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HUGO’S IDEOLOGY TRANSFORMATION IN LES MISERABLES: A

RELIGIOUS MONARCHIST TO A RADICAL REPUBLICAN

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the degree of Magister Humaniora (M.Hum.) in English Language Studies

by

Dhenok Praptiningrum

Student Number: 136332045

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2016

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJIPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ii

A THESIS



by



Approved by

Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D. ________________________

Thesis Advisor Yogyakarta, 2 February 2016


iii

A THESIS



Presented by



Defended before the Thesis Committee

and Declared Acceptable.

THESIS COMMITTEE

Chairperson : Dra. Novita Dewi, M.S.,M.A (Hons),Ph.D. __________________

Secretary : Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D. __________________

Member : 1 Dra. Th. Enny Anggraini, M.A. __________________

: 2 P. Mutiara Andalas, SJ.,S.S.,M.A,Ph.D. __________________

Yogyakarta, 12 Februari 2016

The Graduate Program Director

Sanata Dharma University

Prof. Dr. Agustinus Supratiknya


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STATEMENT OF WORK‘S ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the

ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full

consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody else’s ideas,

phrases, sentences without proper references.

Yogyakarta, 2 February 2016,



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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan dibawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Dhenok Praptiningrum

NIM : 136332045

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan,

sayamemberikankepadaPerpustakaanUniversitasSanata Dharma karyailmiahsaya

yang berjudul:



beserta perangkat yang diperlukan. Dengan demikian, saya memberikan kepada

Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan

dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data,

mendistribusikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa

perlu meminta ijin maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap

mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal : 2 Februari 2016

Yang menyatakan



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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There are numerous people that I should thank for the accomplishment of

this study. First of all, I should mention Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D, my thesis advisor,

whose courses have brought my attention to this topic and whose patient guidance

has led me to finish this thesis. I should also mention P. Mutiara Andalas,

SJ.,S.S.,M.A,Ph.D., Dr. F.X. Siswadi, M.A., Dra. Novita Dewi,

M.S.,M.A.(Hons),Ph.D, and Dra. Th. Enny Anggraini, M.A. who have guided me

with their critical feedback.

A lot of thanks should also go to my parents and my siblings, Bani and

Karenia, for their support during my study. I would also like to thank Bastian Leo,

my best friend and my fiancé, for his support. Last but not least, I should mention

Miranda Siregar and Elsa Emiria Leba whose time have always been available for

me for any sharing. Finally, I should not forget all of my friends in KBI Sanata

Dharma who have been very helpful to me, not only during the thesis writing, but

also during my study in KBI Sanata Dharma.



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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................. i

APPROVAL PAGE ....................................................................................... ii

DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE ..................................................................... iii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ................................................ iv

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ................................ v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... vii

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... xi

ABSTRAK ....................................................................................................... x

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION............................................................... 1

A. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1

B. Research Methodology .................................................................. 14

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................... 16

A. Hugo’s ideology transformation within the previous studies .......... 16

1. Psychoanalytic studies on Les Miserables ............................. 16

2. Les Miserables and the reality .............................................. 23


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3. Les Miserables and its surrogation ........................................ 26

B. Les Miserables and psychoanalytic - Marxism ............................... 31

1. Defining Hugo’s socialism ....................................................... 32

2. Psychoanalytic-Marxism .......................................................... 44

CHAPTER III: CONSTRUCTING HUGO’S IDEAL SOCIETY ............... 50

A. The Revolutionary Characters ....................................................... 50

B. An ideal society in Les Miserables ............................................... 60

CHAPTER IV: HUGO IDEOLOGY TRANSFORMATION...................... 71

A. The constructed desire ................................................................... 71

B. Insanity / In Sanity ........................................................................ 76

C. The religious monarchist who becomes radical republican .......... 81

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................... 92

BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 104

APPENDIX ..................................................................................................... 106

The Summary of Les Miserables ..................................................................... 106


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ABSTRACT

Praptiningrum, Dhenok, 2015, Hugo’s Ideology Transformation in Les Miserables:

A Religious Monarchist to A Radical Republican. Yogyakarta: English Language

Studies of Graduate Level, Sanata Dharma University.

This thesis aims at analyzing the transformation of Victor Hugo’s ideology

reflected in Les Miserables to understand his idea of socialism and point of view on

social structure. As Hugo has proclaimed himself a socialist in his essays of

humanity entitled “Capital Punishment” and “Mind and Masses”, the analysis

focuses on Hugo’s repressed condition reflected in Les Miserables. To support the

analysis, this research chooses the novel published in 2012 by Penguin Books. This

version of Les Miserables is translated by Norman Denny. In his introduction,

Denny writes his awareness about Hugo’s ideology transformation. Therefore, this

novel is translated with the translator’s awareness of Hugo’s social background and

ideology transformation.

This research analyzes Les Miserables by using psychoanalytic-Marxism as

the reading strategy to comprehend the social and psychotic dimension in Les

Miserables. Psychoanalytic-Marxism is a literary theory proposed by Eugene

Victor Wolfenstein based on psychoanalysis and Marxist theory. Both theories are

deconstructed to reconstruct psychoanalytic-Marxism which places someone’s

psychotic dimension within her/his social condition. The discussion on ideology

transformation comprises three main points; (1) the concept of desire and passion,

(2) the insanity / in sanity concept, and (3) the psychotic dimension of the author

within his social life which is depicted in the novel. The first point supports the

argument that social condition builds someone desire. The second point emphasizes

on the idea of “emergent” within the “dominant” ideology from

psychoanalytic-Marxism and an individual point of view within the collective. The

third points focuses on how psychoanalytic–Marxism perceives the author’s

unconscious notion within the author’s social condition

The three analysis points of psychoanalytic-Marxism conclude that

although Hugo proclaims himself a socialist and projects his idea about socialism in

Les Miserables, Hugo transforms into a socialist with religious soul. The research

finds that Les Miserables shows that Hugo’s ideology is not only a set of belief but

also a praxis. Therefore it reflects Hugo’s projection of his set of belief and his

ideology as praxis that concludes Hugo’s socialist idea within his religious mind.

Keywords: Hugo ideology, psychoanalytic-Marxism, ideology transformation


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ABSTRAK

Praptiningrum, Dhenok, 2015, Hugo’s Ideology Transformation in Les Miserables:

A Religious Monarchist to A Radical Republican. Yogyakarta: Program Pasca

Sarjana Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma

Tesis ini ditulis dengan tujuan menganalisis transformasi ideologi Victor

Hugo yang tercermin dalam Les Miserables guna memahami konsep sosialisme

Hugo and pandangannya terhadap struktur sosial. Berdasarkan keputusan Hugo

untuk menyatakan diri sebagai seorang sosialis dalam esai kemanusiaannya yang

berjudul “Capital Punishment” dan “Mind and Masses”, analisis mengenai

ideologi Hugo dalam tesis ini akan menjadi analisis gagasan bawah sadar Hugo

yang tercermin dalam Les Miserables.

Guna mendukung analisis, dalam penelitian ini digunakan versi novel yang

diterbitkan pada 2012 oleh Penguin Books. Versi Les Miserables ini diterjemahkan

oleh Norman Denny yang dalam kata pengantar novel tersebut memaparkan bahwa

ia menyadari perubahan ideologi dalam diri Hugo. Sehingga, novel tersebut

diterjemahkan dengan mempertimbangkan latar belakang kehidupan sosial dan

perubahan ideologi Victor Hugo.

Penelitian ini menganalisis Les Miserables dengan psychoanalytic -

Marxism sebagai strategi pembacaan untuk membaca sisi sosial dan psikologi yang

terefleksi dalam Les Miserables. Psiskoanalitik-Marxisme merupakan teori sastra

yang ditulis oleh Euegene Victor Wolfenstein berdasarkan teori klasik psikoanalisis

dan Marxist. Kedua teori tersebut diuraikan untuk membentuk psychoanalytic -

Marxism yang menempatkan dimensi psikologi seseorang dalam konteks sosial.

Ada tiga poin pokok mengenai perubahan ideologi yang akan dibahas: (1) konsep

keinginan dan naluri, (2) konsep insanity / in sanity, dan (3) dimensi psikologi

seorang penulis dalam konteks kehidupan sosialnya yang tercermin dalam

novelnya. Poin pertama akan mendukung analisis mengenai bagaimana latar

belakang dan kondisi sosial membentuk keinginan dalam alam bawah sadar

seseorang. Poin kedua menekankan ide “emergent” yang muncul melawan

ideologi “dominant” dari sudut pandang psychoanalysis - Marxism dan sudut

pandang seorang individu dalam kelompok sosial. Poin ketiga berfokus pada

bagaimana psychoanalytic - Marxism melihat bagaimana kondisi psikologi dan

ideologi penulis tercermin dalam karyanya.

Ketiga poin analisis psychoanalytic - Marxism tersebut menyimpulkan,

walaupun Hugo menyatakan diri sebagai seorang sosialis, dan memproyeksikan ide

sosialis dalam Les Miserables, ia justru berubah menjadi sosialis dengan jiwa

religius. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa Les Miserables menunjukkan bukan

hanya ideologi Hugo sebagai suatu kerangka pikir, tetapi juga sebagai praksis.

Sehingga, novel tersebut memproyeksikan suatu ideologi sebagai kerangka berpikir


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sekaligus praktik sosial yang menyimpulkan konsep sosialis Hugo lebih mengarah

pada dasar pemikiran sosialis yang dilandasi jiwa religius.

Kata kunci : Hugo ideology, psychoanalytic-Marxism, ideology transformation


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

“There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in

the higher.”1

This thesis aims at analyzing Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables, which

reflects the changes of the author’s intention and ideology. Victor Hugo himself

has stated that he adjusted his ideological view into socialism2. Les Miserables is

written as Hugo believes that literature has a significant effect to the society. Hugo

writes the novel as a depiction of social life where God, the Infinite Mankind, is not

the central of society reflected in Les Miserables3. Hugo also emphasizes that the

stagnant social structure which is built by the monastery needs liberty to transform

it into a republican.

Les Miserables reflects that the social structure creates miserable

situation for the lower classes where humanity is neglected 4 . The miserable

situation of the lower class is also depicted in Hugo’s humanity essays entitled

“Capital Punishment” and “Mind and Masses”. In those two humanity essays,

Hugo emphasizes his idea of socialism to point out false consciousness in the

society. However, Les Miserables is written as a character-based novel with a

religious man, Jean Veljean, as the main character. Hugo also creates Monseigneur

Myriel, a bishop character as the basis of the story. This contradiction and Hugo’s

idea about humanity would be the main reason why Les Miserables is analyzed to

1 Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, trans. Norman Denny (New York: Penguin Group, 2012)153 2 Victor Hugo, introduction, Les Miserables, by Norman Denny, trans. Norman Denny (New York:

Penguin Group, 2012) 10 3 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 1202 4 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 153


2

comprehend Hugo’s ideology transformation that is depicted in his idea of ideal

society in Les Miserables and how his idea of ideal society leads into his ideology

transformation.

Literature is an “active reflection” in which the society is reflected and

directed. The notion that literature serves as an active reflection is similar to

Hugo’s idea that is reflected in Les Miserables. Victor Hugo creates the character

Javert and Jean Veljean with particular social condition and ideology background

in order to emphasize the social relation and ideological conflict in the society. The

social conflict between classes leads to a recognition of social condition that

triggers social changes. Both the transformation of Jean Veljean5 and the conflict

in Javert’s ideology depict the social changes. Jean Veljean represents the ideology

transformation and social reconstruction.

Meanwhile, Javert represents how social condition constraints someone’s

ideology. Further, this social condition leads him to reject any possible situations

which contribute to changes. Javert has a strong belief that juridical responsibility

creates a false consciousness in the society6. In Les Miserables, Hugo presents the

depiction of Jean Veljean and Javert to reveal his idea about literature, ideology,

and social construction. In other words, Les Miserables is the medium in which

Hugo analyzes social construction. Thus, the analysis on Les Miserables would

elaborate the transformation of Hugo’s ideology and the emergence of necessity to

reconstruct social structure against the dominant ideology.

Les Miserables, first published in 1862, has been re-published and

translated several times in many languages. Therefore, for the analysis, I choose

5 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 116 6 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 200 - 2001


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the version of Les Miserables which was translated by Norman Denny and

published by Penguin Books in 2012. This selection is due to two reasons. First,

this version includes the unpublished parts of the novel. There are two parts of the

novel which were not considered to be published in the first place; the part two of

book VII entitled “Parenthesis”7 and part four of book VII entitled “Argot”8.

Lacroix, Hugo’s publisher, decides to remove these parts because they do not

directly improve the character or the plot, though they are Hugo’s personal

experience, religious belief, and intention9. However, the unpublished parts of the

novel would support the analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation because they

vividly embodies Hugo’s deliberate attempt to criticize the society. The “Argot”

and the “Parenthesis” emphasize Hugo’s reason in writing Les Miserables.

Second, the translation of the novel which Penguin Books published in 2012

contains the comprehension of Hugo’s ideology transformation. In the introduction

of the novel, Norman Denny stated that he is aware of Hugo’s personal life as he

wrote:

He (Hugo) had moved steadily away from his right-wing bourgeois origins

to the point where he was not only an avowed republican but could openly

proclaim himself a socialist10.

The quotation above explains that Penguin Books published the novel that focuses

on Hugo’s intention and ideology change. Since the novel includes “Argot”, this

part greatly helps the translator to translate Hugo’s language. The “Argot” explains

the reason why Hugo chooses the diction of the novel, so it enables the readers to

understand Hugo’s dialectical thinking.

7 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 202 8 V. Hugo, Les Miserables,1214 9 Norman Denny, introduction, Les Miserables. 11 10 V. Hugo, Les Miserables,10


4

The analysis focuses on how Les Miserables reflects Hugo’s ideology

transformation and the relation between ideology and literature as part of

superstructure11. In Marxist perspective, both literature (arts) and ideology reflect

and shape the society. In other words, they define the forms of social

consciousness. However, we have to be aware that society, which refers to ‘base’

or the motor of social and economic life, is the one that produces both ideology and

literature12. Thus, ideology and literature have complex correlation. A literary text

is not merely produced as a reflection or a copy of reality; instead, it reflects and

shapes the real social life.

In producing literary text, an author involves creative writing process to

create character and plot which is constrained by her/his intention. The creative

writing process enables an author to not only describe but also create a fictive

social context. In fact, literature is not a sacred text unaffected by the real social

life. In some degree, the author copies the realities and modifies it into her/his

fictional world13. For instance, Hugo takes inspiration in writing Les Miserables

from the real social condition, but he modifies the setting for achieving his goal.

Thus, literature is not just a reflection, but as Terry Eagleton proposes, it is called

an active reflection because it reflects and affects the reality at the same time14. At

the same time, Hugo’s life and even his intentions are built by the social condition

around him. Although he was aware of the social structure, he was also a product of

the society. It creates an area of shadow in Les Miserables where Hugo as an author

who is in one side able to produce a literary work due to his intention, but in the

11 Terry Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism (New York:Routledge,2006)2 12 T.Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, 3 13 T.Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, 3 14 T.Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, 2


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other side even his intention is built by social structure. Thus, psychoanalytic -

Marxism would create a lens for us to read how Hugo uses a literary text as a

medium where he is also built by social structure.

As an active reflection of the society, literature reflects the way of life or

ideology of the society. Althusser suggests ideology as praxis which means that

ideology is not only a set of belief, but also the whole way of how a society life15. A

relation between literature and ideology becomes clearer because literary text

captures the whole life process in the society. Since literature is an active reflection

of the society, in some degree it reflects particular ideology as praxis through

which the social life described in any literary text. Moreover, literature affects and

even shapes the society, for it shows the author’s set of beliefs which constrains the

social condition in the literary text.

A literary text has complex relation to ideology because of the creative

process of its production16. Eagleton emphasizes that the creative process includes

how and why the author develops the characters and the plot of the novel due to

her/his goal. The creative writing process enables an author, such as Victor Hugo,

to show the social condition, people are capable of understanding the portrayal of

particular society. Since the literary text is written based on the author’s both

conscious and unconscious intention, it becomes a projection or an active

reflection of the society. In the creative process of writing, not only does an author

copy or rewrite the real social condition but also looks closer to the reality and

reconstruct the social condition to in fiction. It is true that the author is a product of

15 Lois Althusser. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael

Ryan, Literary Theory, an Anthology 2nd (New York: Blackwell, 2004) 694 16 T. Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, 3-4


6

social structure, but a literary text, although in some degree it is still under the

society control, would be able to be a medium for people to notice the social

condition.

