“Artistic analysis. The problematics and poetics of Hugo's novel "Notre Dame Cathedral" The system of artistic ideas of the novel Les Misérables

In a foreign land, during the period of emigration from the Bonapartist republic, during the heyday of his creative powers, Victor Hugo created the greatest late-romantic canvas - Les Misérables. By this, the writer summed up a significant part of his author's path. This work and modern world is his most famous creation.

Intention

Even in his youth, the writer had an idea for a novel that described the life of the lower class, the injustice and prejudice of society. Hugo asked one of his friends to collect information about the life and life of convicts. Most likely, interest in the convicts was awakened because of the story of a runaway convict who became a colonel, who was later arrested in the capital of France.

The city prefect told Hugo about a relative of the bishop who welcomed a freed convict to his house. Reborn under the influence of a clergyman, he, in turn, became a military orderly, who later died at Waterloo. In the twenty-third chapter of the novel Les Miserables, Victor Hugo placed the story of a convict who, from his first days at liberty, faced cruelty, prejudice and hostility of those around him. In many ways, this story resembled the story of the protagonist of the work. And so, when the author had already imagined the outlines of the novel and wrote a preface to it, he was distracted by the theater. But all the same, the idea of ​​the book did not leave Hugo and continued to mature in his head, enriched with new impressions and great interest in social issues and problems. In some works of that time, you can find the outlines of the future novel Les Misérables.

The history of writing the historical novel

The writer is so passionate about his work that he even tries to “lengthen” his working day by rescheduling lunch for the evening. But such hard work was interrupted first by the events of the revolution, and then by the coup. As a result, the writing of the book "Les Misérables" Victor Hugo finishes already in a foreign land, in the capital of Belgium.

Editions of the work

In comparison with the final text, the first edition contained much fewer author's digressions and episodes. It consisted of four parts.

Fifteen years after starting work on the book, finally titled Les Misérables, Hugo decided to revise the novel and give full freedom to his lyrical prose. Due to such author's digressions, the work has increased in volume. Also there are branches from the main plot line.

While in Brussels, the writer created chapters in the novel in two weeks that described the secret republican society with the created ideal image of the priest of the revolution, as well as the battle of Waterloo.

As for the final edition of the book, it can be said that the author's democratic views had deepened significantly by that time.

The Idea of ​​the Novel and the Truth of Principles

Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" is historical, since it is precisely such a scale, according to the author, that is necessary to raise questions of human existence.

The main idea of ​​the plan is moral progress as the main component of social transformations. This is what permeates the entire mature work of the writer.

We observe how the protagonist of Victor Hugo ("Les Misérables") morally improves. That is why the author called his work "the epic of the soul."

Social problems and the romantic idea of ​​the struggle between good and evil move into an ethical plane. According to the writer, there are two justices in life: one is the highest humanity based on the laws of the Christian religion (bishop), and the other is determined by the laws of jurisprudence (inspector).

But, despite this, the novel that Victor Hugo wrote (“Les Misérables”), no matter how many volumes it contains (the work consists of three volumes), is fanned with a halo of a romantic struggle between good and evil, mercy and life-giving love. This is what is at the core of the whole novel.

The novel "Les Miserables". Historical meaning

The historical significance of this work is that here the writer takes under protection the persecuted and oppressed people and the outcast, suffering person, and also denounces the hypocrisy, cruelty, lies and heartlessness of the bourgeois world.

That is why it is impossible to remain indifferent when reading one of the best works written by Victor Hugo - Les Misérables. Reviews about him were also left by the great Russian classics. In particular, Tolstoy, who is a great domestic humanist, called this book the best French novel. And Dostoevsky re-read the work, taking advantage of a two-day arrest for violating the conditions of censorship.

The images of the characters in the book are integral parts of the world cultural heritage. Interest in them has not subsided so far. It is impossible to remain indifferent to the problems that Victor Marie Hugo raised in his book. Les Misérables is still going through more and more publications and film adaptations, the last of which was released about three years ago. Famous Hollywood actors took part in the film-musical.

"Rejected". Notre Dame Cathedral, written by Hugo at the time of the July Revolution, and then the dramas of the 30s, reflected the revolutionary moods of the writer, his indignation at the reaction of the Restoration period and July Monarchy. In these works, the popular masses and their movement played an important role. In the novels of the 60s, a romantic titanic personality comes to the fore.

