书城文学文学与人生
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第50章 人生全由你自己去创造(4)

1.4 主要人物的人生(经验教训)

1.4 Major Characters’ Lives (Experiences and Lessons)

冉·阿让:冉·阿让显而易见是《悲惨世界》的主人公,不但如此,他还是雨果的善与爱的象征。雨果对这位平凡而伟大的人物进行了概括,他写道:“生活、磨难、孤独、堕落和贫穷都是可以涌现出英雄的战场,有时,无名英雄比声名显赫的英雄更伟大。”冉·阿让是来自法国南部的树木修剪工,他在监狱里度过了长达19年的时间。他刑期的前5年是由于为穷困的家庭寻找食物而偷了一块面包,接下来的14年,是由于他屡次企图逃跑而增加的。事实上,在雨果对监狱简要的描述中,冉·阿让所在的监狱是那样的残酷,致使我们对冉·阿让屡次试图逃跑报以同情。与其说雨果反对这种残酷的监狱虐待,不如说他在倡导同情。米里埃的仁慈并没有收到立竿见影的效果,但是,它触动了冉·阿让的良心,促使他为侵蚀他灵魂的邪恶而哭泣,促使他为弥补自己的行为迈出了第一步。冉·阿让的自我拯救分为四个步骤:离开米里埃主教后干了第一件不光彩的事就是抢了小孩的硬币,但懊悔之情已在他的心中生成;决定救出被错当成是他的苦役的难友;他知道这样做会失去柯赛特,但仍然走向街垒去救出柯赛特的情人马里于斯;在柯赛特与马里于斯结婚后与她脱离关系。除了上述四个拯救自己的阶段外,冉·阿让还与沙威发生了多次冲突:第一次冲突发生在冉·阿让被称为马德兰市长并是这位警官的上级的时候;随后是在泰纳迪埃家中被捉住时与沙威发生的间接却几乎送了命的冲突;第三次会面是在街垒中和逃出地下暗渠之后。当冉·阿让带着柯赛特在巴黎东躲西藏的时候,冉·阿让和沙威虽未真正相遇,但两人都清楚地意识到对方的存在。一旦冉·阿让敞开心扉,他便成为爱与同情的救赎力量的证明。他工作刻苦,眼光独到,使破败的滨海蒙特勒伊城成为兴旺繁荣的制造中心。这反过来也教会他懂得博爱的价值。通过关爱柯赛特,冉·阿让学会了怎样爱他人,怎样把爱传给他人。冉·阿让寻求善为何物的体力和意志是独一无二的,诚挚足以使他成为处于险境的人们的救星和朋友,也成为小说中的英雄。监狱使他冷酷,迷里埃先生的慈爱拯救了他。冉·阿让就像是一块空白的石板,由他的遭遇和环境所镌刻。这种变化的能力使他成为希望的普遍象征——如果他能够在经受诸多不公正之后仍学会爱和善,那么,任何人都可以。总之,冉·阿让统领《悲惨世界》全书,正如保尔·贝舒尼恰如其分地指出的那样:“虽然情节时断时续,又有许多次历险经历,但小说自始至终讲述的是冉·阿让——一个逃犯、英雄和圣人的故事。”