To analyze Hugo’s ideology transformation, it is important to scrutinize

Hugo’s creative process while writing Les Miserables because the activity would

provide significant support for the analysis. Hugo’s ability to create a complex

social condition in Les Miserables is supported by his double social consciousness.

Victor Hugo was raised in a well-to-do middle class family where his mother was a

religious Catholic and his father was a Bonaparte follower 17 . His family

background leads Hugo to be familiar with Christianity values and to be part of the

society where he had some accesses to education and stable economic condition.

His family background constrains his ideology to be a right wing bourgeois with

religious life. His parents’ different ideology is the main reason for Hugo to

experience political and religious lives.

Hugo was aware of the condition where social environment constrained

people’ life. This awareness then results in his strong intention to analyze social

condition. He further concludes that society reconstruction can be achieved by

means of making people have similar awareness. In his essays of humanity, Hugo

even emphasizes that literature is one of media to shape the society and it is a

socialist belief that supports the process so he proclaims himself a socialist18. Les

Miserables reflects a long process of the ideology transformation. Hugo creates

Jean Veljean, a character who has undergone significant transformations in his life.

17 N.Denny, introduction, Les Miserables, 1 18 N.Denny, introduction, Les Miserables, 10


7

Les Miserables provides a medium to analyze ideology through which Victor

Hugo’s ideology transformation is intricately explained.

Society is a developing process which never comes to an end. Raymond

Williams proposes a similar concept in his book entitled Marxism and Literature.

The never ending process of social process is part of Williams’ cultural theory in

which he explains that the social and cultural systems are built by three basic

elements. According to Williams, there would always be the dominant who

determines main social features and practice19. The dominant authority would

perpetuate particular ideology and determine the social condition in the time being.

At the same time, there would be always residual in this cultural process.

The residual refers to particular ideology which was developed in the past, yet it is

not distinguished to the archaic20. Though the residual was formed in the past, it

still effectively affects the dominant. Williams explains that the dominant is even

formed on the residual basis. Thus, certain values are still affected by the residual,

even the dominant ideology is formed by the previous cultural institution and

formation. In the last stage of social and cultural process, the emergent would

appear. By the emergent Williams refers to meaning and social value and even new

social practice21.

The emergent denotes social changing against the dominant. In most cases it

also refers to the formation of new social class who emerges to reconstruct the

social structure in radical way. In the early process, the emergent appears to be the

stage of realizing the false consciousness which is constrained by the dominant.

19 Raymond Williams, Marxist and Literature, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977) 121 20 R.Williams, Marxist and Literature, 122 21 R.Williams, Marxist and Literature, 123


8

Hence, literature, for example Les Miserables, exists in the emergent area. Hugo

writes Les Miserables to show the social and cultural process based on his ideology

where he believes that society is a never ending process. He begins the story with

how monastery builds the social structure and becomes the social basis to continue

the social process. It is all explained through the narration of the Bishop’s life in

first part of Book I and the transformation of Jean Veljean as a character which is

built by the social structure, but then transforms into the emergent that brings

changes. Therefore, it would reflect the process of author’s ideology

transformation.

Les Miserables projects Hugo’s ideology transformation, and it reflects

Raymond Williams’ idea of cultural theory. Therefore, Hugo’s intention and social

and psychotic background serve as the best supports for the analysis. In this case

the “Parenthesis” stresses the ideology that Hugo believes and explains why in the

beginning of the book he emphasizes Christianity22. In “Parenthesis” Hugo writes,

“That is why in previous chapters I have talked of these establishments with

respect”23. It shows that Hugo intends to explain why he writes so much about

monasteries in the previous book. In the previous chapters and in the previous

books, especially in the Part One where Hugo reveals the story of Fantine, he

stresses the importance of monastery to shape the society. Although the monastery

is not the focus of the story, Hugo writes that we should notice the function and the

existence of monastery in the whole story24.

22 Victor Hugo, Parenthesis, Les Miserables (New York: Penguin Group, 2012) 1208 - 1212 23 V. Hugo, Parenthesis, Les Miserables, 1027 24 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 9


9

Then in “Parenthesis” Hugo also emphasizes that monastery is part of the

history that has shaped the society. However, to continue the whole social life,

there should be a new value. Hugo emphasizes that Les Miserables is an imitation

of a reality which he believes that God, not the monastery, has ordered it. He writes

that monastery creates some claustration that castrated people’ life25. It is a product

of community where the rule of law is created based on equality and fraternity, but

this stage has already done and the society needs liberty to transform the monastery

into a republic26. The monastery has created a society with a misconception that

people are bound to obey the law and to judge or to be judged by the law. Jean

Veljean, who grows up to be a thief, reflects the social condition. Hugo stresses

that the society has shaped Jean Veljean into a criminal, but Jean Veljean is

ironically punished for committing crimes. The society does not realize that they

have shaped Jean Veljean to be a criminal. Hugo argues that this misconception or

false consciousness is constrained by the monastery as the dominant ideology at

the time being.

Hugo argues that the monastery is supposed to aim for salvation with

sacrifice as the method27. The character of Bishop, Monseigneur Myriel depicts

this condition. Les Miserables points out that the monastery should be the

reflection of God’s love that transforms Jean Veljean to be Madeleine rather than

to be an institution that perpetuates dominant power28. To continue the cultural and

social process, Hugo proposes that republican should replace monastery. Hugo

emphasizes that the main objective is not to reconstruct the society to be ideal

25 V. Hugo, Parenthesis, 1211 26 V. Hugo, Parenthesis, 1207 - 1208 27 Victor Hugo, “The Minds and the Masses”, The Works of Victor Hugo (New York: P. F Coller &

Son Company, 1928) 926 28 V.Hugo, Parenthesis, 1211


10

because God is ideal and absolute. Instead, this changes focus on establishing some

progress in the society. Monastery has built the society into the society which is

described in the first book of Les Miserables29. Yet, a society should be defined as

a never ending social process. Hugo states in his essay on humanity entitled “The

Mind and The Masses” as he writes, “To destroy is the task; to build is the work.

Progress demolishes with the left hand; it is with the right hand that it builds.”30

In the other part of the book which is not published in the first publication,

Hugo writes the part four of book VII, entitled “Argot”. In “Argot” Hugo explains

the roots of the words “les miserables”31. In this chapter, he also emphasizes that

revolution is a starting point to reach the aim of Progress, as Hugo wrote:

Thanks to the Revolution, social conditions have changed and we have got

the feudal and monarchic sickness out of our system. There is no longer

anything medieval in our constitution. [...] Revolutionary feeling is moral

feelings. [...] The law for every man is liberty [...]32.

Hugo explains that social structure is ordered as well as the individual life is

constrained. The monarchic system has created a feudal society that he calls

monarchic system. In Les Miserables revolution is a symbol of people’ repressed

feeling to the stagnant condition in the society where they no longer need to be

controlled. In other part of the novel, Hugo even strongly shows his point of view

that religion or monastery order is even controlled by the monarchic social

structure and either way it directs people when he describes Madeleine, “The poor,

as well as God, benefited by the deputy’s misgiving, for he also endowed two

hospital beds－making twelve in all.”33 Both through “Argot” and “Parenthesis”

29 V.Hugo, Parenthesis, 1205 30 V. Hugo, Parenthesis, 1205. 31 V. Hugo, Argot, 1214 32 V. Hugo, Argot, 1228 33 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 157


11

Hugo explains his idea of social construction and how it affects individual life. He

also writes that Les Miserables is an illustration of how the social process which

aims at achieving some progress should run.

As Les Miserables reflects the idea of developing process to build an ideal

society, there are two questions which would be examined in this thesis:

(1) How is Hugo’s idea of ideal society depicted in Les Miserables?

(2) How does Hugo’s idea of ideal society in Les Miserables lead to Hugo’s

ideology transformation?

To analyze Hugo’s ideology transformation in Les Miserables, this research

applies psychoanalytic - Marxism as the literary theory. Psychoanalytic - Marxism

is going to double perspectives to the analysis. It creates a possibility to analyze

Les Miserables from Marxist perspective to see a literary text as an active

reflection. Marxism also creates research area for the historical and social to

constrain people’ life34, while psychoanalysis focuses on desire and emotional

drive. Psychoanalysis would examine an individual psychotic condition through

her/his manifest desires. The manifest desires, sexual and aggressive drives, are

actually formed by social rules that begins in the family35. Thus, psychoanalytic -

Marxism creates possibilities to see Les Miserables from its social point of view as

part of superstructure with its relation to base and examine its psychotic dimension.

The ideology analysis, in this case Hugo’s ideology transformation in Les

Miserables, would be examined from the perspective of psychoanalytic - Marxism.

34 Eugene Wolfenstein, Psychoanalytic - Marxism Groundwork (New York: The Guilford Press,

1993) 10 35 E. Wolfenstein, Psychoanalytic - Marxism Groundwork, 11


12

The psychoanalytic - Marxism would put Hugo’s psychotic idea in particular

social condition.

Besides the literary theory, the previous literary studies of Les Miserables

would support the analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation. There are some

previous studies which analyzed Les Miserables, one of which that support the

analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation is The Temptation of the Impossible

which is written by Mario Vargas Llosa. Vargas Llosa focuses on how Les

Miserables creates a portrayal of the real social condition. According to Vargas

Llosa, Hugo shows his idea of how the reality should be. In the introduction of his

book, Vargas Llosa even emphasizes that Les Miserables is a representation of the

real reality36. Hugo writes Les Miserables not only as a fiction but also as a

criticism, suggestion, and analysis to a complex social condition in Paris around

the revolutionary years.

Besides Vargas Llosa’s The Temptation of the Impossible, there are

economic and social studies which present deeper explanation on how the social

system and social order affect the economic condition of the lower class characters.

In her journal, Ariana Smart analyzes that the way Hugo describes Paris in Les

Miserables shows his psychotic condition from which he suffered from

claustrophobia37. A social study such as the “Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables: A

Marxist Consciousness” is another analysis to Les Miserables which is conducted

36 Mario Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible Victor Hugo and Les Miserables, (New

York: Princeton University Press, 2004) 3 - 4 37 Ariane Smart, “The Darkness and the Claustrophobia of the City: Victor Hugo and the Myth of

Paris” Vol.8, 2000, 315


13

to Les Miserables38. Qurat-ul-Ain Ahmad, Sofia Dildar Alfi, and Abdul Baseer

claim that Les Miserables portrays inter-class conflict with vivid social-economic

background. At the same time, there are some comparative studies about Les

Miserables and its surrogation. There have been various kinds of adaptations of

Les Miserables such as the musical movie which was released in 2005. A

comparative study to this musical movie entitled “The Missing Half of Les Mis”

compared the picture or revolution which is depicted in the novel and in the

movie39.

The study of Hugo’s ideology transformation depicted in Les Miserables

would function as literary study which supports and continues the previous studies.

The previous studies have analyzed how Hugo reconstructs the society in Les

Miserables and emphasizes his idea of an ideal society show his ideology

transformation. Thus, this study would analyze Hugo’s ideology transformation

which is depicted in Les Miserables. Although some previous studies have

confirmed that Hugo’s ideology changing leads him to perform a radical acts in his

writing with socialist lining, this thesis would show the other point of Hugo’s

socialism which is affected by his religious and romantic mind.

Furthermore, this study would reflect the idea of creative writing process in

which Les Miserables is seen as a projection of reality. The previous studies which

focus on Hugo’s particular psychotic condition and the social condition in the

novel would support the analysis about Hugo’s ideology transformation. Thus, the

previous studies leave a room for the analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation.

38 Qurat-ul-Ain Ahmad, Sofia Dildar Alfi, & Abdul Baseer.“Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables: A

Marxist Consciousness”. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Business. 5.5(2003):115 -

123 39 Charles Walton, “The Half Missing of Les Mis; the film pessimistic revolution view --- and

ours”.Council and foreign relation. (2003): 51


14

The analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation would confirm that

inter-disciplinary studies can be conducted. In addition, it would also answer the

doubt of the blur picture of revolution in Les Miserables which can be interpreted

in different tones when it comes to the surrogations.

Besides psychoanalytic - Marxist reading and locating the analysis among

the previous studies, Hugo’s other works are also essential sources to support the

analysis. Two essays on humanity serve as the secondary data sources to analyze

Hugo’s ideology transformation. In his essays entitled “The Mind and the Masses”

and “Capital Punishment” Hugo explained his idea of society and socialism.

Research Methodology

To conduct the analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation depicted in Les

Miserables, several steps of research methodology are performed. The study

begins with reading the novel to find particular topic for the analysis. To support

Les Miserables analysis, Hugo’s other works that are in dialogue with Les

Miserables, “Capital Punishment” and “Mind and Masses”, are examined. Based

on the reading process, it is found that indeed Hugo himself states that he

transforms into a socialist. In “Parenthesis”, part two of Les Miserables’ book

seven, Hugo explains that Les Miserables is a literary text where social structure

has creates allusion to the society in the story. He emphasizes that it is monastery

that perpetuates the allusion and the society needs to be liberated in order to aim an

ideal situation where society stays in a progress. Up to this point, Marxism seems

to be a literary theory to comprehend the analysis.

Yet, during the analysis process, an religious idea which is contrast to

socialism is found. Since the beginning of the novel Hugo emphasizes a story of a


15

bishop character and how Jean Veljean, the main character, changes his way of life

for a religious reason. This fact shows that there is a repressed ideological conflict

within Hugo’s mind. To see Hugo’s ideology transformation only from Marxist

perspective would leave Hugo’s psychotic condition untouched. Thus, applying

psychoanalytic - Marxism as a literary theory for the analysis would be a key for

the analysis. After synthesizing the theory and defining Hugo’s idea of socialism,

the analysis about Hugo’s ideology transformation is conducted to write this thesis.

This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction of

the study which explores the background of the study. This sub-chapter includes

the explanation about the reason of choosing Les Miserables that is translated by

Norman Denny as the main data source to analyze Hugo’s ideology

transformation. Chapter one also depicts the formulation of the focus of the

analysis. The second chapter contains the literature review which focuses on the

previous studies and the literary theories which are used to conduct the study. The

third chapter would provide an elaborate explanation about the first research

question. This chapter contains the discussion on Hugo’s idea of ideal society and

his criticism to the society. The fourth chapter would present an explanation about

how Les Miserables depicts Hugo’s ideology transformation. Finally, the last

chapter consists of concluding remarks.


16

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

“Nobody loves the light like the blind man.”40

This chapter includes two major discussions. The first part defines the

position of the analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation in Les Miserables

among the previous studies. The second part discusses psychoanalytic – Marxism

as the literary theory to read Les Miserables in order to analyze Hugo’s ideology

transformation.

A. Hugo’s ideology transformation within the previous studies

Les Miserables has been analyzed in various disciplines besides literary

studies, such as in the field of social and cultural studies. It shows the complexity

of Les Miserables as a literary work which depicts the whole life of a society. The

previous studies also include the comparative studies between Les Miserables and

its surrogation like the comparison between the novel and the movie adaptation in

1995 and musical movie in 2005. The previous studies create a specific room

where the analysis of Hugo’s ideology transformation can be conducted.

1. Psychoanalytic studies on Les Miserables

There are several works where Les Miserables is analyzed with

psychoanalysis to study Hugo’s psychotic condition and his religious depiction.

Ariane Smart analyzes that Les Miserables shows Hugo’s psychological condition.

Smart writes an analysis about the setting of place, Paris, which is depicted in Les

40 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 157


17

Miserables41. Based on Smart’s analysis, Les Miserables vividly shows the ideal

expectation of social condition in France with Paris as a capital of materiality.

Smart analyzes how Hugo describes Paris as a representation of his claustrophobia.

Paris is a symbol of mysterious and dangerous place which Hugo describes as a

gigantic spider web that trapped individual power and social oppression42. Smart

argues that the symbolic language that Hugo uses to describe Paris such as the

gigantic spider web and mysterious dark place shows Hugo’s fear of small and

dark place43.

Though Paris is a small and dark place, it represents eminence, money, and

politic supremacy as the main issue of the story with the setting of Paris in 1800s44.