The plot of the novels of the 60s - "Les Miserables", "Toilers of the Sea", "The Man Who Laughs" - is the struggle of one person against some external force. Thus, Jean Valjean alone opposes bourgeois law; one is Giliat in "Toilers of the Sea" against the elements of the sea; one also opposes Gwynplaine against the English nobility.

In Les Misérables, Jean Valjean, the prostitute Fantine, street children - Cosette, Gavroche - represent the world of the "outcasts", the world of people whom bourgeois society throws overboard and in relation to whom it is especially cruel. But in drawing this world, Hugo does not set himself the goal of revealing social contradictions in all their diversity. He has a different goal. It comes from a moral principle. It is no coincidence that he contrasts Bishop Miriel and police inspector Javert in the novel. True, they do not even occur in the novel; but, colliding in their images various principles, which they profess, Hugo, as it were, tests these principles on the fate of the protagonist Jean Valjean.

Jean Valjean goes to hard labor for stealing bread for his sister's hungry children. Having come to hard labor as an honest man, after 19 years he returns from there as a complete criminal. He is an outcast in the full sense of the word; no one wants to let him in to spend the night, even the dog kicks him out of his kennel. He was sheltered by Bishop Miriel, who believes that his house belongs to everyone who needs it, so he never locks the doors of this house. Jean Valjean spends the night with him and the next morning disappears from the house, taking the silver with him. Caught by the police, he is not going to deny his crime, for all the evidence is against him. But the bishop tells the police that Jean Valjean did not steal the silver, but received it as a gift from him. At the same time, the bishop says to Jean Valjean: "Today I bought your soul from evil and I give it to good." This act makes a tremendous impression on the convict; from that moment on, he is reborn and becomes as holy as Bishop Miriel.

An important role in the fate of Jean Valjean is played by police inspector Javert. This is an honest person. He is a representative of law and authority, his job is to punish crime. He considers Jean Valjean a criminal and pursues him. But then one day Valjean has the opportunity to kill Javert, who is captured as a prisoner during the barricade battles in 1832. However, Jean Valjean does not kill his enemy, but lets him go. He does what Bishop Miriel did to him in his time.

In Javert's soul, this produces a complete revolution. Javert pursued Jean Valjean out of a sense of duty, but now, after his noble act, all the policeman's ideas of duty were violated. Javert cannot stand the contradiction that has arisen in his soul and commits suicide.

In this novel, Hugo, as elsewhere, remains on an idealistic point of view in assessing the world; There are, in his opinion, two justices: justice of a higher order and justice of a lower order. The latter is expressed in the law on which the life of society is built. The law punishes a person for a crime committed. The bearer of this principle of justice is Javert in the novel. But there is another kind of justice. Its bearer is Bishop Miriel. From the point of view of Bishop Miriel, evil and crime should not be punished, but forgiven, and then the crime itself is stopped. The law does not destroy evil, but aggravates it. So it was with Jean Valjean. While he was kept in hard labor, he remained a criminal. When Bishop Miriel forgave the crime he had committed, he remade Jean Valjean. Javert perishes in the novel and, by his death, demonstrates the inconsistency of the justice that is expressed in human law and which, according to Hugo, should give way to the principle of supreme Christian justice, embodied in the image of Bishop Miriel.

So, according to Hugo, moral laws ultimately regulate people's relationships; social laws play only a secondary service role.

Hugo does not seek in his novel to deeply reveal the laws of social life. In this sense, he is not at all like the “doctor of social sciences” Balzac. Hugo's social processes are in the background. He seeks to prove that social problem will be resolved only when the moral problem is resolved.

In the preface to the novel, Hugo explains what guided him when he wrote his novel: “A society that allows poverty and unhappiness, a humanity that allows war, seems to me a society and humanity of a lower kind, but I aspire to a society and humanity of a higher kind.” For this purpose, he says, the novel Les Misérables was written.

And then he continued: “Until ... until the three questions of our time are resolved: the humiliation of the proletariat, the fall of women due to hunger, the absorption of children by the darkness of the night, as long as ignorance and poverty exist, books like this, not useless."

Despite all the contradictions, Hugo in this novel, as in others, remains true to his democratic sympathies. A tribune of the oppressed and outcasts, he salutes the revolutionary fighters of the people and places their representatives head and shoulders above the bourgeois world.

Victor Hugo(1802-1885)

Victor Hugo entered the history of literature as a democrat and humanist, champion of goodness and justice, defender of the oppressed.