Jean Valjean: He is not only the easily recognized hero of Les Misérables, but Jean Valjean is also thesymbol of Hugo’s concepts of goodness and love. Hugo sums up the impression of this miserable, great inhis obscurity, when he writes:“Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields whichhave their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.”Jean Valjean is a tree-trimmer from the south of France who has spent the last nineteen years in prison. The first five years ofValjean’s prison term were for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his impoverished family, and the next fourteenwere imposed for his frequent escape attempts. Indeed, Hugo’s brief deions of the prison in whichValjean stayed are so brutal that we sympathize with Valjean’s frequent attempts to escape. Hugo advocatescompassion rather than this harsh prison treatment. Myriel’s kindness does not have immediate results, butit activates Valjean’s conscience, causing him to cry over the evil that has overtaken his soul and to make hisfirst steps to atone for his deeds. The redemption of Jean Valjean proceeds by four steps: the ferment in hismind after leaving Bishop Myriel with a first fall from grace in the theft of the boy’s coin; the decision to savean old comrade from the galleys who is falsely accused in his place; the trip to the barricade to save Mariuseven though this feat will result in the loss of Cosette to her lover; and the renunciation of Cosette after hermarriage to Marius. In addition to the spiritual salvation of Jean Valjean in the four stages outlined above,there are the confrontations with Javert: the first takes place when Jean Valjean is known as Madeleine, mayorof the town and a superior to the police officer; the indirect and almost fatal encounter with the inspectorwhen Jean Valjean is a prisoner of the Thénardiers; and the third meeting at the barricades and after theescape from the sewers. In the flight through Paris with Cosette, Jean Valjean and Javert do not actually meetone another—although both are well aware of the other’s probable identity. Once Jean Valjean opens up hisheart, he becomes a testament to the redemptive power of love and compassion. His hard work and new visiontransform the derelict town of Montreuil-sur-mer into a thriving manufacturing center, which in turn teachesValjean the value of philanthropy. In taking care of Cosette, Valjean learns how to love another personand how to pass that love onto others. He is exceptional only in his physical strength and his willingness todiscover what is good, and this earnestness is enough to make him the novel’s hero as well as a savior and afriend to a number of people who find themselves in danger. Hardened by prison and rescued by the kindnessof M. Myriel, Valjean is a blank state, molded by his encounters and circumstances. This ability to changemakes him a universal symbol of hope—if he can learn love and charity after suffering so much injustice,anyone can. In short, Les Misérables is controlled by Jean Valjean, as Paul Benichou recognizes aptly:“Andfrom beginning to end, through all the interruptions and innumberable subsidiary adventures, the noveldevelops the magnificent story of Jean Valjean, escaped convict, hero and saint.”

米里埃主教:1740年,他出生在一个富有的贵族家庭,1789年法国革命期间,他被迫逃亡到意大利。多年以后,他作为一名传教士返回故乡。1806年,一次与皇帝拿破仑幸运偶遇,他被任命为迪涅教区的主教。到迪涅后,他发现教会为他和他的几个随从提供了配备齐全的18世纪宫殿,而隔壁医院的病人们却住在狭窄而危险的环境中。米里埃坚持要与医院换房子,还把他教会薪俸的大部分送给城里最贫困的市民以及巴黎内外的慈善组织。米里埃和他的家人过着一种简朴的生活。米里埃的同情心赢得了教区居民的爱戴,他成为广受赞誉的教士。他为穷人的需要而辩护,他辩解道,最轻的犯罪是为活命而偷窃,并不是因为他们本质上就邪恶。他成为法国社会偏见的直言不讳的批评者和普及教育的提倡者。米里埃的行为使他在穷人中赢得了“卞福汝”的绰号,意思是“欢迎”。他对冉·阿让一视同仁,解救冉·阿让免遭牢狱之苦,启发这位前罪犯灵魂再造,使其做出了当一名诚实人的承诺。对于米里埃主教这个人物,雨果采用了真实的素材,在现实的自述面前,想象力便失去了主宰的地位。然而正如艾略特·格兰特所述:“实际上,米里埃主教不仅仅是米奥里斯主教的写照,同时也是雨果自己的写照。如果米里埃的工作与迪涅城里善良的主教的所作所为大同小异的话,那么他的思想肯定与小说家的想法非常接近。”除了米里埃主教是雨果的真实写照和代表雨果的观点这两点以外,主教同样还代表着理想的基督教徒,体现了作者对宗教根本价值的理解。

米里埃主教送给冉·阿让的蜡台这个意象反复出现。虽然主教没有在后来的情节出现,但蜡台的出现便会令读者想起这位圣职人员。

Myriel: Born in 1740 to a wealthy aristocratic family, Myriel is forced to flee to Italy during the FrenchRevolution of 1789. Years later, he returns to his homeland as a priest. A chance encounter with EmperorNapoleon in 1806 leads to Myriel’s appointment as bishop of Digne. When he moves to Digne, he discoversthat the church has provided him and his small entourage with a well-appointed eighteenth-century palace,while the patients at the hospital next door live in cramped and dangerous conditions. Myriel insists onswitching houses with the hospital and gives the majority of this church salary to the city’s poorest citizensand to charities in Paris and abroad. Myriel and his family live a simple life. Myriel’s compassion earns himthe love of his parishioners, and he becomes a clergyman of wide renown. He defends the needs of the poorand argues that most petty criminals steal to survive, not because they are inherently malicious. He becomesa vocal critic of the prejudices of French society and an advocate for universal education. Among the needy,Myreil’s actions earn him the nickname“Bienvenu”, which means“welcome”. He passes on thesesame qualities to Valjean and initiates the ex-convict’s spiritual renewal by saving Valjean from arrest andmaking him promise to live as an honest man. In Bishop Myriel, Hugo has relied upon actual facts so thatthe imaginative would seem to be subordinated to the realistic and biographical. However, as Elliot M. Grantnotes:“The truth is that Bishop Myriel is not merely a reflection of Msgr. De Miollis, but also of Victor Hugohimself. If Myriel’s career is, for the most part, like that of the benign bishop of Digne, his ideas are certainlysimilar to those of the novelist.”In addition to these two considerations of Bishop Myriel as a real portrait andas a representation of Hugo’s thought, the prelate likewise symbolizes the ideal Christian and is the author’spractical embodiment of the essential worth of the religious doctrine. The symbol of the candlesticks, BishopMyriel’s gift to Jean Valjean, is recurring image which recalls the ecclesiastic although he is absent fromfurther involvement in the plot.

