Jean Valjean In Les Miserables

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Victor Hugo specifies that Jean Valjean is a cruel, broken-hearted man that is ultimately changed by the acts of love and compassion by the people around him in the novel, Les Miserables. Jean Valjean course of life after prison sets him up at the Bishop’s house, leading him to meet the kind Bishop. With the Bishop’s kind acts that Valjean has embraced, Valjean spreads his kindness and sympathy to others along the way. With all this kindness and goodness in Valjean, connecting to God will become an attainable goal for Valjean. After having societies back turned on him, Valjean struggles to find a place to settle for the night and days to come, this leads him to end up at the Bishops house. At this point, Myriel, the Bishop, invites Valjean for dinner and to stay the night. The Bishop is the first person in the novel, Les Miserables, to accept the ex-convict, and look past the 19 years that this man spent in prison. Valjean cannot realize what has happened to him, no one has given …show more content…
This comes to show how hard prison life was for Valjean. After working on a ship, one of the shipmates fall off the boat and Valjean, sticking to an old promise, saves this man's life at risk of his own. This risk pays off very nicely, everyone thinks Valjean is dead so he escapes prison just like that. After escaping he goes to Fantine's daughter, Cosette, to take care of her and love her. Valjean is saving this girl from terrible conditions and horrible lifestyle. Their bond begins to grow very quickly and rapidly, this love is not like a father-daughter love, it can be compared more to a mother-daughter love, making this bond extremely strong. This love could be described as “something very incomprehensible and very sweet, this grand emotion of a heart in its first love”(Hugo, 123). This love from Valjean comes with protection and care to contribute to his lifelong goal of becoming a better

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