The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Georges Méliès—or Papa Georges, as his goddaughter Isabelle calls him—is the famous French filmmaker who changed the face of cinema and produced hundreds of films that captured his audience's imagination through special effects, both in real life and in the context of the novel. Born to a family of shoemakers, Georges left the business to pursue a career as a magician, transitioning to a career in movies upon the invention of motion picture machines. Georges’s films represented Invention, Technology, and Magic, featuring fantastical concepts like the man in the moon. Georges even invented the automaton that Hugo’s father (and later Hugo) worked to repair. After World War I, Georges could not afford to maintain his movie theatre and pay his employees. After the deaths of his best friends, he donated the automaton to the museum, sold his films to a company that turned them into shoe heels, bought a toy booth in the train station, and took to raising his friends’ daughter, Isabelle, with his wife Jeanne.

Hugo and Georges conflict with each other because Georges’s toys contain the parts Hugo needs to fix the automaton, but Hugo has no money with which to buy them. The first time the two characters interact, Georges catches Hugo stealing a blue mechanical mouse. He confiscates Hugo’s notebook after he spots a drawing of the automaton within, though readers do not learn that Hugo’s automaton is actually Georges’s until Part 2, Chapter 8. Although Georges threatens to turn Hugo in to the Station Inspector, Hugo returns to the toy booth to demand his father’s notebook back, and Georges eventually agrees to return it if Hugo works to pay off his debt for all the toys he’s stolen. The two are connected by a talent for machinery, and, unknowingly, by Hugo’s father—a man who was once a huge fan of Georges’s films, and who discovered the automaton in the museum’s attic.

Like Hugo, Georges struggles with Overcoming Loss. He refuses to acknowledge his past for the majority of the book because it brings him too much pain, and he is haunted by “ghosts” through the click of shoe heels on floors, which reminds him of the ultimate fate of his films. Georges’s anger and bitterness cause him to lash out; he also seeks to prevent Isabelle from learning who he is by forbidding her from seeing movies at all. Hugo and Isabelle relentlessly pursue the truth, and Georges, finally ready to begin healing, at last tells them his story. When he does so, he saves Hugo in addition to himself. Georges knows Hugo is capable and talented, and at the end of the novel, he is ready to pass on his knowledge and abilities to Hugo while offering him a place in his home and family. Georges is a dynamic character because he changes from being closed-off and perpetually angry to embracing his past in the hopes of providing a better future for Hugo.

Hugo and Georges also share a great interest in magic and optical illusions. This allows the two to find common ground early on, and Georges eventually cements this bond when he calls Hugo “Professor Alcofrisbas” after one of his film characters. This is essentially a term of endearment for Georges, as he feels Hugo has a lot in common with the character. Hugo embraces this name and uses it as his stage name when he becomes a magician.

Isabelle is Georges and Jeanne’s goddaughter and is around Hugo’s age. Her parents died in a car accident at the same time Georges’s career in filmmaking was failing. Thus, Isabelle represents another sense of loss for Georges. Her parents’ deaths were the final straw for Georges; he abandoned his career to care for Isabelle, erasing all traces of who he once was to hide from painful memories.

After school, Isabelle spends her time borrowing and reading books from the station’s bookseller. Georges doesn’t want her hanging around the toy booth, though she never explains why. Isabelle also enjoys sneaking into movies with her friend Etienne because Georges won’t allow her to go. Isabelle is strong and doesn’t back down from a challenge. She ignores Hugo’s attempts to put her off, declaring him her friend and constantly trying to learn more about him. Though she loyally defends Georges, demonstrating The Power of Family, she helps Hugo get his notebook back after Georges confiscates it. She also knocks Hugo down multiple times, showing she is not afraid of him and is willing to get rough when necessary.

Despite their similarities, Isabelle acts as a foil to Hugo. Isabelle loves secrets and has some of her own, such as the fact that she stole her necklace—the key to the automaton—from her godmother. However, Isabelle doesn’t see secrets as harmful as Hugo often does. She tells Hugo about herself and tries to convince him that he doesn’t have to hold onto his own secrets so tightly. Further, although Isabelle is quick to call Hugo a thief and wrestle with him, she is the first person to show him attention and kindness after Uncle Claude disappears. Isabelle overlooks Hugo’s imperfections and sees the good in him. She takes this far enough that she steals his notebook back from Georges because she knows it’s important to Hugo, though Hugo refuses to explain why until late in the story. Isabelle’s kindness eventually softens Hugo’s heart, and he opens up to her about his life and struggles. When he finally overcomes his loss, he has Isabelle to thank for much of it.

Though Hugo’s biological family members only appear in flashbacks, they play pivotal roles in Hugo’s development as well as the plot. Uncle Claude tells Hugo that he comes from “a long line of horologists” (125), and that is proven true through both men.

Hugo’s father was a clockmaker who, in addition to owning a clock shop, tended to the clocks at a museum part-time. He discovered the automaton at that very museum, though he did not know it once belonged to Georges Méliès, the filmmaker who created his favorite movie. Hugo’s father is the one who instilled a love of Invention, Technology, and Magic in Hugo; he taught Hugo about the correlation between clockmakers and magicians, and he introduced Hugo to the magic of movies. Most importantly, the act of repairing the automaton brought father and son close together. Hugo’s father died in a fire at the museum, and when Hugo found his way to the wreckage, he could not resist rescuing the automaton. Armed with his notebook, a gift from his father that is filled with drawings of the automaton’s parts, Hugo spends most of the novel trying to repair the automaton, trying to grasp the remnants of the loving familial connection he once had.

Hugo’s relationship with his father represents The Power of Family. Hugo develops his dream of becoming a magician thanks to his father’s teachings and their shared fascination with the automaton, a dream he is only able to fulfill once he becomes a member of Georges’s family at the end of the book. The majority of his actions are entirely driven by his need to repair the automaton, as Hugo views it as a symbol of his relationship with his late father. After he repaints its face, he even notices that its expression reminds him of his father, “the way he always seemed to be thinking of three things at once” (132). Hugo is unable to overcome the pain of his father’s loss—and the immense, though misplaced, guilt he feels over the circumstances of his father’s death—until after the automaton is repaired.

Uncle Claude’s influence on Hugo is the antithesis of Hugo’s father’s. After Hugo’s father’s death, Uncle Claude took Hugo to the train station, where he worked as its Timekeeper. He pulled Hugo from school and trained him as an apprentice, and though Hugo enjoyed the work, life with Uncle Claude was miserable: “Uncle Claude yelled at Hugo, rapped his knuckles when he made mistakes, and forced him to sleep on the floor. Uncle Claude taught Hugo how to steal [...] sometimes it was the only way to get something to eat” (126). Uncle Claude was also an alcoholic who often disappeared, leaving Hugo on his own for long periods of time. Roughly three months prior to the story’s events, Uncle Claude disappeared for good. Hugo learns of his death in the last few chapters, when he overhears two shopkeepers discussing how the police found the station Timekeeper’s body at the bottom of the Seine. Until then, Hugo keeps up the ruse that Uncle Claude is still around and tending to the station’s clocks, fearing that the Station Inspector will arrest him and take away his automaton if the truth comes out.