Who Is Fantine To Blame For A Failure?

An elegant flower is enclosed by a twenty foot wall where there is no hope for survival; only darkness awaits. The flower tries to reach the sun, but the wall keeps on growing and allows no light to shine through. Fantine is the flower, and society is the wall and the water. In the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, society is more to blame than Fantine for her fall. For instance, Fantine suffers because society does not accept her, since she is unmarried with a daughter. Also, society is unsympathetic causing her to fall. However, Fantine makes bad decisions, causing her to degrade. Throughout the story, Fantine suffers greatly as her life is filled with misery, and society does not accept Fantine, even though she is making up for her mistake …show more content…
Society treats Fantine with shame, because of this, she suffers and ultimately dies.. When Fantine is in the town of M_ sur M_, people treat her with disrespect because they are disgusted by the fact that she is not married but has a child. Hugo writes, “When she was in the street, she imagined that people turned behind her and pointed at her; everybody looked at her and no one greeted her…” (Hugo 62). Fantine imagines the town people glaring and pointing as she passes, and feels great sadness because she is aware they continually try to avoid her. However, this is not only in her imagination. Most people avoid talking to Fantine or having any supportive interaction. During this time period in history, society believes unwed mothers are a disgrace to themselves and their choice to have a child, without being married, disgusting. The people of France in the early nineteenth century, believe that a lady who has a baby must be married and settled or they are not a lady at all. Fantine is aware of what society thinks about her, but she also knows that she has to get used to this treatment because she must support her child. In the