Toilers of the Sea

Toilers of the Sea
By Victor Hugo

In this book Hugo follows his classic style of painting the scene with every color on his word pallet and somehow molding a story out of it, leaving the reader with a number of reactions. Hugo applies probably 60% of his words towards scene building. Those scenes capture all of nature, the psychology and sociology of the people at large, and then he blends in his own philosophy into to his description of the characters. He yarns a tale with the elements as though Nature had a soul. The story is simple. Hugo was in exile when he wrote this and I think there is more value in his message than any of his other books. I think that was his plan. Hence this review is focused on Hugo and his message.

It is a simple story involving a villain, a hero, and a woman to love. Given Hugo’s tendency to pull multifaceted strains of thought through his verbose scene and character building it is entirely possible for two readers to find varied villains and heroes and they need not necessarily be people. It is important to remember the nuances of every scene as they may be of significance later in the story. Just has you think you have a mind for the hero or villain Hugo drops a surprise on you leaving you to reassess things. He does this right up to the last page. It is certainly possible to read numerous lessons and messages from the author.

That said this book could easily be made a workshop for philosophies and lessons of life. A key indicator to my claim is the amount of footnotes for a novel. Hugo wrote this book while he was in exile of sorts from the French government and one could conclude Hugo was indeed writing his philosophy in story form as his views were somewhat opposed to current French leadership of the time. He is well researched and I recommend this book not only for its entertainment value but its educational value in the areas of history, science, religion, and philosophy.

The setting is the Channel Islands off the coast of Normandy, France. The geographic proximity would have one think its inhabitants lean towards France, but oh (au) contraire. In Hugo’s words the citizens are English by choice yet French in habit and custom. To paraphrase Hugo: if they are French, they wouldn’t know it; and if you told them so, they would deny it in their French language. Hugo makes possible that here lay the modern western world’s first melting pot of societies beginning with nature’s separation of the land from France in 709 AD; curiously brought about through no war but a simple erosion made by the Sea and the Wind. What I found interesting were Hugo’s words on in his section of Peculiarities and Extremes where the people are described as most progressive and free to say and do what they want. To quote Hugo: “Besides the archipelagos are free countries. It is the mysterious work of the sea and wind.” Ironically Hugo begins the book with the story of the wind and sea creating and molding these telling islands in every characteristic and hence Hugo ties the laws of nature and weaves them into a human drama to date of the 19th century.



The Wind and the Sea; could you imagine the word “coitus” used in describing the winds relationship to the sea? I actually found myself looking it up in the dictionary with concern that I had discovered another word I have been misusing in my dialogue. But nay, in the context of Hugo’s description of this marriage over a few pages of coloring with words, the word finds its proper place. Here is my paraphrase of Hugo’s blend of metaphors in this section: “As the lioness flees the lion the sea flees the wind, as they come together in nuptial coitus the hurricane descends his waterspout as the sea rises up to in an embracing kiss.” This climax after an emotional description of a looming storm…Romantic?

What I found interesting was that in Hugo’s discussion of the wind and the sea he first draws into play a dialogue from the view of the scientist prone to classify and categorize. He accomplishes that with three quarters of a page in words. He then spends four pages molding a philosophy as to what to these scientific facts have to do with man and how does man apply them to his usefulness. The message: while it is important to understand and appreciate nature, as it is in its logical way, it is equally important to appreciate this in the context of all the dynamics of ones conscience… more on this in my conclusion.

Characters:

Clubin: was bestowed with a fate in society to be envied by every one but himself. While there is the phrase “the village raises the child”, this book gives birth to the notion that the village merely forms the child’s masks, where he may find the courage to set his demons loose upon those who bind him. You are left to wonder about the tornado that must have existed within his soul as he tore off that (figurative) mask and then met up with his fate. In the whirlwind you are led to believe that the longer the mask maintains its hold on you, the more traumatic the consequence may be once it comes off.

To express this in Hugo form it would go as follows: The whole of his character was summed up in the words “At Last! Man’s innermost being, like external nature, has its own electric tension. There was the gleam in Clubin’s eyes… The villain who had been pent up within Clubin had now burst forth... For thirty years he had borne the burden of hypocrisy, being evil himself, he had coupled with integrity…To have lied is to suffer. A hypocrite is of necessity, patient in the double meaning of the term…Within a deceitful rouge there is an outsized ego…He was avenging himself on all those in whose presence he had been obliged to constrain himself…Within the hypocrite there are hidden caverns; rather a hypocrite is nothing but a cavern. The depth of evil became visible on Clubin’s face. His full person was now reveled… It was a pleasure to tear off the mask!!!” I’ll leave Clubin’s fate for discovery in reading the book. Keep in mind that this one paragraph of paraphrasing took Hugo four pages to color in.

Gillant: Hugo sketches in the character of Gillant in his description of society but builds an oil painting of words as he describes Gillant’s trials with the nature’s forces. This section is worth studying for more than good literature as he describes in story form the characteristics required of man to meet with success in world of any era. Gillant is a hero where “heroes” are defined by mans will to stay true to his convictions and apply that will in everything he does. It seems all heroes have a flaw. Hugo makes Gillant skewed not far from perfect in many ways and at the same time accentuates his many virtues required for success as a hero in the story. He does this to such an extent that they become a flaw in and of them self. You are left with the question of how to balance the left side with the right side of your logic as well at your head and your heart. As a side note, my favorite quote from Hugo comes out of this section:


“Perseverance is to courage what the wheel is to the lever; it is a perpetual renewal of the fulcrum. Whatever objective be on earth or in heaven, the only thing that matters is that you make for that objective.”


While Gillant had the will (perseverance) to make for every objective on earth, he may have been a bit mad to “jump on a cross” for the sake of other people’s happiness. Gillant was a hero in the story. He demonstrated a remarkable willpower. However, that very willpower consumed his whole being and prevented him from seeing his life in a broader context. His single-mindedness brought him to an un-necessary end and thus precluded him from at least spreading his virtue to a society that could have made use of it and to him.

Conclusion: Science –v- Philosophy…(theology) in the context of a philosophy of god; when science holds god separate from any philosophy and forms rules around that separation, you are still left with a dogma of sorts that is usually attached to religion, not God The attachment may be one of opposing forces, but there is an attachment. The passing of both Clubin and Gillant went unnoticed by the villagers whose social conscience were intertwined with a superstitious tension of faith and at least an applied science for survival in nature. To quote Hugo: “We are constrained by faith. The result is that we believe by compulsion. Faith has a strange need for form: hence mans various religions. Nothing is more distressing then belief without shape.” In science, we have a world of logical formation of facts and proofs only to be superceded by new “proven” facts. From this man forms a belief, which he calls a statement of the way things are. (For the moment) Example, apparently Pluto is no longer a planet says today’s science world. Religious folks attempt to give form to beliefs. Is there an impasse? Is there a value in each when kept in their proper place? By what…each other? Is there a balanced common denominator in the word mystery that allows a coexistence of faith?

I’ll conclude with Hugo’s words: “Exposed are converging forces…to break this down is impossible. How can we adjust our thoughts to all these mysterious influences? How many revelations, abstruse, simultaneous, faltering, obscuring one another by their very mass: like stammering of the WORD! Darkness is a form of silence; but that silence says everything. There is one conclusion that emerges majestically from all this: God. God is an incomprehensible idea, which is immanent in man. The inexpressible agreement of all these forces is made manifest by the maintenance of all this darkness in equilibrium Man participates in this, and the degree of oscillation he suffers is known to him as destiny.”

In your own silence, whether you pray or meditate you find your fate. It is important to make time for silence.