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life which is in line with Marxist concept to some degree
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. Les Miserables is not just a portrayal of reality, there is a creative writing process that modifies the
reality into a fiction due to Hugo’s intention. Eagleton states that literary works are
written as an active reflection of the society in which the author can use his imagination and their language power to create a projection of a society
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. This social studies prove that creative writing process in Les Miserables creates
complex projection of society, so it supports the analysis of Hugo’s creative process which reflects Hugo’s ideology transformation.
3. Les Miserables and its surrogation
Various adaptations of Les Miserables and literary works which are inspired by Les Miserables create a new research space. One of the studies is
Charles Walton’s article entitled “The Missing Half of Les Mis”. He explores the depiction of French revolution in “Les Miserables” 2005 musical movie.
According to Walton, the 2005 musical movie reflects a pessimistic depiction of revolution. Walton argues that Les Miserables
indeed reflects Hugo’s belief in social progress through revolution, but Hooper’s musical movie stresses the
religious Hugo, not the socialist one
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. In spite of the religious idea, Les Miserables emphasizes the downfall of
bourgeoisie. Hugo leads the readers to admit that the bourgeoisie is responsible for creating false consciousness. The changes are needed and a revolution is a start of
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V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 12
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T. Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, 6
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Charles Walton, “The Half Missing of Les Mis; the film pessimistic revolution view --- and ours”, Council and foreign relation 2003
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new stage of social life where working class can take control
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. In contrast, Hooper’s cinematic impression implies that the dominance of Jean Veljean’s
religious life and the portrayal of the revolution is the end of some social structures. Hooper uses the depiction of revolution to end an imaginary after life world where
people who has died appeared to join the barricade
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. According to Walton, this cinematic representation is a pessimistic
interpretation of the novel that is considered to be a mis-interpretation. The cinematic representation of the revolution seems to ironic for Hugo explains that
the revolution is a transition to reach the progress, not a way to reconstruct the social condition. Thus, it cannot be pictured pessimistically because in fact it
would not change the social condition into an ideal but it leads the society to aim the progress
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. As the aim to reconstruct the society is not to reach an ideal condition, but to aim progress with ideal as the concept, revolution should be
picture in a more positive portrayal
82
. Another comparative study between Hugo’s Les Miserables and the movie
adaptation was written by Steven Alan Carr in 2005. The article entitled “The Holocaust in the Text: Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and the Allegorical Film
Adaptation” is a study which focuses on the interpretation of the narration setting
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. Carr explains that the holocaust setting of place which Hugo describes in
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C. Walton, “The Half Missing of Les Mis; the film pessimistic revolution view --- and ours”, Council and foreign relation 2003
80
C. Walton
81
V.Hugo, Parenthesis, 1205.
82
V.Hugo, Parenthesis, 1206.
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Steven Alan Carr, “The Holocaust in the Text: Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and the Allegorical
Film Adaptation”, 53
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Les Miserables can be interpreted similar to a concentration camp
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. The setting is similar to
some movies about Nazi, especially the camp. Carr argues that Hugo’s description about the setting cannot be darker and gloomy that inspires the
surrogation works to generate such a holocaust picture
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. For instance a French movie adaptation which was made in 1995 built up the dark imagery of Paris and
people who live in the city. Carr’s article talks about the setting in which he compares Les Miserables
to its 1995 movie adaptation and other movies. This actually strengthens Ariane Smart’s opinion that analyzes the setting as a dark and small room
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. Though Smart and Carr have different research fields, they both analyze the setting and the
analysis concludes a similar description. They both point out that Hugo’s description of Paris in that era shows a dark small room impression. The gloomy
and dark impression is indeed not only reflected in Les Miserables. Bradley Stephens in the introduction of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
, Hugo’s other masterpiece, writes that Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame has
created Gothic imagery
