Character Analysis- JaVert
"Les Miserables" written by Victor Hugo is a novel set during the inception of the French Revolution. Through the characters in the book, the author has tried to depict the life of the French middle class people and their exploitation by the upper class. One of the most intriguing characters in the novel is the character of Javert, who is a police officer and therefore, belongs to the upper class. He has a cold temperament and has an outlook of not treating the criminals with mercy. Perhaps the reason for this virulent nature of his is his dark childhood of his father being a jail convict and his mother, a prostitute. Although his character is stern and inflexible and it is hard to sympathize with him, his upbringing might prove to be a sympathetic scene. He is obsessed with enforcing society's laws and morals and strongly believes in living his life without breaking even a single rule.
Victor Hugo introduces Javert as a rigid honest French police officer, who is inflexible and performs the duties of his office with heartily. He is incorruptible, incorrigible and well educated. He portrays a ruthless, totalitarian force in Les Miserables. His character is painted as somewhat of an automaton. He thinks through things clearly in his head and has a conscience, but his actions seem almost mechanical. For example, when he drags Fantine out of the town square, despite her pleas for “mercy,” his decision remains unwavering. This situation also shows Javert as an impassive and an unmerciful police officer.
Javert plays the main antagonist in the movie. His outlook that we should treat criminals without mercy is what makes him obsessed with putting Valjean, the protagonist, behind bars. He is one of those two-...
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...t or remorse, but he makes a choice between being true to his conscience and “betraying the society”—an option that is equally unacceptable to Javert.
In conclusion, Javert’s only flaw is that in his mind, a man is guilty when the law declares him so. Therefore, when Valjean gives Javert an irrefutable proof that a man is not necessarily evil just because the law says he is, he is incapable of reconciling this new knowledge with his beliefs. He finally wants to set Valjean free, but this completely contradicts his goal of living his life without breaking a single rule. Even the thought of setting a criminal free makes Javert feel as if he is dishonoring his work. Thus, the only option left for him is to commit suicide. It is difficult to feel anything other than pity for Javert, who assumes his duty with such savagery that he seems more animal than man does.
Albert Camus is a skillful writer noted for showing aspects of culture and society through the depiction of his characters. In The Stranger, Camus illustrates the existentialism culture and how that comes into play in the life of the protagonist Meursault. The Stranger, as suggested by the title, is a novel revolving around the protagonist, Meursault, who is a stranger to the French-Algerian society as he challenges its values. Camus vividly portrays Meursault’s journey through the use of imagery, irony, and symbolism. In The Stranger, Albert Camus uses the minor character, Raymond Sintes, to illustrate the contrasting nature of Meursault and how his friendship with Raymond leads to his downfall.
In my point of view one of the most emotional and intellectual parts of the novel is Javert’s suicide.
Albert Camus’ The Stranger offers one man’s incite into the justice of society. Monsieur Meursault, the main protagonist in the novel, believes that morals and the concept of right and wrong possess no importance. This idea influences him to act distinctively in situations that require emotion and just decision, including feeling sadness over his mother’s death, the abuse of a woman, and his killing of an innocent man. In these situations Meursault apathetically devoids himself of all emotion and abstains from dealing with the reality in front of him. When confronted by the court over his murder, he reiterates his habitual motto on life that nothing matters anyways, so why care? His uncaring response inflames the people working within the
The emotionless anti-hero, Monsieur Meursault, embarks on a distinct philosophical journey through The Stranger. Confident in his ideas about the world, Meursault is an unemotional protagonist who survives without expectations or even aspirations. Because of his constant indifference and lack of opinions about the world, it can be denoted that he undergoes a psychological detachment from the world and society. It is through these characteristics that exist in Meursault that Camus expresses the absurd. Starting from the very first sentence of the book, “Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” (Camus 1) The indifferent tone from these short sentences convey a rather apathetic attitude from Meursault’s part. Not only does he not feel any sorrow, he also “felt like having a smoke.” (Camus 4) Communicating perfectly Meursault’s disinterest, “[he] hesitate, [he] didn’t know if [he] could do it with Maman right there. [He] thought it over; it really didn’t matter.” (Camus 4) The death of his mother prompts an absurdist philosophy in which he experiences a psychological awakening and begins to place no real emphasis on emotions, but rather on the physical aspect of life.
“The Hound of the Baskervilles” demonstrated the differences between the upper class and the lower class and even between those people who were in the same class as each others at the end of the 19th century in England. Beside those differences, there were also some similarities between the two classes. In this essay, I will analyse how they are alike and different in some main aspects such as the belief in the curse, the relationship to the law, their mysterious actions, and especially the subjugation between people in the same class.