Paris is similar to a gigantic spider web which attracts individual and social power

and economic activities. Ariane Smart focuses on Fantine and Tholomyes

relationship which represents inter-class social relation. Tholomyes, a student who

has romantic relationship with Fantine, takes Fantine to Paris where they spend

their bohemian life style for a moment45. Paris is a place with large social gaps and

where people from different social class meet. Smart emphasizes that Fantine and

Tholomyes relation actually symbolizes the relation between upper class and lower

class46. These two social classes live in the same place with different condition.

The upper class live in such situation where education, power, and wealth are easy

to access. In contrast, the lower class is too ignorant, for they are uneducated and

41 Ariane Smart, “The Darkness and the Claustrophobia of the City: Victor Hugo and the Myth of

Paris” Vol.8, 2000, 315 42 A. Smart, 317 43 A. Smart, 318 44 A. Smart, 321 45 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 129. 46 A. Smart, 315


18

perceive that education, power, and wealth are part of the upper class life. Hugo

describes Fantine’s life to show this condition with vivid description:

She sold all her possessions, which produced two hundred francs, but only

eighty remained after her debts were paid. And on a fine spring morning

she left Paris, a girl of twenty-two with her baby on her back.47

Hugo emphasizes that Fantine thinks that having a relationship with Tholomyes

was a way to make her life better48. She respects and trusts Tholomyes by letting

him sleep with her. Ironically, Tholomyes has a different view regarding his

relationship to Fantine. It is a carefree relationship, so he leaves Fantine in

desperation to be become a prominent provincial attorney in the future. Hugo even

associates the relationship between Tholomyes and Fantine is like Homer’s

Polyphemus or Shakespeare’s Caliban instead of romantic relationship49.

According to Smart, the tragic inter class relation in Paris shows that Hugo

portrays Paris as dark small space where people from different social classes live

together, and they have little knowledge on the social structure in Paris. Both

Fantine and Tholomyes realize social class and inter-class relation, but they do not

notice the gap between them. Smart argues that the condition of Paris shows

Hugo’s point of view that a small and dark place is a scary place. Hugo’s poetic

language in Les Miserables creates a research area to analyze Hugo’s psychotic

condition50.

She claims that the way Hugo describes the condition in Paris reflects his

claustrophobia, his fear of being in a small dark room. In Hugo’s description, Paris

47 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 147 48 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 147 49 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 144 50 A.Smart, 316


19

represents a small deadly prison where all the economics, politics, and people are

trapped in an uncanny atmosphere51. It is not only the description, Mme Magloire,

a minor character who lives with the bishop, also shows that Hugo suffers from

claustrophobia. Mme Magloire never feels comfortable to live in such place which

is dark and full of criminals who might steal the silvers from their unlocked house

(the church)52.

In her writing, Ariane Smart argues that the revolution moment reflects the

repression of anger and desire coming up into the surface. It emphasizes Freudian

psychoanalytic theory which suggests that any psychological conflict does not

vanish, but it is repressed to the unconscious notion. The repressed emotion would

appear to the surface, or the conscious level through a completely different

action53.

Besides reflecting the author’s psychotic condition, Les Miserables

explicates Hugo’s religious side. Janis Barnett in his thesis “Transformational

Grace In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables’”, writes about Hugo’s religious belief:

[...]I argue that Hugo intends his readers to recognize, [...], that human

transformation is a spiritual undertaking which is often initiated, and

always assisted, by God, [...] that they connect the transformational grace

made evident in the narrative to the “real reality” [...] to understand that

what matters most in life is relationship and union with God.54

Barnet’s analysis that emphasizes Hugo’s religious sides confirms Hugo’s

idea of ideology and society which is written in the “Parenthesis”. Hugo himself

51 A. Smart, 315 52 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 35 -37 53 Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, introduction: Strangers to Ourselves: Psychoanalysis, Literary

Theory, an Anthology 2nd edition (New York: Blackwell, 2004) 390 54 Janis Lynn Barnett. Transformational Grace in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Diss. California

State University (2012) 4


20

states that God is the center of life and to Whom people should keep their faith55.

According to Barnet Hugo puts himself as the central of the novel. He emphasizes

himself as the creator who builds the story to teach the readers about life and

God.56

Another writer, Vargas Llosa, in his book entitled The Temptation of the

Impossible, argues that Hugo intended to lead the readers to see the novel as a real

reality where Hugo is the main character 57 . Vargas Llosa argues that Les

Miserables is a literary work which gives us a complex detail of social life where

we can see the complex connection between fiction or literary text and real life or

society58. How Hugo engages historical reference and builds the plot and the

characters of the novel show his awareness of false consciousness in the society.

Vargas Llosa states that Les Miserables is the real reality in fiction. In other words,

he agrees that Hugo uses Les Miserables as a projection of reality where he creates

his own reality in fiction, the readers are able to observe the social condition.

Similar to Barnett who points out that Hugo, the narrator of Les Miserables,

is the main character of the novel, Vargas Llosa states that Victor Hugo is the main

character of the novel. Though Barnet and Vargas Llosa have similar idea about

Hugo as the center character of the novel, Vargas Llosa emphasizes that it is the

way Hugo uses Les Miserables as a medium instead of teaching people about God.

Vargas Llosa writes, “How can we describe this narrator? His most salient features

55 V.Hugo, Parenthesis, 1212. 56 J.Barnett, 14 57 M.Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 12 58 M.Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 10


21

are omniscience, omnipotence, exuberance, visibility, and egomania.” 59 The

readers would always find the presence of Hugo in Les Miserables when he

narrates the story.

Hugo in fact does not only narrate the story, but also connects one event or

character to another and directly teach the readers about morality. In some parts,

Hugo even confirms and corrects the situation of the characters as if he were

another character who always silently watches other characters. In the

“Parenthesis” and the “Argot”, Hugo himself explains that it is himself that he is

the narrator of Les Miserables who is also the main character of the story60. In

“Argot” he even explains that he writes Les Miserables with particular language

which is called the argot language, take for example when he replaces “les misere”

with “les miserables” that refers to poverty and miserable condition61.

For Hugo put himself as the main character in Les Miserables, it would be

easier to justify that Hugo “uses” Les Miserables as a medium to echo his

ideological intention. As a liberal monarchist who becomes a republican with

radical and social-minded leanings62, Hugo has strong intention to reconstruct the

society. He explains in “Parenthesis” that he wants to change the social condition

from the monastery into republic63. Although Smart, Bannet, and Vargas Llosa

point out different focuses, they agree that Les Miserables reflects Hugo’s situation

and belief. They all have a similar idea that Les Miserables shows Hugo’s

awareness of social condition and Hugo’s strong idea to reconstruct the society.

59 M.Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 12 60 V.Hugo, Les Miserables,1002 61 V.Hugo, Les Miserables,1215 62 M.Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 12 -13 63 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 1207


22

Barnett and Vargas Llosa even emphasize that Les Miserables is a medium for

Hugo to speak by placing himself as the center of the story. Hugo is the narrator of

Les Miserables and a salient character with power to direct the society in Les

Miserables. In other words, they notice that Hugo tries to emphasize his idea to

change the social condition.

The way Hugo writes Les Miserables and his point of view about

revolution, society, and literature are analyzed as a blend of literature and

philosophy. A.M Blackmore in the Essential of Victor Hugo explains that Hugo

writes his novels, including Les Miserables, to show particular intention 64 .

Although Hugo has written essays to explain his idea, especially “The History of

Crime” in which he clearly states his idea about crime action, his novels, such as

Les Miserables that is written before and during the exile, projects clearer idea of

Hugo’s life philosophy of social structure that builds every individual identity.

All these studies emphasize that Hugo uses Les Miserables to emphasize

his intention to reconstruct the society. The central point of changing process in

society is the character Jean Veljean. Jean Veljean is a symbol of the social change

that represents Hugo’s idea of the progress in the society should be65. In the same

time, Jean Veljean’s transformational life also reflects Hugo’s ideology

transformation. Supported by the previous studies that analyzes the complexity of

the social depiction in Les Miserables, an analysis of Hugo’s ideology

transformation would be the research to continue the previous studies.

64 A.M. Blackmore, The Essential Victor Hugo (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)53 65 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 987


23

The changes in the society are reflected through the plot of the story. Hugo

creates an extricate plot in Les Miserables to show social process and describe the

changes of people way of life as the result of their belief and ideology. This

connection leaves us a gap to analyze Hugo’s ideology transformation and a social

construction depicted in Les Miserables.

2. Les Miserables and the reality

As Eagleton has emphasized that a literary work is not merely a copy of

reality, Les Miserables is also an active reflection or a medium to show the readers

a real reality. The real reality here means that in some degree, Les Miserables is

indeed a copy of the social condition around the revolution but it has been modified

with Hugo’s point of view and interpretation to the social condition. The characters

and the narrations of each character are both Hugo’s point of view to what actually

happened in the society. Hugo’s belief here leads the readers to see Les Miserables

as an example of interpretation of what really happened in the society around the

revolution era in Paris. It creates a room to analyze Les Miserables as a literary

work that reflects more than one aspects of social life.

The analysis of the reality depicted in Les Miserables leads to a study

where Les Miserables is analyzed as a projection of reality is Mario Vargas Llosa’s

book entitled The Temptation of The Impossible. In this book, Vargas Llosa

analyzes Les Miserables as a complex projection of social life that creates a space

to conduct interdisciplinary research. Other researches are the interdisciplinary

studies incorporating social and economic disciplines. One example of

interdisciplinary research is a journal by Qurat-ul-ain Ahmad, Sofia Dildar Alvi


24

and Abdul Baseer entitled “Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables: A Marxist

Consciousness”.

Ahmad, Alvi and Baseer show that there is economic and social

relationship between the upper class and the lower class which is constructed in

order to perpetuate the tyranny of the upper class66. They analyze the social

structure which is depicted in Les Miserables based on Marxist reading to see how

the society is constructed with social power and economic condition where the rich

bourgeois has control not only in economic field but also to perpetuate the social

structure67. The depiction of social condition in Les Miserables create a clear

purpose for the journal as there is written:

The research tries to establish the fact that economic parity and social

impartiality are the best means to resolve the contradictory issues and to

abolish the absurdity of life. The paper demonstrates that it is the behavior

of society at large that encourages the criminality among the normal

behavior oriented people.68

Ahmad et al show an analysis in social and economic field with Les Miserables as

a model of social construction. This analysis further shows that the novel projects

the society as well, especially through Hugo’s narration which explains the

characters and their social condition. The vivid depiction of the society in Les

Miserables is supported by Vargas Llosa’s argument that states Les Miserables is a

real reality69. These situations become an underlying reason to write the journal

entitled “Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables: A Marxist Consciousness” since Hugo

also clearly presents human behaviour due to the economic condition.

66 Q. Ahmad et al, “Victor Hugo Les Miesrables: Amarxist Consciousness”, 5.5 (2013) 67 Q. Ahmad et al, 5.5 (2013) 68 Q. Ahmad et al, 5.5 (2013) 69 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 12


25

Les Miserables creates a complete picture of a society, especially when

Hugo explains about Jean Veljean. The protagonist of the novel, Jean Veljean,

shows how economic condition and power affects his life and status70 . Jean

Veljean is a symbol of human life which is constrained by his social condition.

Hugo explains in his narration that Jean Veljean becomes a thief for he was poor

and hungry as a child and nobody taught him to work for the food71. The society

has turned him into a felon who steals a loaf of bread. Then the society, for one

more time, turns him into a respected man after he has successfully changed his

identity to the Monsieur Madeliene and great economic and social status72.

Besides Jean Veljean, Fantine is a symbol of an oppressed lower class

person. Hugo describes Fantine as an ignorant woman who grows up without any

education or clear family background73. Unlike Jean Veljean who turns into a

respected man, the contact to the upper class even makes Fantine’s life more

depressed74. While reading the story of Jean Veljean and Fantine’s life, the readers

constantly find that Hugo interrupts the story both to narrate and to explain and

judge the situation. This writing style is what Vargas Llosa points out as a creative

writing process where Hugo created the real reality in Les Miserables75.

The studies place Les Miserables as a theory of human society which

enables the readers to understand how the social and economic condition

constrains people’ life. Indeed Hugo writes Les Miserables as a model of human

70 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 92 71 V. Hugo, 92 - 94 72 V. Hugo, 156 - 157 73 V. Hugo, 123 74 V. Hugo, 150 - 154 75 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 12 - 13


26

life which is in line with Marxist concept to some degree76. 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 society77. 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 one78.

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

76 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 12 77 T. Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism, 6 78 Charles Walton, “The Half Missing of Les Mis; the film pessimistic revolution view --- and

ours”, Council and foreign relation (2003)


27

new stage of social life where working class can take control 79 . 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 barricade80.

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 progress81. 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 portrayal82.

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

setting83. Carr explains that the holocaust setting of place which Hugo describes in

79 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. 83 Steven Alan Carr, “The Holocaust in the Text: Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and the Allegorical

Film Adaptation”, 53


28

Les Miserables can be interpreted similar to a concentration camp84. 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 picture85. 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 room86. 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 imagery87. 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 86 A. Smart, 200 87 Bradley Stephens, introduction, The Hunchback of the Notre-Dame, by Victor Hugo. trans.

Walter (New York: J. Cobb. Signet Classic, 2010) xii


29

of movies, even the popular movies which are not the surrogation of Les

Miserables88. 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 journal 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 character89. 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 progress90. However, the depiction of

revolution in Les Miserables is interpreted as pessimistic picture in its 2005

88 B.Stephens, introduction, The Hunchback of the Notre-Dame, xiii 89 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.


30

musical 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 existence91. 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 reality92.

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 ideas has to show one’s consciousness

91 L. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, 693 92 M. Vargas Llosa, introduction, The Temptation of the Impossible 2


31

inspires her/him an act according to the ideas93. When somebody proclaims that

she/he believes in an idea, her/his whole way of living must be under the control of

the idea. The idea can be a religion. When someone says that she/he is a Christian,

she/he must live within Christianity values and perform Christian rituals. Based on

this scheme, if she/he performs some actions out of Christianity value, there would

be a chance that she/he “unconsciously” believes in other ideology.

B. Les Miserables and psychoanalytic - Marxism

Defining Victor Hugo ideology is a complex discussion, and it would be

easier to believe what he has proclaimed. Hugo intends people to accept that he is a

monarchist who converts to a socialist minded through the statements in his essay.

Hugo appears to be the emergent 94 who leads the society to analyze social

phenomenon out of the dominant ideology95. It can be seen through his essay of

humanity entitled “Capital Punishment”. He criticizes how a society and the court

judge a criminal as he writes:

First, the man you destroy is without family, relations, or friends. In this

case, he has received neither education nor instruction; [...] You punish him

because his infancy trailed on the ground; [...] Secondly,－the man has a

family; [...] In killing him, you vitally injure all his family: and thus again

you punish the innocent.96

Hugo puts himself in the side of the criminal although he strongly disagrees crime

action. He shows to the society that norms, values, and even crimes are constructed

93 L. Althusser,“Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, 696 94 R. Williams, Marxism and Literature, 123 95 R. Williams, Marxism and Literature, 121 96 V. Hugo, “Capital Punishment”, 924


32

by the social structure and their ideology. Hugo believes that no one is born to be a

criminal, but the social condition constrains a person to perform the crime action97.

Ironically, the society is failed to see how they build someone’ identity.

Hugo associates the society to blind people who crave for the light and literary text

can be a medium to enlighten the society98. His critical thinking leads to an

implication of criticizing the crime punishment under. In fact, punishing the

criminal brings no significant changes to the society. Hugo even argues that it

might create worse situation. It would perpetuate the dominant false

consciousness99. Second, the punishment might lead to a worse situation which

eventually creates new crime actions as the punishment gives big impacts to the

criminal’s family. Hugo shows that the existence of criminals in society is the

impact of social structure and the society has to see the complex situation clearly.

Then Hugo firmly proclaims his ideology based on his critical thinking and

idea of social structure. Considering his education and social - economic

background, Hugo’s intellectual mind constrains his ability to see the social false

consciousness which is constructed by the dominant ideology100 . To analyze

Hugo’s ideology transformation depicted in Les Miserables, I would begin by

defining Hugo’s idea of socialism.

