Les Miserables Essays (Examples)

Les Miserables Victor Hugo Is

After the publication of the book, France underwent further upheaval, and Hugo returned to France only at the proclamation of the Third Republic (Kirjasto).

Hugo continued his work with the poor, the oppressed and the revolutionaries in that he fought and provided shelter where he could. His work was rewarded with his election as senator of Paris in 1876. Given his life of service to those in need, it is little wonder that his funeral was attended by two million people.

Clearly Valjean, like many other Hugo characters, share many characteristics with the author. While Hugo was not born into poverty, Valjean was helped by Monseigneur Myriel to achieve a level of wealth similar to that of Hugo. From this basis of power, both Valjean and Hugo work to uplift and empower the poor. Indeed, Hugo's sympathy with the plight of the poor does not diminish to his dying day,…… [Read More]

Les Miserables Victor Hugo- Les

e will confine ourselves to saying that the love of Fantine was a first love, a sole love, a faithful love."(Hugo, 145) in the endeavor to survive and sustain her child she is forced to become a prostitute, thus enduring extreme humiliation. For Hugo thus, she represents another 'miserable' being, part of the dregs of society who is nevertheless pure and luminous because of her inner goodness, the divine essence that cannot be corrupted by the extraneous influence of man: "Fantine was one of those beings who blossom, so to speak, from the dregs of the people. Though she had emerged from the most unfathomable depths of social shadow, she bore on her brow the sign of the anonymous and the unknown."(Hugo, 145) Fantine thus represents the poor and ignorant woman who is forced to practice prostitution as the ultimate resource for survival, but who nevertheless remains pure and uncorrupted…… [Read More]

Les Miserables and Other Works and Their Themes

religious themes of the three works mentioned, those being Les Miserables, Notes on Nursing and the Calling of Katie Makanya, are all fairly easy to see. A major fact about Les Miserables is that Jean Valjean spends a lot of time in jail for doing something relatively minor, stealing food to feed a starving family, and then this gets compounded three to four times over when Valjean tries to escape. In all, Valjean is in prison for nineteen years before being released. He is then treated like a leper by innkeepers because of his convict past. As the story progresses, there are some obvious themes relating to the law, the enforcement thereof and grace. There is a common theme from Valjean needing to be forgiven and allowed to gain redemption despite the past at hand but there is a common theme of people not doing that in the book. Javert's…… [Read More]

Les Miserables

Nana focuses on the outstanding novel written by Emile Zola called Nana. This paper analyzes the character traits of all the characters in the novel, especially a young prostitute named Nana. It was through this novel that Zola exploited the weaknesses of the Parisian society. The paper also illustrates how Nana goes about making her living and how she exploits men's weaknesses to gain temporary wealth.

Emile Zola, a French novelist and a critic was the founder of the Naturalist movement in the world of Literature. He redefined Naturalism by stating it to be "Nature seen through a temperament. Nana was one of Emile Zola's most profound literary works. It was written in 1880 to expose the true state of prostitution in France. The book mainly intended to take its audience to the world of sexual exploitation.

Zola was convinced that that nobody had yet the courage or the ability…… [Read More]

les miserables light and darkness victor hugo

Because of its strong ethical overtones and themes, Victor Hugo naturally gravitates towards imagery of light and darkness in Les Miserables. Light and darkness symbolize their respective moral poles, the binaries of good and evil, beneficence and maleficence, right and wrong. Drawing attention to ethical polarities helps the reader to better understand and appreciate moral ambiguity. The protagonist Jean Valjean epitomizes moral ambiguity, as the reader follows his journey from sin to salvation. Ultimately, Hugo shows the reader how formal systems of justice and institutions of law and order cannot accurately determine moral polarities; the human heart is far too complex. Using imagery of light and darkness, Hugo shows that most of life manifests in various shades of grey.

