Victor Hugo gives us an epic tale of sacrifice and duty in his novel Ninety Three.

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                Knupp

        Victor Hugo gives us an epic tale of sacrifice and duty in his novel Ninety Three.  He manages to entertain, while at the same time to educate and enlighten.  The plot of this novel revolves around three main characters.  Lantenac, Gauvain and Cimourdain.  These characters are all men of great importance.  They are also all intimately related.  The struggle between Gauvain and Cimourdain demonstrates Hugo’s political agenda.  At the time of writing this novel Hugo was trying to demonstrate that a Republic was possible without the terror of the First Republic.  He uses the character Gauvain to advocate the possibility of a Republic of Clemency, rather than a Republic of Terror.  Gauvain and Cimourdain represent the two possibilities of the French Republic.  Cimourdain represents the Republic of Virtue that existed during 1793, while Gauvain represents the Republic of clemency that Hugo is advocating for the Third Republic.

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        “Cimourdain was a cause for horror.” (Hugo, 236)  That is how the people of France saw this former priest.  Cimourdain was a man totally dedicated to the Republic.  He viewed any sacrifice as acceptable, if it aided the Revolution.  Even the death of his adopted son Gauvain was acceptable to him.  Cimourdain in the novel represents the extreme of the Terror.  While even Robespierre and Marat had occasional attacks of conscience, Cimourdain never does.  Hugo uses his character to show the ferocity and immovability of the men of terror.  Hugo shows this mentality throughout the novel in Cimourdain’s rhetoric:

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