1. Defining Hugo’s socialism

Mario Vargas Llosa states that Les Miserables is Hugo’s literary work that

reflects the evolution of Hugo from a constitutional, liberal monarchist to a

97 V. Hugo, “Capital Punishment”, 924 98 V. Hugo, Les Miserables,157 99 V.Hugo, “Capital Punishment”, 925 100 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 12


33

republican with radical and social-minded leaning101. Norman Denny writes in the

introduction of Les Miserables that Hugo moved from his right-wing bourgeois

origins to not only a republican, but a socialist102. Both Vargas Llosa and Denny

define Hugo’s ideology as socialist idea. Denny writes a stronger statement that

Hugo is a socialist. Meanwhile, Vargas Llosa writes that Hugo is a radical and

social-minded republican. It raises a question about the definition of socialism

which Hugo claims in his essay “The Mind and Masses”:

Let it not be forgotten, socialism, true socialism, has for its end the

elevation of the masses to the civic dignity,[...]. The first hunger is

ignorance; socialism wishes then, above all to instruct. That does not hinder

socialism as being denounced. To most of the infuriated [...] these

reformers are public enemies. They are guilty of everything that has gone

wrong.103

In his essay entitled “The Mind and the Masses”, Hugo states that true socialism is

an ideology that is able to find out when things in the society have gone wrong. In

this case, the things that have gone wrong are the allusion of social structure and

social condition104. In the other words, in Hugo’s idea, socialism has to be able to

find out the allusion that determines false consciousness in the society. Vargas

Llosa describes Hugo’s socialist concept as radical and social minded. Hugo

illustrates that the society is ignorance105.

The idea about ignorant society supports Althusser’s notion that every

society is actually constrained by an allusion that makes them obligate some life

concept to create a false consciousness106. Ironically, the ignorant society is not

aware of their condition. However, they always crave for changes. Hugo illustrates

101 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 13 102 N. Denny, introduction, Les Miserables, 10 103 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 928 104 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 929 105 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 930 106 L. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, 693


34

the condition to be “hunger”. Hugo perceives the society as ignorant people who

have no idea to satisfy their hunger107. According to Hugo, socialism could fulfill

people’ hunger by pointing out the false consciousness and reconstructing the

social structure.

In his other essay entitled “Capital Punishment” Hugo explains his idea of

socialism deeper by revealing his idea about crime punishment108. Hugo agrees

that any crime is indeed an action against the law with all its consequences.

However, he emphasizes that the society have to look at any crime action critically

for at least two reasons. First, it is the society which has created crime109. Hugo

believes that no one is born with one significant identity, but the society constrains

people life. For instance, the society also makes somebody conducts crime. There

are some possible conditions that lead somebody to perform any crime action. A

person has to live alone without family, education, and positive social support to

teach him how to live or the person has family without education and lives difficult

social and economic condition110. It is the condition that constrains somebody to be

a criminal.

Second, the society creates the law. Thus, based on these conditions, when

society judges a criminal for the crime, they do not realize that they have created a

criminal and confirm the identity of the person as a criminal based on the law they

have made. Hugo judges that the society is guilty for judging the criminal without

understanding the fact he has pointed out. In his essay, Hugo further stresses that

even the punishment to the criminal might lead to a worse condition. There are two

107 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 929 108 V. Hugo, “Capital Punishment”, 923 - 925 109 V. Hugo, “Capital Punishment”, 925 110 V. Hugo. “Capital Punishment”, 923


35

possible results of the punishment: they kill or send a person to prison without

changing the social condition while perpetuate the false consciousness, or they

might bear new criminals when the punishment leaves the family of the person live

in more difficult situation for losing a family member111.

The idea of the society shaping people identity is also depicted in Les

Miserables. Every main character in Les Miserables is described with clear life and

social background that makes the characters come into being. There are Fantine,

Jean, Veljean, Javert, Cosette, Marius and even Eponine112. Jean Veljean and

Fantine represent Hugo’s idea about the influence of society in determining

someone life and identity113.

Hugo describes Jean Veljean as someone who is born in a very poor and

uneducated family. Although Jean Veljean was a thoughtful boy, no one in his life

educates him. Both of his parents died when he was very young so he had to live

with his poor widowed sister who had seven children114. The little Jean Veljean

had to work very hard to help his sister feed the children, but there was never

enough bread to eat. Then, one day when there was no bread at home, he stole a

loaf of bread in a bakery to feed his sister’s children115. Meanwhile, Fantine was a

poor girl who did not even know who her parents are. She did not even have a

name. Her name was Fantine just because people around her called her La Petite

Fantine116. At the end of her life, Fantine had to be a prostitute to make money for

111 V. Hugo, “Capital Punishment”,925 112 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 120 113 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 120 114 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 92 - 93 115 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 93 116 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 124


36

Cosette, her daughter, and ironically died of an illness117. Hugo explains in details

why the characters in Les Miserables have to live in particular life to emphasize

that the life and identity of everyone are constrained by the society. Thus, it is the

society who had to be punished for the crime118.

Other concepts of Hugo’s ideology are moral and faith. In “Parenthesis”

Hugo strongly emphasizes that God is the center of his belief119. Hugo criticizes

the monastery, not God. In the “Parenthesis” he explains that it is the system of the

monastery that creates false consciousness. Hugo explicitly states that it is the

monastery that creates an allusion of God. It is shown through Hugo’s statement,

“We have a duty to perform, to work upon the human soul [..] to dispel the

superstitions that surround religion - to rid God of His maggots.”120 He even

strongly states that even atheist could not deny the existence God. According to

Hugo, even if the atheist does not believe in God, their life is a proof of God’s

existence. He salutes the atheist as philosophers, but does not agree with their

philosophy121. Hugo believes that God is the definition of ideal. Since the Ideal is

God, He is the concept of life and morality, but not the aim. He proposes that the

aim of his ideology is not to reconstruct the society due to the ideal concept, but to

aim progress122.

In contrast to Hugo, Marx and Engels propose the concept of socialism as

self-consciously antimetaphysical. Eugene Victor Wolfenstein in his book

Psychoanalytic - Marxism Groundwork quoted Marx, “religion is an inverted

117 V.Hugo, Les Miserables, 199 - 201 118 V. Hugo, “Capital Punishment”, 923-925 119 V. Hugo. Les Miserables.p. 1202 120 V. Hugo, “Parenthesis”, 1205. 121 V. Hugo, “Parenthesis”, 209 122 V. Hugo, “Parenthesis”, 1211


37

world consciousness” (Marx, 1844a, p 53) 123 . Referring to Marxist concept,

Wolfenstein argues that the idea of God in religion is as a matter of fact a picture of

false consciousness. God is mistakenly seen as The Creator where in fact it is

actually people who has created God124. It is true that at one point, both Hugo and

other socialist believe that social structure is constructed. They both are against the

bourgeoisie who are claimed to oppress the lower class. However, there is a big

difference between Hugo and the other socialists. Any socialism, especially

Marxist concept, has a conflicting idea about God because God is seen as human’

creation. In contrast, Hugo puts God as the center of his faith and belief125.

Wolfenstein asserts that Marxism is a voice of socialism which leads to a

revolutionary action in the society126. It sees the relationship between human and

religion, especially in their faith to God, as a mental slip of subject - object

relationship127.The basic idea of Marxist theory explains the society is constructed

by ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’ relation as Fredric Jameson illustrate:

Superstructure (culture = ideology)

Base or "Infrastructure" (economic relations)128

Fredric Jameson explains that superstructure, refers to culture and ideology

including religion and arts, as something which is produced by base, the whole

123 E. Wolfenstein, 7 124 E. Wolfenstein, 7 125 V. Hugo, “Parenthesis, 1211 126 Ralf Miliband.,“Voices of Socialism: Karl Marx, Marx and Socialism. 127 E. Wolfenstein, 7 128 Fredric Jameson, Late Marxism: Adorno, or, the Persistence of the Dialectic (London: Verso,

1990) 37


38

society where economic relation occurs129. There is a mutual relation between

superstructure and base. In one side, base is constrained by superstructure, yet

superstructure is created by base. For instance, ideology is a set of belief which

constrains people way of life, yet Althusser explains that ideology itself is the way

of life or praxis130.

In other words, a society way of living is a projection of their ideology. In

the same time, base, as the whole society, also affects superstructure by

establishing, take for example, ideology and arts. Based on this concept, Marxism

defines religion as a product of society where God is created by the society itself.

The mental slip about human-God relation is alike with superstructure-base

relation. However, Hugo is against the concept of Marxist subject - object relation

about religion, especially God131. Throughout Les Miserables, Hugo stresses his

religious belief. In “Parenthesis” Hugo explains that it is true that the society who

creates law and monastery, but God is still The Creator to Whom we have to

believe132. It means that Hugo accepts the idea of superstructure - base relationship

in society, but God is beyond the concept of superstructure - base relationship.

Besides God as part of Hugo’s socialism, Hugo frequently mentions

revolution in his essays of humanity. Such as in his “The Minds and the Masses”,

Hugo emphasizes that the existence of a society is a never ending progress of

life133. Hugo writes that, “The Revolution (French Revolution) ended one century

129 F. Jameson, Late Marxism: Adorno, or, the Persistence of the Dialectic, 42 130 L. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” 131 V. Hugo,“Parenthesis”, 1209 132 V. Hugo,“Parenthesis”, 1205. 133 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 936


39

and began another”134. Indeed Hugo shows his strong concept about society and

revolution. This essay answers any question to the portrayal of revolution depicted

in Les Miserables. It also supports other studies that criticize Les Miserables’

surrogation works that put the revolution depicted in Les Miserables as a

pessimistic ending of the plot.

In fact, Hugo’s idea of society as a never ending social process is in line

with Raymond Williams’ cultural theory. Williams writes that a society always has

the dominant, residual, and emergent135. The dominant is always be the main factor

that affects every life features. It is also the dominant who has power and authority

to the society that makes a tendency for the dominant to keep the social condition

stay136. In contrast residual and emergence are two other elements that always

interfere the dominant. The residual is the element of the past, but it is not the

archaic137.

In fact dominant is built based on residual. The institution or the formation

of the dominant culture are actually part of residual that becomes a foundation

where the dominant is built. While the emergence refers to new meaning and value,

including the new system, new practice, and social relationship138. In some cases

the emergence can be radically against the dominant. Williams emphasizes that

emergence is not only an immediate practice against the dominant. The main

process of emergence is to find a new form or to adapt the form of culture and

134 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 935 135 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 121 - 127 136 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 122 137 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 121 138 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 123


40

ideology with some changes 139 . In other words, when particular false

consciousness in the society is found, the emergence comes into the surface to

initiate changes in the society.

The relation between the dominant, emergence and residual is a power

relation that creates a never-ending process in society140. It is similar to Hugo’s

idea of the never-ending process in society which is depicted in Les Miserables. To

begin the novel Hugo narrates a story about the Bishop of Digne. Hugo writes that

it is going to be the story of Fantine in Book I, but it is important for the readers to

understand the importance of monastery to the society141 and it is also the Bishop,

part of the monastery, who leads the transfiguration of Jan Veljean’s life142. Finally

Hugo explains that indeed monastery has shaped the society into being, but it also

has created false consciousness with subject - object relationship between the

monastery and the society143. The society needs liberty to transform the monastery

into a republic. To aim the progress revolution is needed to end the monastery and

to begin a republic144. Hugo sees that a society has to stay in progress which is

similar to Raymond Williams’ concept of cultural theory where there are always

residual, dominant, and emergence that keeps a society staying in dynamic

progress.

The last socialist concept of Hugo’s socialism is to use literature as a

medium to reconstruct the society. In his essay, Hugo writes, “Literature is the

139 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 126 140 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”,121 - 127 141 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 19 142 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 111, 156 143 V. Hugo, “Parenthesis”, 1207. 144 V. Hugo, “Parenthesis”, 1208


41

secretion of civilization. Do you doubt it? Open the statistic you come across”145.

This statement shows that Hugo confidently argues about literature as a medium to

develop people consciousness. It is similar to the idea of literature as an active

reflection that Eagleton proposes146. It has been argued that literature reflects the

society and affects it at the same time.

The production of literary work always involves a creative writing process.

The creative writing of a literary work is a process in producing a literary work that

includes how the author copies the reality such as the character or the plot and

setting, then separates the copy from reality by modifying their fantasy and

imagination147. The creative writing process creates a concept of literature that

Eagleton calls an active reflection of the society148. Similar to the idea of active

reflection, Raymond Williams also explains that literature, as part of

superstructure, is indeed a projection of the society that also works as medium to

affect the social condition149.

According to Raymond Williams, the concept of literature as an active

reflection is an implication of the superstructure - base relation150 . Williams

explains that when literature is seen as a reflection, the society, in this case base, is

an object that is used by an author to be a model to write a literary text151. However,

an author lives within the base with particular false consciousness and intention

that distorts the reflection in literature. It challenges the idea of reflection and

145 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 927 146 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 6 147 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 7 148 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 7 149 R. Williams. 1977. Marxism and Literature.p.95 - 96 150 R. Williams. “Cultural Theory”, 95 151 R. Williams. “Cultural Theory”, 96 - 97


42

changes into the idea of mediation152. When it comes into mediation it reflects the

relation between literature and the society, base and superstructure. Superstructure

does not reflect base directly, yet the reflection of base is distorted and disguised in

superstructure153. As a mediation, literature actively presents reality in the author’s

ideological way.

Or in other words, Eagleton explains that there is a creative process when

an author writing any literary text154. Eagleton indeed agrees with Williams that

literature does not simply reflect a society. A reflection is a passive picture that is

produced by a mirror. Yet, literature is not a “symmetrical one-to-one relation to

the object (society)”155. Eagleton states that literature is a deflection of reality that

is distorted by particular laws and it actively affects the society by giving a picture

of the real reality 156 . Eagleton associates literature as an active reflection.

Literature as an active reflection implies that literature is a reflection of base with

particular deflection due to the author creative writing process157. The deflection

makes literature does not just have a role as a mirror to reflect the society as an

object, but it projects the society into different portrayal due to the author’s

ideology. This situation puts literature and society in superstructure - base

relationship in which literature and society affects one to another158.

In fact, Hugo is aware of the relation between literature and society. He

explains in “The Mind and Masses” that literature is the secretion of the

152 R. Williams. “Cultural Theory”, 98 153 R. Williams. “Cultural Theory”, 98 - 99 154 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 23 - 25 155 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 24 156 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 23 157 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 19 158 T. Eagleton. Marxism and Literary Criticism, 24


43

civilization159. He stresses that socialism should see literature as not just a copy of

reality, but a mediation to form social order and to change social condition160. It is

also reflected in Les Miserables. Hugo carefully put himself as the center of the

novel so he is able to retell the story of each character in the novel in his intention.

He also carefully develops the diction of the novel. According to Hugo, he writes

Les Miserables in particular language which he calls the language of poverty161.

Hugo sees literature as a distortion of reality in ideological way which would create

a projection of a reality to be a real reality or the reality within particular

ideological dialogue. Therefore, he writes Les Miserables in particular dialectical

language to extend the scope of social observation and to serve the needs of the

society 162 . The concept about the relation between literature and society,

superstructure and base confirms Hugo’s idea of socialist belief that he has

proclaimed.

To sum up, Hugo’s concept of socialism consists of three important points

about the ideology. First, Hugo suggests that society is a never-ending progress.

The society must stay in progress and go against the status quo that the dominant

maintains to perpetuate their power. Second, moral and faith to God should

become the reason of social changes. Hugo stresses that human and its cultural

formation and institution that mislead society, not God. The cultural formation and

institution, such as monastery, also contribute to create false consciousness and,

they use God as an allusion in the society. Third, literature is the secretion of the

159 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 927 160 V. Hugo, “The Mind and the Masses”, 930 161 V. Hugo, “Argot”, 1215 162 V. Hugo, “Argot”, 1216


44

society that actively affect the society. Thus, he uses literature as a “medium” to

point out false consciousness in the society.

2. Psychoanalytic-Marxism

Psychoanalytic-Marxism serves a literary theory to comprehend the novel

to analyze Hugo’ ideology transformation which is reflected in Les Miserables.

