One of the few works of literature Les
Miserbles discusses the June Rebellion of 1832, includes it, aside from the
fact that he is very concerned about such events--he digresses nearly a hundred pages on
the Battle of Waterloo in Volume I--is the fact that Hugo himself was a Repulican
activist in the nineteenth century. Prior to this revolution, the Second Restoration of
the monarchy saw Charles X follow Louis XVIII as king. However, unlike Louis XVIII, a
Bourbon king, who ruled alongside a parliament, Charles X abolished the parliament and
removed freedom of the press. He was ousted from power and replaced by Louis-Phillipe,
known as "the citizen king" since he had fought in the 1789 Revolution. While this was
a victory for the middle class, the working class and poor were still not
represented.
Then, in 1832, after the deaths in Paris of
nearly 19,000 people from cholera, including the death of the benevolent General
Lamarque, whom Hugo mentions in his novel, unrest began in the streets of Paris. Two
parties formed, the Legitimists and the Carlists, and they made an attempt to carry off
the royal family in February of 1832, but this effort failed. So, the Legitimists gave
up aggression and chose to voice their dissent in newspapers. However, the younger
group, the Republicans, who were idealists and students began riots. In the June 1832
uprising inspired by the death of General Lamarque, the Society for the Rights of Man
directed this uprising. For the most part, this was a group of idealistic students.
Working men and small boys joined this group, but it was not supported by the public in
general and the rebellion was squelched soon thereafter by government forces. This
revolution is included in Hugo's novel because he was a champion of the poor, for whom
Marius and the others fight in the 1832 rebellion. Hugo's novel, of course, is
sympathetic to Marius as it denounces the degradation of the urban workers and the
mistreatment of the poor, especially women and
children.
Unlike the short-lived and poorly-planned 1832
Revolution, the French Revolution of 1789 was a blood bath that continued for years.
This uprising of the peasants and poor along with some bourgeois continued for years
into the Reign of Terror.
Peasants were required to pay
10% of their income to the Church, a land tax to the state, and 5% property tax.
Furthermore, they had to work for the seigneur, pay rent in cash and pay for the use of
the nobles wine presses, bakeries, and mills. During good harvests, these takes were
high, but in harsh times of little harvesting, they were devastating. The two years
before the revolution saw meager harvests as the French did not eat potatoes. With
people starving, the "bread riots," the basis of a revolutionary sentiment was
begun.
Finally, in 1780s these problems were compounded by
meager harvests. The failure of the ancien regime to enact reforms
along with this starvation brought about the revolution and the peasants' vengeful
retaliation upon the French aristocrats.
While Dickens
felt sympathy for the peasants, as a member of the rising middle class, he did not wish
for revolution to come to his country as many others felt. In many aspects Dickens
focuses on the vindictiveness of revolutions. His descriptions of the French
revolutionaries serves as more of a warning against revolution--the Vengeance is
deadly--than any encouragement such as Hugo gives his audience.
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