The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo (Book Review and Summary)

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The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo

This creation of Victor Hugo is a portrayal of a man who is condemned to death as it is revealed by the title itself.  I kind of approached the book with my personal opinion in mind that is in par with the statement that Victor Hugo himself had on the bloodshed of a 'death sentence'. But the excruciating simplicity by which the story unfolds leaves a rancor for a long time after reading it.

 

What I perceived as noteworthy was the fact that the crime of the man in question is not revealed but we sense that it is murder. But he looks down on other criminals as an outsider in the sense that he himself does not believe that he falls into that category. The first break in his mind and will is when a group of other prisoners are taken into the galleys. He had specifically wanted death sentence, to be hanged than the galleys. But we can see tha towards the nearing of that grotesque moment he wishes for a lifetime of galleys.

 

"I want the galleys. Five years in the galleys, and let it all end, or twenty years—or life with the crimson brand." "A criminal can still walk; he can come and go; he can see the sun."

 

The mindset changes rapidly when he is face to face with death. He wants to bask in the sun's glory be it under restraint. He feels as if he is too young to be killed just yet.

 

Another turning point is when his daughter comes to visit him. He had been away for a year now and the little girl cannot remember her father. He says that her father is dead. The excruciating pain that rises within him is almost felt by the reader.

 

He narrates almost to the moment when he is killed leaving the reader distraught about the menacing features of the death sentence irrespective of whether the man in question is actually a criminal or not.

He laments about his moments after death one phrase particularly stuck on my mind:

 

"It seems to me that the sky will be lighted by itself, that the stars will be dark spots there, and that, instead of being as they are now to our living eyes, spangles of gold on black velvet, they will seem black points on a gold cloth"

 

This book is singular in its type because it brings forward the perspective of a criminal. We perceive criminals as separate things. Devoid of emotions or feelings but in truth, they are made of flesh and bones as the rest of us.

 

I think the lamentation of Victor Hugo against the corporeal punishment is indeed a success


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