Ideology is not only a set of belief, it is also praxis163. Therefore, Les Miserables

can be seen as an example of ideological praxis that reflects Hugo’s concept of

socialism. Les Miserables depicts a transformation life of the characters and the

social interaction between them and Hugo’s ideology transformation. In fact,

Raymond Williams confirms that literature as a mediation that reflects the relation

between art and society, superstructure and base 164 . Yet, as literature is a

mediation, psychoanalytical concept perceives it as a repression and sublimation of

particular psychotic condition by a concept of ideological rationalization165.

Marxist concept perceives mediation or active reflection as a relation

between literature and society that indicates a repression in psychoanalytical

concept. Indeed the relation, which refers as mediation or active reflection by

Marxism and refers as repression by psychoanalysis, is not a separable agency of

medium between literature and society166. Thus, Hugo’s idea of literature as a

secretion of a society and his idea of God in social movement creates a complex

picture of Marxist concept which regards literature as a mediation or an active

reflection. Marxist concept also sees literature as a repression in psychoanalytical

163 L. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, 636 164 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 98 - 99 165 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 96 166 R. Williams, “Cultural Theory”, 96 - 97


45

concept. To analyze the transformation of Hugo’s ideology that is depicted in Les

Miserables, psychoanalytic - Marxism functions as the literary theory to

comprehend the novel.

Wolfenstein describes that psychoanalysis and Marxism have been

developed due to a concept where the psychotic dimension could be seen in a

subject - object relation167. As a literary theory, Marxism is developed based on a

social theory to study collective relationship in the society which is constructed by

relation of power and economic distributions. While psychoanalysis is neurotic

theory that Freud has developed based on individual psychological analysis.

Unlike Marxism, psychoanalysis puts an emphasis on individual psychological

condition by analyzing the unconscious notion of a person.

Based on the characteristic of each theory, Wolfenstein suggests a literary

theory which puts scientism behind it168. To see the whole picture of a literary text,

more than one literary theories are necessary to analyze different focus and

perspective of the work. For instance putting psychoanalysis and Marxism at the

same time to analyze Hugo’s ideology and the transformation process169. The

reconstruction of these two literary theories creates three points to analyze Hugo’s

ideology transformation depicted in Les Miserables.

Wolfenstein’s psychoanalytic – Marxism underlines three important

points. Firstly, it is the desire and passion concept. The traditional psychoanalysis

analyzes the concept of drive and constructed desire. Human desire is constructed

167 E. Wolfenstein, 7 168 E. Wolfenstein, 7 169 E. Wolfenstein,167


46

by its social condition since someone was a baby. According to psychoanalysis,

family, especially parents, construct human desire that develops human

unconscious drive. A person gets a baby into the Oedipal stage which she/he has to

pass. On the other hand, Marxism focuses on the social relation which sees family

as part of production means. In this case, psychoanalytic-Marxism places desire in

particular social relation.

The idea of how human develops its unconscious desire is supported by

Kleinian psychoanalysis170. Klein explains that human desire is constrained by

her/his social conditions. In her studies, she analyzes children’ imagination in a

similar way as Freud has analyzed human dream. Children’ imagination projects

its unconscious drive which has been constructed. According to Klein, how

children pick their favorite toys or how they create such imagination result from

their unconscious notion. In fact, their unconscious drive happens to exist, for it

has been constrained by the social life, such as the parents who give the infant

experience of fear and anxiety that creates Klein’s conception as follow:171

170 E. Wolfenstein,129 171 E. Wolfenstein,167

talion morality

depressive morality (reparative) Hate Love

Depressive Position

Paranoid-schizoid position


47

Fear and anxiety refer to any experience that goes against the infant’s

pleasure drive. In line with Freud, this concept of Kleinian psychoanalysis actually

confirm Freud idea that states human psychotic dimension is built due to

repression172

In this case, psychoanalytic - Marxism put scientism behind it. It

deconstructs psychoanalysis and Marxism to reconstruct psychoanalytic -

Marxism in which Wolfenstein places human psychotic condition within particular

social relation. The classical version of Marxism draws the different between

classes; the class which owns the means of production and the class who does not.

It makes Marxism aware of society and its false consciousness 173 . Then

psychoanalytic - Marxism places an individual’s psychotic dimension within

her/his social condition that is seen as social machine of desiring production.

Secondly it is the insanity/ in sanity concept. According to Wolfenstein, the

concept of insanity, based on psychoanalytic-Marxism, is created since the sanity

concept exists174. Since the beginning Marxist and psychoanalysis concern about

the degree of rationality and irrationality. As there is a rationality concept, things

outside the rationality are considered irrational. The sane area refers to the

dominant ideology of the society. From the dominant ideology point of view, the

insanity concept is the element that notices social relation as a false consciousness,

and it considers against the dominant ideology or the concept of sanity.

172 Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, (New York:

Viking Press) 296 173 E. Wolfenstein, 135 174 E. Wolfenstein, 136


48

In other words, the emergent is seen as an insane idea within the dominant

frame. Both psychoanalysis and Marxism agree every social condition is

constructed. Thus, both the insanity and the sanity are built by certain social

process, including social structure. Any emergent can be seen as an insane idea

within the dominant frame that gives a new meaning to sanity and insanity idea

where an insanity exist as something with different ideology that appears in sanity.

Psychoanalytic - Marxism analyzes the psychotic dimension of the emergent by

putting it as the insanity within the sanity. For example Hugo’s double

consciousness is developed by his social and family background. It leads him to

see social structure as something which is purposely structured by the society and

the power of authority. The insanity within sanity concept would point out Hugo’s

psychotic condition that leads him to transform his ideology.

Thirdly, it is the concept of recognizing the psychotic and social dimension

of an individual. Psychoanalysis recognizes the Oedipal stage of human being and

Marxism recognizing the mutual recognition and class relation in a society.

Through this concept, it would be possible to analyze literary text as a repression

and a mediation or an active reflection at the same time. In addition, analyzing the

psychotic dimension within social context would support the analysis of Hugo’s

faith in God. The third point of Wolfenstein psychoanalytic - Marxism idea looks

closer at Hugo’s psychotic dimension which is reflected in his idea of human and

God relationship. Based on psychoanalysis, the idea of human and God relation

shows certain degrees of Oedipal stage. God is created by human mind to control


49

the human neurotic animal.175 Meanwhile, Marxist sees Human and God relation

as subject - object relation. Eagleton also explains that in some degrees human has

need to labor due to their social relation and social class to survive176. Wolfenstein

agrees with Marxist idea that God is mistakenly regarded as The Creator; in fact, it

is human creation.

The three points of psychoanalytic-Marxism involve the reading

mechanism to analyze Les Miserables as an active reflection of society. This

Marxist reading places Les Miserables in superstructure area which can be used to

be a medium to shape the society and reflect it at the same time. Meanwhile,

Hugo’s intention and his idea about society depicted in Les Miserables is still a

product of social structure. The ideology as a praxis is indeed the whole way of

living which in psychoanalysis point of view, the conscious action is constrained

by the unconscious notion, especially desire which is developed by social

interaction.

175 T. Eagleton, Literary Theory an Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing) 132 176 T. Eagleton, Literary Theory an Introduction,133


50

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 like179. 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 soul182. 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 dream183. Due to

her social background, Fantine tends to give everything to Tholomyes. She even

gives birth to Tholomyes’ child. She also has to take care of herself and the child

by herself, knowing Tholomyes left her184.

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 night186.

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 family187. 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 class189. 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

Pontmercy190.

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 Valjean191.

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 silvers193, 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 her/his 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

needs194. 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 law195.

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 story198. 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 food199. 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 Vealjan 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 night200. 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 stealing201. The Bishop’s acts of

releasing Jean Vealjan dan calling him brother 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


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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 her/him to live203.

B. An Ideal Society in Les Miserables

Les Miserables is written as a model of Hugo’s idea about the whole social

system. It projects Hugo’s intention, especially related to the idea of reconstructing

a society. To emphasize his intention and idea, Hugo even puts himself as the main

character, a narrator, who explains, clarifies, and leads the readers to understand

his intention. The main idea of Hugo’s ideal society is reflected through the

interaction of the ABC students where they elect a leader for their group. The

reality is depicted in Les Miserables to be a model of a social system. In addition,

the complex situation in Les Miserables could be regarded as Hugo’s idea of

reconstructing the social system to create an ideal social condition. Since the novel

is written some years during Hugo’s political and religious idea evolution, a

transformation process is depicted.

The main focus in Les Miserables does not lie on the economic conflict. The

economic conflict is still exposed through the lower class characters who have to

struggle and to keep their job. Only Javert, who has psychological and social issue

203 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 123


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bigger than the economic issue, is described to have good job since the

beginning204. Hugo builds Javert to be a loyal ideology consumer. Thus, the lower

class characters do, even Jean Veljean, one of the main character shows a character

of an ideology royal consumer. The condition of producer and consumer in the

society is the main condition to determine and set an ideal society205. The issue of

consuming and producing ideology in the society can be found both in lower class

and upper class characters.

It is true that human history is determined by the condition, including social,

economy, and educational background. However, human, as the economic base206,

also produce the history. It means that human, either as an individual or a society,

has double position in the economic base. They are the consumers and the

producers. Regardless the fact whether an individual becomes a consumer or a

producer is also determined by their social condition, the relation between the

consumer and producer and the effect of being a consumer and producer to their

personal life and the society.

For example, Vargas Llosa suggests Javert to be a specific character to

emphasize the act of ideology consumer in Les Miserables207. Javert is extremely

loyal to his profession and the law. He dares to question Monsieur le maire when

he notices that Monsieur le maire is Jean Veljean208. Javert consumes the ideology,

in the form of the law, so he neglects the social order. He lives for justice. He works

for the judicial system to order the society based on law. It seems Hugo wants the

204 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 200 205 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, .200 206 T. Eagleton, Marxism and Literature, 7 207 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 120 208 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 200


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readers to feel Javert’s feeling and dedication. When he finds out that Madeleine is

not Jean Veljean, he feels that he betrays his ideology, his way of life. Hugo

describes what Javerts through his monologue clearly:

“[...] When I abused my powers as a police officer I became nothing else’.

Bowing low he turned and made for the door; [...] still with his eyes

lowered: ‘I shall continue to perform my duties, Monsieur le maire, until I

have been replaced.”209

Hugo also depicts Jean Veljean with clear ideology changing and conflict.

Even when he has changed his identity into Madeleine, he acts to be a consumer

rather than a producer. Hugo writes that Jean Veljean changes as something that is

more than a transformation. Hugo writes, “It was more than a transformation; it

was a transfiguration,210”. The narrator, Hugo, explains that Jean Veljean has

changed from a criminal into a good man. Jean Veljean consumes what the Bishop

asks him to do and shows him to do. Hugo uses the Bishop as a character who

inspires Jean Vealjan ideology transformation through his action of saving Jean

Vealjan when Jean Vealjan is caught for stealing silvers:

“I think I was wrong to keep it (the silvers) so long. It belonged to the poor.

[...] ‘So here you are! [...] Had you forgotten that I gave you the

candlesticks as well? [...] ‘you must not forget your candlesticks.’ [...] ‘Do

not forget, [...] that you have promised me to use the money to make

yourself] an honest man. [...] my brother, you no longer belong to what is

evil but to what is good. I have bought your soul to save it from black

thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.”211

Monseigneur Bienvenu or the bishop is the second contact with the upper

class, after the court, with whom Jean Veljean establishes the relation. Hugo

emphasizes Christianity value to transform Jean Veljean. The romantic moral story

is narrated as something not only to transform but also to make Jean Veljean a



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totally different person with different ideology and way of life from his old life. By

explaining this significant transfiguration, Hugo emphasizes that transformation is

not a single factor that makes Jean Veljean consume new ideology. It is similar to

Javert, Jean Veljean or Madeleine does not pay attention to social class when he

tries to save Fantine in the police office. He stands for his new ideology by

becoming an honest man who spends his money to help the poor. Once again, his

belief puts him into difficult situation because he has to keep his promise to

Fantine; yet at the same time to come to the court and declare the truth that

Madeleine is Jean Veljean, the ex-convict212.

Hugo emphasizes that Jean Veljean changes into Madeleine is more than a

transformation, but a transfiguration. Hugo leads the readers to see that Jean

Veljean does not only change his way of life or his identity, but he totally changes

his appearance and his faith or set of belief into particular spiritual state. The idea

of Jean Veljean transfiguration reflects an irony of Hugo’s ideology changes. Hugo

can be really firm in describing Jean Veljean’s spiritual changes, but his ideology

changing has different direction to Jean Veljean. Hugo’s ideology changing seems

to be a dramatic changing where he converts or transform into a socialist with very

strong religious soul.

Even the minor character, such as Sister Simplice is described with

particular ideological conflict:



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Sister Simplice blushed faintly; she was being urged to tell a lie. On the

other hand, she felt that to tell the truth would be to deal Fantine a blow

which might have serious consequences in her present state.213

Sister Simplice has been living in a strong Christianity ideology which prevents

her from telling a lie about anything. The narrator explains that it is even hard for

Sister Simplice to not tell the truth, even for a good cause. At first, Sister Simplice

feels that it is too strange to be good to Fantine for she knows that Fantine is a

prostitute. The narrator constantly interrupts the story by explaining and showing

his opinion to the very complex social situation, including to Fantine’s situation

where she has to be a prostitute.

Hugo explains in his narration that prostitute is the lowest place of a woman

could possibly at as he writes:

It is the story of society’s purchase of a slave. A slave purchased from

poverty, hunger, cold, loneliness, defenselessness, destitution. A squalid

bargain: a human soul for a hunk of bread. Poverty offers and the society

accepts. Our society is governed by the percepts of Jesus Christ but is not

yet imbued with them, we say that slavery has vanished from European

civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only

to women and its name is prostitution.214

Sister Simplice does not really see the complex situation of a prostitute, for she

consumes a belief that prostitution is against Christianity. The only reason for

Sister Simplice to treat Fantine well is that Fantine is terribly ill, and she is a

mother who has to take care of a little daughter.

From the narration of these three characters, the relation between base and

superstructure is depicted. The characters, Javert, Madeleine, and Sister Simplice,

refer to the base which reflects superstructure as their ideology. Every act and point



65

of view of the characters are built based on their ideology. Sister Simplice’

hesitation to help Fantine is built based on the idea in her mind that a prostitute is

the lowest position in the society since it is an act of a sinner. Even she finally

decides to help Fantine because Fantine is a mother who would do anything for her

daughter, Sister Simplice still feels guilty for helping a prostitute. She then, look

for a justification within her Christianity belief to make sure that she obligates to

her faith. Sister Simplice tries to calm herself that it would be fine to help Fantine

for it is the act of love that she learns from Christianity.

The situation which is projected in Sister Simplice’ psychological conflict is

a projection of base - superstructure relation. In one side, the concept of belief is

developed by the society. It means ideology is actually a product of a society, but

people, as part of the society, live under the ideology that their consciously learn

and proclaim. Les Miserables puts these characters in a condition where they have

to act beyond their consciousness ideology concept. It is similar to a person who

consciously declares himself as a Christian. This person would put Christianity law

to rule the life, to determine what is right or wrong, what he can or cannot do. The

condition is projected in Sister Simplice. She feels as if someone were watching

over her to make sure that she speaks only the truth.

Les Miserables shows this situation as a serious condition in the society

which deserves to be noticed. The consumed-ideology characters consciously act

against their ideology, especially Sister Simplice and Jean Veljean. They

intentionally go beyond the concept of their conscious ideology. From Hugo’s

description about three characters do, including Javert who finally commits


66

suicide, it shows that a double consciousness is always be part of social

consciousness to form an ideal society.

To construct the society, Hugo suggests a revolution that makes him known

as a radical thinker. The idea of reforming a society comes up, for he understands

the false consciousness in the society which is intentionally constrained by a status

quo condition. Through Javert, Hugo strongly shows that his idea is more than an

economic issue. Even the most dedicated worker with high rank and great title

tragically ends his life due to hid ideological conflict. This point shows Hugo’s

sharp idea of an ideal society, and an ideal society is a society that stays in

progress.

