Javert is a fictional character from the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Les Misérables (pronounced /le miːzeʁabl(ə translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched Victor-Marie Hugo ( ( February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885) was a French Poet, Playwright, Novelist He was born inside a prison, the son of a fortune-teller (tireuse de cartes) and galley slave. He is a policeman and parole officer who devotes his life to the Law. A police officer (also known as a policeman or policewoman) is a warranted employee of a Police force. Probation officers and parole officers function as agents or officers of the courts Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society He is always referred to just simply as "Javert" or "Inspector Javert" by the narrator and other characters throughout the novel; his first name is never mentioned.
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Life
Javert is initially an assistant to a guard (adjudant garde-chiourme) in Toulon quarries where Jean Valjean is imprisoned. Les Misérables (pronounced /le miːzeʁabl(ə translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched Toulon ( Provençal Occitan: Tolon in classical norm or Touloun in Mistralian norm is a city in southern France and a large The bagne of Toulon was the notorious prison in Toulon, France, made famous as the place of imprisonment of Jean Valjean, the hero of Les Miserables Jean Valjean is the chief protagonist of Victor Hugo 's 1862 novel Les Misérables, or The Miserable Ones in English translation He remembers Valjean for his extraordinary strength and rather gloomy and terrifying mien.
In 1815, Valjean is released from prison and breaks parole. Year 1815 ( MDCCCXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year He moves to Montreuil-sur-Mer, a small seaside town in the North of France assumes the name of Monsieur Madeleine and becomes a manufacturer and later Mayor of the town. Montreuil (often referred to as Montreuil-sur-Mer) is a sous-préfecture of northern France, in the département of This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Here he once more meets Javert, who through a curious accident of fate happens to be an inspector in the Montreuil-sur-Mer police, but Valjean pretends not to recognise him.
Javert recalls Valjean almost instantly after meeting him again, but he cannot quite convince himself that this is the man he remembers from the galleys all those years ago, and he would not allow himself to write a denunciation to Paris authorities without stronger proof than just his own vague memories. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city However, further proof is furnished to him after Valjean performs a feat of strength that, Javert informs him, only one man in his entire life's experience could have performed: he lifts a loaded cart to free a man trapped underneath it. Javert's decision to denounce Valjean as an ex-convict is then finally made up after Valjean frees Fantine, a whore detained by Javert for having a violent row with a street idler. Fantine is a character in Victor Hugo 's 1862 novel Les Misérables. Bizarrely, the Parisian authorities then inform Javert that he must be mistaken in his identification, as the real Valjean has already been captured and identified by several people who used to know him back in prison.
Javert is summoned to the court to help testify against the "real" Valjean. The man does, indeed, look exactly like Valjean should have looked, had he not become prosperous after his release from prison. This is nothing more than a coincidence: he is just an old beggar who was caught by the police with a branch of apples believed to have been broken off an apple tree in a private orchard. This offense would have not merited more than several days in jail had someone in that same jail not mistakenly identified the beggar as Valjean. For someone with prior conviction, breaking a bough of apples from someone's tree would in fact constitute an act of recidivism, which would merit life in prison. Recidivism ( IPA: /ɹɪˈsɪdɪvɪzm̩/ From recidive + ism, from Latin recidīvus "recurring" from re-
Appalled by the idea of an innocent man going to prison in his stead, Valjean travels to the court of assizes where the beggar is being tried and discloses his identity publicly in the courtroom. After no one makes a move to detain him - Javert had by then already left town to return to Montreuil-sur-Mer - Valjean sets out once more on the run. He is recaptured some time later and sent off once more to the galleys, from which he, however, escapes within several months.
Javert's good memory and presence of mind recommend him well to the Parisian police, and he is recruited to be an inspector in the capital. Here he once more encounters Valjean, this time with a little girl in tow: Cosette, Fantine's daughter. He follows them both to a gloomy Parisian suburb where Valjean rents a room. One night, as Javert chases Valjean and his ward into what seems to him a dead end, Valjean evades capture by climbing over the stone wall of a convent and pulling Cosette up over the wall on a rope. Javert is stumped; days of searching bring nothing, and he gives up. Valjean and Cosette remain in the monastery for several years, Valjean as a gardener and Cosette as a pupil in the school run by the nuns.