沙威:他是一个绝对相信法律和秩序、无条件执行法兰西严厉的刑事法典的警探。他不会同情或怜悯,狂热地履行职责,在追捕中做出近乎兽性的表现。他怀有抓住冉·阿让的特别强烈的愿望,在他看来,冉·阿让的逃跑和发达是对司法的污辱。最后沙威也未能以确凿的证据表明冉·阿让应受到惩罚。这种两难渐渐削弱了他赖以立命的信仰体系,迫使他在伪善和诚实之间作出选择。沙威自然有他行事的理由,他生在监狱,是犯人的儿子。作者对沙威坚定地维护法律作了精彩的说明。在雨果看来,因果关系巧妙地引出了戏剧性的讽刺和心理上的狡诈。过去在这位警官身上留下了深刻的印迹,他成了一个典型的病例。他是个维护法律原则的偏执狂——即使产生错误和残酷的后果也在所不惜。通过与冉·阿让的接触,沙威发现冉·阿让不符合他头脑中固有的模式,他的精神随之发生了动摇。作者从容细致地描写了沙威内心的痛苦和疑惑。在沙威的头脑里,法律宣判一个人有罪,那这个人就是有罪的。冉·阿让最后给沙威提供了不可辩驳的证据证明,法律认为有罪的人未必就有罪,但是由于信仰的缘故沙威不能认同这个新认识。想到可能要过着可耻的生活,沙威痛苦不堪,他自杀身亡。沙威是真实的,他作出决定不是由于情绪上的歇斯底里,而是基于冷静的抉择。

他是一个逻辑性强的人,对工作却是满怀激情。到后来,雨果经常运用野兽的形象描写沙威,尤其是有时把沙威与老虎联系起来。结果,除了对沙威的同情,很难感受到别的东西,他如此无人性地履行职责,比起人来,他更像野兽。雨果把沙威作为可恶的法律和秩序的象征。

Javert: He is a police inspector who strictly believes in law and order and will stop at nothing to enforceFrance’s harsh penal codes. Javert is incapable of compassion or pity, and performs his work with suchpassion that he takes on a nearly animal quality when he is on the chase. He nurses an especially strongdesire to recapture Valjean, whose escapes and prosperity he sees as an affront to justice. Ultimately, Javertis unable to say with certainty that Valjean deserves to be punished. This ambiguity under-mines thesystem of belief on which Javert bases his life and forces him to choose between hypocrisy and honor. Javertcertainly has a story to relate which justifies his conduct: he was born in prison of a convict parent; and therationale which made him such a staunch supporter of legality is brilliantly explicated. On Hugo’s side, thecause-and-effect relationship shows a shrewd demonstration of dramatic irony and psychological cunning.

The policeman has been molded so greatly by the past that he is a pathological case; he is a monomaniacabout the adherence to the legalistic code—even when it is wrong and merciless in its execution. When hisdefenses start to crumble because of contact with Jean Valjean, who does not fit his preconceived pattern,Javert’s anguish and doubts are slowly and subtly outlined. In Javert’s mind, a man is guilty when the lawdeclares him so. When Valjean finally gives Javert irrefutable proof that a man is not necessarily evil justbecause the law says he is, Javert is incapable of reconciling this new knowledge with his beliefs. He commitssuicide, plagued by the thought that he may be living a dishonorable life. True to Javert’s nature, he makesthis decision not with any emotional hysterics, but rather with a cool determination. Although he is a man oflogic, he is impassioned about his work. To this end, Hugo frequently uses animal imagery to describe Javert,particularly when he links him to a tiger. In the end, it is difficult to feel anything other than pity for Javert,who assumes his duty with such savagery that he seems more animal than man.