His world fame is based on his novels, but Hugo is primarily a poet - the first poet of France, who knows no equal in the scale of his work, his civic intensity, virtuosity, the richness of his poetic vocabulary and the endless variety of plots, feelings, moods.

Hugo's work is distinguished by a rare artistic unity.

He remained a poet in everything he wrote: in dramaturgy, permeated with passionate lyricism, and in novels, on every page of which his excited voice is heard, and in correspondence, speeches, journalism, critical writings, where the whole arsenal of romantic imagery sparkles, all the fireworks of metaphors and hyperbole, integral to his style and poetry.

On the other hand, the epic beginning is present not only in his novels and great poems, but also in the lyrics, even the most personal, the most sincere.

"Preface" to the drama "Cromwell" (1827)

Manifesto of Romanticism

Broad theoretical substantiation of the new romantic art.

- “No matter how great the cedar and palm tree are, one cannot become great by eating only their juice,” - no matter how beautiful the art of ancient antiquity, new literature cannot limit itself to imitating it - this is one of the main thoughts of the “preface”. Art, - said Hugo, - changes and develops along with the development of mankind, and since it reflects life, each era has its own art.

Hugo divided the history of mankind into 3 large epochs: the primitive, which in art corresponds to the "Ode" (i.e. lyric poetry), the ancient one, which corresponds to the epic, and the new one, which gave rise to the drama.

The greatest examples of the art of these three eras are the biblical legends, the poems of Homer and the work of Shakespeare.

Hugo declares Shakespeare the pinnacle of the art of modern times, by the word "drama" he understands not only the theatrical genre, but also art in general, reflecting the dramatic nature of the new era, the main features of which he seeks to define.

In contrast to classicism, which he considered outdated and divorced from living life, with its aristocratic opposition of “noble” heroes to “ignoble”, “high” plots and genres to “low”, Hugo demanded to expand the boundaries of art, to freely combine the tragic and comic in it, sublimely beautiful and basely ugly (grotesque), as it happens in life.

The beautiful is monotonous, it has one face; the ugly one has thousands of them. Therefore, the “characteristic” should be preferred to the beautiful.

Hugo considered an important feature of the new art to be that it opened a wide road for the grotesque.

Another important feature is the antithesis in art, designed to reflect the contrasts of reality itself, primarily the opposition of flesh and spirit (the influence of Chateaubriand affected here), evil and good.

Hugo demanded observance in the drama of historical plausibility - local color, as in historical novels, and fell upon the unity of place and time - the indestructible canons of classicism, which seemed to him a stretch.

Written with brilliance and passion, full of bold thoughts and vivid images, the "Preface" to "Cromwell" made a huge impression on literary contemporaries.

It paved the way for the romantic drama that began to conquer the French stage on the eve of 1830.

The principles formulated by Hugo somehow affected such works as “Henry II and his Court” (1829) by Alexandre Dumas, “Jacquerie” (1828) by Prosper Mérimée, dramas and translations from Shakespeare by Alfred de Vigny.

- the "preface" largely justified the aesthetics of the grassroots romantic genre - tabloid melodrama, which became widespread in the 1830s.

Dramaturgy:

- "Hernani" (Hernani, 1830).

- "Marion Delorme" (Marion Delorme, 1831).

- "The King is amused" (Le Roi s'amuse, 1832).

- "Ruy Blas" (Ruy Blas, 1838).

- "Ernani" has become an occasion for literary battles between representatives of the old and new art.

An ardent defender of everything new in dramaturgy was Theophile Gauthier, who enthusiastically accepted this romantic work. These disputes remained in the history of literature under the name "battle for "Ernani"".

- "Marion Delorme", banned in 1828, was staged at the theater "Port-Saint-Martin";

- “the king is having fun” - in the “Teatre France” in 1832; this play was also banned.

Social activity:

In 1841 Hugo was elected to French Academy, in 1845 received a peerage.

In 1848 he was elected to the National Assembly. Hugo was an opponent of the coup d'état of 1851 and after the proclamation of Napoleon III as emperor was in exile.

In 1870 he returned to France, and in 1876 he was elected a senator

- "Notre Dame Cathedral" - Hugo's first historical novel.