In 1832, Javert chances to meet Valjean once more when he leads a squad of policemen in capturing a gang which had been terrorizing Paris for years: Patron-Minette. Unbeknownst to him, the venerable elderly gentleman whom the gang was in the process of torturing with intent of extortion was none other than Valjean. Javert does not have the opportunity to recognize him, however, as Valjean recognizes Javert quite fast and makes a quick escape out the window of the attic where the confrontation takes place.
During the 1832 June riots, Javert assumes an undercover identity and joins the stream of revolutionaries heading to build barricades to gather information on them. Armed with a useless unloaded rifle, he takes part in the preparations for battle without speaking a word to anyone; nevertheless, he is recognized by a street urchin, Gavroche, as a policeman. Gavroche is also a French beer produced by Brasserie de Saint-Sylvestre. The rebels tie Javert to a pole in the restaurant where they are holed up and leave him standing there overnight. When Valjean appears at the barricade with the secret intent to rescue Marius, the beloved of his adopted daughter, Javert is more amused than incredulous: the barricades seem like a perfectly fitting place for Valjean, whom he considers a lost cause.
This staunch belief is dealt a fatal blow when Valjean, after performing a sharp-shooting feat that saves the barricade from immediate destruction without shedding any blood, requests from Enjolras, the leader of the revolutionary movement, the privilege of slaughtering the police agent. Enjolras is the charismatic leader of the Friends of the ABC in the Victor Hugo book and musical adaptation of Les Misérables. Enjolras acquiesces, and Valjean leads Javert away from the barricade and into a side street. There, instead of killing Javert, Valjean cuts his bonds and implores him to run and save himself. He also gives Javert his address, in the unlikely case that he survives the uprising. Valjean then fires a shot into the air and returns to the barricade, where he tells everyone that the policeman is dead.
As the army storms barricade, Valjean manages to grab the body of Marius, who had been grievously wounded, and dives into a sewer, where he wanders with Marius on his shoulders, despairing of finding an exit. A stroke of luck brings him face to face with Thénardier, whom he already met when Thénardier was part of the Patron-Minette gang captured by Javert and his squad. The Thénardiers (commonly referred to as Thénardier and Madame Thénardier are two of the primary villains in Victor Hugo 's novel Les Misérables In the dark and muck of the sewer, neither party recognizes the other. Thénardier assumes that Valjean is a robber who had just killed a well-to-do young man, and he offers to let Valjean out of the sewer if Valjean splits the loot found on Marius' person in half. Valjean pays him, and Thénardier opens for him a sewer grate with a stolen government-issued key.
Valjean's joy at finally being out of the sewer does not last long. As he struggles to regain his bearings on the surface and ponders what to do about the bleeding unconscious boy, he notices that he is observed by a tall figure, which, predictably, turns out to be Javert. This is almost too much; Javert takes a long time to examine the filthy man emerging from the sewer and finally is satisfied that he is, indeed, looking at Valjean. Far from trying to evade arrest, Valjean repeats that he is ready to surrender, but he asks for Javert's help in delivering the wounded boy to his family first. Javert agrees, looks up the address of Marius' family from an address book he finds on him, and they set off.
During the trip, Javert finds himself, for practically the first time in his life, at a complete loss. On one hand, he cannot allow Valjean to go free. Over the course of the decade during which Javert knew him, Valjean had committed, to Javert's limited but accurate knowledge, breaking and entering, violent robbery of a small child, multiple counts of fraud, child kidnapping and numerous escapes from prison; to make matters worse, just several hours ago Javert found him with the rebels on the barricade - an offense which in itself merits the death penalty. Yet, Javert cannot bring himself to turn Valjean in, since Valjean had saved his life by setting him free on the barricades instead of shooting him, and then rescued another man for no personal gain. After they deliver Marius to his grandfather's home, Valjean asks an opportunity to say goodbye to Cosette. Javert agrees; they arrive at Valjean's house, and Javert says that he will wait for Valjean to come back downstairs. Nevertheless, when Valjean comes down, Javert is gone.