The Bishop is the first major symbol of light in Les Miserables, and is an overt representative of religious fortitude and spiritual salvation. “He gazed incessantly beyond this world through these…… [Read More]

Jungian Archetypes and Jean Valjean

Through this experience, I realized that these characters could help other to understand themselves and to resolve the internal conflicts that drive young males in their actions. As I began to study the characters in the novel more closely, I began to realize that Valjean and Javert were not the only characters that represented Jungian archetypes. It became apparent that gaining a better understanding of the characters and the archetypes that they represented could provide valuable clues to the psychotherapist who must work with young males where were now going through many of the same challenges that I experienced at that sensitive age. The archetypes found in the novel are prominent and necessary for the development of a healthy, individuated male (James and Gillaland, n.d. p. 13).

eading Les Miserables changed my life. I saw many parallels with the character if Jean Valjean. I was abused by my father and,…… [Read More]

Love and Pain in the Work of Hugo

Emotions of Love and Lust in the orks of Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo is easily one of the major figures of world literature. Hugo has been responsible for painting some of the most compelling portraits of the struggle of the human condition and how certain emotional conditions continue to subsist among untold levels of depravity and suffering. One can examine The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables as portraits of not only human suffering but as literary demonstrations of how even lust can continue to subsist throughout the human condition even when under intense strain. This paper will examine how Hugo is able to showcase the carnal longings of humanity throughout those works.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame demonstrates two different types of lust, emotional lust and sensual lust (Chris, 2010). Emotional lust in this case is first represented by the words and actions by the gypsy Esmeralda and…… [Read More]

Victor Hugo Romantic Writings of Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Romantic ritings of Victor Hugo

The romantic period was partly in reaction to the impact that the industrial revolution had on the psyches of artists of all stripes. The move toward an industrial culture had moved many people from the pastoral scenes of the country into the grungy hearts of the cities. Many of the people worked in the factories six days a week for many hours a day, or they worked in mines and other industries to support the industry in the cities. The response from the artistic community was to remind the public of two things. They wanted people to remember where they came from and they wanted to help people see the true emotion of life.

One of the most influential writers of the period was a young Frenchman who was known for his poetry early in his career (Halsall x), but who gained international…… [Read More]

Post-Impressionist Artists Were Interested in the Ideas

Post-Impressionist artists were interested in the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly in his concept of the Ubermensch, a superman who would be capable through intense struggle of surmounting the lower forces that would limit his ability to achieve. The idea that man could evolve beyond his present capacities influenced the relationship of European man to previous cultures and to contemporary but less "civilized" societies. This paper explores the ways in which Paul Gauguin applied the Ubermensch concept to his art and to his life, and examines parallel motifs in the oeuvres of his contemporaries.

The Artist Gauguin: Man, Nature, Ubermensch and God

At the beginning of the enaissance, Massacio painted The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and initiated a new view of humanity: an intensely personal and emotionalized struggle against fate. In spite of the Neo-Classical return to the formal norms of the past, the…… [Read More]

Tube Technoculture One of the

However, most people who are looking for verifiable information are not going to sift through the detritus of YouTube, but will instead go to reliable sources: books, journals, studies, and reports that present verifiable facts and information. There is a place for YouTube as an entertainment medium, but that is perhaps its limits -- at this point in time. Peter Levinson (1999, p. 146) sums up YouTube when (speaking of the internet) he says:

"In other words, in terms of our understanding of media, the biggest contribution of the personal computer revolution and the Internet may be the light they shed on television as they render it, incredible as it may seem to our television age sensibilities, into an art form."

The art form meaning that we can rely upon television news media in a journalistic way, and as one that saves us from suffering hours upon hours of amateur…… [Read More]

Organizational Behavior Leadership Is One

It is more concerned with understanding the way that ethnical ideas are presented, than judging those concepts within the construct of the society. However, when one looks at the history of any philosophical subject, it is important to note that differing concepts of philosophy often arise "out of" that very historical and cultural fabric of the time -- and then evolve so that they become more acceptable to future generations rather than contemporaneous ones. Individuals tend to justify unethical behavior based on these concepts; if the behavior results in what they perceive to be the best choice for everyone, or if they have self-interests and are able to find a reason for their action. A classic example is in the Victor Hugo book Les Miserables. The main character is imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving sister and seven children. He is imprisoned for 19 years for…… [Read More]

Woods Set Design Review Into

The use of a retractable plateau allows for the creation of new places in the woods, and also makes the woods seem like an ever-shifting place, where identity is continually disturbed and questioned. The impression is as if the viewer shifts suddenly from a community center theater production for children to the darkness of Les Miserables, another famous musical with a moving set.

