Les Miserables Literary Devices

Explanation and Analysis—Never Fear Robbers:

The first page of the novel introduces the reader to Monsieur Myriel, the Bishop of D—. Before meeting Jean Valjean, the Bishop foreshadows the stolen silver and the grace that he shows such thievery with personification and situational irony:

That evening, before he went to bed, he said again, “Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters is what threatens our head or our purse! Let us think only of that which threatens our soul.”

The Bishop tells his sister to never fear robbers, only chapters before Jean Valjean comes into the Bishop's home and takes advantage of his kindness. The irony lies not only in the fact that Jean Valjean robs the Bishop of his riches, but also in the fact that the Bishop's lack of prejudice allows Jean Valjean to keep the stolen riches. However, the Bishop's unending forgiveness also allows Jean Valjean to understand his wrong and atone for his sin.

The Bishop also uses personification to compare prejudices to robbers and vices to murderers, explaining that the greatest sins and evils lie within ourselves. The most precious treasures are people's minds, so tainting them with prejudices and vices is a form of treachery against ourselves. Holding prejudices against certain people robs oneself of a fulfilled life. Giving into vices is akin to murdering one's most fulfilled self. This outlook demonstrates the Bishop's selflessness, as well as his devotion to people over riches.

Explanation and Analysis—Two Abysses:

Jean Valjean contemplates using the cover of night to steal from the Bishop. When Jean Valjean sees the old man slumbering, the narrative uses a metaphor to depict the convict's moral quandary:

His eye never quitted the old man. The only thing that was clearly to be inferred from his attitude and his physiognomy was a strange indecision. One would have said that he was hesitating between the two abysses, the one in which one loses one’s self and that in which one saves one’s self. He seemed prepared to crush that skull or to kiss that hand.

This moment highlights the difficult moral decision that Jean Valjean must make when he is brought face to face with the Bishop, the man who offered him mercy, understanding, and a roof over his head. Jean Valjean compares his feeling of extreme indecision to a precipice, with abysses on either side. His options are to continue his life in poverty with a yellow passport or to steal treasures from the Bishop. Jean Valjean feels that both options will drag him down to the bottom, whether morally or socioeconomically. There is no dignity in stealing and no hope in continuing as an ex-convict, however saved his soul may be. If he loses himself in theft, he may never find a way to climb out of the abyss of sin. If he saves himself in good deeds, his future becomes uncertain—a different kind of abyss.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Javert as a Demon:

When Javert returns to Montreuil-sur-mer to arrest Monsieur Madeleine—Jean Valjean—at Fantine's bedside, he feels intense satisfaction. His pride at having captured Jean Valjean paints him metaphorically as a demon:

It was the visage of a demon who has just found his damned soul. The satisfaction of at last getting hold of Jean Valjean caused all that was in his soul to appear in his countenance. The depths having been stirred up, mounted to the surface. The humiliation of having, in some slight degree, lost the scent, and of having indulged, for a few moments, in an error with regard to Champmathieu, was effaced by pride at having so well and accurately divined in the first place, and of having for so long cherished a just instinct. Javert’s content shone forth in his sovereign attitude. The deformity of triumph overspread that narrow brow. All the demonstrations of horror that a satisfied face can afford were there.

The novel compares Javert’s face to that of a demon, pointing out his hunger and eagerness to damn souls who are deserving of such torture. He finds satisfaction in justice, but more specifically in petty justice. Javert has become so focused on catching Jean Valjean that it has taken over his life and his every waking moment. Capturing and damning Jean Valjean has become his obsession, a necessity to prove his own worthiness and moral stature. Overall, Javert fears for his pride and the viability of the justice system if he fails to capture Jean Valjean. For this reason, the moment of capture transforms Javert into a hungry demon: Finally, he has the chance to collect the damned soul that he has been chasing.

