Le naufrage, la noyade et la mort (in)volontaire : le mal-malheur. Victor Hugo, L’Homme qui rit
Shipwreck, Drowning and Death: Evil-Misfortune. Victor Hugo, L’Homme qui rit

Summary/Abstract: Victor Hugo’s novel The Man who Laughed represents suffering, evil and tragedy as shared both by man and elements of nature, both by the persecutor and the persecuted. Evil is shown as represented by darkness, abyss, and all material aspects of being; goodness is identified with radiance, light, ascendancy and spirituality. Those values have social, political and moral aspects, but also metaphysical and cosmic ones, Hugo treating these as Ananke, a specific fate transcending all dimensions of being. The plot of the novel describes in detail particular places where the dramatic events take place, literally creating a topography of evil.

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