“l’onde et L’ombre” in the novel Les Misérables: the figuration of misery in Victor Hugo’s poetic prose

Abstract

This paper discusses the figuration of misery through the poetic prose manifest in the chapter “L’onde et l’ombre” (book La Chute, Fantine’s part) of the novel Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo. Considering that Hugo, as a poet, combined poetry and prose elements in his work, in a notorious opposition to the academicism and the rigid classical rules governing poetry, we attempt to show how the poetic elements are built in the alluded chapter, which is a digression in the narrative. The theme of misery – a concern present in Hugo’s political and aesthetic projects – is deeply approached by the author through poetic resources, with the image of the hostile sea and drowning. Thus, misery is treated in two aspects: the material and the metaphysical, because it erases the miserable person not only in a physical aspect – the death of the body – but also in moral and spiritual aspects – L’âme, à vau-l’eau dans ce gouffre, peut devenir un cadavre (HUGO, 2002a).