Main character Romana - Cathedral

Cathedral - a symbol of the Middle Ages, the beauty of architecture and the ugliness of religion

- "The book will kill the building"

The main sign of romanticism; exceptional nature in extraordinary circumstances

Aesthetics of hyperbole and contrasts

Conflict of high and low: feudalism, royal despotism / people, outcasts

The theme of the Conflict of love and hate, beauty and ugliness, as well as the problem of people “rejected by society”, the emergence and loss of new ideas - all this still remains relevant, timeless ...

The main ideological and compositional core of the novel is the love for the gypsy Esmeralda of two heroes: the archdeacon Claude Frollo and the bell ringer of the Quasimodo Cathedral. This love reveals two characters.
The character of Claude Frollo evokes sympathy, pity. It should be said that this person’s life did not work out from the very beginning: the dream was crushed by circumstances. The cathedral became his home, the place where the young man imprisoned his soul and passion. It so happened that feelings that, as it seemed to him, were buried in the past, captured him. He begins to fight with his passion, but loses.

As for Quasimodo, the character itself is somewhat reminiscent of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Outwardly, this person is also ugly, clumsy. Behind the outer ugliness lies the soul of a child.

Widely uses in the novel the techniques of grotesque and contrast. The image of the characters is given according to the principle of contrast, as well as the appearance of the characters: the ugliness of Quasimodo is set off by the beauty of Esmeralda, but, on the other hand, the ugly appearance of the ringer contrasts with his beautiful soul.

The main characters of the novel are closely connected with each other not only in the central love theme, but also by its belonging to the Cathedral of Notre Dame: Claude Frollo is the archdeacon of the temple, Quasimodo is a bell ringer, Pierre Gringoire is a student of Claude Frollo, Esmeralda is a dancer performing on Cathedral Square, Phoebus de Chateauper is the groom of Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelorier, who lives in a house whose windows overlook the Cathedral.

At the level of human relationships, the characters intersect with each other through Esmeralda, whose artistic image is central to the entire novel. Everyone’s attention is riveted to the beautiful gypsy in the Notre Dame Cathedral: the Parisian townspeople admire her dances and tricks with the snow-white goat Djali with pleasure, the local mob (thieves, prostitutes, imaginary beggars and cripples) revere her no less than Our Lady, the poet Pierre Gringoire and the captain of the royal shooters Phoebus are physically attracted to her, the priest Claude Frollo is passionate desire, Quasimodo is love.

Esmeralda herself - a pure, naive, virgin child - gives her heart to the outwardly beautiful, but inwardly ugly Phoebus. The love of a girl in the novel is born as a result of gratitude for salvation and freezes in a state of blind faith in her lover. Esmeralda is so blinded by love that she is ready to accuse Phoebus herself of coldness, confessing under torture to the murder of the captain.

Young handsome man Phoebe de Chateaupe- a noble person only in the company of ladies. Alone with Esmeralda - he is a deceitful seducer, in company with Jean Melnik (the younger brother of Claude Frollo) - a fair amount of foul language and a drinker. Phoebus himself is an ordinary Don Juan, brave in battle, but cowardly when it comes to his good name. The complete opposite of Phoebus in the novel is Pierre Gringoire. Despite the fact that his feelings for Esmeralda are not particularly elevated, he finds the strength to recognize the girl as more of a sister than a wife, and eventually fall in love with her not so much a woman as a person.

The person in Esmeralda is also seen by the extremely terrible bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral. Unlike other heroes, he pays attention to the girl not earlier than she takes care of him by giving water to Quasimodo standing at the pillory. Only after knowing the good soul of a gypsy, a hunched freak begins to notice her physical beauty. External discrepancy between himself and Esmeralda Quasimodo he worries courageously enough: he loves the girl so much that he is ready to do everything for her - not to be seen, to bring another man, to protect her from an angry mob.

Archdeacon Claude Frollo is the most tragic character in the novel. The psychological component of the "Notre Dame Cathedral" is connected with it. A well-educated, just, God-loving priest, falling in love, turns into a real Devil. He wants to win Esmeralda's love at any cost. Inside him, there is a constant struggle between the good and the evil. The archdeacon then begs the gypsy for love, then tries to take her by force, then saves her from death, then he himself gives her into the hands of the executioner. Passion, finding no way out, eventually kills Claude himself.

