The revolutionary characters CONSTRUCTING HUGO’S IDEAL SOCIETY

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CHAPTER III CONSTRUCTING HUGO’S IDEAL SOCIETY

“Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces.” 177 Les Miserables is a model of social construction that Victor Hugo uses to show the true picture of the society, and how the society could be transformed into his utopia. The discussion in this chapter consists of two sub-chapters. The first sub-chapter discusses the revolutionary characters in Les Miserables. The second sub- chapter discusses Hugo’s idea of ideal society in Les Miserables.

A. The revolutionary characters

As a character-based novel with the author as the main character who is projected in the narrator of the novel, Les Miserables is indeed written as a medium for Hugo to spread his idea. Vargas Llosa quotes Jean Cocteau’s definition of the Les Miserables ’ narrator, “Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo” 178 . Cocteau refers Hugo as a madman who has different perspective to the social order which is depicted in Les Miserables. Further, Andre Breton defines Victor Hugo as a surrealist who describes the society in its real form so the readers would be able to see how the society looks like 179 . The main focus in the first sub-chapter discussion is that the narrator, Hugo, frequently interrupts the story to 177 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 123 178 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 9 179 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 9 - 10 51 give some explanation, clarification and opinion to make the readers believe that it is Hugo who speaks to them and tell the story of each character. Eagleton states, “Literature may be part of the superstructure, but it is not merely the passive reflection of the economic base.” 180 As a literary text and part of the superstructure, Les Miserables portrays the real reality where a character has a complex life which is constrained by the whole society system. In Les Miserables, Hugo develops the characters with specific situation to make them revolutionary characters. In other words, the revolutionary characters triggers “emergent” to appear in their social context in Les Miserables. The first character is Fantine, a representation of the lower class, whom Hugo describes: Favoutite, Dahlia, Zephine, and Fantine were enchanting girls, [...], still with a flavour of the working-class since they had not altogether abandoned the use of their needles, directed by love-affairs but with last trace of the serenity of toil in a woman survives her first fall from grace. [...] It must be said that three older ones were more experienced, more heedless, and more versed in the ways of the world than Fantine la Blonde, who was encountering her first illusion. 181 Hugo describes Fantine as the youngest girl in a working class group. She has even less experience than the other girls who are older than Fantine. Hugo even emphasizes that they are uneducated women and have their life shaped by their dream and illusion. Both the narrator and Tholomyes, a bohemian student, who has romantic relationship with Fantine, see Fantine as a naive girl who is full of dream and illusion. Tholomyes even states that he could say nothing about Fantine, except that she is a dreamer and a sensitive soul 182 . Fantine lives in such place where there are many social phenomena happen, yet she does not even realize 180 T. Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, 4 181 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 123 182 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 137 52 anything happened in her life and lives under the control of her dream 183 . Due to her social background, Fantine tends to give everything to Tholomyes. She even gives bi rth to Tholomyes’ child. She also has to take care of herself and the child by herself, knowing Tholomyes left her 184 . The second character is Jean Veljean, the ex-convict turns to be a criminal because of his social background. Hugo describes Jean Vealjan as a poor man from a very poor family: Jean Veljean came from a very poor peasant family in Brie. As a child he had not learnt to read. [...] The Veljean Jean Veljean’s father children, always revenous, would borrow a jug of milk in their mother’s name from the farmer’s wife and drink it behind a hedge, snatching the jug from each other so greedily that they split milk on their clothes. 185 Jean Veljean is born in a very poor family. His parents are uneducated. They raise him with no clear parenting role. Their difficult economic situation that keeps them starving leads Jean Veljean to be a greedy thief to get something to eat. Therefore, when he is saved by a bishop and staying in his church, his thief instinct is awaken once he finds some silver in the middle of the night 186 . Through Fantine and Jean Veljean, Hugo points out that social condition constructs people’ way of life, or ideology. The social condition, affected by education and economic condition, determines the ideology of someone. According to the essay entitled “Capital Punishment”, Fantine and Jean Veljean are examples of how the society determine their history and way of life. 183 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 137 184 V. Hugo, Les Miserables,140 185 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 92 186 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 105 53 The third character, Marius, comes from different social level. Different from Fantine and Jean Veljean, Marius is raised in a bourgeois family 187 . Leaving his upper class family, Marius joins revolutionary student barricade. Hugo describes that Marius enters a different world than his life: Mme de T － ’s salon was all Marius knew of the world, the only opening that afforded him a view of life; a gloomy place and an opening that admitted more chill than warmth, more darkness than light. The boy, who was all high spirits when he entered that strange world, became quickly subdued and, which was even more foreign to his age, earnest-minded. 