To aim the progress in the society, Hugo emphasizes the needs of

democratic system to replace monastery. Thus, he writes:

“They elect to whom they owe obedience. They call each other

brother.” At this point you may interject: “But that is the ideal

monastery!” It is sufficient that its should be a possible monastery for

me to able into account.215

In “Argot” Hugo emphasizes that democracy, which is represented through the

election, is one of the ways to great progress in society. Hugo begins writing Les

Miserables with monarchy belief216 then he gradually transforms into a republican

who agrees with revolutionary movement. In this case, Hugo uses Les Miserables

to be part of the democracy movement. Indeed he believes that literature is also

part of democracy. The plot explains that the group of ABC students who supports

the barricade of revolution is the portrayal of Hugo’s republican movement. The



67

citizens217 choose a leader on their own. Of course on one side they obey the leader

and give him their respect to lead the citizen. However, the elected leader is also a

representation of the citizen’s ideology. It is different from the monarchy system in

which the king leads his people for he is a representation of God in their

kingdom218.

Supporting the previous discussion point of Hugo’s idea to reconstruct the

society, a democracy system, which is reflected in the way the ABC students vote

for ta leader, is a projection of the ideology consumer - producer relationship.

Through a democracy system, a society becomes a consumer and producer of

ideology at the same time. The democratic system allows the society to elect a

leader. Hugo, through the ABC students, explains that it can be the way to change

the social structure for the leader is actually a representation of what society want.

It means the society produces a new ideology yet at the same time they are also

obligated to the new system they have produced that place the society as the

consumer.

A democracy system is an elaborated of base - superstructure relation. In

monarchy system, the economic base is constructed to be more consumer rather

than producer. They are getting used to accept the social ideology constructed by

the power authority. Meanwhile in democracy system, the society is determined

and determines the ideology or the way of their life. By electing a leader, they

construct themselves to be the consumers who content themselves with particular

concept, and then obediently reflects the concept of the ideology in their daily life.

217 People who support and join the revolutionary movement (Hugo, 1057) 218 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 1040


68

Yet, the members of society who elect a leader on their own would produce

particular concept of ideology. The authority is their creation, so the highest

authority is the dominant society itself. There would be a compromising area

where all society members can choose a leader whom they think she/he would be a

representation of the society dominant ideology.

It is true that Les Miserables emphasizes the transformation, or for Jean

Vealjan Hugo call it transfiguration to emphasize a spiritual change, of individuals

that changes social structure. The transformation of the characters reflects more

than a change in Hugo’s fictional society. It is also a projection of Hugo’s ideology

transformation. The tendency of changes or transformations of each character in

Les Miserables provides a depiction of Hugo ideology, even though he has already

explained about his socialist idea in “Parenthesis” and even his essays.

Contrast with his socialist idea and the use of literature to satisfy people’

hunger and a medium to change social condition, Les Miserables shows that Hugo

is still an author that is produced by social structure. Every character who has to

face ideological conflict, in fact has to accept that they have to give up their belief

to faith in God. From psychoanalytic - Marxism, the concept of God is actually

projection of human slip of belief where God is mistakenly seen as the creator. In

fact, the concept of God reflects a complex psychotic condition that projects

human’ needs of higher authority. Meanwhile, socialism is in line with Marxist

belief where God is seen as human’ creation that creates an allusion or false

consciousness.


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Compare to Hugo’s statements in his humanity essays, Les Miserables

shows a contrast depiction. Firstly, Hugo emphasizes the role of monastery to

transform the social structure. It is depicted in Jean Vealjan’s transfiguration where

Hugo stresses Jean Vealjan’s faith restoration. Hugo in Les Miserables explains

that monastery has built the social structure and the society needs to stay in

progress by leaving monastery. Ironically, the main character who transforms and

creates some changes is narrated to confirm the dominant ideology that is shaped

by monastery. Secondly, though Hugo emphasizes the needs of revolution and

socialists to aim an ideal society that is defined as a never ending social process. He

always puts faith in God as the center of his belief. As an author, Hugo is a product

of social structure and it reflects in his work where his ideological conflict is

projected. There is a bias in his belief where in one side he tries to intend social

changes with socialist concept, ironically he is also God centered.

There is also a fading idea of the ideal society. In one side, Hugo

supports the revolution to aim an ideal society. He stresses that an ideal society is a

society that stays in a progress through his point of view about monastery. Hugo

states in “Parenthesis” that it is the monastery who has created the social system

and social structure. It is the reason why Hugo puts the bishop to begin the story

and to lead Jean Veljean turns into Madeleine. Hugo tries to show the connection

between one social system to another social system which is similar to Raymond

Williams’ idea of residual and dominant. Yet, the dominant is not the ideal

condition. The society needs emergent to propose new idea and to change the

social structure within the dominant frame. The emergent indeed aims to an ideal

condition, but any changes cannot deliver an ideal society. The ideal society is the


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process itself. As Hugo explains that the ideal can only defined by God for God is

the Ideal. To aim an ideal society means to keep the society in changes process

with the voice of God that can be defined as morality to inspire the changes. To aim

the ideal society, Les Miserables stresses that the ignorant society needs to be

educated. They need to be enlightened that the society is culpable for creating the

allusion of base and superstructure relation219.



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CHAPTER IV

HUGO’S IDEOLOGY TRANSFORMATION

“Do you hear the people sing lost in the valley of the night? It is the music of a

people who are climbing to the light. For the wretched of the earth there is a flame

that never dies. Even the darkest night would end and the sun would rise.”220

This chapter would discuss how Les Miserables depicts Hugo ideology

transformation. There are three sub-chapters to discuss the transformation of

Hugo’s ideology which is projected in Les Miserables. Each sub-chapter would

discuss one analysis point based on psychoanalysis-Marxism reading. The first

sub-chapter would analyze Hugo’s ideology transformation based on the point of

desire and passion. The second sub-chapter would discuss the concept of insanity /

in sanity, and the last sub-chapter would be recognizing Hugo’s psychotic and

social dimension through Les Miserables.

A. The constructed desire

Based on Kleinian psychoanalysis, psychological condition of an

individual is constrained by its social condition 221 . As the classic Freudian

psychoanalysis suggests that an individual emotional life is constructed, an

individual is not only controlled by its instinctive drive but also its desire. Klein

furthermore deepens the analysis in the process of developing someone’s desire

drive or the emotional life. Klein critically suggests an emotional life of an

individual. An infant always lives in a family that developed paranoid-schizoid and

220 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 754 221 E. Victor Wolfenstein, 132


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depression to repress its drive222. As soon as an infant is born, she/he would

develop the beginning level of paranoid - schizoid in the form anxiety which

develops the concept of good and bad. Based on this discourse, Les Miserables

would be analyzed to find out the process of Hugo’s ideology transformation.

Such as in Hugo’s life, his father is a Napoleon follower and his mother is

religious Catholic223. From the very beginning of his life, Hugo grew in a family

with double consciousness in upper class family. Of course his parents do not teach

them the concept of their ideology to baby Hugo. However, ideology is a praxis. It

is reflected through every single action in Hugo’s parents’ life. Moreover, his

family condition also leads Hugo to be educated and indeed his developed

intellectual triggers him to understand false consciousness that might exist. This

discourse would be used to read Les Miserables to analyze the process of Hugo’s

ideology transformation. Hugo’s ideology transformation begins with psychotic

situation. As Denny explains in the introduction of the novel, Hugo is born in a

well-to-do middle class family. Born from educated family background with his

father is a Bonapartism and his mother is a royalism, Hugo inherits the double

consciousness which leads him to be a radical republican224.

To begin the story of Les Miserables, in his first book Hugo writes about

Fantine. Yet, the first character Hugo introduces is Monseigneur

Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel, the bishop of Digne. From the very beginning

of this chapter, Hugo describes the bishop. He narrates that the bishop is about

seventy five. The reference of the year was 1815 when Monseigneur Bienvenu

222 E. Victor Wolfenstein, 129 223 N. Denny, introduction, 9 224 N. Denny, introduction, 1 - 2


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became the bishop of Digne225. Constantly Hugo describes the bishop as someone

who dedicates his life to God. He is a saint who would sacrifice all his possession

for others. To emphasize the good deeds of the bishop, Hugo even writes the

household expenses of the bishop in detail, and the bishop allocates almost all of

his money for the poor and the marginalized people. The bishop spends almost all

of the money to improve the prison and maternity societies, release people who are

imprisoned for debt, and provide the free education of poor girl. The whole money

was 15,000 francs but he took only 1000 francs for his personal expenses226

Besides emphasizing how the bishop allocates his money, Hugo explains

the bishop psychotic condition that he feels lonely sometime227. The thought of the

bishop228 and the bishop’s faith to God makes him have spirit to serve the people

for God229. The climax of the bishop’s good deeds is narrated when he lets Jean

Veljean, the ex-convict, stay in the church, and serves the ex-convict the best

supper he has. He even releases Jean Veljean after the ex-convict has been caught

for stealing the silvers, and lets Jean Veljean take the candlesticks230.

So, where is Fantine in this narration? She is not even closed to the

beginning of the story. Hugo himself explains:

Although it has no direct bearing on the tale we have to tell, we must

nevertheless give some account of rumours and gossip concerning him (the

Bishop) [...]. What is reported of men, whether it be true or false, may play

225 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 19 226 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 23 227 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 62 228 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 68 229 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 65 230 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 118


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as large a part in their lives, and above all in their destiny, as the things they

do.231

Hugo writes about Fantine after he tells more stories about the transfiguration of

Jean Veljean. Fantine is another part of the story where Hugo relates Jean Veljean

who has become Madeleine, and Javert232.

Hugo writes that the story of the Bishop which is told by people in Digne

“has no direct bearing on the tale”. In fact, he becomes a crucial character who

bears more than a background of the story. The Bishop is the creator of Madeleine

for what he has done. From the very beginning of Les Miserables, Hugo describes

the Bishop as a symbol of the emergent through the concrete action of the bishop

represented in his household expenses.

The bishop way of life is a portrait of his Christianity ideology. He is against

the dominant ideology in the society where they place a bishop in an upper class

life style, especially the way the bishop treats the ex-convict. The moment when

the bishop gives Jean Veljean candlesticks is the greatest moment in Jean Veljean

life. It refers to the Bible where Jesus Christ is symbolized with the light. Further,

he lives like a candle for giving his life to light up the world.

Though Hugo intentionally puts the bishop as the background of the story, it

seems that the bishop turns to be the focus of the story. The bishop is a reflection of

Hugo’s creative writing process. He turns a character and the plot into a medium to

lead people that particular ideology, in this case Christianity, should be the

ideology to shape the society life. However, it does not mean that people would



75

totally consume the ideology. In addition, they have to critically think about what

they believe. It is reflected through the act of Sister Simplice when she has to take

care of Fantine.

Furthermore, the bishop symbolizes Hugo’s desire drive. At first, Hugo

states that the story of the bishop has no direct connection to the whole tale. In fact,

the bishop becomes the creator Madeleine and leads to a longer narration of Jean

Veljean and Javert. This part initiates Hugo’s ideology when he begins to write Les

Miserables. Regarding to Hugo’s life, he proclaims himself a socialist and writes

some socialist essays for humanity.

The other main characters such as Jean Veljean and Fantine are also the

depiction of how social structure constructs human desire. The way Hugo builds

each character with vivid social background reflects Hugo’s idea of how social

structure controls human life. When the Bishop represents Hugo’s conscious desire

to show people that it is social structure who create criminals and judge them guilty

for their crime action, the other characters like Jean Veljean, Fantine, and Javert

show Hugo’s other part. Les Miserables is written based on Jean Veljean’s

transfiguration and how revolution can be a moment to end one era and begin

another era. However, Les Miserables also shows that it is true that someone’s

identity, ideology, and even desire affected by social structure as she/he is a

product of social structure and history, so an author is. As a product of social

structure, each character in Les Miserables represents that even an author, as an

individual, has his own intention, the intention is built based on social condition.

B. Insanity / In Sanity


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The concept of insanity, based on psychoanalytic-Marxism, is created since

the sanity concept exists. It is similar to rationality concept that things outside the

rationality is considered irrational. The emergent can be seen as an insane idea

within the dominant or the sane frame. With the psychoanalytic view, an individual

psychotic dimension which is developed in particular collective world or society is

analyzed at once.

Hugo’s double consciousness leads him to be aware of the social condition

in the society. He used to be a monarchist who radically changes his political view.

He even openly supports the revolution that makes him sent into the exile. This

condition shows that as an individual who acts against the dominant or collective,

Hugo, is judged insane. The society depicted in Les Miserables is described as

people who live in the darkest place, but then they realize the allusion of social

structure. The social condition should be compared to the night and the day that

always change233. Hugo thinks that he is right, for he notices something wrong with

the social system. As a matter of fact, Hugo produces literary works to instill a new

vision to the society, and it leads to a complex situation. This condition is reflected

in Les Miserables. As a projection of the real reality, each character in Les

Miserables depicts the psychotic condition of the emergent within the dominant or

the psychotic dimension of the insanity within the sanity concept.

The third character in Fantine’s narration is Javert. In the beginning of the

story Javert is described as another symbol of an ideal society. Javert and Jean

Veljean come from lower class family. It is shown is Hugo’s narration about

Javert:



77

He had been born in prison, the son of a fortune-teller whose husband was

in the galleys. As he grew older he came to believe that he was outside

society with no prospect of ever entering. But he noted that there were two

classes of men whom society keeps in exorability at arm’s length - those

who prey upon it, and those who protect it. The only choice open to him

was between those two.234

Just like Jean Veljean, Javert was born to be part of the outcast, the marginalized

people. Both are alike, they consume an ideology and make it the conscience for

their lives. Javert becomes a great police who always fights for justice based on

law. Though Madeleine is elected a mayor for his business and Javert has a great

occupation to fight for justice, Javert is more antagonist than Madeleine, the

protagonist of the novel or the hero of the tale. Despite the fact that Javert is the

only character who has great occupation for living, he reflects unhappy life and

lonely soul. His occupation is just the way for him to be part of higher social class.

With the detail story of the social condition where there are too many poor

people, thinking about getting a great occupation is one of the most common ideas

at that time. Javert seems to be an example of a successful person. He is simply just

an ordinary worker. Further, he dedicates his life to be a police officer. However,

Hugo creates Javert as a happy person with miserable feeling. Javert complex

situation, where he tries hard to dedicate his life to his belief, again emphasizes a

complex relation between the characters and the ideology they believe. A false

consciousness where the characters, especially Javert, mistakenly see

superstructure, in this case law, as something that shapes their identity and their life

occurs in Javert’s life. Since Javert has stated his faith in law, he tries to fit all of his

life aspects to obey the law. Javert even states that he is a representative of



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authority and he has been harsh to himself and others to defend what he believe and

to obey the law235.

Knowing that “man is characterized above all by his going beyond a

situation, and by what he succeeds in making of he has been made”236. Sartre

explains that life of a human is the projection of what controls him. Through Javert

character, the projection of the dominant ideology in Les Miserables is projected.

At the same time, Javert’s conscience leads him to lose his definition of justice.

The situation puts Javerts in dilemma. The similar feeling like the feeling that Jean

Veljean feels when he is released by the Bishop after he steals silver plates. For he

is devoted to law that he believes, the situation where he finds that the law does not

preserve justice as he expects, Javert experiences complex situation that he cannot

handle and lead him commit to suicide.

As Wofenstein explains that justice is indeed a domination, loss of freedom,

he points out Freud’s ideas that liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization

(Freud, 1930.p.95)237. However, an individual freedom is something against the

dominant ideology. In the case of Javert, he believes that law is formulated to

accomplish justice for everyone without considering that the law is a prison for an

individual freedom. The complexity of Javert character in Les Miserables shows a

tendency of people who totalize everything and being totalized at the same time.

Paying attention to Javert as the antagonist in Les Miserables with a

complex psychotic condition leads us to see Hugo’s insane idea. First, through

235 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 200 236 Paul Sartre, “Writing, Reading, and the Public”, Literature in the Modern World Critical Essats

and Documents, ed Dennis Walder (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) 82 237 E. Wolfenstein, 43


79

Javert, we can see that the law fails to shape the society. At one side, Javert

totalizes the meaning of justice by fighting for the law. At the other side, the

romantic plot in which Javert’s heart is touched when Jean Veljean saves his life,

the similar feeling as Jean Veljean’s when the bishop sets him free and gives him

candlesticks. The heroic act of Madeleine when he saves Fantine and promises to

take care of Cosette also occurs when Javert is around. The hard time in his

childhood is also part of his past which develops the conscience.