In the preface to the novel "Toilers of the Sea" V. Hugo wrote that the main problem of the novel "Les Misérables" (1862) is the struggle against the ananke of social laws and infinity. Drawing a pariah of society (a former convict, a prostitute Fantine, a destitute little Cosette, a homeless boy Gavroche) and their enemies, people also humble, "small" (Thénardier, policeman Javert), Hugo embodies the philosophical and moral ideas of the time, reflects on humanity, on the appointment goodness and mercy. He creates new type social novel - a social-heroic epic, which depicts social conflicts generated by oppression and poverty, political disasters (the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo), the uprising of the French people in the 30-40s, the life of various sectors of society. Les Misérables raises the problems of poverty and lawlessness of the people, unemployment, prostitution, merciless exploitation (the Thenardier family oppresses little Cosette), injustice of the court (the story of Jean Valjean), homelessness, the spiritual evolution of the generation (the story of Marius), etc. Hugo writes about love ( line of Marius and Cosette), draws the pathos of barricade battles (the feat of Enjolras, the death of Gavroche), raises the problems of the future people. In Hugo's mind, everything bright and humane is associated with the people, the people and goodness are synonyms, the poor are good, the rich are evil, behind the actions of the destitute is the right court of the people.

"Les Misérables" is a revealing, preaching missionary socio-philosophical novel. In the preface to the first version of Les Misérables, V. Hugo wrote: “This book from beginning to end, in general and in detail, represents the movement from evil to good, from unjust to just, from false to true, from darkness to light.” The "outcasts" in the West were called the "modern gospel." The fate of V. Hugo's heroes is typical: Valjean and Fantine had real prototypes, the story of Marius is somewhat similar to the story of the writer himself. But small people turn into heroes in Hugo; events acquire philosophical significance. Social life for Hugo is a particular manifestation of the moral existence of mankind. The specific questions of the life of the peoples of the 19th century are reduced to "eternal" questions, behind the everyday struggle of his heroes there is always a struggle between good and evil. Hugo does not just paint pictures of social hell, but invites the reader to make a judgment about them. Jean Valjean wrestling

with Javert acquires a socio-symbolic character. Being correlated with the socio-historical background, this struggle is symbolic, because the righteousness of the oppressed is embodied in the holiness of Jean Valjean, and the absolute cruelty of the oppressors is embodied in the malice of Javert. The story of Jean Valjean turns into a parable about a suffering fate.

The conflict between the characters is not perceived as metaphysical, because history is combined with politics in the novel. The private life of the heroes is included in the great life of the people, the fate of all the heroes is determined by the revolution. The trend towards a universal vision of the era, manifested in the Notre Dame Cathedral, becomes dominant in Les Misérables.

There are two planes in Les Misérables: plot (Jean Valjean's line) and philosophical. The author introduces extensive historical, journalistic and philosophical chapters into the novel, which give the work an epic scale. Behind today's imperfect day, Hugo sees bright horizons, he identifies the procession of progress with the will of Providence. The purpose of progress is to affirm the good. A new era, freedom, equality, brotherhood will come as a result of the moral perfection of mankind.

In the spirit of the ideas of utopian socialism, V. Hugo points out ways to overcome evil, improve the economy and morals of the country. He believes that social contradictions can be reconciled if model enterprises are created in the spirit of the industrial system of Saint-Simon (Mr. Madeleine organized a similar enterprise). Hugo advocates a peaceful reform of industrial relations.

The philosophy of history of V. Hugo is based on the experience of the French Revolution. Hugo connects all social disasters with the hated Bonapartist regime. Hugo sings of the purifying power of the invincible revolution, does not want to put up with the passivity of man. The revolution, in the interpretation of Hugo, is progress: the revolution gave freedom of thought, proclaimed the truth; progress is achieved only at the cost of daring. Hugo treats the defenders of the barricade with reverence, surrounds them with an aura of heroism and tragic grandeur, they are great scouts of the future, disinterested and striving to benefit humanity.

V. Hugo contrasts the uprising with the rebellion. Rebellion serves the purposes of progress; rebellion is an act lawless, regressive. Hugo idealizes a republic and interprets the French workers' revolt of 1848 as an illegal rebellion because it took place when the republican system was established in France. From the moment the republic was established, according to Hugo, the need for class struggle disappears, everything should be decided only by universal suffrage.