芳汀:虽然芳汀的所有不幸是由一些人的无情和贪婪引起的,但社会对她的行为也负有责任。从这个意义上,她表现出了雨果的观点——法国社会对人们取多予少。芳汀是一个来自荒芜的海滨城市蒙特勒伊的贫苦的、劳动阶级的女孩,是一位没有受过什么教育的孤儿,既不能读,又不能写。她还代表了那个时代的一种普遍现象:单纯的乡下姑娘带着美好的向往走进城市,却被无情的青年诱骗。人们从乡村涌向城市是工业革命带来的一个主要后果。

芳汀的天真无邪引发了与一位活泼的学生托洛米耶斯的恋情,芳汀先是怀孕,后被抛弃。她弱不禁风,仍然做出艰苦的努力来养活自己和女儿柯赛特。即使沦为娼妓,她仍始终关爱着柯赛特。她象征着19世纪法国社会对不幸人们的无情毁灭。

Fantine: Although all of Fantine’s misfortunes are caused by the callousness or greed of others, societyalways holds accountable for her behaviour. In this sense, she embodies Hugo’s view that French societydemands the most from those to whom it gives the least. Fantine is a poor, working-class girl from the desolateseacoast town of Montreuil-sur-mer, an orphan who has almost no education and can neither read nor write.

Fantine is a representation of a common phenomenon of the times: the simple country girl, attracted to the cityby thoughts of improvement, who is seduced by callous young men. This influx from rural to urban areas wasone of the major results of the Industrial Revolution. Fantine’s innocent affair with a dapper student namedTholomyés leaves her pregnant and abandoned. Although she is frail, she makes a Herculean effort to feedherself and her daughter, Cosette. Even as she descends into prostitution, she never stops caring for Cosette.

She represents the destruction that nineteenth-century French society cruelly wreaks on the less fortunate.

柯赛特:芳汀的女儿,母亲死后成为冉·阿让的养女。她在蒙费梅的泰纳迪埃夫妇家度过了奴仆般的童年,这一可怕的经历并没有使她变得冷酷和愤世嫉俗。在冉·阿让和小皮克普斯修女院修女们的关爱下,柯赛特终于出落成一位美丽的、有教养的年轻女子。柯赛特顺从并极为忠于她的养父,但她也有着自己的人格,这一人格在她进入青春期和因无家可归而忍饥挨饿的时候就表现出来了。在他们共同生活期间,冉·阿让的角色一时经历了从柯赛特的救星到监护人的变化。 柯赛特挚爱马里于斯的动力,大多源自冉·阿让教导她要对爱情忠贞不渝。到最后,柯赛特一直不忘对她的教养,她把从冉·阿让那里得到的启示应用于自己的生活,并体现在她对马里于斯的爱中。人们在这两个年轻人身上看到了用冉·阿让和芳汀所作的牺牲换来的成果。一代新人换旧人,但离去的一代应该感到欣慰,因为他们取得了成功。人们相信马里于斯和柯赛特会为实现他们先辈的理想去努力奋斗。

Cosette: Fantine’s daughter, who lives as Valjean’s adopted daughter after her mother dies. Cosettespends her childhood as a servant for the Thénardiers in Montfermeil, but even this awful experience doesnot make her hardened or cynical. Under the care of Valjean and the nuns of Petit-Picpus, Cosette ultimatelyblossoms into a beautiful, educated young woman. Though she is obedient and fiercely loyal to her adoptivefather, Cosette also has her own personality, which emerges as she enters adolescence and begins to hungerfor a less sheltered life. In this period of their lives, Valjean’s role temporarily changes from Cosette’s saviorto her jailer. Cosette’s ability to truly love Marius, however, is due in large part to Valjean, who has taught herto trust and love. In the end, Cosette remains true to her upbringing, and her love for Marius becomes her wayof applying to her own life what she has learned from Valjean. People may see in this young couple the fruit ofthe sacrifices of Jean Valjean and Fantine. One generation is yielding its place to another, but the departureof the first group should be cheerful—its work is a success. One feels more confident that Marius and Cosettewill strive toward a realization of the spirit of their predecessors.

