Fantine: The Fallen Woman?
"What is the history of Fantine? It is society buying a slave. From whom? From misery. From hunger, from cold, from loneliness, from abandonment, from privation. Melancholy barter. A soul for a bit of bread. Misery makes the offer, society accepts. The holy law of Jesus Christ governs our civilizations, but it does not yet permeate it; it is said that slavery has disappeared from the European civilization. This is a mistake. It still exists: but it weighs now only upon woman, and it is called prostitution."
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The above quotation from the chapter "Results of the Success" (from Book Five of Fantine) illustrates that Fantine, having compromised her social status by selling her body for money, is Hugo's representation of the "fallen woman". However, our contention is that Fantine, just as many other women of the time period, was driven through economic desperation to become a prostitute to support herself and her child.
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