The Importance Of Jean Valjean In Les Miserables

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Imagine spending your whole life doing one thing that you believed was good, then one day find out that you were completely wrong and you have not been doing good. This is what Javert found out through his journey of chasing Jean Valjean over the years. Would this turn your world upside down? Would it make you feel like your whole life was a lie? It did to Javert in the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and is the reason why Jean Valjean is the reason Javert had no other choice than to take his own life. When Valjean has Javert trapped in the barracaid he tells him “you are free” (pg. 264) but reality was that those words really made Javert a prisoner of his own mind. Javert believed that once a criminal always a criminal, and that all criminals wanted revenge and would do anything to get it. That took a big turn when He was proven wrong by Valjean when he didn’t take revenge on him and set him free because it went against all of his beliefes that’s why Javert told Valjean to “take your revenge” (pg. 264). because he knew he couldn’t live knowing he was set free by a criminal let alone the one he had spent most of his life trying to catch. After Valjean let Javert go he couldn’t understand why someone he thought was so bad would do something so nice for someone who could easily be considered an enemy in the eyes of a criminal like valjean. This thought ate and …show more content…

Jean Valjean caused the death of Javert by going against what Javert believed in his whole life by letting him go free when he had they chance to take revenge on him when Javert had been an enemy his whole life. This threw Javert for a loop because he had been chasing Valjean most of his life and took pride in his work, he was fine up until his life work lost all meaning because of Valjean and he had no other choice but to take his