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The manifold world of Hugo

French scholar gives lecture on Victor Hugo

FAYZA HAQ
STEPHAN Desvignes, who gave three lectures at Alliance Francaise on Victor Hugo at Dhaka and Chittagong, speaking to DS, says that he had done his first research on Hugo's poetry and then that on his theatre .Speaking about what made Hugo interested in literature, Desvignes says, "He wanted to bring out the words of those in misery and have them heard by all. There were many influences on his life. First his brother Eugene's mental illness gave him an idea of suffering and misery. Again, his parents separated. Also, his godfather Victor Lohari was condemned for being involved with royalists intrigues and executed for plotting against Napoleon. His first child died. Later, his only daughter Leopoldine was drowned in the Seine River with her husband when he himself was having an affair with a radiant young actress Juliette Drouet. Next he was caught in adultery with a painter's wife called Therese Biard at a time when he was a member of the French Academy and Peer of France. He became, in fact, a ridicule for all the newspapers. After this double shock-- pain of the father and humiliation of the man-- Hugo begins work on 'Les Miseries' _-that was changed to 'Les Miserables ' during his exile.
" In his famous speech as aright-winger that was delivered on 9th July 1849 he said,
'Gentlemen, I am not one of those who believe that suffering can be supported in this world-suffering is a divine order, but I am one of those who believe and say that misery can be destroyed . mark it well, gentlemen, I don't say reduced, diminished, confined, I say destroyed. Misery is a disease of the social body, just like leprosy was a disease of the human body; Misery can disappear just like leprosy can disappear.'
"After his reconciliation with his father he turned to poetic works in which the poet's self is nonpersonal rather than impersonal.
Again he wrote,
'I hate oppression with deep hatred.
And so, when I hear , in some corner part of the world ,
Under an inclement sky, under a murderous king,
A people whose throat is being slit, calling and shouting;
Then, on! I curse, in their courts , in their dens'.
Thus he was influenced by his family and friends . Suffering therefore inspired him and of course the coup d'etat by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in 1851made him write of duty, rights and freedom."
Asked to compare and contrast Hugo with Dickens, Desvignes says," Dickens, in my opinion was a popular writer whose characters made you laugh and cry whereas Hugo's characters are much more complex. I would rank Hugo above Dickens because his achievements were greater in the context of giving people something for their dreams and memories. What Hugo did with Jean Valjean and Quasimodo was something Dickens could not do even with David Copperfield."
Elaborating on Hugo's novels Desvignes says," Novels can be read simultaneously on three different levels-- that of contemporary reality, of thought and of imagi-
nation. Each character embodies not only a psychological force, a desire, a suffering, but also a concept. In 'Hans of Iceland' a short man of monstrous inclination whose only companion is a white bear, kills people and drinks the blood of his victims in the skull of his beloved (dead) son.
" The Hunchback of Notre Dame could almost be read as a
gothic tale. Of all Hugo's novels, 'The H u n c h-back of NotreDame', because of its many 'dramatic' scenes or tableaux, such as the festival of the fools, lends itself
most
easily to dramatic representation. So it is no surprise that it has been adapted so many times for stage and screen. Hugo himself was obviously interested in staging this novel since he wrote the libretto for the opera 'Esmeralda'. Since its appearance in 1831 the story has become a part of popular culture. The plot of the novel is similar to that of Hugo's plays: 'tres para una '- three for one , Just like in the play 'Hernani', don Carlos and Don Ruy Gomez were struggling for the love of Dona Sol, so the demonic , lecherous priest, Frollo, the handsome, empty-headed guardsman, Captain Phoebus, and the deaf bell-ringer, Quasimodo, fall in love with the beautiful gypsy-girl Esmeralda. Each represents a specific kind of loving.
