Les Miserables

If Valjean represents those who seek atonement from society's judgment, then Javert embodies society's fierce desire to judge. Like many of the characters, he comes from an impoverished background. He was born in a prison to criminal parents and, due to the circumstances of his birth, seemed doomed to inherit their marginalization. Rather than accept society's judgement, however, Javert embraced it. He disowned his parents and bound himself to the same social institution that imprisoned them. He becomes a prison guard and then a police officer, dogmatically enforcing the same laws which once sought to condemn him and his loved ones. Javert represents complete and utter commitment to these social institutions. He views them as immutable and unquestionably good. The novel illustrates how the economically disadvantaged are trapped by their material circumstances and forced to make moral compromises, but Javert rejects this view. As he explains to Fantine, there is never any excuse for immorality. Material conditions and the tragic social milieu mean nothing to Javert, who enforces the law with the feverish energy of a zealot who wishes to prove his loyalty to the institution at every turn.

Javert's dogmatic interpretation of the law throws him into a fierce rivalry with Valjean. While Valjean contravenes society's laws to demonstrate that no one is beyond redemption, Javert seeks to deny him this opportunity. Javert understands the good work that Valjean has done, but he simply does not care. To Javert, Valjean has broken the law, and this is the only fact that matters. Javert's pursuit of Valjean demonstrates his most prominent flaw: He never questions the institutions that he so dogmatically enforces. The law is rigid and permanent; his only job is to enforce it. This flaw is challenged by Valjean. Through his actions, Valjean demonstrates the nuanced nature of society and laws. He spares Javert's life, for example, demonstrating that the supposed criminal who Javert has doggedly pursued for years is capable of empathy and compassion. This act does not figure into Javert's worldview, undermining everything the inspector holds to be self-evident. Valjean exposes the glaring holes in Javert's domineering ideology and forces him to question whether, after a lifetime of assuring himself that he has been doing good, he may be wrong.

Javert dies by suicide, throwing himself into the river. This act is a final demonstration of his complete commitment to his worldview. When Valjean forces him to challenge his own ideals, Javert scrutinizes himself. He is thrown into a complete existential crisis, in which the once immutable and fixed dimensions of the world can suddenly no longer be trusted. Javert cannot reconcile this new reality with his complete and unwavering commitment to the social reality into which he is fully invested. He cannot tolerate living in a world in which he does not know right from wrong. True to himself, he applies the calculating, absolute judgment to his own life, just as he did to those he policed. Javert becomes a tragic figure because he is a victim of his own devotion. He has spent his life utterly committed to defying his social position and policing the world in accordance with a rigid worldview. When his life is spared and his own existence threatens to compromise this certainty, his only solution is to take his own life. Javert's death is the ultimate expression of Javert's personality. Unable to tolerate nuance or compromise in the world, he embraces annihilation in the fullest, most unwavering sense. He would rather die than exist in a world with moral complexity.

In Les Misérables, Cosette is the target for every imaginable social injustice. Her mother Fantine finds her life destroyed in tragic circumstances, and she is forced to leave her young daughter with the abusive Thénardier family. Cosette is beaten, put to work, ignored, bullied, and denied any opportunity for love. In this sense, Cosette's ill-treatment demonstrates the ultimate cruelty of society: This poor, innocent young girl is punished through no fault of her own, other than happening to grow up in poverty. Cosette exists as a beacon of purity in an impure world; even growing up with the Thénardier family, she is never corrupted by their abuse. She is obedient, loyal, loving, and blameless. Her purity stands out amid the poverty as a demonstration that these dilapidated material conditions do not dictate morality.

Cosette is saved from these tragic circumstances by Valjean. She is not old enough to understand the circumstances of her salvation or the moral complexity of what Valjean has done, nor does he seek to explain it to her. Her time with Valjean allows her to experience love and affection for the first time. After leaving the convent and moving to Paris, Cosette grows into a pleasant and desirable young woman. She is unrecognizable from the wretched, impoverished figure who Valjean found fetching water from the forest. The circumstances of her childhood do not define her adulthood, and her growth as a character demonstrates that the poor are not inherently far from God's grace or social acceptance. Fantine's tragic death, the Thénardiers' abuse, and Valjean's murky past do not compromise Cosette's ability to function in society, showing how no person is inherently damned to be marginalized by society, and even the most mistreated and abused person can defy social expectations.

Cosette marries Marius and, for the first time, finds herself caught between two competing modes of love. Valjean is utterly devoted to her as the vehicle for his own redemption; he believes that by saving Cosette, he can demonstrate his own capacity for good. Marius is devoted to Cosette as the embodiment of a feminine ideal and the realization of his own capacity for love. Unbeknownst to Cosette, Marius and Valjean wrestle back and forth for her attention. She loves both men in different ways; to her, their love is not in competition but in synthesis. Her relationship with Valjean allows her to love Marius. In turn, Cosette's marriage to Marius validates Valjean's love for her.

Marius provides a contrast to the other primary characters in Les Misérables. He comes from a wealthy yet unhappy family. Marius is raised by his grandfather and never truly knows his father; the relationship between Monsieur Gillenormand and Georges Pontmercy is riven apart by politics. As such, Marius's journey through the novel is a process of finding his own belief system and navigating the generational divisions which have shaped his life. Marius is educated at his grandfather's discretion. He is taught a conservative version of history which reveres the monarchy and the past, just like Monsieur Gillenormand was. Later, however, Marius discovers that his father was an officer in Napoleon's army, which is the cause of the original argument between his grandfather and his father. Marius rejects his grandfather's monarchist beliefs and embraces his father's Bonapartist view of the world, shifting his perspective from one generation to the next. After moving out of his house, however, he spends more time with students from his own generation. They criticize both his father's Bonapartist views and his grandather’s monarchist views, eventually convincing him to share their revolutionary ideals. Marius's political ideology grows and evolves in a generational sense. As he searches for his place in the world, he embraces and then rejects the ideologies of the past and the present. After fighting on the barricades, surviving a terrible injury, and marrying Cosette, he is confident in his view of the world. He synthesizes the beliefs of his grandfather, his father, and his peers into a nuanced, refined worldview which serves him well.

A key factor in Marius's material background is his innocence. After being raised in a wealthy family, he has rarely had to compromise his morals to survive. Unlike Valjean, he has never had to steal to prevent his family members from starving. Until Marius moves out of his house and encounters poverty for the first time, he is naïve. His interactions with Thénardier emphasize this naivety. Thénardier takes advantage of Marius's empathy and generosity, demonstrating the reality of poverty. Marius tries to retain his innocence in a naïve manner, refusing to borrow money and always trying to help people who ask for it. This is complicated by his relationship to Thénardier, who supposedly saved his father's life. Even though Marius knows that Thénardier is a liar and a crook, he feels obligated to help him. Marius's inability to understand how poverty forces people into moral compromises leads him to try to remove Valjean from Cosette's life. He acts unilaterally, not bothering to ask Valjean for his own side of the story. Ironically, Thénardier provides the evidence Marius needs to know the truth about Valjean. Marius rushes to Valjean's bedside and reconciles the relationship he nearly destroyed, finding a small redemption for his naïve and unempathetic behavior.