LES MISERABLES, BRIEF REFLECTIONS: THE NARRATOR AND THE DEPICTION OF WOMEN

Abstract

Les Misérables (1862) is a social novel written by Victor Hugo that addressed the social ills of 19th-century France. This article examines the narrator's perspective in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. Thus, the main objective of this article is to investigate the structure of the novel and, especially, the narrator's behavior, as he is a key player in the development of this Hugoan narrative and presents himself as a great connoisseur of the characters' inner selves. The work's characteristics of Romanticism will be examined, as will the construction of the female characters, since they are also fundamental to the events recounted. This study aims to understand the images that represent women of that time, with a view to the contributions of literary scholars to answer the proposed questions. Therefore, this study is based on the research of Llosa (2012), Barthes (2004), and Eagleton (2017), among other scholars, in the literary field. In this way, we aim to contribute to future research by highlighting the importance of always being aware of the different roles women can play in society and demystifying stereotypes mistakenly conceived throughout history.