Characters In Les Miserables

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, is a tale of the poor who suffer throughout their lives. The novel can be looked at in many different viewpoints, specifically, in the way the characters can be seen. Each one has their own personality and own story, yet, in a way they are not so different. Each one goes through something and deals with some sort of pain or suffering. Throughout the novel, as each character is introduced such as Javert, Fantine, and Jean Valjean, we find that no one character is more sacrificial or more resilient than the other. One protagonist, by the name of Javert, sacrificed everything he believed in and himself just for his enemy. In the novel, Javert is on a pursuit to find a man named Jean Valjean. Valjean, who was once

Fantine, a young girl in the novel, has a child out of wedlock named Cosette. However, Fantine is not fit to support her daughter, so she has to make the biggest sacrifice any mother can make— giving up Cosette to live with the Thenaradiers in hope that she’ll have a better and more successful life. In the meantime, Fantine works fifteen hours a day to support Cosette, but unfortunately, her status of being an unwed mother is revealed causing Fantine to be let go from her job. Soon, “She could not earn enough and her debts grew. The Thénardiers bombarded her with letters, heartrending in tone and ominous in their exactions” (Hugo) which forced Fantine to sacrifice everything she had—the little amount she had left for money, her hair, and her teeth. Eventually, it came to a point where Fantine said, “Well…I may as well sell the rest” (Hugo), referring to prostitution. She gave up her entire self, for the happiness of her daughter, and through it all, Fantine showed resiliency. In the novel, she battles through the circumstances that she endures and overcomes them when her rescuer, Valjean, liberates her from