Good will eventually triumph over evil, which is a conventional concept we have formed in the social context, but due to different eras and social backgrounds, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables runs counter to our notion that good and justice will also lose to evil under certain social relations.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > committed to evil</h1>
In the early nineteenth century, French society was in turmoil, and the people of high society were as extravagant as ever, while the working people at the bottom of society were living in deep trouble, and the protagonist of the story, Jean Valjean, was one of them.
Poverty did not deprive humanity of its goodness, and although she was not rich herself, Jean Valjean did her best to help her sister raise her seven children.
Of course, he can support himself and maintain his life with his hands on the ground, but the cruel society does not give him this opportunity. After Jean Valjean repeatedly ran into a wall in search of work, he was forced to embark on the path of crime.
In order not to starve his children to death, he had to steal bread, which was the trigger for his years of imprisonment. From this we can also see Hugo's sympathy for the working people at the bottom and his dissatisfaction with the darkness of the society at that time.
If someone had helped them, perhaps Jean Valjean would not have embarked on the path of crime, but everyone living in this society was unable to protect themselves or was increasingly apathetic by life.
In contrast, in modern society, although society has been progressing, crime has never stopped, from theft to murder, in fact, many tragedies have the possibility of avoidance, provided that someone can have more kindness and help for them.
Life in prison was not good, and Jean Valjean suffered in it and did not trust the laws of the time, and finally decided to escape from prison, which did not free him from prison, but greatly extended his sentence.
This also reflects the darkness and decay of society from the side, when the laws in black and white are not enough to convince people, what else can people believe?
Many people expressed puzzlement about Jean Valjean's approach, and since the sentence was not long, why he had to escape again and again. The reason is that the social system is too cruel to people, and people who have served sentences will hold yellow cards after they are released from prison, and can only do some thankless work.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > opportunity for good</h1>
After Jean Valjean was released from prison, he met the person who changed his life, Bishop Mirière, and this was also the opportunity for him to turn from his heart to goodness.
Miriam was kind enough to help Jean Valjean, who had just been released from prison, but he did not expect that the other party stole his valuable tableware, but he did not expose Jean Valjean in front of the police, saying only that he had given it to him.
Bishop Milière is the embodiment of the good side of human nature, a faithful believer in God, spreading fraternity and tolerance among the world, so that people's sinful souls can be redeemed. The character of Hugo is based on reality, and he wants to use this role to preach devout religious beliefs, God will save every lost lamb, and the goodwill in human nature will never be extinguished.
Jean Valjean was grateful to Miriam and at the same time ashamed, Miriam's humanitarianism and kindness made him feel self-conscious, and he deeply felt his own smallness and evil. Since then, Jean Valjean has been determined to reform himself and be a good man.
Jean Valjean, who hid his original identity, treated others with kindness, and with his constant struggle and the support of the people, Jean Valjean became a respected mayor. It also gives us some inspiration here, the power of human beings is unlimited, as long as you have the courage to change and are willing to fight for it, dreams and other things are not out of reach.
In this town where no one knew the details of Valjean, The Sheriff Shaweh was the only one who knew the dark past of Valjean, the son of the guard of the slave field, who had seen Valjean with his own eyes. Fantine is the one who makes them into a dispute.
Fantine, a young man of the youth, met an aristocratic young man who indulged in the sweet words of the other, and the amorous maiden always believed in her lover's vows, and she gave her body while the other party abandoned it after playing with it.
Fantine was the representative of the bitter women of the time, in the eyes of the nobility, they were low-hanging on toys, pampered when they liked, and discarded after getting bored. The dark society destroys them wantonly, and the kind but powerless they can only accept silently.
Fantine, who gave birth to a child, was unable to take the child with her for work reasons, so she had to foster her daughter Cosette to the Denardiers.
Fantine works hard every day to get more money to send to her distant daughter, but she doesn't know that Cosette lives an inhuman life in the first dana family. Even though Fantine sent them a lot of money, Cosette still lived as their servant.
The quiet days did not last long, Fantine's unmarried pregnancy was discovered by the workers, and the boss, believing that this was not conducive to the atmosphere and reputation of the factory, insisted on dismissing Fantine.
The victims of unmarried pregnancies are often women, and few people will blame irresponsible men, they will only target the victims, and put on the hat of "shamelessness" for them, and Fantine's tragedy is also real in the real world.
Life doesn't treat people in despair tenderly, and Fantine is no exception. The landlord often urged her to pay the rent with bad intentions, and the greedy and unsatisfied Denis intensified their oppression of her in the name of being good for Cosette.
Fantine, who lost her job, had to sell her hair and teeth, and finally even gave up her dignity and became a prostitute.
Everyone should have a chance to start over, but the society at that time was not so tolerant, when a woman's "reputation" was destroyed, and all that awaited her was an endless abyss.
While working as a prostitute, Fantine is harassed and shoved by several men, and Sheriff Savert, who witnessed this scene, did not teach the provocative men a lesson, but instead swung his fist at poor Fantine.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="68" > stubborn "justice."</h1>
As a sheriff, Javert is the embodiment of the legal system of society, but his character is stubborn and stubborn, in his conception only black and white, prostitutes and thieves are born bad people, their bad nature is innate.
He has not experienced the taste of the poor, nor can he empathize with their situations and choices, and his innate rationality and indifference make empathy a luxury in him, and he is only obsessed with his own set of good and evil, paranoidly trying to eliminate the "dregs" of this world.
When Jean Valjean learns of Javert's arrest of Fantine, he has a serious disagreement with Javert, and Javert, who has always suspected the mayor's true identity, is even more dissatisfied with him and begins to investigate the arrest of Jean Valjean, a criminal who had escaped on bail.
