Jean Valjean - who is this?

Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" is one of the most stunning works of foreign literature. Sincerity, with which the author depicts his characters, makes us worry about the difficult fate of the girl Cosette and Fantina, her mother. In this article, we will recall the main character of the novel-epic, which is the former convict Jean Valjean, convicted of stealing bread for many years.

How the hero got to prison

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

Hunger pushed Jean Valjean to commit a crime. In the winter of 1795, when the supply of provisions in the family ended, he stole a loaf of bread. For this crime, Jean Valjean, the hero of the novel V. Hugo, was sentenced to five years. He was sent to serve time in Toulon. Four times he tried to escape, for which he received another 12 years. Two years to imprisonment was added for resistance during the arrest, when he was caught after the second escape.

After serving a total of nineteen years, Jean Valjean was released, having received a "yellow" passport with marks that indicated that his 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 is the hero of the novel Les Miserables, which is rightly 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 in the passport there was a note that he was in prison. The hero himself admits that being in such an environment made him so.

Valzhana changes the meeting with Bishop Miriel, who treated him like a man. The bishop did not intend to extradite the former convict when he stole his family silver from him. He told the police that he himself had given it to Valjean. This forced the former convict to repent and lead a decent and honest way of life. It is after the meeting with the bishop that Jean assumes the role of Cosette's father.

Inspector Jawer

Jean Valjean is the hero of V. Hugo's novel Les Miserables, which is most fully revealed against the background of another character. This is Inspector Javer, the detective, who followed the former convict unceasingly. He is talented and deeply devoted to serving for the good of justice. Javer is from the very bottom of society. He is the son of a fortuneteller, whom she gave birth directly in prison. Ironically, he, nevertheless, became a devoted guardian of public order and, having begun his career as an overseer in Toulon, rose to the police inspector in Paris. On penal servitude, for some reason, did he remember Jean Valjean? And fate constantly confronted him with him.

Jawer finds out the former prisoner in the person of the mayor of the city of Montreuil and seeks to be condemned. After Valzhan's escape, he continues to hunt him in Paris. The policeman involuntarily saves the former convict from the bandits. However, after Valjean helps to save Javeru's life, the moral concepts of the policeman change. At the last meeting, the detective helps Jean save Marius Pommersi, stops the persecution of the "ward", and soon ends his life with suicide.

The morality of a policeman and convict

The image of such a hero as Jean Valjean, and to be more precise, his level of spirituality, reveals itself in contrast to the notions of the morality of the police Javer. Being a static character, this talented and honest policeman represents a ruthless guardian of the social order. His notions of morality boil down to serving the flawlessly. Javer is honest, scrupulous, pedantic. He has no equal in the ingenuity of ways to combat the criminal world. He carefully weighs his conclusions, checks the facts, afraid of arresting an innocent person. He does not know a feeling of pity for the guilty and convicted, even if they are victims of the social order.

Suspected that the Mayor of Montreal - the former convict Jean Valjean, he is making every effort to expose him, without attaching any importance to the virtues of this man.

However, having decided at some point that it was indicated, Javer must be given his due, gives the mayor a petition for resignation, because he showed disobedience to his superiors with his suspicions.

For the same reason, he rushes to the Seine, realizing how noble a former prisoner is treating him, saving his persecutor from being shot. By his suicide, he "asks God for resignation."

The main idea of the novel

The novel "Les Miserables" is dedicated to describing the life of the lower class of Parisian society. The author does this because he loves Paris madly and fills the content of his work with reverential awe at 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 full of great virtues, being at the bottom of life. He is pure, because his soul is filled with inner light where many continue to roll down.

However, it should be noted that the main culprit in the novel is, perhaps, the very social system that engenders many human vices.

The clash of Jean Valjean and Javer is a conflict of spiritual and earthly duty, a confrontation between conscience and the law. Before committing suicide, a policeman thinks about the nullity of our laws before the laws of God.