Jean Valjean - who is this?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is one of the most amazing works of foreign literature. The sincerity with which the author portrays his heroes makes us worry about the difficult fate of the girl Cosette and Fantine, her mother. In this article, we will recall the main character of the epic novel, who is the former convict Jean Valjean, convicted of stealing bread for many years.

How the hero ended up in jail

The protagonist of the work was born in 1769 in Favrol. The boy's parents died, his older sister Jeanne took him to her. In 1794, the husband of Jean Valjean's sister died. Zhanna left with seven children.

Hunger pushed Jean Valjean to crime. In the winter of 1795, when the family ran out of provisions, he stole a loaf of bread. For this crime, Jean Valjean, the hero of the novel by V. Hugo, was sentenced to five years. He was sent to serve his term in Toulon. Four times he tried to escape, for which he received another 12 years. Two years was added to his prison sentence for resisting arrest when he was caught after the secondescape.

After serving a total of nineteen years, Jean Valjean was released, receiving a "yellow" passport with marks that indicated that its owner was a former prisoner. This circumstance did not allow him to choose his own place of residence. The main character was sent to Pontarlier.

Outcast

Jean Valjean - the hero of the novel "Les Misérables", who is rightfully considered to be the main one.

After spending almost 20 years in prison, he became an outcast because of the reputation of the former prisoner, because the passport had a mark that he was in prison. The hero himself admits that being in such an environment made him such.

Valjean is changed by the meeting with Bishop Miriel, who treated him like a human being. The bishop did not extradite the former convict when he stole the family silver from him. He told the police that he had given it to Valjean himself. This made the former convict repent and lead a decent and honest life. It is after meeting the Bishop that Jean takes on the role of Cosette's father.

Inspector Javert

Jean Valjean is the hero of V. Hugo's novel "Les Misérables", which is most fully revealed against the background of another character. This is Inspector Javert, the detective who relentlessly followed the former convict. He is talented and deeply committed to serving justice. Javert comes from the very bottom of society. He is the son of a fortune teller, whom she gave birth to right in prison. Ironically, he nonetheless became a devoted guardian of the publicorder and, starting his career as an overseer in Toulon, rose to the rank of police inspector in Paris. At hard labor, for some reason, did he remember Jean Valjean? and fate constantly pushed him against him.

Javert recognizes the former prisoner in the face of the mayor of Montreil and seeks to be convicted. After Valjean escapes, he continues to hunt him in Paris. A policeman unwittingly saves a former convict from bandits. However, after Valjean helps to save Javert's life, the moral concepts of the policeman change. At the last meeting, the detective helps Jean save Marius Pontmercy, stops the pursuit of the "ward", and soon commits suicide.

The morality of a policeman and a convict

The image of such a hero as Jean Valjean, or to be more precise, his level of spirituality, is revealed in contrast with the concepts of morality of the policeman Javert. Being a static character, this talented and honest policeman embodies a ruthless guardian of social order. His concept of morality boils down to impeccable service. Javert is honest, scrupulous, pedantic. He has no equal in the ingenuity of ways to deal with the criminal world. He carefully weighs his conclusions, checks the facts, afraid of arresting an innocent person. He does not know the feeling of pity towards the guilty and condemned, even if they are victims of the social order.

Suspecting that the mayor of Montreal is a former convict Jean Valjean, he makes every effort to expose him, notattaching no importance to the virtues of this person.

However, having decided at some point that he made a mistake, Javert, to his credit, submits his resignation to the mayor, as he showed disobedience to his superiors with his suspicions.

For the same reason, he rushes into the Seine, realizing how nobly the former prisoner is acting towards him, saving his persecutor from execution. By his suicide, he "asks God for his resignation."

The main idea of the novel

The novel "Les Misérables" is dedicated to describing the life of the lower class of Parisian society. The author does this because he is madly in love with Paris and fills the content of his work with reverent awe when describing his native city.

Jean Valjean is the key figure of the novel. The author himself admits that he wrote a work about a convict who is filled with great virtues, being at the bottom of his life. He is pure, because his soul is filled with inner light where many continue to slide down.

However, it should be noted that the main criminal in the novel is, perhaps, the social structure itself, which gives rise to many human vices.

The clash between Jean Valjean and Javert is a conflict of spiritual and earthly duty, a confrontation between conscience and law. Before committing suicide, the policeman reflects on the insignificance of our laws before the laws of God.