马里于斯·蓬梅西:与小说中的其他角色不同,马里于斯生长在一个没有金钱之忧的富有家庭。不过,他的家庭因为政见而分裂,直到他形成自己独立的人格才有了完整的身份。

在他的父亲乔治·蓬梅西(拿破仑军队中的一名上校)和抚养他的外祖父吉诺尔曼先生(一个忠实的君主主义者)之间,马里于斯的忠诚是分裂的。父亲和外祖父之间的政见分歧危及到马里于斯身份的裂变,因为他得知,保守的外祖父害怕他听从父亲的自由政治观点,故意阻挠他与父亲建立良好的关系。愤怒和困惑的马里于斯选择了父亲的信仰,但他很快明白,他真正需要的是自己的理想主义。当马里于斯离开吉尔诺曼的家去寻找自我并第一次堕入情网时,他才开始真正的成长。马里于斯还带有自传的基础。他尤其是雨果青年时代的写照,当时正值雨果参加反对复辟王朝的街垒战的鼎盛时期。马里于斯说起话来就如同是作者本人在阐述自己的观点。同时,马里于斯也是浪漫主义文学中情人兼英雄的原型——为了爱和理想,宁愿牺牲自己。马里于斯对彭眉胥上校念念不忘,为行为诡秘的泰纳迪埃提供帮助,对ABC政治俱乐部的朋友们忠心不二,所有这些都丝毫不顾及自身的利益;相反,为了这一切,他宁愿清贫,宁愿失去他渴望的冉·阿让的友谊,甚至自己的生命。同样,在雨果看来,马里于斯和柯赛特都是未来的希望:这个青年终将绕过资产阶级安于现状、自私自利的小路,走上冉·阿让的人道主义大路。

Marius Pontmercy: Unlike the other major characters in the novel, Marius grows up in a well-to-dohousehold free of financial worries. Nonetheless, his family is split apart by politics, and it is not until hedevelops his own personality that he is able to become whole. Marius’s loyalties are torn between his father,Georges Pontmercy, who is a colonel in the Napoleonic army, and his staunchly monarchist grandfather,M. Gillenormand, who raises him. The political differences between his father and grandfather threaten totear apart Marius’s identity, as he learns that his conservative grandfather intentionally prevented him fromestablishing a relationship with his father out of fear that Marius would succumb to his father’s liberal politicalviews. Angry and confused, Marius adopts his father’s beliefs, but it soon becomes apparent that what hereally needs is an idealism of his own. Marius begins to develop truly only when he leaves Gillenormand’shouse, finding himself and falling in love for the first time. Marius also has a strong autobiographical basisas well. He is specifically a reflection of the young Hugo in the thick of the fray of street battles against theRestoration; and more obliquely Marius speaks as if the author himself were uttering his opinions. At the sametime, Marius is the prototype of the lover-hero of Romanticism—prepared to immolate himself on the altarof love and idealism. His devotion to the Colonel Pontmercy’s memory, the dubious cause of Thénardier,and the friends of the ABC political club deny self-interest; on the contrary, Marius has accepted poverty,the possible loss of Jean Valjean’s needed friendship, and life itself for the sake of the causes he espouses.

Then, too, Marius, like his counterpart, Cosette, is the hope of the future for Hugo: the young man will bedetoured from the narrow path of smug and selfish bourgeois ambitions to the broad highway of Jean Valjean’shumanitarianism.

一些对情节发展具有重要意义又影响主要人物,表达了作者思想的次要人物:

Some minor characters who are important in the development of the action, influence the leadingcharacters and explain the author’s ideas:

泰纳迪埃夫妇:泰纳迪埃是一个野蛮的、卑劣的、财迷心窍的人。他最初是以柯赛特的保护人和虐待者出现的。不管对谁,他都想敲诈钱财,不管向谁提供一条情报,他都叫出最高的价格。他密谋的范围涉及抢劫、欺诈、谋杀等,他与巴黎的黑社会密切勾结。他贪婪而目光短浅,不可能去爱他人,每时每刻都在追逐金钱。泰纳迪埃的妻子,泰纳迪埃太太,她的罪恶与丈夫不分高下,以虐待柯赛特为特殊乐趣。在后来的年月里,她成了丈夫最忠实的帮凶,尤其是热衷参与她丈夫抢劫冉·阿让和柯赛特的阴谋。泰纳迪埃夫妇确是地地道道的邪恶的典型,他们揭示了雨果的一种感觉:罪恶是无法弥补的,也是无法解释的。冉·阿让和泰纳迪埃夫妇一样,具有潜在的堕落的可能,但他战胜了诱惑,并回到了善的一边。而泰纳迪埃夫妇在别人给他们提供了重新生活的机会时却主动拒绝了。冉·阿让带走柯赛特时提出给旅店帮忙,泰纳迪埃夫妇拒绝了,而当他提供资金帮助时,他们又试图狠狠敲诈一笔。