188 The education and upper class family background lead Marius to be one of the revolutionary barricade members. In this case, Hugo clearly portrays that the upper class and the lower class are two different worlds for Marius, an educated man from the upper class. Marius represents a bridge to connect these two different worlds. The conflict between Marius and his grandfather, though it is a personal and naive situation, leads him to leave his bourgeois life and blends into the gloomy life of the lower class 189 . This double consciousness leads him to be a character who shows the readers that the society needs some changes. Fantine and Jean Veljean have an opposite background of life which leads the readers to see that there is something wrong with the society. An interesting point is made by Hugo through the name of the character. Marius comes from the upper class family with a good family history, and he carries his family name. It is even clear from the beginning that Marius is Marius Pontmercy, the son of Colonel Pontmercy 190 . 187 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 522 188 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 530 189 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 502 190 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 130 54 Fantine and Jean Veljean are described as people who do not even know their name and identity. Jean Veljean is called so because people around him call him after his father’s name, Valjean. The name Veljean is even derived from unclear pronunciation of Valjean 191 . Besides Jean Veljean and Marius, Hugo also describes Fantine character clearly: She was called Fantine because she had never been called anything else. [...] she had no family, and no baptismal name since [...]. She was called by the name bestowed in her by some passer-by who had seen her running barefoot in the streets, and she accepted it as she accepted the raindrops when they fell. La Petit Fantine [...]. 192 Through their contact to the upper class world, they become revolutionary characters who lead the readers to find out the fallacies in the social system. Jean Veljean experiences the upper class world from the kind hearted bishop who releases him when he gets caught after stealing some silvers 193 , and then it turns him from a criminal to a great businessman. Again, Hugo stresses Jean Veljean’s transformation by changing his name into Madeleine to change his identity. Madeleine, not Jean Veljean anymore, becomes a character who shows how the powerful upper class should run the economic machine. Jean Veljean character shows how the dominant is able to build, not only someone’ social status in the society, but also herhis identity. Hugo writes a vivid description about Jean Veljean’s childhood life, so the readers would be able to understand the reason why he performs crime actions. Hugo describes that the crime actions which Jean Vealjan perform is part of his ‘instinct’ to fulfill his 191 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 92 192 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 125 193 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 111 55 needs 194 . Jean Vealjan’s criminal instinct has been built since he was a kid. It is not only because he steals to fulfill his hunger, his basic needs, but also because there is no one to educate him and to teach him about morality. The low social status that always makes him poor and hungry controls his actions, in addition he is also raised with no education even to tell him about morality. The crucial point of his life comes when he has to experience the Bishop’s act of releasing him even tough he steals silver plates. This moment becomes the beginning of Jean Veljean’s identity transformation. The part of Les Miserables where Jean Veljean’s identity starts changing represents at least two major points. Firstly, the moment is actually a depiction of ideology transformation. It is the transformation of Jean Veljean way of life. The moment when the Bishop tells Jean Veljean to go without judging him wrong. Furthermore, the Bishop lets Jean Veljean have silvers and gives him candlesticks, but he has to stop stealing. Regardless the value of right and wrong, the act of stealing which is performed by Jean Veljean is an act to fulfill his need to be alive. At the same time, law and social values are the products of social structure. When the Bishop releasing Jean Veljean, he acts beyonds the law and when Jean Veljean thinks to stop stealing and follow the law, he also acts beyond his consciousness. In this case, Jean Veljean changes his mind and accept the dominant value. Secondly, it is the society that builds Jean Vealjan identity. As Hugo emphasizes that Jean Vealjan performs the crime acts due to his needs. It is not only his needs, but also his environment. From the beginning of his life it is the society who determines Jean Veljean’s identity such as his name. It is also the 194 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 111 - 112 56 society that builds his characters since Hugo also explains that there is no one to teach him how to live. His life circumstance builds his way of thinking and his intention or in this case Hugo calls the unconscious drive as the instinct. However, the society with value and law basis, both are part of superstructure and produced by the economic base, judges Jean Veljean and label him a dangerous man for he is a criminal. Jean Veljean himself also accepts the fact that he is a criminal and then he change his mind set by accepting new values that are introduced by the Bishop. The relation between ideology and human depicted in Jean Veljean represents a complex relation of base and superstructure relation. Although it is the economic base that produces superstructure, including ideology, social value, and law, superstructure creates great allusion to affect base. It determines right or wrong and shapes social structure. The superstructure such as ideology, religion, and laws, are mistakenly seen as the creator instead of the creation. Besides Jean Veljean, Hugo also writes Fantine as another character from lower social who has contact with higher social. Fantine has her first contact to the upper class through his romantic relationship with Tholomyes. This love affair ruins her life after the bohemian student leaves her. As a result, she has a conflicted relation with the upper class which puts her into worse situation. She becomes a prostitute, the lowest position in the society, and gets into a conflict with an upper class man, Monsieur Bamatobis, who tortures her by putting some snows to Fantine’s bare back. For this conflict, Javert takes her to the police post, and the 57 police sentences Fantine with six month prisons. Hugo even stresses that at that time, the police has a right to judge a prostitute by the law 195 . A complex social situation appears when Hugo puts Madeleine and Fantine into the same narration scene. Madeleine saves Fantine with his authority although Javert tries to punish Fantine for she has split to him. An insult to Madeleine or Monsieur le maire is considered as an insult not only to Madeleine, but the most importantly to the town which means to the justice according to Javert’s consciousness. 