Mercy and Justice in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables Essay Example

things right. The minute a mistake would be made, then there would be no way of climbing back to the surface. Mercy is the chance given to rectify mistakes. Without mercy, the world would be one great social caste system.

In India the social stratification of the caste system puts its people in social classes that do not allow for any change in class, not even allowing for intermarriage between two classes. A world without mercy is much the same as a restricting social class that does not give a way out of the label or class you were born into. Without such forgiveness and compassion, there would be no way to rectify mistakes and no way of climbing a scale to a better life. In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo compares a merciless society to a drowning man in a great dark storm: “Man overboard!... Who cares!

The ship does not stop... He hurls desperate cries out into the depths. The sail looks so ghostly as it vanishes into the distance! What the hell happened? He slipped, he fell, and now the jig’s up” (80-81). A pitiless society leaves its citizens in the depths of the ocean, without any way of coming back up. Man is left behind and a world without mercy is a sad and terrible place. In the end it is mercy that allows humanity to better itself. Through forgiveness and pity, mercy is the second chance to rectify life’s mistakes. In the end it is mercy that makes the world a better place.