Discussion Questions

1. What causes Valjean to turn his life around? What does Valjean’s transformation suggest about how our actions and attitudes affect others?

When Valjean is released from prison, he is unable to find work or shelter in Digne. He is shunned by people for being an ex-convict. He is told that M. Myriel, the Bishop of Digne, might be able to arrange shelter for him. When then Bishop lets Valjean sleep in his own house, Valjean steals from him, but is later caught by the authorities. When the Bishop is urged to press charges against him, he tells the authorities that Valjean had not stolen the silver from him, that he had given them to Valjean as a gift. The Bishop then gives Valjean his silver candlesticks, and Valjean is overwhelmed by the Bishop’s compassion.

Valjean then resolves to lead an honest and compassionate life, and during times of moral crisis, the Bishop’s candlesticks remind him of the importance of compassion and justice.

Through Valejan’s transformation, the novel suggests that humans are inherently good and they are only made by the environment they live in. At the same time, Valjean’s transformation also suggests that humans can be redeemed by earnest acts of kindness and forgiveness.

2. Describe the gradual series of events in Fantine’s life that lead to her final descent into prostitution. What does this suggest about the society in which she lives?

Fantine is first devastated by being abandoned by Tholomyes, a bourgeois university student in Paris. She soon learns that she is pregnant with his child and decides to move to M. sur M. to find a job in order to support herself and Cosette. She leaves Cosette with the Thenardiers to avoid being ostracized by the people of M. sur M. However, the letter writer she hires to communicate with the Thenardiers tells the people of M. sur M. that Cosette is Fantine’s illegitimate child.

She is shunned, ostracized, and fired from her job at the bread factory. She then takes up sewing, but the Thernardiers continue to demand exorbitant amounts of money for Cosette’s upkeep. Fantine is thus forced to sell her hair and teeth before taking up prostitution.

Fantine’s example shows that the destitute and disenfranchised were treated in a wretched manner in nineteenth-century France. Fantine, being an illiterate orphan, finds it especially difficult to live with dignity in M. sur M. She represents the horrible plight of the female destitute in an intolerant society. The people of M. sur M. regard her as an “immoral” person when they find out about Cosette, and she is systematically pushed to the margins of society.

3. Consider the events leading up to Javert’s decision to commit suicide. What exactly is his emotional dilemma?

Having pursued Jean Valjean for most of his life, Javert is overwhelmed by Valjean’s compassion: Valjean had pretended to be interested in executing Javert to secure the latter’s escape. As a result, Javert, who had thought of Valjean as a deplorable criminal, is forced to reassess his conceptions of justice and compassion. Feeling grateful to Valjean, he finds it difficult to send him to the galleys once again. He also witnesses Valjean’s commitment to unite Marius with his grandfather and aunt, and recognizes that Valjean might be a good man. At the same time, he knows that Valjean has escaped from prison and is tormented by the thought of letting a fugitive free.This dilemma forces Javert to question France’s prison and justice system. He realizes that morality and compassion might not always be the same as legal justice. He thus writes a note containing suggestions to improve France’s prison system before drowning himself to death.Though he realizes that legal justice and morality are not necessarily the same, Valjean’s suicide suggests that he was ultimately unable to reconcile his law-abiding nature with his newfound sense of morality.