The woods are not entirely a place of freedom, however. Set designer Aaron Kennedy makes use of multiple layers within the context of the scenery to convey different 'realms.' For example, Rapunzel, the adopted child of the witch, is kept high in a tower, far from the other characters. Until Rapunzel is cast out from the tower, she can only interact with others in a limited fashion, through her singing and letting down her glowing, golden hair. A lighted knothole represents the spirit of Cinderella's mother, who…… [Read More]

Edward Gordon Craig The Master

"hen (the stage-director) interprets the plays of the dramatist by means of his actors, his scene-painters, and his other craftsmen, then he is a craftsman - a master craftsman; when he will have mastered the use of actions, words, line, color, and rhythm, then he may become an artist," wrote Craig (Pepiton 2008). Because of Craig, set designers are revered as artists and equal partners with directors, actors, and authors. ithout Craig, classes in set design would not have the prestige they do today. No director would dare to embark upon a 'black box' production of Shakespeare or opera. Because of Craig, even those directors and designers who still see the value of realism strive to create impressions in the hearts of the audience, rather than literal representations of a drawing-room reality.

orks Cited

Duncan, Isadora. "On Gordon Craig." 1999. 2 May 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20010910184730/http://bondo.wsc.mass.edu/faculty/cslaughter/OGCDuncan.html

Pepiton, Charles. "Edward Gordon Crag &…… [Read More]

English Romanticism in the 1790s

"O Sylvan ye! thou wanderer thro' the woods, / How often has my spirit turned to thee!" (http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ballads.html) Now, the poet wishes to "transfer" the healing powers of nature that he himself has experienced to his sister. By stating."..Nature never did betray / the heart that loved her" (http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ballads.html) ordsworth assures his sister that she will also find peace in the middle of nature if she believes in the communion with nature. This prediction is an artifice of the poem and is not simple. "ordsworth's ability to look to the future to predict memories of events that are happening in the present is ingenious and complicated. But ordsworth beautifully clarifies this concept by using nature as the ideal link between recollection, foresight, and his relationship with another."(Eilenberg, Susan. Strange power of Speech: ordsworth, Coleridge, and Literary Possession. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

Moreover, by imagining the future of his…… [Read More]

Classical Criminology Was an Idea Formed Because

Classical criminology was an idea formed because there was no formal understanding of what caused criminal behavior. In an attempt to make sense of what was deemed socially irresponsible behavior, Cesare Beccaria was determined to formulate a theory that not only helped explain criminal behavior, but also helped to streamline punishment. Before this theory was developed, crime was not studied and the enforcement of crime was very arbitrary. Many times crime was considered a class issue. People in the lower classes were thought to be prone to crime whereas those in the upper classes were generally upstanding citizens. Of course, this could have been because the gentry were making and enforcing the laws. Therefore, the primary context around which Beccaria based his premises was that of justice which was not a primary concern previously. His theory was based on the fact that people are in control of their own fate.…… [Read More]

Humans Have Been Contemplating Their

g. stealing bread in Les miserable), and allowing the nature of punishment be focused more on the crimes that tend to hurt society the most.

Part 2 -- Developmental Theories and Understanding of Criminal Behavior - the basic idea of development theories of crime have at their core the idea that humans are actually either inherently good (more Locke) or more of a blank slate in which society/culture leaves its mark. Any antisocial behaviors must develop over time and are the result of some sort of underlying behavior or condition that occurs and is amplified during life's processes and activities. Circumstances, not an inherent bent on being deviant, is what makes this theory work.

The theory changes the position of how we view criminal activity in that some actions increase the possibility of deviance, while others decrease crime. It is not, however, as simple as nature vs. nurture. People who…… [Read More]

French Associate Their Country With a Geometrical

French associate their country with a geometrical shape.

Hexagon

Circle

Octagon

Square

Having read the section on geography and weather, which one of the following regions is best known or most typically known for this type of weather:

Hot summers and cold sometimes snowy winters

North and Western Coastal Regions

Vosges, Jura, Alps, Pyrenees

Central and Eastern France

The South (also known as the Midi)

Having read the section on geography and weather, which one of the following regions is best known or most typically known for this type of weather:

Hot summers and mild winters often made colder by the cold Mistral wind

North and Western Coastal Regions

2.

