Les Miserables

Black, gray and white - basic colors dripping with deeper meaning. Les Miserables, written by Victor Hugo in Southern France and published in 1862, questions the existence of innate good and evil - a rigid black and white world and calls to mind gray, or the ability to choose. Hugo manifests both ideologies in his two main characters Inspector Javert and Jean Valjean. Inspector Javert is unable to live outside of his black and white world; a world where people are either good or evil. His inability to comprehend grace and mercy stems from his consuming desire to condemn. Javert is quoted with saying “It’s a pity the law doesn’t allow me to be merciful.” However, this opinion is not only applicable to his career as chief of police, but slowly corrupts his life. Like a corrosive chemical, the need to condemn Jean Valjean for jumping parole slowly eats away all compassion from Javert as he ruthlessly hunts down Valjean for a small crime committed nearly twenty years prior. Jean Valjean, after experiencing a Bishop’s grace, re-commits his life to live in the light. Valjean becomes the embodiment of grace and mercy. He is an example of a man capable of both evil and good - the antithesis to everything Javert clings to as truth. Ultimately, Javert ends his life and sets Valjean free when he realizes he has been breaking the truth that he so vehemently sought to uphold - “I’ve tried to live my life without breaking a single rule...You’re free.” Javert’s final act, his suicide, is an act of mercy both to himself and Valjean. It spares Valjean his life, and also saves Javert from the truth he cannot digest; there can be gray in the world, a middle ground that allows for grace, a world in which people are not innately good or evil, but instead, are a blank canvas painted with both good and evil brushstrokes. Victor Hugo’s story transcends its characters Valjean and Javert and serves to juxtapose God and Satan, the quintessence of both good and evil. Evil cannot understand mercy and grace because it goes against its very nature, just as Javert cannot understand Valjean’s sacrificial nature. Their coexistence is temporary until finally, good triumphs evil.
Although originally a novel, Les Miserables was transpired into the form of a musical and movie. The musical expresses the deep sinister tone through heart wrenching musical numbers. I have never seen the musical, however I have both read the novel and seen the movie. The movie brought a visual context to the story without disregarding the novel, but instead, portrayed flawlessly the constant strain between Javert and Valjean, good and evil, the merciful and merciless.
Les Miserables left a lasting impression on my heart. It caused me to consider both good and evil and their place in people’s lives. The extreme difference between the lives of Inspector Javert and Jean Valjean calls to light two people, both originally devoid of the scars of the world, who eventually, for different reasons, one because of his family life and one because of his hunger, turn to dishonesty as an escape. However, only one triumphs; Valjean, the embodiment of grace.