There is also a situational irony in Javert achieving “the deformity of triumph.” As his face becomes full of pride and satisfaction, the people around him fall to their knees in disgrace—or in Fantine's case, death.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Second Escape from Toulon:

At the port of Toulon, the topman on a ship (the topman works with rigging) nearly falls to his death before Jean Valjean jumps into action to save him. The story uses several hyperboles and a metaphor to explain the anticipation of the moment as well as the wonder of Jean Valjean:

In a twinkling he was on the yard; he paused for a few seconds and appeared to be measuring it with his eye; these seconds, during which the breeze swayed the topman at the extremity of a thread, seemed centuries to those who were looking on. […] One would have said it was a spider coming to seize a fly, only here the spider brought life, not death. Ten thousand glances were fastened on this group; not a cry, not a word; the same tremor contracted every brow; all mouths held their breath as though they feared to add the slightest puff to the wind which was swaying the two unfortunate men.

This near-accident occurs after Jean Valjean has finally been recaptured. The story hyperbolizes the drama of the scene by both lengthening the moments and heightening the anticipation in the crowd of onlookers. Centuries pass in a moment, everything panning out in slow motion, demonstrating the crowd's nail-biting fear. The metaphorical comparison of Jean Valjean to a spider catching a fly also hyperbolizes his finesse and strength.

The audience is unable to look or steal away from the rescue. The narrator creates a moment of knotted tension with the phrases “ten thousand glances” and “the same tremor contracted every brow.” Every onlooker is fixated on this one moment, their faces painted with the same horror. These descriptions are explicit exaggerations of the situation in number and intensity.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—A Plague of Butterflies:

In Volume 3, Book 8, Chapter 15, Bossuet shares a metaphorical comment about the snowfall, all while foreshadowing the tragic events at the barricades:

A few moments later, about three o’clock, Courfeyrac chanced to be passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had redoubled in violence, and filled the air. Bossuet was just saying to Courfeyrac, “One would say, to see all these snowflakes fall, that there was a plague of white butterflies in heaven.” All at once, Bossuet caught sight of Marius coming up the street toward the barrier with a peculiar air.

Bossuet compares the heavily falling snow to a “plague of white butterflies in heaven,” which is a metaphor of conflicting beauty. While "butterflies in heaven" inspire light and freedom, in reality, this metaphor serves to foreshadow the untimely deaths of the Friends of the ABC at the barricades. There, they too will become butterflies in heaven, having fought and died for their ideals of freedom. The word "plague" is also very grotesque, illustrating something inescapable and unwanted.

In Volume 5, Book 1, Chapter 21, the narrative compares the aftermath at the barricades to a snowstorm, demonstrating how Bossuet's foretelling metaphor came to fruition:

The interior of the barricade was so strewn with torn cartridges that one would have said that there had been a snowstorm.

Snow is not a beautiful phenomenon in the novel. It is a symbol of death, an obstacle on the path of progress.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—The Jondrette Lair:

Marius spies on the Jondrette family in the Gorbeau hovel after discovering that they intend to take revenge on Monsieur Leblanc. The narrative uses a metaphor to explain how the Gorbeau building is the perfect setting for such a vengeful crime:

The Jondrette lair was, if the reader recalls what we have said of the Gorbeau building, admirably chosen to serve as the theater of a violent and somber deed, and as the envelope for a crime. It was the most retired chamber in the most isolated house on the most deserted boulevard in Paris. If the system of ambush and traps had not already existed, they would have been invented there.

The narrator compares the Jondrette lair to a "theater" of violence and the "envelope for a crime," both of which are apt descriptions for how the family conducts their business in the building. The Thenardiers lie and cheat their way to wealth, as they did back in Montfermeil and as they continue to do in Paris. The Gorbeau is a theater, where they put on a performance as a good and desperate family, but this is just so they can manipulate generous people like Monsieur Leblanc (Jean Valjean). As for being an envelope, this plays into Thenardier’s new pursuit of letter-writing, as he asks wealthy benefactors for money under false pretenses and names. The Thenardiers have truly become the scum of society, and their lair is a representation of their cruelty.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Sufficient Suffering:

When Cosette and Jean Valjean settle at the Rue Plumet, Jean Valjean finally feels at peace. The narrator underscores his joy and gratefulness with situational irony:

When Cosette went out with him, she leaned on his arm, proud and happy, in the plenitude of her heart. Jean Valjean felt his heart melt within him with delight, at all these sparks of a tenderness so exclusive, so wholly satisfied with himself alone. The poor man trembled, inundated with angelic joy; he declared to himself ecstatically that this would last all their lives; he told himself that he really had not suffered sufficiently to merit so radiant a bliss, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted him to be loved thus, he, a wretch, by that innocent being.

Jean Valjean is struck with joy by the sight and presence of Cosette in his life, especially after having endured so much hardship. It is ironic that Jean Valjean believes he has not “suffered sufficiently” to warrant such happiness, when he has in fact faced adversity for more than 25 years. He has endured several lifetimes of loneliness, pain, and slander. As much as any good-hearted character in the novel, Jean Valjean deserves to be loved for all he has done to redeem himself in the eyes of God and the people.

The story also metaphorically illustrates the warmth and utter contentment he feels to be a father to Cosette: “[He] felt his heart melt within him.” In this moment, when Jean Valjean's heart melts, he is settled, feeling as though he could stay with Cosette, her leaning on his arm, forever. He also demonstrates vulnerability for the first time, as he finally has someone to love and perhaps fearfully lose.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Cosette as a Perfume:

Every evening in May, Marius visits Cosette in the garden at the Rue Plumet, and the two young dreamers quickly fall in love. The narrator illustrates Marius's devotion with a sensory metaphor:

The first kiss had also been the last. Marius, since that time, had not gone further than to touch Cosette’s hand, or her kerchief, or a lock of her hair, with his lips. For him, Cosette was a perfume and not a woman.He inhaled her. She refused nothing, and he asked nothing. Cosette was happy, and Marius was satisfied. They lived in this ecstatic state that can be described as the dazzling of one soul by another soul. It was the ineffable first embrace of two maiden souls in the ideal.

Marius compares Cosette to a perfume: she surrounds him, affecting his every thought and feeling. Yet the two lovers do little more than touch each other's hands. To Marius, touch is insignificant compared to Cosette's presence. They are two souls embraced in spirit, not in a physical sense. As a perfume, Cosette is a sweet scent that brightens his life and yet does not weigh him down. Together, they are physically unchanged and yet wholly different. The fact that they do not feel the need to embrace, kiss, or be intimate is also a testament to their deep love for each other, especially in light of Fantine’s past. Her relationship with Tholomyes was intimate, but the love was unrequited. Fantine's later pursuits were strictly physical and practical as she resorted to sex work.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—The Ocean of Revolution:

To set up and frame the scenes of rebellion and barricades, the narrator discusses the subtle differences between an insurrection and a riot. In the narrator's eyes, both insurrections and riots begin as one and the same, illustrated with a metaphor:

All armed protests, even the most legitimate, even that of the 10th of August, even that of July 14th, begin with the same troubles. Before the right gets set free, there is foam and tumult. In the beginning, the insurrection is a riot, just as a river is a torrent. Ordinarily it ends in that ocean: revolution. Sometimes, however, coming from those lofty mountains which dominate the moral horizon, justice, wisdom, reason, right, formed of the pure snow of the ideal, after a long fall from rock to rock, after having reflected the sky in its transparency and increased by a hundred affluents in the majestic mien of triumph, insurrection is suddenly lost in some quagmire, as the Rhine is in a swamp.

The narrative compares the nature of insurrections and revolutions to bodies of water, which act as people do—together and through influence. The narrator compares riots to rivers that run from all different directions and flow out to the ocean, just as insurrectionists form ideas separately and come together to start revolutions. However, not all rivers feed into the ocean: Some rivers fizzle out into nothing and fall into the quagmire, as some insurrections do. Nature is unpredictable, and its reasoning is often arbitrary.