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. Stephens stresses that Hugo’s Gothic imagery is built based on the metaphorical language he uses to describe Paris. It can be inferred that
the movie adaptations are in dialogue with Hugo’s dark Paris imagery to interpret Hugo
’s idea of revolution and social life in Les Miserables. The strong portrayal of Gothic imagery, that Carr refers to gloomy and dark atmosphere, even affects a lot
84
S. A. Carr, “The Holocaust in the Text”, 50
85
S. A. Carr, “The Holocaust in the Text”, 55
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A. Smart, 200
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Bradley Stephens, introduction, The Hunchback of the Notre-Dame, by Victor Hugo. trans. Walter New York: J. Cobb. Signet Classic, 2010 xii
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of movies, even the popular movies which are not the surrogation of Les Miserables
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. It confirms that Hugo creates clear Gothic imagery. The review on the previous studies to Les Miserables results in assurance
that Hugo’s ideology transformation can be regarded as the continuation of the previous studies. All previous studies are aware of the social condition which
develops each character and the atmosphere of the story, including the transformation of Jean Veljean in Les Miserables. Thus, the analysis to the social
condition and the depiction of Paris in Les Miserables helps the readers comprehending the novel as the real reality. As a projection of reality, Les
Miserables shows us Hugo’s idea of society and ideology and creates a room for us
to analyze Hugo’s ideology. Similarly, Qurat-ul-ain Ahmad, Sofia Dildar Alvi, and Abdul Baseer write a jo
urnal entitled “Victor Hugo Les Miserables: A Marxist Consciousness”, and they point out certain degrees of transformation.
Some characters such as Jean Veljean changes his name to be Madelein as a symbol of social status of the character
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. It shows that Hugo intentionally writes Les Miserables to respond the emergence of change social condition which turns
the transformation into the idea of revolution. Hugo himself emphasizes that the revolution is not the goal, but it is the beginning of the social changes. In his essay
“The Mind and the Masses” Hugo writes that the society needs to stay in progress and revolution is the answer to aim the progress
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. However, the depiction of revolution in Les Miserables is interpreted as pessimistic picture in its 2005
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B.Stephens, introduction, The Hunchback of the Notre-Dame, xiii
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Q. Ahmad et al, “Victor Hugo Les Miesrables: Amarxist Consciousness”
90
V. Hugo, “The Minds and the Masses”, The Works of Victor Hugo New York: P. F Coller Son Company, 1928 926.
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mu sical movie. According to Carr, the musical movie actually points out Hugo’s
faded socialism since he is confused between religious and socialist belief. The interpretation of revolution depicted in the musical movie actually shows Hugo’s
version of socialism. Therefore, it serves as a starting point to scrutinize deeper to Hugo’s ideology and its transformation in Les Miserables.
The previous studies also show Hugo’s idea to reconstruct the society and to point out false consciousness in the society. Hugo intends to point out social
structure as a subject to change when people realize the social gap between upper class and lower class through education and economic movement. In fact, the false
consciousness and the fictional society in Les Miserables have already shown particular ideology. According to Althusser in his “Ideology and Ideological State
Apparatus”, ideology is defined as two ideas. First, ideology is a representation of imaginary relationship of individuals to their real condition of existence
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. In other words, ideology is a set of beliefs that people use to discover the reality of the
world behind its imaginary world that leads to allusion or false consciousness. In this case, the previous studies confirm that Hugo has found out the false
consciousness and tried to show people through Les Miserables. Vargas Llosa makes a clear point if Hugo’s intention by stating that Les Miserables is a
representation of the real reality
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. Second, Althusser suggests that ideology is also praxis. Althusser writes
that ideology is itself forced to recognize that every subject endowed with a consciousness. It means that believing in the i
deas has to show one’s consciousness
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L. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, 693
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M. Vargas Llosa, introduction, The Temptation of the Impossible 2
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inspires herhim an act according to the ideas
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. When somebody proclaims that shehe believes in an idea, herhis whole way of living must be under the control of
the idea. The idea can be a religion. When someone says that shehe is a Christian, shehe must live within Christianity values and perform Christian rituals. Based on
this scheme, if shehe performs some actions out of Christianity value, there would be a chance that shehe “unconsciously” believes in other ideology.
B. Les Miserables and psychoanalytic - Marxism