The main character Meursault is literally a stranger, a stranger to the reader. He is a stranger in many ways. Meursault does not act as we would say a normal person would. Being as he did not shed a tear at his own mothers funeral. Meursault also shot and killed an Arab at the beach and showed no regrets. Throughout the novel Meursault kept himself isolated himself mentally,
Several people in Jean Valjeans life allow him to rediscover the meaning of love. The good bishop is the one responsible for initiating this rediscovery. Jean Valjean's new life begins when the bishop utters the words, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!” (30). This opens Jean Valjean to the good of the world and allows him to immerse himself in the love Cosette offers him, something he couldn't do without the help of the bishop. The bishop assists Jean Valjean in seeing that there are people who will help him despite his rocky background. This creates a reason for Jean Valjean to act on the experience to rebuild his life and become an honest man. This change of heart helps him feel the love that Cosette displays for him, which he has never known. He slowly begins to love and care f...
The relationship shared by Pierre and Helene is best described as a lustful charade. It is no coincidence that Pierre, one of the most introspective characters in the novel, first marries a shallow, inwardly-ugly adulterer. His first recorded attitude towards Helene is one of admira...
But in the novel, the main character, Meursault, does not show any emotion to his mother’s death. Meursault was not moral, but he was not immoral either. It is because he lacks any emotional feelings. He is detached from the world and he is seen by society as an outcast because of the way he acts. Meursault’s personality can be described as dull and boring.
Every character that revolves around Meursault seems to be in direct contrast to him. Meursault is an amoral person who does not seem to care passionately about anything. He acts in accordance with physical desires. In other words, Meursault is a sensualist person. At this particular time in his life, his path crosses with his neighbor, Raymond, who feels as though his girlfriend is cheating on him. He decides to take revenge with minor aid form Meursault. Meursault helps him only because he thinks he has nothing to lose if he does. As things lead into one another, the first major violent act of the book is committed.
After only a few days of trial, the jury in The Stranger declares that the main character, Meursault, is to be executed by guillotine in the town square. The trial and its verdict are one of the important parts of the novel, as Albert Camus uses them as a metaphor to summarize the two main tenets of absurdism. Camus uses the trial and persecution of Meursault to express his belief that the justice system is flawed because of his absurdist ideals that truth does not exist, and human life is precious. In order to reform the justice system, Albert Camus believes that capital punishment needs to be abolished.
First off, is the element of forgiveness. In a book of mistrust, poverty, and hate…forgiveness thrives in the world of Les Miserables. The first example of this was at the very beginning, when Jean Valjean stayed with the bishop. Valjean stole his silver…and ran off. He ends up being caught by police, but when the police questioned the bishop, he claimed to have given the silver to Valjean. Jean was confused…and the bishop claimed that with the silver, he had purchased the convicts soul, and had given it to God, and from that day forward, Valjean must be a good man. Another example of forgiveness goes two ways. Javert, in his relentless pursuit of Valjean, is captured by revolutionaries. In reward for saving the lives of a few of these revolutionaries, Valjean asks for, and gets, permission to take Javert outside, and kill him. Once outside, a small monologue occurs…and Valjean releases Javert, and lets him go free. Valjean just wanted to be left alone in peace, and hoped this act of kindness would change Javert, and make him realize that Valjean was no longer the man he was. The second way…is that in the end, after Javert finally captures Valjean, he lets him go. Since Javert had broken the law… that he loved so dearly, he kills himself shortly thereafter, by jumping into a river.
The authors' relations to us on the characters' places in society help us to relate to and comprehend their actions. If Meursault hadn't been so detached from society, Noboru so discontented with society, and Medea so vengeful toward society, we wouldn't have half of the justification needed to understand the murders that took place in the works. Given the presented material about conformity, I conclude that the stories' plots indeed grow around the unique attributes of the non-conformers, and as result, spark the reader's imagination to the fullest.
The protagonist’s transformation begins when the bishop recognizes Jean Valjean’s human soul that is capable of goodness. When he is put out into the streets, Valjean goes from place to place being rejected for being a convict until he meets the bishop who sees him as a common person, “That men saw his mask, but the bishop saw his face”(75). Even though people might be good, they don’t always see someone’s true soul. The bishop’s simple act of kindness and deeper understanding leads to Valjean living a better, more moral life, “From that moment we have seen, he was another man… It was more than a transformation-it was a transfiguration” (72). Since the bishop recognizes Valjean as an “another man” (72), he fulfils what he wants Valjean to become, a better more loving person.
For Jaques is, in effect, the opposite of everything Rosalind stands for. He is a moody cynic, who likes to look at life and draw from it poetical contemplations at the generally unsatisfactory nature of the world. He is, in a sense, an initial Hamlet-like figure (the comparison is frequently made), someone without any motivating erotic joy, who compensates for his inadequacy by trying to drag everything down to the level of his empty emotions and by verbalizing at length in poetical images. He takes some pride in what he calls his very own brand of melancholy which can suck the joy out of life as a weasel sucks the protein out of an egg (an interesting image of the destruction of new living potential), and he spends his time wallowing in it. His own social desire seems to be to find someone else to wallow in the same emotional mud as he does. But the spirits of the other characters, especially of Rosalind and Orlando, are too vital and creative to respond favourably to Jaques's attempts to cut life down to fit his limited moods.