How Did Victor Hugo Influence Society

Victor Hugo once said, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”(source). Living as a well-known and highly influential French author, Hugo used this philosophy as he pushed Romanticism and fueled his urge to influence magnified human emotions. Hugo remains famous for his groundbreaking pieces surrounding French society during the post-revolutionary period. His works, including Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Cromwell focus on the events that took place in his country in the years he lived there. Victor Hugo’s work was influenced greatly by life experiences, including his family situation, the political climate and social atmosphere of France.

In his early years, Hugo was often traveling the world, following his father on military

His father, Joseph-Léopold-Sigisbert Hugo, served as a general under Napoleon which lead him to relocate often. Hugo, as well as his mother and brothers, found themselves in places like Madrid, Elba and Naples. Often relocation was done in an effort to support their father and stay connected. However, this was short lived. The constant travel strained his parents’ relationship and they mutually agreed to go their separate ways. Hugo’s mother, Sophie Trébuche, uprooted herself and three sons and made the move to Paris, France. When they moved to France, Hugo mother’s royalist ideals were further revealed and these ideas were passed down to her children. Hugo accepted them as a way of coping with the drastic change in living style. (source) As he aged, he grew to resent this and went along a different path of thinking. This directly impacted his writing of the drama Cromwell, which depicted a national leader who wished to become king.