Les Misérables affirms two, at first glance, opposite, but in fact complementary points of view: “Long live the revolution!” and “Long live the happiness of loving, the happiness of doing good and not bringing evil!”. After the events of 1848-1852, V. Hugo realizes that mercy is powerless to free the people from oppression and violence. On the pages of the novel, he confronts the bishop and the revolutionary. Bishop Miriel embodies humanity, Christian mercy, the revolutionary Enjolras embodies a humanistic dream, severe inflexibility, the ability to compassion and intransigence towards the enemy. The Christian righteous and the revolutionary atheist are not antagonists: they strive in different ways towards the same goal - the transformation of society and man. The credo of the revolutionary Enjolras: there should be no armament of the nation, free and compulsory education, uniform rights and work for all are necessary. Bishop Miriel, more of a preacher of universal ideas than of Catholicism, calls to protect the disadvantaged, to hate wealth and luxury, to be merciful, to help orphans, to introduce universal free education, to increase the salaries of school teachers, to abolish excessive taxes. The bishop and the revolutionary in the novel turn out to be allies: they were united by a disinterested desire to serve humanity.

Confessing "Thou shalt not kill," V. Hugo fully justifies the revolutionary actions of the oppressed masses. Behind cruel actions, he sees good intentions to put an end to tyranny, to establish humanity as the norm of relations. The bishop comes to the old atheist-revolutionary to condemn him. After listening to the atheist revolutionary, the bishop kneels before him and asks for his blessing. Throughout the novel, the question is decided: what is more important - non-resistance to evil by violence or active struggle. Enjolras sought tomorrow's happiness for all people, hated violence and death, but against his will brought them into the world. The humane ideas of the revolution come into conflict with its violent methods, violence destroys the ideals of the revolution. This creates the "tragic guilt" of Enjolras and his "severe sadness", fatal doom. Those around him treat him “with admiration, in which sympathy is evident”, they see in him an executioner and a clergyman, a hero and a victim. V. Hugo proceeds from absolute human morality and judges society for deviating from it, so “Thou shalt not kill” becomes more important. The result of the life of all active fighters for the happiness of the people in the novel is one: a tragic death. The finale of the novel is the apotheosis of the bishop: his shadow hovers over Jean Valjean, who dies with the words: "There is nothing in the world but the happiness of loving." The installation wins: love, kindness, disinterestedness, indulgence to human weaknesses is more important than bloodshed in the name of the good of mankind; only humanity will save the world; the revolution of the spirit is more significant than the social revolution.

V. Hugo believes that the circumstances of life form an ugly character, but one “event-revelation” is enough to destroy the power of the law of social determination. "Co-existence-revelation" is not connected with the fate of the state, but it brightly highlights the kindness and mercy of a person. Seeing the light of this truth, even the greatest sinner can be reborn. The "event-revelation" for Jean Valjean is the act of Miriel, when he gave him silver candlesticks and saved him from a new penal servitude. Hardened by life, a convict is reborn into a highly moral person, a sinner becomes a great righteous man. After the spiritual crisis, the whole life of Jean Valjean is a continuous series of self-denials. He sacrifices himself for the happiness of others, puts himself in the hands of justice in order to save the innocent, who is about to be condemned as the “convict Valjean”, selflessly takes care of a girl who is not his own, then of Cosette’s fiancé, although Marius will take away his dearly beloved adopted daughter; unarmed Jean Valjean goes to the barricades to save people from death and even releases his sworn enemy, the police spy Javert. Sacrifice surrounds Jean Valjean, like Bishop Miriel, with an aura of holiness.

A “revelatory event” for Marius is the information that the fugitive convict Jean Valjean, whom Marius initially forbade to see Cosette, saved him from death. After the death of Jean Valjean, Marius will become the bearer of mercy.

The “event-revelation” for Javert is the act of Jean Valjean, when he saves him from death, releases him from the barricade.

In a certain respect, the principles of Miriel's mercy were continued by Javert - the antipode of goodness and humanity, an impeccable policeman, the embodiment of a ruthless social order. In Javert, V. Hugo exaggerates two simple feelings, bringing them to the grotesque: "This man consisted of two feelings: respect for authority and hatred for rebellion." Javert deliberately destroyed everything human in his soul: compassion, love, pity for the victims of an unjust social order. Javert wants to expose the former convict Valjean, who has become mayor, paying no attention to either his obvious virtues or the benefits he brings to his fellow citizens. The inveterate villain Javert experienced a severe shock when Jean Valjean freed a policeman who fell into the hands of the revolutionaries. Hugo leads Javert, who is not used to reasoning, to the terrible thought for him that the convict Jean Valjean turned out to be the strongest public order. Everything Javert believed in is crumbling.
Javert, unlike Jean Valjean, could not be completely reborn, but he could not remain the same either. The fact that Javert committed suicide is a vivid confirmation of his rejection of the old moral norms. Javert demonstrates a dead-end version of the fate of man.

