Religion, Women, and Society in Les Misérables and Beyond

Religious Themes Across the Three Works

The religious themes of the three works — Les Misérables, Notes on Nursing, and The Calling of Katie Makanya — are all fairly easy to identify. A defining fact about Les Misérables is that Jean Valjean spends a great deal of time in prison for a relatively minor offense: stealing food to feed a starving family. His sentence is then compounded three to four times over when Valjean attempts to escape. In all, he serves nineteen years before being released, after which innkeepers treat him like a leper because of his convict past.

As the story progresses, obvious themes relating to the law, its enforcement, and the concept of grace emerge. There is a recurring thread of Valjean needing to be forgiven and permitted to seek redemption despite his past, yet the world of the novel consistently denies him that mercy. Javert's philosophy — that criminals never change and that breaking the law must be met with zero tolerance — drives much of this tension. Despite Valjean's efforts to escape his history, many characters in that era and that book insist it is not so simple. The central moral point of Les Misérables is that Valjean was not treated fairly, and that even his original offense did not warrant the punishment and imprisonment he received, however technically unlawful his act may have been. The zero-tolerance nature of his sentence was excessive by any reasonable measure.

Notes on Nursing engages with religion in a way that challenges prevailing assumptions about how nurses were perceived and how they should perform their duties. Florence Nightingale makes references at different points to doing one's job even when the chaotic and maddening circumstances around a nurse seem to demand otherwise, arguing that performing one's work with Christian love should always prevail. Similarly, The Calling of Katie Makanya presents a black woman who remains resolute and committed to doing what is morally right — the Godly thing — even while being treated with contempt. Katie even accepts the ideals of marriage, Christianity, and other values of the dominant European culture, reflecting both adaptation and inner conviction.

Industrialization and Its Impact on British Society

Industrialization was certainly a game-changer for Britain and the world. Britain controlled much of the world when industrialization took hold, and its impacts on economics, politics, the arts, ideas, and culture were all significant and far-reaching. For example, economics was transformed by industrialization through the ability to produce more goods for both domestic consumption and international trade. With such a wide-ranging empire, the capacity to supply all British areas of control more efficiently and reliably was critically important. The political implications were much the same: a more thoroughly supplied empire was a more content empire and therefore easier to manage and control. Areas left undersupplied were prone to unrest and resentment. This outcome eventually occurred regardless, but industrialization likely delayed it.

As far as religion was concerned, one could interpret industrialization as a message and gift from God — a means of feeding, clothing, and otherwise sustaining the masses living across the various British territories and colonies. The arts reflected industrialization through paintings and images depicting factories, workers at their stations, and people exchanging goods produced through industrial processes. New ideas continued to emerge about how to use and further exploit industrialization's capabilities. Culture, too, shifted as the reduced time required to manufacture goods freed up time for other pursuits and endeavors.