An Analysis Of The Death Theme In Victor Hugo’s Novels

As one of the representative figures of French romanticism. Victor Hugo is very perseverant in writing, he is all successful in novel, poem, essay, drama and political comment. Hugo’s novels being the research objects, ‘Death Theme’ is thoroughly analyzed in this thesis based on his life experience, works’ connotation, ideal spirit and so on, so as to understand Hugo himself and the profound connotations revealed in his works.The thesis consists of five parts:The overall construction, as well as the research status of Hugo and his works are explained in the introduction part, in order to find out the deficiencies and shortages of nowadays’ studies, and to introduce the viewpoint together with the study method of this thesis.The first part, combining with the specific novel text, involves the conclusion of the death plots from the novel and the features of the author’s death-describing. In the seven novels published respectively by Hugo, fifteen figures marched to their death, of which most happened because of the unfair social system. Gloomy social system always leads to the death of those from the bottom of the society, no matter being submissive or resistant,. At the same time, stories of dying for the beautiful love also exist in his works, through which the author praised love for its greatness and wonderfulness, to make readers feel the eternity of love under romantic tone. When depicting the scenes of death, by comparing the termination of life and the eternity of spirit to make the occurrence of death more natural and further reveal the profound spiritual connotations and magnificent moral feeling, Hugo intentionally highlight the theme of ‘spiritual eternity’.Based on the life experience of Hugo, the second part analyze the cause of his thanatopsis combined with the background of age. Hugo almost lived across the whole nineteenth century, from which the rich social experience make the death in his writing no longer appears so frightening and straightforward. Instead, it become more gentle and rich in connotations under the influence of his views of life and religion. Meanwhile, influenced by traditional death consciousness in the west, he has also used the method of ‘spiritual eternity’ in his writing to alleviate the horror towards death. Faced with current the social situation in Paris, figures in Hugo’s works harvest love and helped rescue the society and eventually earned the eternity of spirit under the guidance of humanitarianism. It is the combination of internal and external factors that provides the departure of these figures with more beauty, peace and serenity.The third part mainly discusses the function of death plots in novels. According to the development of plots, death always represents the turning point, the climax or the concluding part. In Hugo’s novels, it often functions as the link among plots, the indication of ending as the influence factor for figure’s development. Besides, it also plays an important role of taking over from the past and setting a new course for the future in form. In this way, the novel not only attracts readers’ attention but reveals the meaning of death from different levels. At the same time, the death plot can also deepen the connotations of the novel. When depicting the death plot, Hugo added the description of atonement and destiny to help the figures go to a wonderful spiritual world arranged by destiny from the initial state of helplessness and loneliness under the guidance of self-redemption. Thus readers can also realize the powerful surviving desire and profound spiritual connotations.The epilogue provides a general conclusion of the research in this paper. It points out the specific connotation of the death theme in Hugo’s novels and further illustrate the influence and inspiration for the novel writing of later generations.