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Les Mis Education Study Guide.Indd And remember The truth that once was spoken, To love another person Is to see the face of God. THE CHARACTERS QUESTIONS / • In the end, what does Jean society who have lost their DISCUSSION IDEAS Valjean prove with his life? humanity and become brutes. Are there people in our society • Javert is a watchdog of the legal who fi t this description? • What is Hugo’s view of human process. He applies the letter nature? Is it naturally good, of the law to every lawbreaker, • Compare Marius as a romantic fl awed by original sin, or without exception. Should he hero with the romantic heroes of somewhere between the two? have applied other standards to a other books, plays or poems of man like Jean Valjean? the romantic period. • Describe how Hugo uses his characters to describe his view • Today, many believe, like Javert, • What would Eponine’s life have of human nature. How does that no mercy should be shown been like if she had not been each character represent another to criminals. Do you agree with killed at the barricade? facet of Hugo’s view? this? Why? • Although they are only on stage • Discuss Hugo’s undying belief • What does Javert say about his a brief time, both Fantine and that man can become perfect. past that is a clue to his nature? Gavroche have vital roles to How does Jean Valjean’s life play in Les Misérables and a illustrate this belief? • What fi nally destroys Javert? deep impact on the audience. Hugo says he is “an owl forced What makes them such powerful to gaze with an eagle.” What characters? What do they have does this mean? in common? Name some other • Discuss the Thénardiers as characters from literature that individuals living in a savage appear for a short time, but have a lasting impact. Study Guide | 1 “You are right, Sir, when you say that Les Misérables is written for a universal audience. I don’t know whether it will be read by everyone, but it is meant for everyone” Victor Hugo THE UNIVERSAL STORY QUESTIONS/ • Why have these works stood the test of time, while other works DISCUSSION IDEAS have been forgotten? • Les Misérables is one of the • What themes do they share with most widely read novels of all Les Misérables? time, and the show has been received with immense success ASSIGNMENTS/ around the world. How do you explain its great appeal RESEARCH AND to so many different kinds of WRITING PROJECTS audiences over more than 130 years? • Relate the themes of Les Misérables to events occuring • List the universal themes in Les in your community, England, or Misérables. the world today. After reading or • What makes a theme seeing Les Misérables, describe “universal”? how it has changed the way you think about these events. • Name some universal themes in one of the following works (or pick one more familiar to you): 1. Hamlet 2. The Red Badge of Courage 3. Great Expectations 4. Julius Caesar 5. The Scarlet Letter 6. Of Mice and Men 7. Macbeth 8. A Tale of Two Cities Study Guide | 2 Look down and see the beggars at your feet Look down and show some mercy if you can Look down and see the sweepings of the street Look down, look down upon your fellow man! THE HOMELESS AND THE POOR THE BASIC problem central to Les Misérables in a different Oliver Twist) brought to mind Hugo’s work is stated in its title: way. Describe how each of these a singing Gavroche. Trevor Les Misérables, or “the miserable characters see the poor: Nunn and John Caird used ones.” Today, we would call them 1. Jean Valjean techniques on Les Misérables the poor, or the homeless. Poverty 2. The Bishop of Digne they developed while directing is an international problem which 3. Javert Nicholas Nickleby, an adaptation continues to grow every year. 4. Enjolras of Dickens’ novel. 5. Thénardier • Compare Dickens and Hugo as QUESTIONS/ • Which of these viewpoints do authors and social crusaders DISCUSSION IDEAS you agree with? Which do you think Victor Hugo agreed with? • Compare the social problems • How do you feel about the and solutions in Les Misérables homeless and the poor? to situations addressed in works ASSIGNMENTS/ of Dickens such as: A Tale of • Who do you feel is responsible RESEARCH AND Two Cities, Great Expectations, for their problems? Themselves? WRITING PROJECTS Hard Times, A Christmas Carol. The government? Society in general? Why? • Compare Victor Hugo and • Hugo attempted to convince his his work in Les Misérables audience that the poor and the • How do you think poor people with the work of one of these outcast are worth saving. In our feel about the way they are modern social crusaders: George society, is this belief commonly treated? Bernard Shaw, Henrick Ibsen, held? Why or why not? Arthur Miller, John Steinbeck. • In Les Misérables, the beggars sing “When’s it going to • Explore the conditions under end? When we gonna live? which most common people Something’s gotta happen now worked in Hugo’s time. What or something’s gonna give”; kinds of factory conditions what do they mean by this? were they forced to endure? How do they differ from • In the story of Les Misérables, conditions workers deal with what reforms does Victor Hugo today? Explore the infl uences indirectly or directly advocate to of unions, child labour laws, fi ght social injustice? environmental protection laws. • How do Hugo and the creators • Alain Boublil was infl uenced of the musical show the to begin the musical of audience what social action is Les Misérables after the needed to correct these evils? character of the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver! (based • Each of the characters in the on Charles Dickens’ novel story deal with the problem of Study Guide | 3 Now every door is closed to me Another jail, another key, another chain For when I come to any town They check my papers And they find the mark of Cain CRIME AND PUNISHMENT QUESTIONS/ When Valjean is released from • Write an essay about your prison he is given a yellow ticket thoughts on “blind justice”. DISCUSSION IDEAS of leave, effectively branding him a Is justice ever completely blind? criminal to all he meets, making it Is it ever completely blind in When we fi rst meet Jean Valjean, he impossible for him to lead a normal Les Misérables? has been in prison for 19 years for life again. stealing a loaf of bread. The harsh • Both Jean Valjean and punishment for theft in the 19th • How does our society treat Thénardier commit crimes in Century was rooted in the belief people on parole, or ex-convicts? Les Misérables: Valjean fi rst that theft was a crime against the Are they able to lead normal steals food to feed his family, entire community and should be lives again? Why or why not? then breaks parole when he punishable by extreme means, no is treated like an outcast by matter how petty the crime. • A great percentage of convicts society, while Thénardier released from prison end up commits fraud and robbery for • How do we think about theft in back in jail soon after. Why is his own ends. Remember the our society? this, and what does it say about blindfolded fi gure of Justice: our “rehabilitation” system? should Valjean and Thénardier • Should all crimes be punished be treated differently by the in the same way? Should Justice system? Is there a place the reason behind a crime ASSIGNMENTS/ for mercy in the Law? How so? have anything to do with the RESEARCH AND punishment? WRITING PROJECTS • Have you ever had anything stolen from you? How did it • Trace the concept of crime make you feel? Would it have and punishment from the 12th mattered if someone had stolen through the 20th Century. What from you to feed his/her family? can you learn about a society from how it treats criminals? • Do you believe we have an effective system of justice in England? Why or why not? • The fi gure of Justice is always portrayed as being blindfolded, that is, completely blind to anything but objective facts. Study Guide | 4.
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