196 However, Madeleine clearly states that what happens between him and Fantine is a personal situation. In this case, when Fantine gets angry at Monsieur Bamatobis, it ends up with punishment by the police. The oppression to the lower class refers to what Hugo means by something wrong. Hugo creates a plot that makes Madeleine meet Fantine and saves her from the punishment. Again, the act of saving Fantine, even after Fantine has split on him, is considered as an action against the law. A difficult situation appears due to the conflict between Javert and Madeleine. By describing this conflict, once again Hugo puts Fantine in the more complex situation because she stands between the conflict of two powers with different ideology. Hugo describes: She Fantine had found herself to be in some sort an object of dispute between two opposed power. She witnessed a conflict between two men who held her liberty in their hands, [...] The two contestants, in the heightened vision of her terror, had seemed like giants, one speaking with 195 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 184 196 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 188 58 the voice of a demon, the other in the tones of an angel. The angle had won [...] 197 In this narration, Hugo puts Fantine and Madeleine as two characters who realize that the society is constrained by the dominant ideology which the upper class has constructed. Fantine and Madeleine notice that something wrong occurs in the society, but they cannot point out the concept of this false consciousness. In fact, it is still clear that Hugo wants the readers to find out the false consciousness through the narration he reveals. Hugo even explains what Fantine feels and the situation of power conflict which is supposed to be won by Madeleine, the emergent, not Javert as the dominant ideology. Through Marius, Fantine, and Jean Veljean or Madeleine, Hugo leads the readers to the idea of a revolution. The contact between characters from different social class creates a space for two different ideologies, from the upper class and the lower class, which lead the characters to notice the false consciousness in the society. It can be seen through the interaction between the Bishop and Jean Vealjan. In the beginning of the novel Hugo narrates Bishop Myriel’s faith and his devoted life to God, even though Hugo himself explains that it has no direct bearing on the tale, it is still important for the readers to consider the narration as a starting point to understand the story 198 . The story of Bishop Myriel begins the first book where Hugo would present Fantine as the focus of the story. In fact, far before Fantine appears on the novel, Jean Vealjan appears as an ex-convict who comes to 197 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 189 - 190 198 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 19 59 the church for food 199 . Later in the story, Hugo also narrates the story about Jean Vealjan who is born in poor a poor family with no education. The moment when Jean Vealjan and the Bishop meets leads to a social conflict. Since the first time when they meet, the Bishop understands that he and Jean Vealja n has different life’s background and belief. Jean Vealjan is also aware that he and the Bishop come from different social structure. The different background of life shapes the Bishop and Jean Vealjan into two different persons with two different ideologies that are reflected in their way of life and behaviour. The climax of ideology conflict between the Bishop and Jean Vealjan is projected through Jean Vealjan’s reaction to steal the silvers in the middle of the night 200 . It shows Jean Vealjan’s resistant and hatred to the upper class. Then, the ideology conflict between Jean Vealjan and the Bishop is ended by the act of Bishop Myriel that released Jean Vealjan after he got caught for stealing 201 . The Bishop’s acts of releasing Jean Vealjan dan calling him bro ther touches Jean Vealjan’s heart. This moment begins Jean Vealjan’s ideology transformation where he starts to believe in God and perform some acts that are similar to the bishop, especially after he changes his name into Madeline. Hugo explains and interferes the situation that occurs to each character. He also tells the readers about the ideology conflict between the social class where he believes that, “[...] literature had a disposition to form a caste. 202 ” However, the ideology and social class conflict which is narrated in Les Miserables leads to a 199 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 84 200 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 105 201 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 110 - 111 202 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 930 60 conclusion where the upper class is still to be the social class which is more powerful. Such in the ideology conflict between Jean Vealjan and the Bishop or even between Javert’s and Jean Vealjan’s ideology tha is ended by the moment when Javert commits to suicide. Although each character in Les Miserables represents a change to their ideology, the upper class’ ideology is still the center of what they believe. Through the characters Hugo emphasizes that the society is responsible to shape someone’ identity and to teach herhim to live 203 .

B. An Ideal Society in Les Miserables