Les Misérables combines romantic and realistic features. Realistic features are inevitable here, for this is a social epic. Realistic emphasized social task books, the story of the main characters was born from reality; realistic depiction of the environment and circumstances; the historical parts of the novel are documented, topographic maps are involved; the characters of historical figures are accurate; the spiritual life of the heroes has much in common with the life of V. Hugo himself and his relatives.

The Romantic Hugo paints exceptional events and circumstances. In Les Misérables, antithesis becomes the main principle of the writer's artistic thinking. The world appears in sharp contrasts, in the alternation of light and darkness, everything gravitates towards the pole of good or evil. "Saints" (Bishop Miriel, Jean Valjean) and "devils" (Thénardier, Javert) act in the novel. The scale of the good and evil they do is equal. Human passions are brought to extreme tension, characters are made up only of vices or only of virtues. Hugo highlights those aspects of the personality that help him reveal the idea, so the characters of his characters are symbolic. The psychologism of the novel "Les Misérables" consists mainly in the romantically exaggerated image of a cleansing storm that shakes the usual worldview of a person. Hugo almost never analyzes the change in the mental world of the characters, but illustrates the change in his consciousness with a stream of metaphors, sometimes deployed for a whole chapter. The silent internal struggle corresponds to the usually gloomy, terrible tones of the romantic landscape.

As V. Hugo generalizes, he becomes more and more detached from reality. Gradually, Jean Valjean loses specific human qualities: his name changes, he becomes the embodiment of morality and mercy.

Questions and suggestions

for self-TEST

1. The problems of the novel by V. Hugo "Les Misérables".

2. The image of the revolution in the novel by V. Hugo "Les Misérables".

3. How is the idea of ​​humanity and the "chain reaction" of goodness revealed in V. Hugo's novel "Les Misérables"?

4. What is the originality of the method of the novel by V. Hugo "Les Misérables"?

For thirty years. The French writer based the plot on two strictly opposite images of his era - a convict and a righteous man, but not in order to show their moral difference, but in order to combine them into a single essence of Man. Hugo wrote his novel intermittently. At the beginning, the plot twists and turns of the work were created, then it began to acquire historical chapters.

The French writer saw the main goal of Les Misérables as showing the path that both an individual and the whole society travels “from evil to good, from wrong to fair, from lies to truth. The starting point is matter, the end point is the soul. The central linking image of the novel - the convict Jean Valjean - embodies the inner realization of this idea.

The most "outcast" hero of the work goes through a difficult path of moral development, which began for him with an unexpected meeting with the righteous Bishop of Digne - seventy-five-year-old Charles Miriel. The pious old man turned out to be the first person who did not turn away from Jean Valjean, having learned about his past, sheltered him in his house, treated him as an equal, and not only forgave the theft of silverware, but also presented two silver candlesticks, asking him to use them with benefit for the poor. In the soul of the convict, hardened by hard work and constant injustice, an internal upheaval took place, which led him to the first stage of moral development - he began to lead an honest and pious lifestyle, taking up industrial production and taking care of their workers.

The second turning point in the fate of Jean Valjean was the case of Chanmatier. Rescuing an unknown person from hard labor and revealing incognito was given to the hero through a difficult internal struggle - Jean Valjean suffered all night, thinking about whether he should risk the well-being of an entire region for the sake of the life of one person, and if he stops at the last, will it not be testify to his excessive pride. The hero goes to meet fate without making any decision. He says his name at a court session, seeing in Shanmatya an ordinary narrow-minded old man who has no idea about what is happening around him.

The most tragic for Jean Valjean is the third stage of his spiritual development, when he refuses Cosette. Loving his named daughter with an all-consuming love that combines an infinite variety of feelings (love for his daughter, sister, mother and, possibly, Woman), he goes to the barricade of Chanvrerie Street, where he saves Marius from death - the same Marius whom he hates with fierce hatred , in order to later not only give him the most precious thing that he has - Cosette, but also tell about who he himself is.

The life of Jean Valjean begins after his release from hard labor. In the beginning, he learns to do good to people, then to sacrifice himself in the name of truth, then to give up what he loves more than anything in the world. Three refusals - from material goods, from oneself and from earthly attachments - purify the soul of Jean Valjean, making it equal to the righteous Bishop of Digne and the Lord himself. The former convict passes away, reconciled with his soul, as it should be for a real Christian.

