Love and Forgiveness Loving others, while difficult, is not always a thankless task; love creates compassion, whereas compassion generates love. In Les Miserables, Hugo affirms that love and compassion are the most essential gifts one individual can give another and that always displaying these characteristics ought to be the most momentous goal in life. You could almost say that love and compassion are virtually contagious, passed on from one character to another in this novel. …showed first 75 words of 511 total…

…showed last 75 words of 511 total…first to exercise humanity among those who may not deserve it, both to his parishioners and then to Val Jean. This leads to a great deal of forgiveness throughout the whole novel among the different sub plots of each of the characters. Hugo’s main intent is to show how man can be influenced to turn for better and how law vs. humanity can never over power love vs. forgiveness in one man’s morality.