爱华网The Miserable World is a historical culture legacyreflecting the tragic life and destiny of the human in the middleof nineteen century in France. The original indication of the nameof this novel was “people who’re suffering from great difficulty”,it attaches importance on the tragedy and position of theimpoverished people, by doing this, Hugo was able to stress on themain idea of the novel, which is most exciting and attentiveaspect, leading all of the readers to deep thinking.
We notice that in the preface, Hugo pointed out “Aslong as the social restrictions caused by laws and customs stillexist, the human society would be turned to be a hell and peoplewill suffer from inevitable disasters. If we couldn’t get rid ofthe following three issues existing in this century – men aregetting down because of poorness, women are turning to bedegenerate because of starving, children are becoming weak andhelplessbecause of pervasive darkness of theworld. In a boarder sense, if there are still foolish andimpoverish in this world, the books with the character similar tothis book will be conductive. “In the society of Hugo’s book, thelabour are living the miserable life and exploited by thefactories, the conscience of the human are disappearing because ofthe poverty, and people’s body and soul are distorted and afflictedby the prison. The misfortune of Valjean and Fantine is just thecondensation of the destiny of the poor.
The Miserable World reveals the sin and villainy ofthe vice aspects of capitalism institution by telling the storiesof the tragic life of Valjean and Fantine who were persecuted bythe cruel world. The story strongly tells us the fact that thetragedy people are suffering is exactly the tragedy of the wholesociety. At the same time, Hugo putted a lot of emphasis ondisplaying the strong will and hardship of the individual throughdescribing the internal agony and obsession of the main characters.The underlying reason why and how the whole miserable world takeplace is complicated and it needs fundamental analysis which givenby Hugo on the basis of a democracy and humanism. He came up withthe view that the country was out of rule of law, and the empty andhypocritical law, social injustice and inequity are the criminalresult in the miserable life of the people as well as the wholesociety. Hugo went to great length to disclose the darkness, toprotest the violence and injustice, to pursue the human right anddemocracy, the book shows great concern about the people and love.This novel is outstanding and valuable because ithas surpass the history and reality, people in modern society canbe influenced by it under theme of crucial issue of human life,people in our age will get sustainable progress in seeking ourcompletion, perfect andharmony.
Victor Hugo , as a humanist , pays the mostattention to the combat of human natures , not the struggle ofclasses in Les Misérables. He describes the changingof the hero from human to devil and then to angel , expressing hisexpectation of good human nature and progress in civilization. Hereflects on the history of mankind in various aspects andcriticizes the actual world in the name of future and human.
