Life
One could say that soul purpose of Les Miserables was to demonstrate that people can change. Situations in life make you realize that life is merely what you make it. Jean Valjean makes so many good deeds, that at the end, all he had done wrong sums up to nothing. Life is difficult, and to lead a good one, the right decisions should be made. In the end you should “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today” (James Dean)
Les Miserables symbolizes human life. Victor Hugo places every character in the book with its own purpose. Javert symbolizes the Law, and all its defects. The “law” starts off as a perfect system with no defects. Every time Valjean tried to escape from prison he was caught. No flaws were described yet. “His comrades helped him as they always do in that dreary place and he escaped. During the evening of the second day he was retaken” (Hugo 24) Jean Valjean has various tries of escaping, but he never succeeds. He ends up in the galleys for 19 years, miserable years. The “law” is impeccable at that time. What demonstrates the flaws of law is when Javert commits suicide. “Javert remained for some minutes motionless… he bent towards the Siene, then sprang up, and fell straight into the darkness; there was a dull splash” (Hugo 337) After all his life, he never discovers his real purpose in life. He could never create a tranquil life because of his job. Victor Hugo sends us the message that life is not perfect, society isn’t perfect; we just have to make the best out of it.
Flaws of the Law
Victor Hugo characterizes Javert in a very unique way. He starts off describing him as a mean prison guard, who lives to enforce justice, and hates any type of delinquent. Throughout the book one can see that all he does is be a law enforcer. When he finds the Thernadier’s breaking the law, he throws them into prison. “The Thernadiess, completely crushed, looked at her manacled hands and those of her husband” (Hugo 233) Years after Valjean had “died” Javert continued doing his job in the same manner. He found a wrongdoer, put him into jail and continued on with the same system. Everything proceeded as planned until he finds himself in a confusing situation. Valjean, at a barricade lets Javert go free instead of using that opportunity as vengeance and killing him. Javert finds himself trapped, he knows that as an officer he should take Valjean prisoner, but his conscience tells him to do otherwise. “To owe his life to a malefactor… to betray society in order to be true to his own conscience…One things had astonished him, that Jean Valjean had spared him, and one thing had petrified him, that he, Javert had spared Jean Valjean” (Hugo 336) Javert is caught between his thoughts, not knowing what to do.
Law
Law as truthful and correct as it appears will never be flawless. Its flaws are the ones that create societies major problems. As seen in Les Miserables, Javert is a mean and very “just” person. He enforces law as it is, and has no other purpose in life. Javert makes jean Valjean’s life, hell on earth. Systems of justice today, and in those times don’t give second chances. If seen from Valjean’s point of view, his first crime was done, because he had no other choice. “There was a very severe winter; Jean had no work, the family had no bread; literally, no bread, and seven children” (Hugo23) What could he do? He tried earning some money, the honest way to be able to maintain his family, but it didn’t work. He had no other choice, and was convicted to jail for stealing a loaf of bread, one single loaf. A crime has to be punished, but; Should the crime doer be punished for life, or should he be given a second chance? When Valjean is out of prison, trying to start a new life, he can’t do so. His yellow passport, which is a way of knowing if a person is an ex-convict, doesn’t allow Valjean to have a new beginning. “When he had, not without difficulty, got over the fence, he again found himself alone in the street without lodging, roof or shelter, driven even from the straw bed of the wretched dog kennel” (Hugo 11) No Inn will take him, or even let him buy some food. Valjean had no way of surviving anymore, if it wasn’t done through crimes. This same situation is seen day to day around the globe. This leads to the creation of more criminals in the world.
Society
“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of age-the degradation of many by poverty, ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night- are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.” (Hugo Preface) Les Miserables, the splendid novel written by Victor Hugo, demonstrates the problems of society through different points of view. Javert, the law enforcer is a big cause of the problems outlined above. He affects society in ways unimaginable because he is the law, the custom, the social condemnation and creates hell on earth for the book’s main characters.
This image is a representation of the second chance Valjean was given by the Bishop, who without a doubt changes his life in a positive way. He makes Valjean realize that one can go on in life without having to steal, living a fully satisfied life filled with good deeds.