Vosges, Jura, Alps, Pyrenees

3.

Central and eastern France

4.

The south (the Midi)

Question 4

Having read the section on geography and weather, which one of the following regions is best known or most typically known for this type…… [Read More]

French Literature Pick as Many as You

French literature? (Pick as many as you think are correct)

Detective stories

Songs sung by traveling minstrels (troubadours) and entertainers and jesters (jongleurs)

Oral histories evoking the exploits of saints and kings

Long verse poems telling the stories of heroes like Charlemagne, knights and ladies and their confrontations with giants, monsters, and the supernatural world

Gothic novels

The Renaissance - pick out which of the following elements characterize the changes and innovations of the Renaissance era in France - the late 15th century to the early 17th century.

An interest and celebration of the arts and thinking of ancient Greece and Rome

An attraction to humanism - a view of the world where individual choices direct one's actions more so than religious conviction

c.

Royal support for music, architecture, and art

d.

The bubonic plague

e.

The Hundred Years War

Question 4

Which of the following were important Renaissance writers?…… [Read More]

Art and the Humanities

Visual Imagery and Qualitative Dimensions of Life & Consciousness in Visual Art

Throughout history all cultures have produced works of art. The impulse to create as a means of personal expression and to stimulate the imagination of viewers is universal and perpetual. In their various manifestations, the arts play an important role in defining culture by presenting intelligent viewpoints of our present state of being, and by serving as a record of our past. The visual arts are a repository of those qualitative dimensions of life, which enhance our consciousness through the use of visual imagery.

The most exquisite expression of the self is through art, be it literature, history theatre, painting, sculptor and so on. From the wondrous Egyptian pyramids to the majestic statue of liberty, from eloquent Greek writer Homer - who produced masterpieces like the Odyssey - to 20th century literati like Palestinian journalist Edward Said -…… [Read More]

Miguel De Cervantes' Is Famous in Both

Miguel de Cervantes' is famous, in both his epic work 'Don Quixote" and also in his other works of literature, for making comic capital of the sentimental conventions of courtly literature. "Los Trabajors de Persiles Y Sigismunda" similarly makes use of this parodying technique. This paper will specifically analyze the four narratives known as the 'Mediterranean' narratives in Book I of "Los Trabajors de Persiles Y Sigismunda" and demonstrate their narrative commonalties in and analyze their relationship to the larger project of Cervantes' narrative technique.

The beginning of "Los Trabajors de Persiles Y Sigismunda" demonstrates to the reader that a highly personable and involved narrator will tell the tales that shall unfold. The tales unfold through a specifically constructed narrative framework that is clearly told, clearly narrated by a wry, observing humorous "I" (or Yo) who has a distinct perspective upon the tales he will tell.

Yo, Jeronimo Nunez de…… [Read More]

Sartre's No Exit Huis Clos

Clearly, the play is a mirror-image of that time's impression of existentialism, and this is why it focuses upon both oneself and the other, as well as issues surrounding human existence, such as morality and responsibility. However, the other themes in the play that are a product of the time are also important. These include the fact that women could not have affairs without consequences, as divorce was frowned upon. This statement alone begs the questions of religion quite forwardly. Furthermore, the fact that Garcin is a coward who is executed for leaving the War (World War Two) is also important, as that would have been a common occurrence at the time and also deals with the question of responsibility. These themes, whether existential or otherwise, are very important facets that can be seen throughout this and other plays by the author.

Conclusions

The last section of this paper will…… [Read More]

Military Finding Oneself in the

That is why I became Treasurer of the ives Club, out of gratefulness for this extended family. I know many people of my generation struggle to find 'who they are' but the structure of the military offers a potent and compelling answer to that question. To serve means always to be at home amongst people who understand exactly what you are going through: "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in" (Frost 118-119).

Being in the military does not mean, contrary to conventional wisdom, that one must obey an unthinking policy of 'my country right or wrong.' The men and women in the military must obey because soldiers cannot afford to question every order and live, however, this does not make them unthinking automatons -- far from it. In fact, soldiers think more about the great questions of life and death,…… [Read More]