最后,泰纳迪埃还企图向马里于斯进行勒索。马里于斯听到泰纳迪埃所说足以证明冉·阿让无罪的讲述后异常高兴,他自豪地对泰纳迪埃说:“你想来诋毁这个人,却恰恰证明了他的清白;你想毁坏他的名声,却使他的人品更加高尚。”不过为了摆脱泰纳迪埃,也为了自己的良心,马里于斯还是给了他一些钱让他谋条生路。泰纳迪埃后来用这笔钱做资本当上了贩卖奴隶的人贩子——走上了一条不归路。

The Thénardiers: M. Thénardier is a cruel, wretched, money-obsessed man who first appears asCosette’s keeper and tormentor. Thénardier extorts money from whomever he can, and he frequently servesas an informant to whoever will bid the highest. His schemes range from robbery to fraud to murder, and hehas strong ties to the criminal underworld in Pairs. Blinded by greed, Thénardier is incapable of loving otherhuman beings and spends every minute in pursuit of money. M. Thénardier’s wife, Mme. Thénardier isjust as evil as her husband and takes special pleasure in abusing Cosette. In later years, she becomes herhusband’s most devoted accomplice and is particularly enthusiastic about his schemes to rob Valjean andCosette. The Thénardiers are the epitome of pure and unadulterated evil; they reveal Hugo’s feeling thatsin is beyond redemption and is inexplicable. Jean Valjean carried within himself the same potentialities asthe Thénardiers for a profligate life, but he surmounted temptation and succumbed to goodness. But theThénardiers, when offered the opportunity to reform their lives, reject the occasions; they do not want JeanValjean’s help in the tavern when he takes Cosette, and they try to blackmail him when he extends financialhelp. Finally, Thénardier attempts extortion from Marius. Marius, overjoyed at what Thénardier said is thevindication of Jean, explains proudly to Thénardier that“You come to accuse this man, you have justifiedhim; you wanted to destroy him, you have succeeded only in glorifying him.”At any rate, Marius rids himselfand his conscience of Thénardier by giving him some money to rehabilitate himself. Thénardier uses thefunds to become a slavetrader—going on the road to ruin.

吉尔诺曼:他是马里于斯90岁的外祖父。他阻止马里于斯去见父亲乔治·蓬梅西,因为他害怕蓬梅西教坏马里于斯。作为一名虔诚的君主主义者,吉尔诺曼完全反对法国革命,也反对蓬梅西对拿破仑的信仰。他是“老顽固”的真实写照,他们拒绝社会变革,仍然按18世纪的观念和方式去生活。不过,雨果却把他描绘得很有人情味:老吉尔诺曼放不下架子去与马里于斯和好时的倔强自负、与外孙相见时的喜悦之情以及老人对外孙合乎情理的期望。

M. Gillernormand: He is Marius’s ninety-year-old maternal grandfather. Gillenormand prevents Mariusfrom seeing his father, Georges Pontmercy, because he fears that Pontmercy will corrupt Marius. As a devoutmonarchist, Gillenormand rejects the French Revolution outright and also rejects Pontmercy’s Napoleonicbeliefs. He is a realistic portrait of members of the“old guard”who will never accept social change; theycontinue to live according to the styles and political modes of the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, Hugohas shown him to be very human: the stubborn pride of old Gillenormand which rejects possibilities ofreconciliation with Marius; the joy when he sees his grandson again; and the understandable hopes of the oldman for the youth.