At this time, Jean Valjean began to take care of the seriously ill Fantine, promising that the other party would take Cosette back. At the same time, he learned that an innocent man had been mistaken for Jean Valjean and was about to go to trial.
Hugo uses a great deal of psychological depiction in Les Misérables, which we can glimpse from Jean Valjean's struggles.
Entanglement is inevitable, if he allows that poor man to be punished for him, then he will spend the rest of his life in peace, the mayor who will always be respected, and no longer have to worry about his past.
But he could not, and many years ago he had promised Bishop Milière that he would be a good man. After a painful struggle of thoughts, goodness finally triumphed over the dark side of his heart, and he left above the courtroom and in front of everyone to admit his identity. Appropriate entanglements and contradictions increase the sense of realism and three-dimensionality of the characters, and also let us see Hugo's praise of human morality.
No one can help but be shocked, who can connect this benevolent mayor with the vicious criminals of the year? There is no complete absolute in the world, and you can never define a person's life in a simple word.
Fantine lay dying in bed, knowing that she was running out of time, and entrusted Cosette to the kind Valjean. But at this moment, Javert breaks in, exposing the mayor's true face, and the frightened Fantine screams for his life, and Jean Valjean is so grief-stricken that he knocks Javert unconscious and flees with the help of his former subordinates.
Javert's indifference to the people at the bottom was actually the destruction of the people at the bottom by the social legal system at that time, and he was only a member of the law enforcement machine of social mass production. Hugo used him to show the injustice and moral hypocrisy of the social law of the time, and it was in this distorted social order that the people suffered.
In fact, eliminating evil is not a bad thing, but strict, indifferent and flexible laws and systems will only allow evil to expand and achieve counterproductive results.
Cosette became orphaned, and the Denardiers lost Fantine's money and abused Cosette even more, a cute little girl with rosy cheeks who became thin and timid under the ravages of life.
Jean Valjean pays and takes Cosette away from her childhood nightmare land, while Javert stubbornly pursues valjean in the escape. The hunt for Jean Valjean has become a near-morbid obsession with Javert, and to some extent the spiritual backbone on which he lives, and he wants to uphold the justice and goodness in his heart.
Passing by a monastery along the way, Jean Valjean and Cosette were temporarily out of pursuit. Because the guards were forbidden to enter the monastery, Jean Valjean lived as a gardener and Cosette in the monastery.
The days passed in such a way that Cosette grew into a beautiful lady under the careful care of Jean Valjean. As he grew older and longed for the outside world, the monastery was quiet but boring.
A year before becoming a nun, Cosette revealed that she did not want to be a nun, and for Cosette's happiness, Jean Valjean had to return to Paris with Cosette.
In Paris, Cosette met the revolutionary young Marius, and the two fell in love at first sight, often dating Valjean behind his back.
Cosette, who fell in love, was full of her lover Marius, and did not care as much about her adoptive father as she used to.
Jean Valjean, perceiving Cosette's change, was inevitably lonely, but he also understood that Cosette could not be with him all his life, and that Marius was a good young man, but his status as a revolutionary was too dangerous.
Marius, portrayed by Hugo, was the representative of the revolutionary youth of the time, they were the hope of social change, full of blood and justice, and a light in the dark society of the time.
Coincidentally, the first Dana family, who had originally adopted and abused Cosette, also moved to Paris, where they swindled and tried to trap Jean Valjean, a ruse that marius bumped into, but what he did not expect was that Denis turned out to be his father's savior.
The helpless Marius did not report the other side, but gave them twenty thousand francs to show his gratitude. In the 1830s, when the Republican-led uprising broke out in Paris, people could no longer bear the oppression of the bourgeoisie, where there was oppression, there was resistance, only resistance could be exchanged for freedom, so the battle became inevitable.
As sheriff, Javert infiltrated the Republicans to investigate the hostilities, only to be caught by the Republicans, and Jean Valjean, who also came to the barricades to fight, asked him to dispose of Javert.
To Javert's incredulous, Jean Valjean let himself go. This act of mercy dealt an incurable blow to Javert, whose principles and justice he had been upholding were completely overthrown, and who realized that bad guys could really get better was hard for him to accept.
In the end, Javert chose to commit suicide to end his "absurd" life. Many readers hate Javert, but how could Javert not be a poor man? He has always acted impartially and defended the law, but in the end he died in the contradiction between his "justice" and "human nature".
He was alone all his life, uncared for and uncared for, although he was the "righteous" side but not recognized by any party, he was a victim under the rule of the bourgeoisie.
Marius was wounded in the war, and Jean Valjean risked his life to rescue him from the sewers and return him to his maternal grandfather's house.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="69" > died lonely</h1>
At this point, Cosette and Marius lost contact, she was sullen all the time, and Marius, after recovering, was also obsessed with Cosette. Eponne, the daughter of the Denis, who was deeply in love with Marius, could not help but reveal Cosette's residence to Marius.
Jean Valjean chose to compromise for Cosette's happiness, but after he explained to the newlyweds the fact that he had been a thief in the past, Marius looked at him coldly, and even Cosette, the orphan daughter whom he had raised, stayed away from him.
And this is a new tragedy, Marius became a new bourgeois after marriage, he forgot his former comrades-in-arms and the revolution, like a "Grandaire" guarding his great property, the once admired revolutionary turned out to be the kind of person he hated the most, which is a historical necessity and a tragedy of human nature.
Later in life, Jean Valjean lived alone and lonely. When Marius learned that Jean Valjean was his savior, he took Cosette to visit the dying Jean Valjean. The poor old man took their hands and entered into eternal sleep.