Defending Javert

I’ve seen plenty of “Defending Ms. So-and-so” and “Defending Mr. Thingum” posts about, but I don’t believe I’ve yet seen one defending Javert.

I feel that I’ve noticed, as a rule, that the further one gets swallowed into the Les Misérables fandom, the more one likes Javert. From a brief glance at the story, he could be seen as the villain, but he most certainly Is Not. And the point of this post is to show you that he Is Not.

 (WARNING: there will be spoilers, so if you don’t know the story of Les Misérables go watch or read it immediately don’t read any farther.)

(Also, by the way, throughout this post my main source that I’m referencing is the book of Les Misérables, the Brick itself – so if you haven’t read the whole book and are at any point thinking, “Wow, where did she get that from??” – that’s where.)

I hardly even know where to start here, so I think I’ll start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start, no?)

So, Javert’s backstory: his mother was a fortune-teller, his father was a criminal, and Javert was born in a prison. He always had a rigid sense of honesty and right, and eventually, to quote the Brick: “He grew up to think himself without the pale of society, and despaired of ever entering it. He noticed that society closes its doors, without pity, on two classes of men, those who attack it and those who guard it; he could choose between these two classes only…he entered the police.”

Firstly, to address a misconception sometimes held about Javert: tracking down Jean Valjean is not his one obsession in life. It’s made very clear in the book that Javert’s obsession is the law, not Jean Valjean. In fact, most of the times that Javert runs into Jean Valjean are pure accident. (In the book, even the final meeting at the sewers is an accident. Javert was actually tracking Thénardier at the time.) Javert did not go through all the years that Jean Valjean was in hiding thinking “now where could Valjean have gotten to? I feel like chasing him again.” For the majority of the time, he wasn’t thinking about him at all.

That being said, I do think Javert bears a certain animosity towards Valjean that he doesn’t have toward other criminals. This is understandable, though. Valjean is the spot on his otherwise stainless record, the one criminal that was too much for him, the one reason he can’t say he’s done his duty perfectly. Considering that Javert considers his duty as a protector of the law to be the one aim of his life, that’s a big deal.

In fact, to fully understand any of Javert’s actions, you have to remember that Javert believes that the law is infallible. He had no one to teach him right or wrong, so he had to draw conclusions about morality for himself. He hated lawlessness, and saw it as the greatest evil. It stands to reason, then, that he would consider the Law as the greatest good. (And though he wasn’t right, I don’t think he chose too badly, considering his circumstances. Everyone takes circumstances into account in Jean Valjean’s case – it’s understandable that he stole, became embittered toward humanity, etc., given the situation. Well, Javert had circumstances working against him too. It wouldn’t be fair to expect him to figure everything out perfectly by himself.)

Even if you don’t take this into account, though, most of Javert’s actions are not, in fact, bad in themselves. His job is a policeman. If a policeman runs into someone who is wanted by the police (which Valjean still was, despite how many years had gone by – not only had he broken his parole, but despite the Bishop’s covering for him he was still suspected of stealing his silver, and in the Brick he also took money from a little boy), it’s his duty to arrest him. That’s not being a jerk who can’t let the past die. That’s doing your job.

His arresting Fantine is also sometimes taken as an act of cruelty. If you think about it, though, he again was just doing what he was supposed to do. He didn’t get the full story – Fantine was in fact nowhere near as much to blame as he thought – but, given the information he had, arresting her was perfectly legitimate.

(In fact, I think that Javert was much kinder than he needed to be in only sentencing her for six months – in a society where you can get five years for the robbery of one loaf of bread, six months for outright attacking someone is not very harsh. And it wasn’t even that she wouldn’t be able to support Cosette while in prison – it’s stated in the book that she could still make money (by sewing, I believe?) in prison. It wouldn’t be anywhere near as much, of course but still. If the Thénardiers didn’t charge exorbitant amounts for Cosette’s “upkeep,” it may have been enough.)

I feel that it’s presented as proof of Javert’s hard heart (even by Victor Hugo, really) that Fantine’s pleading didn’t move him, but I honestly think that on the whole it’s a good thing. Would it really prove high morals if a pretty young woman’s pleading was all that was needed to sway him from doing what he thought right? And I think it’s rather understandable that he would assume that a woman who’s using every tactic she can think of to avoid prison is not to be trusted in what she says. (Of course, he still could (and should) have been compassionate while not doing as she requested, but Javert doesn’t really do compassion…more on that later.)

