Les Miserables Jean Valjean Character Analysis

Jean Valjean, the main character in Victor Hugo 's novel Les Miserables, hasn’t always been a good man, he once was a thief who stole a loaf of bread for his sister 's children. While this could be a good deed by some people, the law disagreed. He was caught and sentenced to five years in prison, with an additional fourteen years for trying to escape. By now, he had an inescapable reputation as a thief. The Bishop was the first person to give Valjean the chance to prove that he was an honest man and Cosette allowed him opportunities to make the right decision. Jean Valjean had promised he would become an honest man, not solely for the Bishop, but eventually for Cosette and himself.

The Bishop was the man that gave Jean Valjean a chance. When it seems that there was no hope for the former convict, Monseigneur Bienvenu was the only one who would give him a place for the night. He took pity on the slave but was also aware that God was

"Suddenly the world / Seems a different place/ Somehow full of grace, / Full of light" Such a young girl had quite the effect on the former convicts darkened heart. Cosette was Jean Valjean 's sun. She was bright and beautiful. She gave him hope, a completely different feeling than what he was experiencing. This man who had a life of constant disappointment and lack of compassion suddenly had a life full of laughter and contentment. But even Cosette had failed to love. She was always rejected, "… She had tried to love. She had not been able to succeed. Everybody had repelled her – the Thenardiers, their children, other children," (Hugo 123). Somehow this little sunshine of a girl has given Valjean another reason to be a good man and to be what she needed him to be, someone to love. In finding characters to give him support and reason to become a good man, Valjean also found reasons within himself to be contrasting with others ' view of