Relating to every fact in Javert’s past and Hugo’s narration:

Conscience is the labyrinth of illusion, desire, and pursuit, the furnace of

dreams, repository of thoughts of which we are ashamed; it is the

pandemonium of sophistry, the battlefield of passions.238

Javert can be seen as the projection of human life which is consumed by the

dominant ideology. At the same time, Javert also represents Hugo’s radical

intention. Though this narration is written to put Christianity idea as the emergent

to give new ideology vision to the dominant, Javert character indeed reflects

Hugo’s thought which leads him to be a radical republican.

Second, in the situation of extreme property, Javert symbolizes a complex

situation for with his great occupation and high rank, but he has miserable

psychotic situation and unhappy. Javert spends his life in hatred to the ex-convict,

Jean Veljean. Javert’s past life makes him desperately want to be part of the

dominant society, and he hates people who go against the law without

understanding any social condition that makes them criminals. Javert himself is

constrained by his social condition which shapes his desire and consciousness. In



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addition, Javert’s stable economic condition and high rank represent what lower

class people want.

Indeed, Javert’s complex condition leads us to analyze how Hugo’s idea to

reconstruct a society is reflected. Hugo focuses on the social system, as he

explains in his essay, “The Mind and the Masses”. In this essay, Hugo argues that

someone’s history is constrained by the social system which includes their desire

drive. This condition occurs to Jean Veljean:

For whole hour he remained in a state of indecision in which there was an

element of conflict. [...] Then he swung his legs over and almost without

knowing it found himself seated on the bed with his feet on the floor239

In the narration, Hugo shows that Jean Veljean himself even has no clue that his

social condition has developed his criminal mind. Thus, the dominant point of

view lies on great economic condition and high social status which create mutual

relation between social classes. The mutual relation between upper class and lower

class triggers false consciousness in the society. Therefore, instead of supporting

the false consciousness in the society, Les Miserables becomes an active reflection

which points out the social consciousness through Javert character. Javert shows

that the economic factor is not the main reason that supports human life. Economic

aspect is the way to fulfill the needs to live. It is similar to Jean Veljean crime

actions to fulfill his needs of food.

C. The religious monarchist who becomes radical republican

The last discussion would recognize the psychotic and social dimension of

an individual within its social relation. As psychoanalysis concerns about the



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Oedipal stage in which it is aware of the emotional development of an individual

and Marxism focuses on eliminating the oppressed class, the

psychoanalytic-Marxism creates a research area in which we can see the mutual

recognition between classes as a false consciousness and it affects an individual

desire240. It can be seen through the psychological condition of the characters such

as Javert who strongly believes in law. This belief results from his past life as he

has raised in miserable childhood. It teaches him that going against the law is an

idea leading people to live in misery.

Les Miserables is written for about twenty years. Hugo wrote an unfinished

novel entitled Miseres from 1845 to 1848 which was then completed in 1860 -

1862 241. Denny, the translator of Les Miserables which was published in 2012

explains that the brothers Goncourt gives a comment that “Hugo has built his book,

situation and characters alike, on the appearance of reality, not on reality itself.242”

Since the very beginning of Les Miserables publication, the novel is not written to

be a copy of reality. It looks like a reality, but not the reality. According to Vargas

Llosa, Les Miserables is a real reality243. Based on this situation, it is obvious that

Hugo writes Les Miserables with particular political intention.

Since the beginning of the novel, Hugo writes a narration to teach people

about God and Christianity through Bishop Monseigneur Myriel character. The

description of Church as a modest place does not represent a reality. Church is

supposed to be glorious. It has to be locked to prevent thief. The Bishop at the

240 E. Victor Wolfenstein, 169 241 N. Denny, introduction, Les Miserables, 9 242 N. Denny, introduction, Les Miserables, 8 243 M. Vargas Llosa, The Temptation of the Impossible, 12


82

moment is also a symbol of the highest authority and the grace of God. However,

Hugo describes the Bishop too far from the reality. Through the narration of the

bishop, Hugo criticizes the social system and the church.

In introducing the main characters in Les Miserables, Hugo always begins

with the description of the character social condition. When he brings Jean Veljean

to the story, he lets the character appears to the narration as a stranger who comes

up to the story244. Then, Hugo interferes the narration with a description of Jean

Veljean’s social life as an ex-convict and why he has to be imprisoned. The first

part of Jean Veljean narration is ended by a great act of the bishop who releases

him and gives him the candlesticks245.

The interaction between Jean Veljean and the Bishop creates a new

character in Les Miserables whom he called Madeleine. Madeleine is described as

a person who is “reserved in manner but good-hearted”246 . Madeleine is the

opposite portrayal of Jean Veljean. Besides owning a factory, he always attends the

early mass every Sunday:

‘He’s simply out to make money.’ When it was found that enriched the

community before enriching himself they said, ‘He has political ambition.’

This seemed the more likely since he was religious and attended church

services, which was considered highly commendable at that time. He went

to early mass every Sunday. The local deputy, always on his guard against

competition, viewed this religious tendency with some apprehension.[...]

The poor, as well as God, benefited by the deputy’s misgiving, for he also

endowed two hospital beds － making them twelve in all.247

How Hugo builds Jean Veljean and bears Madeleine in Les Miserables shows that

he is aware of the social process which bears a new ideology. Hugo suggests that

244 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 84 245 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 86 246 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 156 247 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 157


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an individual, in this case Jean Veljean, needs to be shaped and educated by

particular knowledge. It is like the parenting process in Lacanian psychoanalysis.

Jean Veljean and Madeleine have different conscience in which Jean Veljean is

described as a criminal with criminal conscience where he feels like driven to steal

goods248. In contrast Madeleine’s conscience leads him to be a religious individual

who uses his money to help the poor. In fact, Jean Veljean and Madeleine are the

two sides of a coin. The individual, whom Hugo signifies into Jean Veljean and

Madeleine, is the body itself while Jean Veljean and Madeleine are the signifiers of

the signified.

The individual at first is described as a child born in a poor family without

clear name. The name Jean Veljean is the signifier which is built by the society for

the father of the child is called Jean Veljean or Vlajean. As he does not learn how to

read or write, nobody knows exactly how to spell the name and they just calls the

child Jean Veljean249. The ‘material transaction’ which begins in a family does not

happen to Jean Veljean: “He had lost his parents when he was still very young. His

mother had died of milk-fever, and his father, who was also a pruner, had been

killed by a fall from the tree. His only relative was a widowed sister older than

himself[...]”250 This condition leads the child to grow based on his instinct without

any “father”, as symbol of law, who constrains his ego. In fact to live in a society,

we need an ego which watches our unconscious notion from gratification251. The

individual does not properly work and repress the desire to get gratification. The

248 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 95 249 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 92 250 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 92 - 93 251 T. Eagleton, Literary theory: an Introduction, 140


84

scene in which Jean Veljean steals breads rather than working for breads signifies

that he is a criminal.

On the other side, Jean Veljean who grows up outside law and education is a

projection of the id. The father, in this case the bishop, creates Madeleine by being

a model of an adult man. As a father, the bishop feeds Jean Veljean and educates

him by showing the right and the wrong things in life. His interaction to the bishop

leads him to develop his new conscience.

The narration where Jean Veljean meets the bishop is similar to the Oedipal

stage situation. As the father, the bishop constrains Jean Veljeann’s desire. As

Eagleton explains, the Oedipal stage is the beginning of morality, conscience, and

even religious drive252. Lacan also states that someone’s unconscious notion,

especially his desire, is constrained by a social condition253. In order to live, human

needs to be repressed in some degrees. Freud even argues that “The motive of

human society is in the last resort an economic one”254 which explains the need of

labor in the society to live, in reality human need to put aside their ‘pleasure

principle’. For Marx, the need to labor is a result of social and class relation255.

The difference conscience between Jean Veljean and Madeleine which is

contrast to each other although they are actually the same person, shows an

extreme ideology transformation. Another characters, especially the Bishop and

Javert, emphasizes that Jean Veljean represents an old ideology that is seen as the

bad one, and Madeline as the new ideology that reflects the right ideology. Like

252 T. Eagleton, Literary theory: an Introduction, 136 253 T. Eagleton, Literary theory: an Introduction, 137 254 T. Eagleton, Literary theory: an Introduction, 131 255 T. Eagleton, Literary theory: an Introduction, 132


85

Hugo explains in the “Parenthesis” chapter in Les Miserables that the society has to

stay in progress and the stagnant social condition needs a change, Jean Veljean’s

transfiguration into Madeline reflects the changes in society. Although Jean

Veljean and Madeline represent a transformation, Madeline seems to be a

replacement of the former power. Madeline is actually similar to Javert who

chooses to believe in something for they need to be accepted and to perpetuate his

power in particular social structure. Different from Hugo’s political intentions in

“Parenthesis” that stresses his belief in socialism, the transformation in Jean

Veljean into Madeline reflects a big conflict in religious faith instead of political

and social view.

Hugo is indeed aware of the social and class relation, and it is reflected in

Les Miserables through Marius who joins the barricade of revolution256 and the

heroic act of Madeleine when he saves her without considering his rank and

name257. Regardless the religious ideology projected in Madeline, through this

narration, Hugo intends to show his socialist ideology as Althusser suggests that

ideology is both a set of beliefs and practices258. The projection of the society in

Les Miserables reflects the whole ideology compared to Hugo’s conscious

intention.

From the narration of the bishop and Jean Veljean, we can see Hugo’s

ideology transformation. As a person who grew up in a family where he was

exposed to religious and monarchy ideology, Jean Veljean holds his religious

belief to be the main ideology both in concept and in practice when he changes his

256 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 836 257 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 635 258 L. Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, 693


86

identity to Madeleine. The bishop is a symbolic father for Jean Veljean. Jean

Veljean is constrained to the law of Christianity which represses his ‘pleasure’ to

the figure of Madeleine. Madeleine is the imagery of a reproduced ideology. As an

imagery, Madeleine begins to identify himself under the ‘law’ of his ‘father’.

Hugo himself has been the imagery of his father in this stage and the bishop

is a symbolic father whom Hugo creates. Indeed, his father is a Bonapartist and his

mother is a religious Catholic259, the role of father in Jean Veljean narration at once

reflects Hugo’s emergent to the dominant ideology. Though it is an obscure point

of view to the ideology, Hugo is able to see how particular way of life is

constructed.

His resistance to the dominant ideology is then reflected through Fantine.

Similar to Jean Veljean, Fantine is described as a girl without clear identity.

Through the narration:

She was called Fantine because she had never been called anything else.

[...] She was called by the name bestowed on her by some passer - by whom

had seen her running barefoot in the streets, and she accepted it as she

accepted the raindrops when they fell. La Petite Fantine -260

Hugo explains that from the very beginning, Fantine is described as an outcast of

the society. Even when she has a baby from the Tholomyes, the baby becomes

another symbol of how a social condition shapes human life. Fantine cannot even

shape an identity for her child. Her child is first called Euphrasie, but then Fantine

turns it into Cosstte by the use of that touching alchemy of simple people which

transform Josef into Pepita and Francoise into Silette. It is a kind of linguistics

259 N. Denny, introduction, Les Miserables, 11 260 V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 125


87

which baffles the etymologist.261 It shows that even to name a daughter, it is not

the mother’s authority. It is under the social structure’ control.

Since the very beginning, Hugo is aware that the social condition constrains

every individual history. However, at the same time Hugo shows his radical

thinking through the interaction of the lower class character to ‘superstructure’,

such as Jean Veljean who changes into Madeleine and Fantine whose life gets

worse after her contact to the political system, the class relation, and the law.

Hugo radically shows, through Fantine, that class relation and political

system, such as the permission for the police to sentence prostitutes without

bringing them to the court262. This condition is constructed to perpetuate the

authority of the dominant power. It would be clearer when we compare Fantine to

Jean Veljean. Fantine’s social status and economic condition are even worse after

her interaction to the dominant ideology, the monarchist. On the contrary, Jean

Veljean turns into Madeleine after he meets the bishop with his Christianity

ideology.

Similarly, through Marius, Hugo leads the readers to see the gloomy and

dark life of the lower class which the upper class should notice263. Though the

lower class notices the condition, symbolized through Madeleine, Fantine and even

Javert, it is difficult for them to emerge a new vision to the society. The characters

from the upper class lead the revolution, and the characters from the upper class

emerge the changes in social relation.



88

This plot is another real reality in Les Miserables. In addition to creating an

emergent agent who is able to create some changes, Hugo maintains the society in

Les Miserables as a never ending process. We can see that to reproduce or renewal

an ideology is a big process, and it is necessary to involve every element in the

society, for the productive force is the one who reflects and produces the ideology

at the same time. Moreover, power relation in society is the main relation in which

the society is maintained. There would be always the dominant authority with its

ideology.

Obviously, the dominant ideology at first was the emergent to the residual

ideology which used to be the dominant. When the dominant ideology perpetuates

its power to keep the ideology and authority, particular class would let the other

social classes rule them. Hugo’s radical thinking then appears through his

revolutionary thinking. The revolution would end one era and begin another era.

This notion supports the concept of Althusser’s repressive state apparatus in which

violent and force are used to emerge a new ideology against the dominant. As

Hugo always underlines from the beginning of Les Miserables, he shows that

reconstructing the society through superstructure, such as education and art, is

another inevitable way to maintain the new ideology.

Les Miserables indeed reflects a process of ideology transformation both

from the characters and the plot of the story. Each character has complex

ideological conflict, especially Javert and Jean Veljean. Javert is a depiction of

dilemmatic situation where his conscience leads him to doubt his faith to law.

Javert is also the character who proclaims his ideology as someone who dedicated

his life to justice. Javert devotes his life and belief about justice based on law. The


89

biggest conflict in his mind occurs when he finds out another concept of justice, but

he cannot betray his loyalty to the law.

Different from Javert, Jean Veljean represents a situation where a person

realizes that the new social values that are totally different from his former belief,

are the right one. The situation gets Jean Veljean in dilemmatic and doubtful

condition. When Javert commits to suicide, Jean Veljean decides to leave his old

life behind and change his identity into Madeline that is contrast with Jean Veljean.

However, compare to the revolution as the big change in the society to change the

situation, Madeline changes himself into a character who is accepted by the society

and lives in higher social class with religious lining mind.

The ideology conflict and the characters’ ideology transformation projects

the idea of Hugo’s socialist ideology. Firstly, it is true that there is an ideology

transformation process in Victor Hugo. It is depicted in the way he builds each

character based on particular social condition. There is always one crucial moment

that makes each character to see what they believe from different perspective. For

example, it happens in Fantine when she finds out that a romantic relationship with

upper class society that changes her life not to something she has been dreaming of.

The similar recognition moment also occurs when Jean Veljean decides to not steal

anymore and when Javert and Sister Simplice have to perform some actions

beyond their conscious believe. Similar to these characters, Hugo seems to have

the recognition moment when he keeps talking about something wrong in the

society such as how the upper class punishes and judges a criminal.


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However, different from the socialist belief that Hugo has proclaimed, there

is a complex situation than can be difficult to be seen as a socialist belief. As

Norman Denny and Vargas Llosa state in their analysis to Victor Hugo, they both

agree that there is a process of transformation in Hugo’s ideology. He was once a

religious monarchy, but then he changes into a radical republican, not a socialist as

he has proclaimed. Particularly in Les Miserables an ideology transformation in

Hugo’s life is depicted both in the plot of the story, in the characters, and in his

statements in chapter “Parenthesis” and “Argot”. There is a complex definition of

Hugo’s ideology. Les Miserables is the depiction of Hugo’ religious faith and

ideology conflict. It is true that in one side he agrees with revolution to change the

social structure. In contrast, the ideology transformation depicted in Les

Miserables shows Hugo’s tendency to overpower the "dominant". It is projected in

Madeline and Javert, the two characters who to be part of the upper class and

perpetuate their power over their belief.

Another complex definition of Hugo’s ideology is his religious belief. In

chapter “Parenthesis” he emphasizes that it is morality and faith to God that should

be the soul of revolution. It raises a question about his socialist belief that is

supposed to see God as part of ‘superstructure’ that is created by the ‘base’.


