Hugo's attempts to reconstruct society in the novel, Les Miserables

Abstract

The study intends to analyze Les Miserables, a historical novel written by Victor Hugo that reflects the author’s intention and vision for society. The novel depicts the miserable situation in which the lower class is placed in society and the humanity is totally neglected. Hugo is at his best attempts to bring in the ideology of socialism inorder to trigger the false consciousness of the people in society. The main protagonist, Jean Valjean in Les Miserables is a converted religious man who transforms himself from convoy to the responsible mayor. With the portrayal of another important character, Monseigneur Myriel, the bishop of Digne holds the crux of the story. Les Miserables analyses the comprehension of Hugo’s ideological transformation of the ideal society. The characters like Javert and Jean Valjean are created to enhance the social relations and the ideology clashes that triggers to the normative development of society. The conflict arouses in Javert’s mind and the transformation of Jean Valjean emphasizes the social change and social reconstruction. While Javert represents how the social conditions suppress the ideology of a person and what leads to his inability in accepting any possible circumstances that can contribute to changes in society. He is of the view that the juridical obligations create a negative impact of consciousness in society. In Les Miserables, with the portrayal of characters like Jean Valjean and Javert, Hugo describes the notions of literature, ideology and social construction. Thus, the research analyses the transformation of author’s ideology and draws the basic necessity to reconstruct society by a deliberate attempt of criticizing it.