Of course, Javert is very much moved in the end, with the revelation of Jean Valjean’s sublime qualities. But while Marius responds to the same discovery by trying to make amends, Javert commits suicide. Having abandoned his own quest to bring the outlaw to justice, the policeman triggers a series of reflections that flesh out his psychological profile. The man with no inner life is amazed to find that he has “under [his] breast of bronze something preposterous and disobedient that almost resembles a heart” (1325). He has learned to understand, to empathize with, and therefore to care about another.
In consequence, he has rendered good for good without any regard to external factors. Perhaps most puzzling, he has been able “to sacrifice duty, that general obligation, to personal motives, and to feel in these personal motives something general too, and perhaps superior” (1320). Public affairs have yielded to personal concerns of equal, if not greater, weight. The dichotomy between the particular and the general has suddenly dissolved, as private emotions have become invested with the sense of universal value previously reserved for the legal code.
This capacity for discerning and affirming a unique identity brings not joy and liberation but terror and disorientation: “Javert’s ultimate anguish was the loss of all certainty. He felt uprooted. The code was no longer anything but a stump in his hand… . Within him there was a revelation of feeling entirely distinct from the declarations of the law; his only standard hitherto” (1323).
”—Les Miserables: Conversion, Revolution, Redemption by Kathryn M. Grossman (via mightbebeautiful)
“‘If you believe me, you will come in full force.’
The inspector threw Marius a glance such as Voltaire would have thrown at a provincial academician who had proposed a rhyme to him.”—les misérables, victor hugo (via itsquotational)
Javert really isn’t alert all the time. And it’s kind of adorable.
I mean, during Fantine’s arrest he is so shocked about the whole situation that he just stands there for a moment and doesn’t snap out of it before he hears the sound of the latch when Fantine tries to leave. And at that point he has momentarily forgotten all about Madeleine being there and that the Mayor already said that Fantine is free to go.
Again at the barricades, when Javert is working undercover. He has been observing the revolutionaries like a hawk, and when he’s done doing that, he just sits down and spaces out. He “doesn’t seem to see anything that’s going on”, doesn’t even notice Gavroche circling around him, and when Enjolras finally asks who he is, he just kind of startles awake.
Javert is a daydreamer pass it on.
Well he is described as a “melancholy dreamer,” so …
Okay so the other day I was casually rereading the brick again and at one point Javert says he was an adjutant guard.
Here is the definition of that courtesy of Google:
1. a military officer who acts as an administrative assistant to a senior officer.
a person’s assistant or deputy.
According to Wikipedia is corresponds roughly with a staff sergeant or a warrant officer.
Another site said that when addressing the adjutant guard the senior officer would say “mon adjutant” so basically “my assistant”
Anyways basically this means that yes brick Javert would have worn that guard outfit with the snazzy hat (no, not the bicorn; the other one):
But also it means he was some other guard’s assistant and I find that really interesting?? Like, he becomes a temporary assistant/bodyguard for the (then) secretary to the Prefect of Police later, which is why he is in M-sur-M … Does he have like this network of officials that give him referrals?
Also on a sort of unrelated note I found out that the gendarmerie, which was pretty much like the military force charged with police duties in the civilian population, kind of had a rivalry going with the local police (because they would sometimes have to fight over whose jurisdiction something fell under maybe??) And also the symbol of the gendarmerie was a flaming grenade. Silver laurel leaves seem to be a theme in the French Police (I think they’re worn on the collar?).
So is Javert actually higher ranking than a regular police officer? I had always thought he actually ranked below them, being given risky spy missions and such, but now I’m thinking the opposite. It does say he has subordinates in the brick.
what she means:
i wonder if people understand javert is supposed to be one of "les miserables" aka the miserable of society. he's as much a victim of society as any of the other character in the novel. do they know javert was never meant to be a villain, but another victim? is it willful misinterpratation im order to have an easy villain to blame the tragedies on? he is described as a fanatic, but always with the best possible human traits: his sin lies within his error, and hugo describes it as being pitiful and miserable; it caused him to kill himself as soon as he realised it. why simplify him to a villain when he was never written as such? the villain in les miserables is society itself, and how it ruins the people who live in it. javert is one of les miserables why make him the villain i dont
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Another thing for the consideration of let-it-be-extraordinary and hatarlakrits: Hayden Tee’s ‘Stars’ from yesterday. Listen out for his soft wonder when he looks up and notices the stars at the end of “the flame the sword” leading into “stars in your multitudes”.