The complete opposite of Jean Valjean in the novel is police inspector Javert. Strictly following the letter of the law, he sees neither true kindness nor philanthropy around him until it concerns himself. An unexpected release granted to him by his worst enemy knocks Javert out of his usual rut of reverence for justice. He begins to think that there is something more in the world than the laws invented by people. Javert sees the existence of God so sharply that his soul, tormented by sins, does not have time to resist the revealed abyss of truth, and he commits suicide.

Eighteen years have passed since the release of Jean Valjean from hard labor until his death. The artistic time of the novel is not limited to October 1815 - the beginning of the summer of 1833. Hugo periodically immerses the reader either in the past, talking about the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), about the history of the Petit Picpus monastery, about the development of the Paris sewer, or into the future when he talks about the Revolution of 1848, which grew out of the uprising of 1832.

The main setting of the novel is Paris, the point of intersection of all storylines - Gorbeau's shack, in which Thenardier ambushes Jean Valjean. The main and secondary characters of the novel, connected by kinship and event ties, do not always know about them: for example, Cosette does not recognize her former trustee in Thenardier, Gavroche does not recognize younger brothers in two babies, Jean Valjean, Thenardier and Javert alternately do not recognize each other. friend. The latter circumstance serves as the basis for the formation of many plot intrigues.

The adventurous beginning of "Les Misérables" is associated primarily with the image of Jean Valjean. The psychologism of the novel is also manifested in this character. Cosette and Marius are the heroes of a romantic warehouse: their characters almost do not change throughout the story, but their main feature is love for each other. The heroes of the Parisian bottom - the Thenardier family, the gangster community "Cock's Hour", the street boy Gavroche - are connected with the naturalistic main work. In "Les Misérables" Hugo is equally good at both conveying the inner experiences of the characters, and detailed description premises, buildings, streets, landscape panoramas.

The love theme in the novel is closely related to the theme of death: the loving Marius Eponina invites him to the barricades, preferring to see the hero dead than belonging to another woman, but in the end she surrenders and dies, saving the life of her beloved; Marius goes to the barricades because he cannot live without Cosette; for the same reason Jean Valjean follows him. As befits romantic characters, the characters have little contact with reality - they are at the mercy of their feelings and do not see other ways of developing the situation, except to "be with a loved one" here and now or die.

The heroes "rejected" by society finally leave it at the moment of the highest internal upsurge of the lower strata of society: the former church warden Mabeuf gives his life, hoisting the banner of the Revolution on the barricade, Gavroche dies, collecting cartridges for the rebels, "Friends of the ABC" die for the bright future of all mankind.

Karl Marx's aphorism about the "idiocy of village life", one must think, infected Russian writers of the early 20th century with disgust for the old Russian way of life. The contradictory and complex attitude of Russian writers towards the countryside is best seen in the work of the great masters of Russian literature. In the first half of the 20th century, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was one of these masters. In his work, he did not pass by the devastated Russian village, in which, after the devastating reform of 1861, hunger and death ruled. The writer is looking for an ideal in the patriarchal past with its old world prosperity. launch

Composition grade 11. In the epic novel “Quiet Don”, M. A. Sholokhov painted a grandiose picture of the life of the Cossack Don with its historical traditions, a peculiar way of life. The theme of the home, the family is one of the central ones in the novel. This theme sounds powerfully already at the very beginning of the work. “The Melekhov yard is on the very edge of the farm,” this is how the epic novel begins, and throughout the whole story M. Sholokhov will tell us about the inhabitants of this yard. heroes, the father's house will forever remain the place where the closest people live.

VV NabokovMashenkaSpring 1924 Lev Glebovich Ganin lives in a Russian guesthouse in Berlin. In addition to Ganin, the mathematician Alexei Ivanovich Alferov lives in the boarding house, a man “with a thin beard and a shiny plump nose”, “an old Russian poet” Anton Sergeevich Podtyagin, Clara is “a full-breasted, all in black silk, a very comfortable young lady”, working as a typist and in love with Ganina, as well as ballet dancers Kolin and Gornotsvetov. “A special shade, mysterious cuteness” separates the latter from other boarders, but, “speaking in conscience, one cannot blame the pigeon happiness of this harmless couple.” Last year