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Symbols
At several points in the novel, the narrator claims that the whole thrust of the book is from social evil to social good, proving that progress, while slow and complex, is inevitable. One way this movement is symbolized is through the progression from darkness into light. Darkness symbolizes the various kinds of evil that are enacted, consciously or unconsciously, in society: the abandonment of children, the despicable treatment of women, and the lack of mercy shown to those who have broken society’s rules (like convicts). Light, on the other hand, comes to stand for knowledge, truth, mercy, and goodness—those who have “seen the light” no longer blindly follow society’s judgmental assertions and assumptions.
The narrator often uses the language of light and darkness to imply this progress from social backwardness into a progressive society. But light and darkness, in turn, also fill the scenes of the novel, allowing the reader to associate certain characters and places with evil or with good. The members of the Patron-Minette criminal gang in Paris, for instance, only ever go out at night, in the darkness, while the Bishop of D— is often described as lit up in his very demeanor. Other characters pass through darkness on their way to the light. Cosette’s moment of greatest despair comes as she wanders through the black forest at night to fetch water for the Thenardiers, while Valjean’s greatest challenge is to carry Marius, whom he hates for taking Cosette away from him, through the ominous, gloomy, underground sewers of Paris. This journey from darkness to light, however, is considered necessary—the only way to achieve mercy and goodness.
Light and Darkness Quotes in Les Miserables
The Les Miserables quotes below all refer to the symbol of Light and Darkness. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Volume 1, Book 1
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“The guilty one is not the person who has committed the sin, but the person who has created the shadow.”
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Volume 2, Book 4
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Only, as he was five and fifty, and Cosette eight years of age, all that might have been love in the whole course of his life flowed together into a sort of ineffable light. It was the second white apparition which he had encountered. The Bishop had caused the dawn of virtue to rise on his horizon; Cosette caused the dawn of love to rise.
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Volume 4, Book 2
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Happy, even in the midst of anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of unhappiness! He who has not viewed the things of this world and the heart of man under this double light has seen nothing and knows nothing of the true.
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Volume 4, Book 7
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Slang is language turned convict. That the thinking principle of man be thrust down ever so low, that it can be dragged and pinioned there by obscure tyrannies of fatality, that it can be bound by no one knows what fetters in that abyss, is sufficient to create consternation. Oh, poor thought of miserable wretches! Alas! Will no one come to the succor of the human soul in that darkness?
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Volume 5, Book 3
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As he emerged from the water, he came in contact with a stone and fell upon his knees. He reflected that this was but just, and he remained there for some time, with his soul absorbed in words addressed to God. He rose to his feet, shivering, chilled, foul-smelling, bowed beneath the dying man whom he was dragging after him, all dripping with slime, and his soul filled with a strange light.
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Volume 5, Book 4
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His supreme anguish was the loss of certainty. He felt that he had been uprooted […] A whole new world was dawning on his soul: kindness accepted and repaid, devotion, mercy, indulgence, violences committed by pity on austerity, respect for persons, no more definitive condemnation, no more conviction, the possibility of a tear in the eye of the law, no one knows what justice according to God, running in inverse sense to justice according to men. He perceived amid the shadows the terrible rising of an unknown moral sun: it horrified and dazzled him.
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Light and Darkness Symbol Timeline in Les Miserables
The timeline below shows where the symbol Light and Darkness appears in Les Miserables. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Volume 1, Book 1: A Just Man
...a respectable woman, not pretty, but deeply good, though her goodness seems to make her light and transparent, merely a conduit for her soul’s eventual ascent to heaven.
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...entire day with him, speaking with and consoling him, until he is able to “see light.” The next day the Bishop mounts the scaffold with him, and the man seems calm...
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Volume 1, Book 2: The Fall
...But all is silent, and he slips into the Bishop’s bedroom. The Bishop’s face is illuminated and seems satisfied, hopeful, and content—almost divine. These emotions terrify Valjean and his uneasy conscience....
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...the Bishop, and he himself seems to shrink and then vanish in the Bishop’s magnificent light. As Valjean weeps, light enters into his soul, and he is able to examine his...
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Volume 2, Book 1: Waterloo
...well-known, so the narrator doesn’t feel the need to describe him. History is a pitiless light, the narrator states, and the shadows of the tyrant often mingle with the brilliancy of...
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Volume 2, Book 3: Accomplishment of the Promise Made to the Dead Woman
After Cosette makes it past the stalls, the light vanishes. But she pauses at the last house before the open fields, gazing at them...
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Volume 2, Book 5: For a Black Hunt, a Mute Pack
...it was only in the Rue Pontoise that Javert positively recognized Valjean, thanks to a lamplight. He then asked for more reinforcements and followed the pair across the bridge, surrounding him...
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Volume 3, Book 1: Paris Studied in Its Atom
...grace, but also is a kind of social disease that can only be cured by light: by education, science, and the arts. The gamin expresses Paris, which expresses the world in...
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...states, is the price of progress, and accounts for one of humankind’s great sources of light.
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...is to depict the city in all its types. The narrator beseeches philosophers to spread light among this populace and determine what use to make of principles and virtues in bettering...
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Volume 3, Book 8: The Wicked Poor Man
...the young girl for the entire scene. She seemed like a kind of vision in light. When she departs, his sole desire is to follow her, but he realizes that M....
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...Jondrette then sends his wife downstairs to keep watch. His own scowling, conniving face is illuminated by candlelight.
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Volume 4, Book 3: The House in the Rue Plumet
...clothing is battered and ragged, their faces blotchy and grim. As the sun rises, the light seems to set fire to this mournful procession, which suddenly makes it more jovial, and...
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Volume 4, Book 5: The End of Which Does Not Resemble the Beginning
...and suddenly sees Marius. He is thinner and paler, with shadowy eyes but a face illuminated by the sunset. Cosette backs away, but he asks for her to forgive him: he...
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Volume 4, Book 13: Marius Enters the Shadow
...city, beginning with the Halles quarter, an enormous dark hole in the center with no light or movement. All around it, swords and bayonets might be seen to gleam. The darkness...
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Volume 5, Book 1: The War Between Four Walls
...will be as if history had ended. If they die here, they’ll die in the light of the future.
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...of June 6th, the Luxembourg is sunny and charming, the statues robed with shadow and light. The abundance of light is somehow reassuring, and the recent rain seems to make everything...
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...from its love of artistic beauty, another way of saying its ability to see the light. In the future, art will be supported by science and both will work for social...
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Volume 5, Book 2: The Land Impoverished by the Sea
...a hiding place for thieves. The narrator calls it the “conscience of the city,” with shadows but no longer secrets. All civilization’s filth is laid bare, rather than concealed as above...
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Volume 5, Book 3: Mud But the Soul
Chapter 1 It is in these sewers that Valjean finds himself, passing from midday light to pure darkness. He is blinded by it, but slowly grows accustomed to the dark....
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...a hundred paces, he raises his eyes, and at the end of the vault sees daylight. No longer is Valjean conscious of his fatigue or of Marius’s weight. He reaches the...
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Volume 5, Book 6: The Sleepless Night
...Marius say their vows, their torments seem to come back to them, now converted into light—their suffering redeemed. They return home to a wedding party and begin to eat dinner. At...
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...receive his blessing. A little after midnight, all have left, and the narrator notes that light shines on such houses on wedding nights, for God can be found in the joys...
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...how many times we’ve seen Valjean struggle against his conscience, beg for mercy, and resist darkness. He feels he is now passing through a final combat between good and evil. He...
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