The general comparison of people's ideals to nature is a testament to the natural existence of revolutions and riots. One cannot control the will of the people any more than one can control the oceans.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—Peace of the Sepulcher:

Hopeless without Cosette, Marius wanders the streets of Paris amid the rebellion. The narrator's description of the Halles incorporates a metaphor which foreshadows the coming tragedy at the barricades:

Marius had reached the Halles. There everything was still calmer, more obscure and more motionless than in the neighboring streets. One would have said that the glacial peace of the sepulchre had sprung forth from the earth and had spread over the heavens.

As Marius nears the barricades, readying himself to fight for liberty and meet his maker, he remarks on the absolute stillness of Les Halles, a typically bustling food and dry goods market of the time. The narrator compares the calm in the streets to the peacefulness of a “sepulchre,” a monument in which one buries a deceased person. This metaphor is an eerie foreshadowing of what is to come for Marius and the Friends of the ABC. In this moment, it is as if the entire world is already a graveyard, and everybody will be buried in the sepulcher of Paris. "Glacial peace" is also an image of calm and meditation; however, when the entire city becomes a graveyard, peace takes on an entirely different meaning.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—A Plague of Butterflies:

Covered in "Volume 3, Book 8: The Wicked Poor Man Explanation and Analysis—A Plague of Butterflies"

In Volume 3, Book 8, Chapter 15, Bossuet shares a metaphorical comment about the snowfall, all while foreshadowing the tragic events at the barricades:

A few moments later, about three o’clock, Courfeyrac chanced to be passing along the Rue Mouffetard in company with Bossuet. The snow had redoubled in violence, and filled the air. Bossuet was just saying to Courfeyrac, “One would say, to see all these snowflakes fall, that there was a plague of white butterflies in heaven.” All at once, Bossuet caught sight of Marius coming up the street toward the barrier with a peculiar air.

Bossuet compares the heavily falling snow to a “plague of white butterflies in heaven,” which is a metaphor of conflicting beauty. While "butterflies in heaven" inspire light and freedom, in reality, this metaphor serves to foreshadow the untimely deaths of the Friends of the ABC at the barricades. There, they too will become butterflies in heaven, having fought and died for their ideals of freedom. The word "plague" is also very grotesque, illustrating something inescapable and unwanted.

In Volume 5, Book 1, Chapter 21, the narrative compares the aftermath at the barricades to a snowstorm, demonstrating how Bossuet's foretelling metaphor came to fruition:

The interior of the barricade was so strewn with torn cartridges that one would have said that there had been a snowstorm.

Snow is not a beautiful phenomenon in the novel. It is a symbol of death, an obstacle on the path of progress.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Explanation and Analysis—The Sepulchral Moment:

When Javert completes his final business at the police station, he wanders to the quay in the dead of night. The story uses imagery and a metaphor to paint the uncanny feeling of the night:

The darkness was complete. It was the sepulchral moment that follows midnight. A ceiling of clouds concealed the stars. Not a single light burned in the houses of the city; no one was passing; all of the streets and quays that could be seen were deserted; Notre-Dame and the towers of the courthouse seemed features of the night. A street lantern reddened the margin of the quay. The outlines of the bridges lay shapeless in the mist one behind the other. Recent rains had swollen the river.

After the battle at the barricades, the silence and emptiness of the city is eerie. The story uses a metaphor to depict the darkness blanketing the city, the clouds a ceiling above, pressing down like the oppression of royalists. The moment is compared to a sepulcher (a tomb)—it is not only chronologically the dead of night, but also the aftermath of the battle. It is as quiet as a tomb because the city has become one itself. The narrator also uses imagery to paint the now-blurred lines of the city: the bridges are shapeless on the horizon and the river is swollen. The city is a tender wound. “Reddened” and still reeling from the fighting, the city has retreated into the background, creating its shapeless appearance.

Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

Les Miserables

Victor Hugo

Les Miserables: Metaphors 11 key examples