Revolutionary Tradition and Les Mis

 

Revolution 1789

 

People

--The Monarchy

--Desmoulins

--Robespierre

--Danton

--Marat

--Jacobins

--Sans-culottes

--Napoleon

 

Events

--Tennis Court Oath

--Fall of the Bastille

--October Days

--Varennes

--Declaration of War

--Palace Invaded

--Louis XVI

--Reign of Terror

-- Fall of Robespierre

--At war

--Napoleon

 

 

Timeline

 

1789 in Les Miserables

--The Terror

--The People

--The Students

--Revolutionary

--The Monarchy

--Philosophy

 

Monuments

--Elephant

--Bastille

• Kings

--L'arc

--Place de Concord

--Pantheon

• People of

--Tuileries

--Notre Dame

--Elysées

 

Daily Sites

--Restraunts

--Cafes

--Street Names

--Guillotine

• # dead

--Children's Names and Games

 

Works Consulted

There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices: after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has planned; Prometheus Bound begins, Aristogeiton completes; the Encylopédie enlightens souls, the 10th of August electrifies them. After Aeschylus, Thrasybulus: after Diderot, Danton. The multitudes have a tendency to accept a master. Their mass deposits apathy. A mob easily totalises itself into obedience. Men must be aroused, pushed, shocked by the very benefits of their deliverance, their eyes wounded with the truth, light thrown them in terrible handfuls.

An enormous fortress of prejudices, or privileges, of superstitions, of lies, of exactions, of abuses, of violence, of iniquity, of darkness, is still standing upon the world with its towers of hatred. It must be thrown down. This monstrous pile must be made to fall. To conquer at Austerlitz is grand; to take the Bastille is immense.

Les Miserables, Saint Denis, Book Thirteenth, Chapter III

This quote is packed with references to the Revolution and the time period preceding it known as the ancien regime. When Hugo writes "after philosophy there must be action" he is referring to the necessity of the French Revolution after the Enlightenment that came in the eighteenth century. During the Enlightenment men like Rousseau preached equality and education for all; these were very controversial views at a time when the church and aristocracy dominated society, and most of the population were peasants. Rousseau's contemporaries were just as contentious as he was. Voltaire hated religion and wanted to abolish the three Estates system that had been present in France for hundreds of years (the three estates were the aristocracy, the clergy, and the people: the first two Estates possessed all the power in France). Diderot, who Hugo mentions directly, oversaw the Encyclopédie project. This was the first encyclopedia and made information available to Frenchmen that had never had the opportunity to learn.

The Fall of the Monarchy, 10 August 1792 Image from Doyle

Portrait of Danton from Schama

These radical new ideas led to the events between 1789-1799. In 1789, members of the Third Estate declared that they were going to draw up a new constitution for France. This action mirrored Voltaire's desire to abolish the Estates; the Third Estate was assuming unprecedented power. On August 10, 1792, the "enlightened souls" that Hugo refers to in the above quote, stormed the royal residence (the Tuileries) in Paris and drove Louis XVI and his family from their home. France was declared a republic a month later. What Diderot had begun with the Encyclopédie, Danton put into effect on August 10 when he encouraged the people of Paris to storm the Tuileries.

Hugo notes in the last part of this quote that all the histrionics of France's recent history have not ended the strife in the hearts of the French: "An enormous fortress of prejudices, or privileges, of superstitions, of lies, of exactions, of abuses, of violence, of iniquity, of darkness, is still standing upon the world with its towers of hatred. It must be thrown down." Hugo also predicts the uprising of 1832 when he writes, "This monstrous pile must be made to fall." He hints to his readers that the people of Paris will not lie dormant in the face of injustice. Finally he reminds us that mobs are a powerful force: "To conquer at Austerlitz is grand; to take the Bastille is immense." To be victorious over foreign troops as soldiers of Napoleon is good, but for the people of Paris to consolidate to topple the greatest symbol of absolutism in France is incredible. Hugo takes us through a century of French history in a few sentences, and his rich allusions give his writing depth and resonance.