Javert wanders the streets in emotional turmoil: his mind simply cannot reconcile the image he had carried through the years of Valjean as a brutal ex-convict with Valjean's act of kindness on the barricades. Now, Javert can be justified neither in letting Valjean go nor in arresting him. For the first time in his life, Javert is faced with the situation where to act lawfully would mean to him acting immorally. Unable to find a solution to this dilemma and horrified at the sudden realization that Valjean was simultaneously a criminal and a good person - a conundrum which made mockery of Javert's entire system of moral values - Javert decides to remove the problem by removing himself from the problem. He goes into a police station, leaves on one of the desks a note with some remarks on how to improve police and prison operations in the city, then proceeds to Pont-au-Change and drowns himself in the river Seine. The Pont au Change is a Bridge over the Seine River in Paris, France. The Seine (sɛn in French) is a slow flowing major River and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie
Javert in the musical
In the stage musical of the same name based on Les Misérables, Javert is one of the central characters. Les Misérables ( in French, le mize'ʁaːbl colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a musical composed His part is mostly unchanged, and he acts as a foil and semi-antagonist to the hero, Valjean. A foil is a character that contrasts with another character usually the protagonist and so highlights various facets of the main character's personality An antagonist (from Greek ανταγωνιστής - antagonistes, "opponent competitor rival" is a character or Javert has the first spoken line of any main character in the musical.
Songs Javert features in:
- "Work Song" — This is the first song in the musical, as opposed to the book, where the scene is told after the beginning through flashbacks. Les Misérables Javert is the prison official presiding over the parole proceedings of the day. When Valjean arrives, he and Javert argue over whether Valjean's actions were jusitifiable, thus expositing Valjean's past to the audience. Exposition is a technique by which background information about the characters events or setting is conveyed in a novel play movie or other work of fiction Javert corrects Valjean when the latter claims his parole means his freedom, saying, "[Your parole] means you get your yellow ticket of leave", hinting at Valjean's uncertain future. Also, in defiance of Valjean, Javert begins his habit of referring to Valjean only as his prison number, "24601".
- "Fantine's Arrest" — Six years later, Javert is a police inspector in Montreuil-sur-Mer. Les Misérables He and Valjean, the mayor and a factory owner under the name Madeleine, are familiar with one another. Valjean remembers Javert but pretends to only know him from Montreuil-sur-Mer, while Javert is fooled by Valjean's new identity; he even respects Valjean as an authority figure somewhat. Javert and several other officers arrest Fantine for attacking Bamatabois, and Javert dismisses Fantine's claims of having a child to support as the same lies he has always heard from criminals. When "Madeleine" arrives, pardons Fantine and has her taken to a hospital, Javert is still suspicious of her and attempts to protest to the mayor, to no avail.
- "The Runaway Cart" — After witnessing Valjean saving Fauchelevant from a runaway cart, he tells "Madeleine" that the latter's strength reminds him of the real Valjean, whom he remembers from the prison years before. Les Misérables Unlike in the book, Javert merely notices a similarity betweeen Valjean and Madeleine, and never truly suspects the mayor of being the prisoner as the man who resembles Valjean had been arrested previously and awaits trial.
- "Who Am I? (The Trial)" — At the end of the song, the real Valjean steps before the court where Javert is testifying to the doppelganger's identity as Valjean. Les Misérables Though he has no speaking lines, Javert is still the one Valjean is addressing when he reveals his true identity and exonerates the man on trial.
- "The Confrontation" — At the hospital, after Fantine has died, Javert arrives to find Valjean at her deathbed. Les Misérables Javert, who had once been compelled to respect Valjean as the mayor, is now able to look down on him once more as a prisoner. Javert scoffs at Valjean's request for three day's time to free Cosette, and ridicules and berates Valjean as a recidivist and criminal scum, and mocks his claims of morality by telling of his origin, being born in a prison with men like Valjean. Recidivism ( IPA: /ɹɪˈsɪdɪvɪzm̩/ From recidive + ism, from Latin recidīvus "recurring" from re- Javert vows to pursue and capture Valjeant no matter where or how he escapes. He is knocked out by Valjean after a struggle.
