SOURCE: “Hugo's La fin de Satan: The Identity Shift,” in Symposium, Vol. 35, No. 2, Summer, 1981, pp. 91-101.

In the following essay, Babuts analyzes Victor Hugo's imaginative identification with the demonic protagonist of his La fin de Satan.

Many critics approach La Fin de Satan with the growing realization that there are striking similarities between Satan and the poet, and that the original aspects of the myth can be seen as a sublimation of Hugo's predicament in exile. Baudouin points out the kinship between “sa fille bien-aimée Léopoldine” and the angel Liberté.¹ Reinforcing this point of view, Zumthor calls Léopoldine “médiatrice.”² Grant and Denommé propose similar perspectives, though the former moderates the scope of the biographical approach by urging that the resanctification of Hugo's Satan “be viewed in the sequence of imagery that the poet had developed.”³ Comparing images Milner finds that Satan's solitude resembles Hugo's...