Today Was A Profitable Day

Today I feel very artsy. I made my first video on iMovie, and I wrote a paper on Les Miserables. Here are both of these in that same order.








Isaac Middleton
American Literature 11/12
December 10, 2009

Merciful Men in Les Miserables

“Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes” (224). In Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, Jean Valjean is one such hero. Crushed by the “millstone of our social system” (193), Valjean is a convict and an enemy to the society which “spat him out” (36). Yet, by being shown mercy, Valjean becomes a changed man whose mission in life is to be merciful and forgiving. Through the character of Jean Valjean, Victor Hugo expresses in Les Miserables the theme of the power of life-changing mercy and forgiveness.
“Who is this man?... He is a man who saves others” (414). In the beginning of the story, this statement is not true of Jean Valjean, for he is, in fact, a convict, having served 19 years in the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread. Though he is eventually released, he is not a changed man. What changes him is the mercy of the bishop Bienvenu, who excuses and forgives Valjean for stealing his silver plates; Bienvenu even reprimands Valjean for not taking the candlesticks as well. Through this mercy, Bienvenu challenges Valjean to “become an honest man” (30), a challenge which Valjean takes to heart and determines to live up to.
It is only after receiving this mercy that Valjean becomes the “man who saves others” (414), full of mercy and forgiveness. One recipient of this mercy is Cosette, a young girl who Valjean takes into custody because of a promise he had made to her dead mother. Valjean raises her himself and finds that it is not difficult to love her.
Another example of Valjean’s mercy is seen in Cosette’s lover, Marius. This is important because it is the first time that Jean Valjean’s desire for mercy conflicts with his feelings of hatred towards someone. Cosette loves Marius with deep romantic conviction, and Jean Valjean is jealous of this. Valjean loves Cosset “as his daughter, ... as his mother, ...and as his sister” (403). Cosette is the only person Valjean ever loved in his life; the attention he receives from her on a daily basis means everything to him. Now, what with a stranger receiving just as much love from Cosette, Valjean feels as if both he and the ten years he had spent raising her are pushed aside to make way for a newer, more romantic lover. Within this context, the degree of the mercy given to Marius becomes even greater. Marius is trapped in a skirmish taking place during the French Revolution in Paris and is on the verge of dying. It is right at the moment when Marius gives up hope, bruised and bloody, that Valjean rushes into the deadly line of fire of his own free will, heaves Marius upon his back, and travels for three hours through the sewers of Paris to deliver him safely home. This is but one example of Valjean’s merciful character.
The greatest example of this mercy, however, is received by none other than the man who is after Valjean’s blood, Javert. This police inspector follows Valjean’s trail through the entire story, from the tiny town that Valjean makes his start to the monastery where Valjean and Cosette live for nine years in hiding. In reality, Javert is the only person separating Valjean from being a free citizen. The opportunity to eliminate this man is given to Valjean; as he is in the process of saving Marius from his death, he is given the duty of assassinating Javert who is a prisoner at the time. What an opportunity was Valjean given, to eliminate Javert, the only wall between him, Jean Valjean, and complete freedom! But does Valjean take it? The answer is no; and why not? Because this is not the way of life which Valjean had promised the bishop he would live. In that great skill of mercy which Valjean had acquired over the years since his meeting with the bishop, he lets Javert, his natural enemy, go free.
By receiving undeserving mercy from a bishop, Valjean understands how powerful compassion and forgiveness is and in turn sheds that same mercy and forgiveness to those around him. Through the character of Jean Valjean, Victor Hugo shows how the power of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness can transform convicts like Jean Valjean into “obscure heroes... greater than the illustrious heroes” (224). (730)