LES MIS & THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

 Two connections that I see between Les Mis and the French Revolution are the use of the guillotine and wars/deadly overthrows. In the book Bishop Myriel witnesses the execution of a man by the guillotine. During the French Revolution there was a time period known as The Reign of Terror in which people opposed to the Revolution were publicly executed by guillotine. This was led by Maximilien Robespierre and over 17,000 people were executed. The second connection is when M. Myriel's family had migrated to Italy seek refuge from the violence that had erupted during the French Revolution. Now this makes sense and applies to real events during the French Revolution like Storming the Bastille and the early French Revolutionary Wars. The early wars declared on France were mainly caused by the fear of neighboring monarchs, which was to be overthrown just as Louis XVI had been.