Acting as a spy during the students’ uprising was also a logical action to take. Javert worked for the government, and believed in the government, just as firmly as Enjolras believed in revolution. It stands to reason that he would do everything he could to protect it. That, again, was his job.

While most of Javert’s actions, then, are not open to too much censure, it is true that his worldview is somewhat. He does have many good points, like courage, loyalty, honesty, self-sacrifice – but he doesn’t allow for compassion or for forgiveness. Even in this, though he is mistaken, he is by no means a hypocrite; he holds himself to the same standard he holds everyone else. I think the scene where he tells Valjean (not knowing he’s Valjean, of course) that he falsely accused him, and demands that he, Javert, be dishonorably removed from duty, reveals a lot about his character. Let me quote a bit from that scene in the book:

“Listen a moment, Monsieur Mayor; I have often been severe in my life towards others. It was just. I did right. Now if I were not severe towards myself, all I have justly done would become injustice. Should I spare myself more than others? No. What! if I should be prompt only to punish others and not myself, I should be a wretch indeed! They who say: ‘That blackguard, Javert,’ would be right. Monsieur Mayor, I do not wish you to treat me with kindness…it is easy to be kind, the difficulty is to be just. Had you been what I thought, I should not have been kind to you; not I. You would have seen, Monsieur Mayor. I ought to treat myself as I would treat anybody else…I must be sent away, broken, dismissed, that is right. I have hands: I can till the ground. It is all the same to me. Monsieur Mayor, the good of the service demands an example. I simply ask the dismissal of Inspector Javert.”

All this was said in a tone of proud humility, a desperate and resolute tone, which gave an indescribably whimsical grandeur to this oddly honest man.

 You see, that’s the problem with Javert’s worldview: he doesn’t give compassion, because he thinks it would be wrong to do so. Javert only sees things in black and white. Once you step outside the bounds of the law, he won’t show you any forgiveness or mercy, because he believes you don’t deserve it. That’s why he could not believe that Valjean or Fantine really were ill-used. And he feels that they can have no excuse for breaking the law, since he himself never did so, despite literally being born in prison; he knows it can be done.

Ultimately, Javert lacks one thing: Christianity. When you have Christianity, you can realize that yes, maybe this criminal doesn’t deserve compassion…but none of us do. However, though we don’t deserve it, we have been given it by God, and commanded to give it to each other. That is part of the tragedy of Javert’s inward struggle before his death: for the first time, he really realizes the presence of God, and realizes that that Presence is greater than the law. He realizes he’d been working for the wrong master his whole life.

Now, I don’t subscribe to the view some have that Javert was an atheist until that point. I think that in theory he was always a Christian – it states in the book that he always had the highest respect for religion and the religious: “To him, be it understood, ecclesiastical authority was the highest of all; he was devout, superficial, and correct, upon this point as upon all others. In his eyes, a priest was a spirit who was never mistaken, a nun was a being who never sinned. They were souls walled in from this world, with a single door which never opened but for the exit of truth.” He wouldn’t think that if he were an atheist; he’d think priests and nuns were just people wasting their time. I think he was so wrapped up in the law that he simply never stopped to think about God…until he let Jean Valjean go, and realized that there was a higher code of morals above simple lawfulness.

I believe that if Javert had turned his life around at that point, begged for mercy from his Maker, and tried to show that mercy to others, he would have been just as good a man as Jean Valjean. I really do. All Javert needed was the Christian-izing element to be a really great man. And the tragedy of Les Misérables (okay, not the tragedy, one of the very many tragedies) is that he didn’t do it.

But I still don’t think we need to write Javert off as a complete failure. Even in those last few moments, his worldview did change, to a degree. And we can never know what goes through someone’s mind in their last moments of life. Perhaps Javert did beg for forgiveness at the very end. In any case, especially when one takes into account his circumstances and his ignorance, the least we can do is to extend our forgiveness to him. (AND HOW ABOUT ACTUALLY INCLUDE HIM IN THE EPILOGUE IN THE MUSICAL. IF YOU’RE GOING TO ASSUME A RANDOM DRUNKARD LIKE GRANTAIRE IS IN HEAVEN, WHY NOT JAVERT.)

What do you think of Javert and his morality? Would you call him a villain, or just an antagonist? (Or even just a flawed major character?) If you were staging a production of Les Misérables, would you have Javert on stage for the last scene?