself, as well as her mother Fantine. As Father Madeleine, mayor of M. sur M., Valjean had tried to live...
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Les Misérables
When Marius was a baby, his grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand, demanded the child from George Pontmercy, his own son-in-law, under threat of disinheriting the child. Gillenormand, whose daughter...
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Les Misérables
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,...
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Les Misérables
In not killing Javert, Jean Valjean continues his spiritual transformation. Since his experience with guilt and regret, Valjean had spiritually evolved into a higher form of being in the world....
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
A contemporary of Victor Hugo's, Charles Dickens felt that society was a prison. Certainly this perception is applicable to Les Miserables. For, Hugo's grand novel is a plea for social justice....
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
Les Miserables is a great book to pull some superb quotations that give readers lessons about life that still apply today. Some of my favorites are as follows: "Monsieur to a convict is a glass of...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
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...
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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,...
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Les Misérables
Hugo configures a situation for Valjean. In order for him to achieve spiritual redemption, Valjean has to rise above the condition in which he lives. Hugo designs is so that Valjean does not...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
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....
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Les Misérables
Five social problems that can be found in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables are: 1) The government implements unfair and unjust punishment punishment. For example, Jean Valjean was imprisoned for 19...
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Les Misérables
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...
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Les Misérables
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...