"'Les Miserable' can be read as a melodramatic novel about the lowest depths of society, with suspense, dubious characters, and Javert's famous tracking of Jean Valjean. But this is also the realistic
evocation of a town, of social environment, and of an individual's destiny. At the same time, it can be read as the popular saga of a mythical hero -- a modern Christ-- and as a didactic novel in which the main plot frequently gives way to vast digressions.'Les Miserable' should not be limited to the intertwined destinies of jean Valjean, Cosette, Fantine, Marius, Gavorche or the
Thenardie rs. These c h a ra c-ters, whose glory gave birth to numerous ad a pta-tions on stage (even when Hugo was still alive) and to screen , are parts of a novel
in which
the reader also finds details concerning the battle of Waterloo, the cheese-dairies of Pontarlier convents and sewers. The plot takes place between two restored monarchies and the two empires, between 1789 Revolution and the Republic of 1848. The book tells the epic of a man's soul, and depicts social and personal sufferings. Hugo calls it 'a kind of essay on infinite'."
Asked if he would call Hugo a sentimentalist and romantic, Desvignes says," Hugo did not deal with sentimentalities but rather with the psychology of man. Hugo's portrayals and descriptions were to depict the forces that acted upon the characters. This makes him very modern. He does belong to the Romantic which he himself ushers in are but he is comprehensive. He believes that literature has the right to tell about everything and not just about pleasant and beautiful subjects."
Dwelling on how good a poet and dramatist was Hugo,
Desvignes says," For me he was the best in the genres. He made revolution in French verse so that readers later considered him a genius. Even as a visual artist he was greatly gifted but he did not want to spend too much of time on his drawing as it would have taken him away from his writing. It is amazing that at that time someone dared to mingle collage with spots and lines . he even uses coffee in his drawings and paintings which has been done only in the 20th century. His drawings had close relationship with his written works so that he visualized his novels in his drawings. However, he illustrated only 'The Workers of the Sea'. Studying his poetry we have only to read his 'Autumn Leaves' ('Les Feuilles d'Automne')
'This century was two years old. Rome was replacing Sparta;
already Napoleon was emerging from under Bonaparte
And already the First Consul's tight mask
Had been split in several places by the Emperor's brow.'
"As a dramatist too he brought about a huge revolution and his works are a manifesto of liberty in theatre. He brought about the romantic drama as during his time you either wrote a comedy or a tragedy or a melodrama . All three
were separate genres in French drama before his time but Hugo says art has to show everything of a man's side so he broke the rule of the matter of the trinities. 'Her-nani''s presentation on stage was a major event. It was the battle of Romantics versus the Classicists on the theatre The play is an enormous success. The hero, noble in origin but an outlaw , loves Dona Sol passionately. Dona Sol is also loved not only by the king, but also by her uncle Ruy Gomez. This old man, who is so honest it becomes ridiculous and is finally the cause of the death of the lovers.
"Hugo clearly saw that the theatre offered him a much better chance for making his name, acquiring independent means, and exposing a wide variety of ideas to a much larger public. Hugo proclaimed in "Preface de Cromwell' .a manifesto of romantic literary theory, the right of freedom in theatre and art. Hugo proclaimed that the time has come to free art from the formal constraints of classicism so that it might reflect the full extent of human nature. For Hugo, after the age of lyric and epic, the age of entire art had come. He emphasized that the grotesque is more fertile that the beautiful because it had a thousand forms. He created just as easily the deformed and the horrible as the comic and the buffoon."
Talking about universal appeal of Hugo's stories and characters, Desvignes says," He mingles universal questions with individual stories e.g. Jean Valjean is a type of Christ and an individual by himself. Similarly Cosette is a Cinderella with her evil and uncaring foster sisters of the Thenardiers family."
Touching on how Hugo was influenced by his travels for his sympathy for the underdog, Desvignes says, " His travels opened his mind and he even visited people in jails and poor houses that helped him give his characters dynamic and unforgettable qualities."
Desvignes is from the Charles De Gaulle University of Lille, France..