While the majority of this chapter revolves around how Paris encapsulates the “entire world” and examples of how it does so, I’d like to focus more on the beginning of the chapter instead. I’ve discussed in previous posts on the convent digression how Hugo’s generalizations of phenomena in France to the entire world overlook diversity between cultures and slip into stereotypes, especially Orientalist ones. This section here has a similar issue, with some of his remarks about Paris’ flexibility featuring racist discourses (the comments on Venus, for instance). I will, however, comment on the ending of the chapter, too:
“A little of the Place de Grève is a good thing. What would all that eternal festival be without this seasoning? Our laws are wisely provided, and thanks to them, this blade drips on this Shrove Tuesday.”
The Place de Grève was an execution site, as it was the location of the guillotine. Hugo’s claim that it provided for better laws is part of his defense of the French Revolution more generally, but it’s also darkly humorous, referring to all of these executions as “seasoning.”
Now to the beginning:
“All generous social irradiations spring from science, letters, arts, education. Make men, make men. Give them light that they may warm you. Sooner or later the splendid question of universal education will present itself with the irresistible authority of the absolute truth; and then, those who govern under the superintendence of the French idea will have to make this choice; the children of France or the gamins of Paris; flames in the light or will-o’-the-wisps in the gloom.”
Education is vital in this novel, especially to the misérables, because it’s linked to the ability to receive information. It’s possible that Fantine, for instance, would never have been fired if she’d been literate. She would have been able to write to the Thénardiers herself and, consequently, no one would have had to know about her situation. Jean Valjean is literate, and this does help him at times. For example, reading about his “death” in the newspapers gives him some sense of security, as he knows the police aren’t actively looking for him and he mainly needs to fear looking suspicious in general or running into an officer who could recognize him (Javert). He remains cautious, but that ability is still helpful to him.
Education is also a major marker of class. Fauchelevent had some education and felt superior to many before his accident because it meant he’d been closer to being bourgeois, and we saw the same thing to an even greater extent with Gribier, the gravedigger. Even Javert reads to be like a bourgeois, in spite of his hatred of the activity. Universal education, then, doesn’t just imply that education is good in a general sense, but that there should be greater equality between different classes. Everyone should have access to the information that education provides, and allowing for that would in turn fuel social progress, as Hugo saw it.
Moreover, universal education is tied to the development of the nation. The gamin digression has been very Paris-centric, and for good reason; Hugo notes that they know nothing of the world outside of the city because they can never leave it. Education may provide opportunities outside of Paris, but it also creates other ways of knowing. A literate child, for instance, could read about other places in France or elsewhere, gaining some sense of the world through that. For French children like the gamins to think of themselves as French beyond their love of specific histories in Paris (like the French Revolution), education would have to formulate a coherent vision of what being “French” means. This was key to nationalism in the 19th century and beyond.
Of course, Hugo doesn’t just say this as part of 19th-century nationalism. “The children of France” is a more expansive category than the “gamins of Paris,” and it’s a more hopeful one, too. The gamins are fun, but they’re unhappy and they suffer greatly. Their joy may even be deceptive, as they’re “will-o’-the-wisps” that may mislead people looking at the light they offer in the “gloom” of the injustices in Paris. The children as a broader category are a real “flame,” implying that they can actually shed true light on France and bring the country to a better future if educated.