- "Javert's Intervention" — Nine years have passed. Les Misérables Javert is still an inspector, now in Paris. He breaks up a street fight between two men, one of whom is M. Thénardier, who was fighting the other man out of resenment for his taking Cosette all those years before. The Thénardiers (commonly referred to as Thénardier and Madame Thénardier are two of the primary villains in Victor Hugo 's novel Les Misérables Cosette is a fictional character in the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Javert fails to recognize the other man as Valjean, the latter of whom recognizes the former instantly and escapes. Thénardier informs Javert that the man he fought was an ex-convict, and Javert makes the connection and indentifies him as Valjean.
- "Stars" — Javert's first solo song in the musical. Les Misérables Javert sings of his rekindled intent to capture Valjean, and muses on how he believes his actions are just and righteous, as natural and sequential as the order of the stars. Javert prays to God to aid his pursuit, and swears to the stars that he will never relent. This song gives Javert a religious character that is in contrast to the atheist Javert of the original novel.
- "The Attack on Rue Plumet" — Though he doesn't appear, Javert plays an unseen part in this song. Les Misérables Valjean hears from Cosette that she saw men outside their apartment. Though the men in question were actually Thénardier and members of the Patron-Minette gang, Valjean assumes they were Javert and other policemen under his direction, and decides to flee the city. Patron-Minette was the name given to the Thénardiers ' street gang in Victor Hugo 's novel Les Misérables and the musical of the same name
- "One Day More!" — As with all the other characters, Javert sings of his plans and views for the coming day, June 6, 1832. Les Misérables He describes his condescending view of the student rebels and forsees failure for their insurrection, and schemes to go undercover as a spy for the National Guard to learn the secrets of the revolutionaries and provide them with false intelligence. The National Guard ( la Garde nationale) was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the Militias formed in each city in imitation of
- "Upon These Stones (Javert at the Barricade)" — Javert has successfully disguised himself as an adult sympathizer of the uprising, and gains the trust of the students by volunteering to ascertain the plans of the National Guard. Les Misérables
- "Javert's Arrival / Little People" — Javert returns to the barricade after an absence and tells the students that the Guard will refrain from attack until at least the next day, and will attack with forces from the right. Les Misérables Gavroche arrives and denounces him as a liar and a police inspector. Javert is captured and restained in the ABC Café, and remains defiant of the students even as his prospects for escaping alive seem bleak.
- "The First Attack" — After arriving at the barricade and joining the student's numbers, he begins fighting in the first skirmish between the revolutionaries and the troops. Les Misérables After Valjean kills a sniper aiming at Enjolras and the latter falls in his debt, Valjean is allowed to execute the spy Javert. Valjean finds Javert, who is reeling in confusion over his impending execution for nothing more than enforcing the law. He is beligerent to Valjeant, and Javert tauntingly encourages him to kill him. Valjeant frees Javert, who believes he wishes some bargain in return. Valjean dismisses any request for payment; he explains that he harbours no ill will towards Javert and even gives him his address in case he lives through the fight. A very confused Javert is let free into the night, Valjeant telling the students he is dead.
- "The Final Battle" — After the battle is over and the revolutionaries are all dead, save for Valjean and the wounded Marius, Javert returns to the barricade to search for Valjeant and finds him gone. Les Misérables He deduces that he is in the sewers, and moves to head him off at an exit near the Seine.
- "Dog Eats Dog" — Javert finds Valjean in the sewers with the wounded Marius. Les Misérables He reiterates his intent to capture Valjean, who is not surprised that his old foe has returned to his mission. Valjean requests an hour's time to bring Marius to a hospital and then he will turn himself in. Unlike he did earlier with Cosette, Javert relents somewhat and allows Valjeant to leave and save Marius.
