Javert

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.