Les Mis - Kristi's Response

Redemptive transformation. The movement from darkness to light, from falsehood to truth, from self to God and from destruction to life. This is the self-described plot of Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables. (p. 1074) The story details the transformation of Jean Valjean, who entered the story as a man who would steal for his physical need and left the story as a man who was willing to sacrifice even his greatest emotional needs in order to do what he deemed best for others. What were the means of his transformation? There were three: sacrifice, love and suffering. Hugo indicates that the sacrifice Bishop Bienvenue incarnated to Valjean the sacrifice of Jesus—that one so revered would give what he had to bring a convict to a better life. Although Hugo doesn’t explicitly speak of Valjean’s turn to Jesus, from then on in the story, shows tenderness and veneration before crucifixes, and refers to Jesus as “the great martyr”.(p.174,1256) First he develops kindness as Monsieur Madeleine, and then he learns to love as Monsieur Fauchelevent while he cares for and protects the child Cosette. But what completes his transformation, is when he yields to suffering by sacrificing what is most precious to him—Cosette’s reliance upon him—in order to secure her her happiness. At the end of his transformation, Valjean looks more like the Bishop than the man he had been.

Other characters experience similar transformations on a smaller scale. Marius a spoiled boy, raised by his rich grandfather, and taught to despise his father. His transformation begins on the day that he discovers the sacrifice his father had made for him—giving up the right to see his son in order that his son might be well cared for. Marius leaves the comforts of his grandfather’s home and braves the hardship of poverty. Soon he falls in love with a young woman, with whom he quickly loses all means of contact. At the loss of this love, he suffers greatly. At the end of the story, his love having been restored, as well has his relationship with his grandfather, we see him as a young man with strong and unfaltering convictions, who tries to do what is right and is quick to apologize when his judgment is proven wrong. Fantine also, is a character who begins a naïve girl, and after suffering and sacrificing the daughter she loves, is portrayed in a good light.

In contrast to the transforming characters are two who seem unable to change. One is Thenardier, a thieving ingrate who, even when shown kindness, cannot give it. He is a dark man with a dark soul, and one assumes he will experience a dark afterlife. The second non-transforming character is Javert. Javert, while a just and honest man, cannot fathom the ideas of kindness and love, sacrifice, or undeserved suffering. He sees the world and people in black and white and cannot accept that a person who used to deserve suffering could now merit kindness. When Valjean treats him with kindness, his ideology is torn. Rather than suffer through the painful reflection and humility it would take to alter his world view, he chooses to end his struggle by killing himself. The fate of these inflexible characters is sad, and stands in contrast to the joy and redemption experienced by those who experience transformation by means of sacrifice, suffering and love.