- "Javert's Suicide" — This is Javert's second solo and last song in the musical. Les Misérables Now alone on a bridge above the Seine, Javert soliloquizes his confusion that Valjean wouldn't kill him, whom Javert assumes Valjean sees as his enemy. He faces an immense inner conflict, as his black-and-white view of the world of Good and Evil is "lost in shadows". He describes his discomfort in living further, first trying to convince himself this is because of his hesitance to live in the debt of a theif, but he soon comes to realize it is really because of his guilt at having pursued Valjean so unfairly and living under such a flawed and judgemental worldview. Javert commits suicide by hurling himself over the bridge.
Moral character
There are those who attack Javert's actions, and others who defend them. Victor Hugo intentionally created his protagonist and antagonist so that neither were entirely on one side of the boundary separating Good and Evil. The Protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. An antagonist (from Greek ανταγωνιστής - antagonistes, "opponent competitor rival" is a character or Here is how he describes Javert:
- Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand: their majesty, the majesty peculiar to the human conscience, clings to them in the midst of horror; they are virtues which have one vice, - error. The honest, pitiless joy of a fanatic in the full flood of his atrocity preserves a certain lugubriously venerable radiance. Without himself suspecting the fact, Javert in his formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who triumphs. Nothing could be so poignant and so terrible as this face, wherein was displayed all that may be designated as the evil of the good. [1]
Javert may aptly be described as an anti-villain, a morally confusing character who pursues immoral goals yet uses noble methods, opposes the protagonist unfairly, and lacks the sympathy of the audience.
Portrayals
The dramatic role of Javert is best known for its musical power from the stage musical Les Misérables, based upon the original novel. Les Misérables (pronounced /le miːzeʁabl(ə translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched Javert was played by Roger Allam in the 1985 London production, and by Terrence Mann in the 1987 Broadway production. Roger Allam (born 26 October 1953) is an English Actor, known primarily for his Stage career although he has performed in Les Misérables ( in French, le mize'ʁaːbl colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a musical composed Terrance Mann was the name of a character in the film Field of Dreams. Les Misérables ( in French, le mize'ʁaːbl colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a musical composed Other actors to play the role in stagings of the musical include Norm Lewis, Takeshi Kaga. Norm Lewis (born June 2, 1963 in Eatonville Florida) is an African-American Broadway actor formerly enrolled with the "revival" of is a well known stage and movie Actor in Japan who is probably best known internationally for his portrayal of Chairman Kaga in the Japanese television show Iron Chef Philip Quast played Javert in the 1995 anniversary concert Les Misérables - The Dream Cast in Concert. Philip Quast (born 1957) is an Australian actor perhaps best known for his role as Inspector Javert in Les Misérables - The Dream Cast in Concert Les Misérables - The Dream Cast in Concert aka Les Misérables in Concert is a concert version of the musical Les Misérables,
Renditions of Javert in adaptations of Les Misérables other than the musical include portrayals by John Malkovich (in the 2000 French miniseries), Geoffrey Rush (in the 1998 film), Charles Vanel (in the 1934 film), Charles Laughton (in the 1935 film), Robert Newton (in the 1952 film) and Bernard Blier (in the 1958 film). John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an Emmy Award -winning two-time Academy Award -nominated American Actor Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951 is a Golden Globe - BAFTA - Emmy - AFI - and Academy Award -winning Australian actor Les Misérables is a 1998 film version of Victor Hugo 's 1862 novel of the same name, directed by Bille August. Charles-Marie Vanel, known as Charles Vanel ( August 21[[ 892]] in Rennes, France - April 15[[ 989]] in Cannes, France Les Misérables ( 1934) is a Dramatic film based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo written and directed by Raymond Charles Laughton ( 1 July, 1899 &ndash 15 December, 1962) was an English Academy Award -winning stage and Les Misérables ( 1935) is a film based upon the famous Victor Hugo novel of the same name. Robert Newton ( June 1 1905 – March 25 1956) was a noted English stage and film Actor. Les Misérables is a 1952 film adaptation of the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Bernard Blier ( 11 January 1916 &ndash 29 March 1989) was a French Character actor. Les Misérables is a film version of the Victor Hugo novel released in France on March 12 1958.
References
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