Character+anylisis

Character List

Jean Valjean Jean Valjean: An ex convict who after stealing silver from a kind Bishop, promises to the Bishop to be a good, honest man. When he is first released from jail he is depressed and in despair. Due to his yellow passport, he could not find shelter. When a kind kind Bishop takes him in the allows Jean to keep stolen silver, he has a change of heart and begins to become a good person.

Monsieur Madeleine: When Jean moves to a different town, he goes under a different identity. He successfully runs a factory and becomes the Mayor of that town. He is kind and generous. He gives money to every poor traveling boy in hopes that it is Petit Gervais, the boy who he stole money from when he was Jean Valjean. He helped a man who was stuck under a cart and saved another man from death row due to mistaken identity (his). Madeleine promises a sick woman to bring back her child, but the woman dies before he could so after escaping Javert again, he rescues the child and raises her as his own.

In the second half of the novel, my view of Jean changed and he gained the capacity to love. He loved his daughter dearly and showed compassion to a man who sent him to jail repeatedly.


 * Javert:** A bold and persistent Inspector of Police who tries and fails time after time to capture and prosecute Jean Valjean. He is determined and unvarying. Javert was at the courtroom when Monsieur Madeleine identified himself as Jean but Javert did not arrest him which shows that he has a small bit of compassion. But he destroys that later when he tells a sick woman of his identity and she dies of shock. Later on he tries to infiltrated a barricade run b students but is captured. He shows no compassion when he was freed by Jean, and arrests him hours later. But he agrees to let Jean take Marius to his grandfather. Torn between his debt to Jean and his job, Javert jumps into a river and drowns.


 * Fantine**: A poor woman who gives birth to an illegitimate child. When she has to travel to get a job she pays the Thénardiers’ to watch and care for her child. They teat Cosette like a slave while spoiling their own two daughters. She goes to the same town where Monsieur Madeleine runs his factory and gets a job in the factory. She pays the Thénardiers through mail, even though their price keeps raising. She is fired when Cosette is discovered. She becomes sick and dies soon after during Monsieur Madeleine's Visit. She is a sweet woman who is obviously caring and loving. I hope you did a better job keeping the characters straight than I did when I read the book. 25/25