Imagery to show Characterization in Les Miserables

Victor Hugo uses lots of wonderful imagery to convey themes and messages as well as characterization. In his descriptions of characters he uses animalistic descriptions to show what a character is like, inside as well as out, and to emphasize the goodness or evil in them. For example when describing Cosette and Gavroche he talks about animals of flight. He compares Cosette to a “lark”, a small songbird, on page 63 and Gavroche to “an escaped bird” on page 464. This imagery of birds show that Gavroche and Cosette are free spirited and can fly above their misery and poverty unlike the Thenardiers. The Thenardieress is described as a “swine with the look of a tigress” (303) which is very symbolic. She is not only like a greedy creature that lives among its own filth but also like a tigress with the deadly cruelty that tigers display. She isn’t a good enough person to rise above her misery like Cosette and Gavroche so she lives among her own filth and it’s turned her cruel and horrible. Her husband, Thenardier, is described on page 313 as having eyes “similar to the eyes of a boa constrictor”. Boa constrictors are large, wily snakes that will squeeze the life out of you like Thenardier, who isn’t above murdering the man who is trying to help him (304). Thenardier and his wife are described as land dwelling creatures to show that they aren’t as free as Cosette and Gavroche who can fly as they please and aren't held down because of their wickedness and life of crime like the Thenardiers.

Another example of imagery that Victor Hugo utilized in Les Miserables to show characterization, specifically the inner struggles that Jean Valjean goes through, is the contrast of light and dark. Light represents the good in Valjean’s thoughts as seen on page 30 he is about to rob the Bishop, who has shown him nothing but kindness, and Victor Hugo writes “For nearly half an hour a great cloud had darkened the sky. At that moment when Jean Valjean paused before the bed the cloud broke as if purposely, and a ray of moonlight, crossing the high window, suddenly lighted up the bishop’s pale face.” Seeing the light on the bishop makes Valjean hesitate, a moment of contemplation about what he’s doing and how he is about to commit this evil, immoral act. It’s a moment of virtue when Valjean didn’t have one. A moment where darkness symbolized evil in Jean Valjean’s thoughts is on page 87 when he is thinking about letting an innocent man go to jail in his place he “blew out his [candle]” which made the room go dark. Later when he realizes that he has to do the right thing even if it means going back to the galleys he re-lights his candle, his thoughts turning good again.