乔治·蓬梅西上校:拿破仑军队中的一名军官,马里于斯的父亲。他在滑铁卢战役中受了重伤,误以为泰纳迪埃救了他的命,他要求马里于斯偿还这个人情。蓬梅西这个人物是拿破仑皇帝忠实的追随者的真实写照,他的原型可能就是雨果那位当过将军的父亲。从广义上讲,蓬梅西代表着对拿破仑的狂热崇拜。皇帝死后这种崇拜浪潮席卷法国,并导致了拿破仑三世的上台。外公吉尔诺曼和父亲蓬梅西代表着两种激烈对立的思想:前者拥护波旁王朝,后者赞成拿破仑式的理想。尽管如此,对这两位富有同情心的人物的描写却是非常真实可信的。

Colonel Georges Pontmercy: He is an officer in Napoleon’s army and Marius’s father. Pontmercy isseverely wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, and mistakenly believing that Thénardier has saved his life, heasks that Marius honour his debt. Pontmercy by himself is a realistic and compelling depiction of a staunchfollower of the Emperor Napoleon, and he may be modeled on Hugo’s own father, who was a general. Inthe larger sense, Pontmercy represents the source of much of the adulation toward Napoleon which beganto sweep France seriously after the Emperor’s death and contributed to Napoleon III’s seizure of power.

Gillenormand, the grandfather, and Pontmercy, the father, introduce the idea of opposites very sharply:

the former favouring the Bourbons and the latter the Napoleonic ideal. However, the two are sympatheticcharacters in their own right and are very realistically sketched.

1.5 复习讨论题

1.5 Questions for Revision and Discussion

(1)为什么维克多·雨果要写《悲惨世界》?《悲惨世界》的主题思想是什么?(或:论《悲惨世界》的主题)

(1)Why did Victor Hugo write Les Misérables? What are the themes of Les Misérables? (Or:

On the Theme of Les Misérables)

(2)为什么雨果不得不流亡国外?他流亡生活了多少年?在流亡期间写了多少部作品?

是哪些作品?

(2)Why did Hugo have to live abroad in exile? How many years did he live in exile? Howmany books did he write during the years of exile? Which books are they?

(3)你对雨果的人生有何感悟? 你认为我们应该向雨果学习些什么?

(3)What do you think of Hugo’s life? What do you think we should learn from Hugo?

(4)为什么说《悲惨世界》既是一部浪漫主义小说又是一部现实主义之作?

(4)Why is it said that Les Misérables, while a Romantic novel, is also a product of Realism?

(5)在《悲惨世界》中展示出了些什么风格特点?

(5)What are the stylistic traits demonstrated in Les Misérables?

(6)为什么说冉·阿让不仅是《悲惨世界》的主人公而且是雨果的善与爱的象征?

(或:试论冉·阿让的人生)

(6)Why is it said that Jean Valjean is not only the hero of Les Misérables but also the symbol ofHugo’s concepts of goodness and love? (Or: A Preliminary Study on Jean Valjean’s Life)

(7)《悲惨世界》开头对米里埃背景的描写,是在什么程度上向我们介绍小说的中心主题的?

(7)What extent does the deion of Myriel’s background at the beginning of Les Misérablesintroduce us to the central themes of the novel?

(8)是什么最终促成沙威自杀?

(8)What ultimately drives Javert to suicide?

(9)导致芳汀堕落的因素是什么?

(9)What are the factors leading to Fantine’s decline?

(10)导致马里于斯离开吉尔诺曼家的主要冲突有哪些?他是怎样解决这些冲突的?

(10)What are the central conflicts that lead Marius to leave Gillenormand’s house? How does heresolve them?

(11)家庭忠诚在柯赛特和马里于斯的人生中扮演着怎样的角色?

(11)What is the role that family allegiance plays in the lives of Cosette and Marius?

(12)在柯赛特成年后,冉·阿让用何种方法既帮助又阻碍柯赛特?为什么?

(12)What are the ways in which Valjean both helps and hinders Cosette as she becomes anadult? Why?

(13)雨果对待工业革命的态度如何?有没有一个地方或城市能最好地呈现工业革命的正反两方面?

(13)How does Hugo treat the Industrial Revolution? Is there any place or city that bestrepresents the pros and cons of industry?

(14)冉·阿让是如何竭力使自己从一个贼转变为诚实的人的?

(14)How does Valjean struggle to transform himself from a thief into an honest man?

(15)为什么说《悲惨世界》所包含的善行和人道的理想在人类追求进步和光明的过程中至今依然适用?

(15)Why is it said that Les Misérables still contains valid and useful ideals of goodness andhumanitarianism for the quest of man toward progress and enlightenment?

(16)为什么作者在《悲惨世界》简短的序言中写道“只要世界上还存在愚昧和苦难,这样的书(《悲惨世界》)就不会毫无益处”?

(16)Why does the author write in the brief preface to the book Les Misérables that“so long asignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this (Les Misérables) cannot be useless”?