People Change In Les Misérables By Victor Hugo

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo demonstrates a very important concept about how people change. Several examples exist of individuals who thought a certain way, but were shown that not all is as they thought. The novel demonstrations that everyone thinks they’re right, but when proven wrong, it greatly impacts their lives and beliefs. One person who thought he could never change was the novel’s protagonist Jean Valjean. His personality vastly changed after the bishop helped him realize he didn’t have to live like a criminal anymore. At the start of the book, Valjean is introduced as a hardened man, a galley slave recently freed. He essentially came to accept that his life was destined to be hard, so he himself had to be hard enough to face
Javert was born in a jail to a prostitute and was raised surrounded by cruel people. This cemented into his mind the idea that there existed a line between good and evil people that no man could cross. Those who broke the law were natural criminals and could never change their ways. On the other hand, those who abided by the law couldn’t help but do so, and Javert himself was a devout follower of the law. “As a defender of France’s legal system, he [was] dedicated to following the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law” (Younkins). Javert believed every crime must be punished, and no evil could be done with good intent. He did not believe people like Valjean existed, who could be criminals with pure hearts. So when Valjean proves to him that such a person can exist, “[e]verything Javert has ever believed in has been destroyed. [I]t’s too much for Javert. He takes his own life” (Benner). As Javert explained in the novel, “I have often been severe in my life towards others. It was just. I did right. Now if I were not severe towards myself, all I have justly done would become injustice” (Hugo, et. al 69). Javert strongly believed what he did was right. To be shown that it was he all along who was in the wrong was not something he could handle. His whole perception of justice was turned on
Marius, a younger character, was raised to think his father was a bad man, but when he learned the truth, he completely changed his perspective. Marius did not know that if his father claimed him, he would be disowned. Those around him seldom spoke of his father, and Marius came to think of him in shame, nothing more than a disgraceful bandit. It was not until the curé Abbé Mabeuf told him of what his father had done did Marius begin to care about the man he’d never known. Intrigued, he researched his father, learning of the venerable colonel and baron the man had been. Marius found he admired this man, and “[w]hen he thought of his former opinions, which were only of yesterday, but which seemed so ancient to him already, he became indignant at himself, and he smiled” (Hugo, et. al 169). But now he had a problem. More than anything, Marius wanted to honor his father’s last requests, but that would mean disownment by his grandfather. He found himself siding more with his father, to the point where he “was fully revolutionary, thoroughly democratic, and almost republican” (Hugo, et. al 170). His grandfather eventually got wind of this and cast him out, just as he said he would. However, “Marius begins to develop truly only when he leaves Gillenormand’s house, finding himself and falling in love for the first time” (SparkNotes). This initial event, this discovery of his real father, spurred a chain of