91

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

“You ask me what forces me to speak? My conscience.”264

Serving as Hugo’s masterpiece which is written in the years of Hugo’s

ideology evolution, Les Miserables reflects Hugo’s ideology transformation

process. Hugo has been raised as a well-to-do middle class family with religious

belief as the dominant ideology in his family. Indeed, his mother introduces the

Christianity belief to him and his father, a Bonaparte loyalist, introduces monarchy

life style and political influence to Hugo’s life. These double consciousnesses later

builds Hugo’s ideological point of view in which he grows as a man with religious

monarchy ideology. This double consciousness constructs his point of view to the

society and shapes his conscience. Therefore Hugo emphasizes humanity values

and his conscience as the basis of his ideology transformation265.

Ideology itself, according to Althusser, is defined as a set of beliefs and also

the way of life. As part of superstructure, ideology, a set of beliefs, constrains the

economic base. In fact ideology is produced by the economic base. Since it shapes

the economic base, ideology also affects the whole activities at base, including in

producing literary works. The relation between ideology, literature, and society

then becomes a complex relation in which ideology and literature, as part of

superstructure, merely reflects at the base. Yet, base produces literature and

264 V. Hugo. Les Miserables, 837 265 V. Hugo. Les Miserables, 837


92

ideology. When a literary works reflects particular ideology which affects base,

base produces the ideology in its praxis.

In this case, literature can be defined as an active reflection of society. A

literary work is indeed a copy of reality which is projected through the author’s

creative writing. The projection of reality or the society is full of the author

intention and interpretation to the social life. The literary work, then, becomes a

medium to reconstruct or at least to emerge a new vision in the society. However,

an author is also part of the economic base and at the same time a product of social

structure. Although in some level an author, in this case Hugo is able to recognize

social structure, Hugo is still the product of social structure. That puts Hugo in a

complex situation because his intention and desire are still constructed by social

structure. It makes the creative writing process limited by the author’s social

background.

Through this creative writing process, Hugo writes Les Miserables at first to

reflect the real condition of Paris at the moment with his own interpretation to the

social condition. This condition is written through the narration in the novel.

Hugo’s interpretation of the society is then called the ‘real reality’ in Vargas

Llosa’s book entitled The Temptation of the Impossible. In this book, he analyzes

Hugo’s creative writing and intention in Les Miserables. Hugo’s idea ends up with

his impossible goal, that is, reconstructing the society to perform an ideal society.

Based on the previous studies, including Vargas Llosa’s analysis, and

Hugo’s clear point of view in which he claims literature as a medium to reconstruct

the society, some concluding remarks about an analysis to Hugo’s ideology


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transformation can be drawn. The analysis on Hugo’s ideology transformation

from a religious monarchist to radical republican is conducted through the way

Hugo uses Les Miserables as a model of social construction. Reconstruction is

useful to perform his ideal society. The analysis is also conducted by scrutinizing

psychoanalytic-Marxist point of view to explore the novel’s psychotic dimension.

Les Miserables is a representation of how Hugo builds a society in his

utopia. Beginning with a description of poor society, Hugo points out to the readers

that something wrong occurs in the society. He directly shows that the dominant

ideology, monarchy, creates a false consciousness to the society which bears

revolutionary characters in Les Miserables. Then, Les Miserables can be seen as a

character-based novel because it involves the narrator of the novel as the projection

of Hugo’s figure in Les Miserables. He clearly uses Les Miserables as a medium to

expose 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”266 shows

that Hugo uses Les Miserables as an agent of emergent to create a point of view

against the dominant ideology. At the same time Andre Breton defines Victor

Hugo as a surrealist who describes the society in its real form through which the

readers would be able to see how the society looks like267 . Through the his

narration Hugo interrupts the story to explain, clarify and stress his opinion which

leads the readers to believe that it is Victor Hugo who is communicating to us and

tell the story of each character. From this stand point which leads us to see the

266 M. Vargas Llosa. 9 267 M. Vargas Llosa. 9 - 10


94

characters in Les Miserables as revolutionary characters, we can see the beginning

of Hugo’s ideology transformation.

The ideology transformation process occurs not only on the conscious

notion. When Hugo proclaims that he changes his belief into socialism, another

transformation process happens in his unconscious notion. As ideology is praxis,

the transformation process is projected through somebody’ way of life and an

author’ text. In this case Les Miserables is a novel that reflects Hugo’s ideology

transformation. The ideology transformation is depicted in the plot of the story and

the characters in Les Miserables. Every character in Les Miserables is described

with vivid social background and they also have to experience ideology conflict.

The revolutionary characters like Jean Veljean who becomes Madeleine and

Marius who supports the revolution show that Hugo intends to emphasize the false

consciousness in the society. There is something wrong in the society in which a

revolution, a fast change, is necessary to end one dominant power and to

reconstruct the society. The revolutionary characters then lead us to find out that

Hugo tells us about a process of building an ideal society. Les Miserables is written

as a model of Hugo’s idea about the whole social system, and it is projected Hugo’s

intention especially related to the idea of reconstructing a society.

However, the revolutionary characters also reflects a contrast situation.

Compare to Hugo’s statements in the beginning of Chapter I where he writes that

the religious situation is important to give a background, Jean Veljean’s

transfiguration into Madeline emphasizes particular religious values. Madeline is

Jean Vealjan who has changed into a religious character in Madeline’s depiction.


95

In addition, the other chapter of the novel, “Parenthesis” also emphasizes that God

is the center of the whole social life. Hugo clarifies his religious belief in

“Parenthesis” in his statement that says it is the monastery that creates an allusion

of God and create the social structure. Revolution is indeed the way to change the

social structure, but according to Hugo revolution is a projection of morality.

Though Les Miserables shows that most of social conflicts appear due to the

economic condition, for example Jean Veljean who becomes a thief due to poverty

and hunger, Hugo shows that it is only the surface of the social condition. He

emphasizes that even the economic situation is built by a social condition. It is

clearly seen through Javert character as the only character who has clear

occupation since the beginning of the story. His stable economic condition and

social status are the representation of another psychotic desire in his life. This point

of view then leads Hugo to be a radical thinker through his depiction in Les

Miserables. He shows that the social issue is more than the economic condition

because it shows the whole social process which constrains an individual to

become what the society wants. An ideal society should be a social condition

which is shaped by individuals and constrains the individual as well. This system

enables each individual to notice the social system. Then Hugo suggests

democracy through the revolution he describes in Les Miserables. This revolution

is the way to reconstruct the society to reach an ideal situation.

The revolutionary characters and the ideal society in Les Miserables reflect

Hugo’s ideology transformation from a religious monarchist to a radical

republican. In fact, Hugo’s ideology transformation is more than a transformation


96

process which Hugo himself proclaims. The process of his ideology evolution

affects by Hugo’s psychotic condition which is constrained by his social life.

When the previous analysis to Les Miserables emphasize the transformation

from monarchist to radical republican with socialist lining mind, this thesis

underlines the religious side of Hugo. Hugo’s religious sides seems to encounter

his statements about his ideology transformation to socialism. There is a complex

psychotic condition about God in Hugo’s ideology transformation. In Les

Miserables Hugo writes that superstructure is a product of social structure. There is

a mental slip when people mistakenly see superstructure as something that affects

economic base. In fact superstructure and base has conflict relation where they

affect each other.

However, God is an exception. Due to socialist point of view, God and so

religion, is part of superstructure which is created by base. In reality religion that

shapes social structure is an example of base - superstructure mental slip relation.

For Hugo, God is still the center of his belief and faith. He does not see God as part

of superstructure such as religious institution. In chapter “Parenthesis” Hugo

stresses that it is not God that construct social structure, but the religious institution

uses God to create an allusion of social structure.

Even the desire of human is developed through particular social process

which Freud explains as the Oedipal stage. Expanding Freud psychoanalysis, Klein

conducts a psychoanalytic study which shows that the psychotic condition of an

individual is constrained by its social condition 268 . As the classic Freudian

268 E. Wolfenstein, 187


97

psychoanalysis suggests that an individual emotional life is constructed, so an

individual is not only controlled by its instinctive drive but also its desire. Klein

furthermore deepens the analysis in the process of developing desire drive or the

emotional life of someone.

It is of course an individual and subjective study, but Klein critically

suggests that an emotional life of an individual, especially its paranoid-schizoid

and depression position is constrained by its social life which begins with the

family condition where the individual is born269. As soon as an infant is born, the

social life, in this case the parents, would create a condition for the infant to

develop the beginning level of paranoid - schizoid in the form anxiety which

develops the concept of good and bad. It begins when the baby has the experience

of pleasure through the mother’s body. Biologically, the mother’s body would be a

provider for the infant, the commodity object from which the baby explores to get

what it needs like food and protection. In fact, it is more than just a relation of

transaction when a baby develops his/her emotional relationship to the mother. In

this Oedipal stage, a baby starts perceiving the father as a rival who has higher

authority than the mother and learn how to be a patriarch.

To deepen the concept of the Oedipal stage, Klein analyzes the imagination

of children when they are playing and choosing toys. She places the child’s

imagination and toy as a dream which connects human behaviour to unconscious

drive. It is true that human’s unconscious drive is constrained by their social

condition which begins in the family. The social condition represses human desire



98

to get pleasure which constrains some levels of paranoid - schizoid or in the early

level we call it anxiety.

This condition occurs in the life of Victor Hugo. He is born from a

Napoleon Bonaparte follower father and religious Catholic mother270. From the

very beginning of his life, Hugo grows in a family with double consciousness in the

upper class family. Hugo has to experience conflict both in his psychotic

dimension like other infants experiencing their Oedipal stage. In the same time, he

has to experience the conflict of ideology between his father and mother. His

family condition also leads Hugo to be educated, and indeed his developed

intellectual triggers him to understand false consciousness that might exist. This

double consciousness then leads Hugo to be a religious monarchist who notices the

false consciousness in the society.

Then Hugo develops a condition where he points out the false

consciousness in the society which can be seen as the concept of insanity/ in sanity

in psychoanalytic - Marxism. Psychoanalytic-Marxism creates the concept of

sanity based on the dominant ideology and power which exist in particular society.

Since a rationality concept exists, things outside the rationality are considered

irrational. The dominant frames the concept of rationality and builds the sanity

concept. It implies that any idea out of their rationality and sanity concept are

insane. However, Hugo sees that the dominant rationality concept creates serious

false consciousness in the society. Then, he places himself as the emergent who

points out the false consciousness. It is a social and psychotic process which

happens at the same time.

270 N. Denny, introduction, Les Miserable, 10


99

Hugo’s ideology transformation sends him into the exile because he used to

be a monarchist who radically changes his political view and even openly supports

the revolution. This condition shows that as an individual acting against the

dominant or collective is judged insane. Hugo thinks that he is the one who is right,

for he notices something wrong with the social system. Through Les Miserables

Hugo shows a complex situation in the society, such as how the society in Les

Miserables constrains the role of an individual life. It can be seen through every

single character in Les Miserables who cannot actually create her/his own history.

The society has powerful control to shape a portrait of the character, for example,

uneducated and poor family who then bear a criminal. As a projection of the real

reality, each character in Les Miserables depicts the psychotic condition of the

emergent within the dominant, or the psychotic dimension of the insanity within

the sanity concept.

Through the psychotic and social dimension of an individual within its

social relation, we can see the Oedipal stage which is aware of the emotional

development of an individual. Since Marxism focuses on eliminating the

oppressed class, the psychoanalysis-Marxism creates a research area in which we

can see the mutual recognition between classes as a false consciousness and it

affects an individual desire271. It can be seen through the psychotic condition of the

characters such as Javert who strongly believes in law as he has been raised in

miserable childhood. This past background teaches him that going against the law

is an idea leading people to live in misery.



100

Hugo’s point of view to revolution and social structure indeed leads him to

have radical mind. In fact, there are several things about Hugo’s ideology that

makes it more complex than just defining it as a socialist or a radical. In some

degree Hugo is able to find the false consciousness or allusion about social

structure, especially in the way how the society judges a criminal. Hugo also shows

his point oof view about social structure that builds somebody’d identity and

belief. However, he also keeps talking about God or religious faith dan morality,

both in the narration of Les Miserables and in two other additional chapters of the

novels. The ideology changing in the characters, especially in Javert and Madeline,

is a projection of Hugo’s ideology other side. Hugo is also a product of social

structure, Madeline is the depiction of Hugo’s idea to replace the formation of the

upper class, not to change the social structure.

The religious side of Hugo’s ideology is also another complex situation in

his socialist concept. Hugo agree with the concept of base and superstructure

relation. At least it is depicted in the way he sees a criminal where he thinks, it is

the society who needs to be punished, not only the criminal. However, his idea of

base and superstructure relation comes into totally different definition when he

talks about God. Les Miserables even clearly put God and morality as the main

reason to reconstruct the society. Hugo defines God as the Perfection and Ideal

condition. It is not the aim of any change in the society, but it is the soul of human’

faith, even for people who do not believe in God. The aim of revolution and any

change in the society is to keep the society in progress. He believes that society is a

never ending process. The purpose of the revolution is to aim the progress not to

create an ideal society.


101

Though it is difficult to define whether Hugo’s new ideology is socialism,

at least it can be seen as socialist lining minds. Hugo has become a radical

republican who agrees that religious monarchist era has to be ended. However,

Hugo’s specific point of view about God reflects another part of his

transformation. Hugo can be an emergent who proposes new ideas to the dominant

radically, but his statements that explains he converts into a socialist seems to be

contrast with the process of his ideology transformation that is depicted in Les

Miserables.

The other studies have concluded that Hugo is not a socialist, but a

republican with radical lining mind. Psychoanalytic - Marxism reading seems to be

in line with the conclusion of the previous studies. However, it finds that the faith

in God as another thing that is still a dominant factor to Hugo’s new ideology. In

some degree, Hugo is a radical who agrees with republican. He also agrees with the

concept of base-superstructure relation. However, his ideology transformation

seems to be a process that is not finished yet. Hugo still has a religious side. In fact,

it is not only about his faith about moral. It affects his political view that makes him

in some degree is still in line with the social system that he tries to change. It can be

concluded that Hugo is a religious socialist.

To analyze Hugo’s ideology transformation that is projected in Les

Miserables with the perspective of psychoanalytic - Marxism, leads us to

understand that Hugo, as author, is also a product of social structure. At the same

time, psychoanalytic - Marxism also creates a room to analyze Les Miserables as

part of superstructure. However, it leaves us another room for further literary study

about Hugo’s religious side. Hugo’s faith to God can be another study to analyze


102

the psychotic dimension of an author who is able to see the allusion that is created

by social structure, but keeps one exception part of the false consciousness. Instead

of psychoanalytic-Marxism, Hugo’s faith in God can be analyzed with deeper

elaboration through psychoanalysis reading.

As a literary theory, psychoanalytic - Marxism also leaves a room to

analyze Javert character deeper. In this thesis, the event of Javert committing to

suicide is only seen as a result of particular social phenomenon when a person has

to experience complex ideological conflict. In further study, Javert can be the main

analysis to analyze the psychotic dimension of a person who commits to suicide or

the philosophical dimension that creates a reason to commit suicide.


103

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http://www/foreignaffairs.com/articles/128731/charles-walton/the-missing-half-of-les-mis

http://www/foreignaffairs.com/articles/128731/charles-walton/the-missing-half-of-les-mis

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SUMMARY OF LES MISERABLES

Jean Valjean, an ex-convict, has arrived in Digne. He has just been released

from a prison after serving for more than ten years for stealing bread and for

attempting to escape from prison. In this town his life begins to change after his

heart is touched by the kindness of Myriel, the bishop. Victor Hugo narrates that

Jean Valjean changes into a good man and becomes a mayor under an assumed

name: Madeleine.

The changes in Jean Valjean’s life lead him to meet Fantine, a poor

pregnant woman who is abandoned by Tholomyes, an upper class student. Jean

Valjean who has changed his name into Madeleine, decides to help Fantine take

care of Cosette: Fantine’s daughter. They have to live in hiding because Javert, the

head police notices that Madeleine is actually Jean Veljean. Javert believes that

justice is the most important thing in the society. Since he always dedicates his life

to enforce the law, he believes that Madeleine is a dangerous man. However, at the

end he finds that law cannot provide justice as he believes. The kindness of

Madeleine to save Javert, leads him to experience great ideological conflict where

he finally commits suicide.

Hugo depicts Marius, a student who joins the revolutionary barricade, as

another main character in Les Miserables. Then, Marius meets Cosette and they

make romantic relationship during the revolution. The story is ended when Jean

Veljean dies after the revolution and Marius and Cosette’s marriage.
