Character Clues

Character Analysis

Actions

You could say that this entire book stems from the generous actions of Bishop Myriel, who forgives Jean Valjean for robbing him and even gives him all his (Myriel's) expensive silverware to sell and start a new life with. That's exactly what Valjean does, and he spends the rest of his life trying to do nice things for other people.

But not everyone in this book is so nice. In contrast to Valjean, you find a character like Thénardier, who devotes every moment of his waking life to cheating other people and getting as much money for himself as he possibly can. As we talk about in Writing Style, Hugo is a fact-based guy at heart, so people's actions say a lot about their character in Les Misérables.

Clothing

In a society that revolves around keeping people in the class they belong, clothing is a huge marker of a person's character, because everyone knows that only good people carry Hermès bags. Right?

Wrong-o. In Les Mis, people are constantly making bad judgments about people's character in this book. Jean Valjean, for example, dresses like a poor man even though he has a ton of money. People are even reluctant to serve him in a tavern because he looks so shabby. And once they find out he has money, they become deeply confused about why a wealthy person would ever choose to wear such cheap clothes.

It goes to show how something as simple as clothing can totally scramble the brains of people who are so used to treating people based on their social class instead of how good a person they are.

Direct Characterization

Hugo likes his readers to size up characters based on their actions, but sometimes he just can't resist telling us directly about his characters—especially when it comes to Inspector Javert. There a good reason for that: he wants us to sympathize with Javert, and since Javert doesn't perform many nice actions in this book, it's up to Hugo to defend him. (Want to know more about this hard-to-love guy? Check out our "Character Analysis.")

Family Life

Ah, family. Your rock. The people you can always count on to stand by you and support you when times are tough. The place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.

Unless, that is, they kick you out when you're still young enough to believe in Santa Claus, whether they have to or want you. Take Cosette. Her poor mother has no choice but to send her to live with the Thénardiers, and these people treat her like an animal for her entire childhood. Cosette gets a better experience of family, though, when Jean Valjean adopts her. Meanwhile, the character Marius spends most of this book estranged from his grandfather until they finally reunite in the end. (And let's not even talk about how the Thénardiers treat their bio kids.)

At the end of the day, Victor Hugo seems to tell us that treating one another with love and support should be something we all do for one another. In other words, the more people we can treat like family, the better.

Occupation

Inspector Javert is a detective, so guess what? His entire life is based on his ability to hunt down criminals and send them to jail. Thénardier is a landlord and a thief, and he spends all of his days trying to scam money out of people. Yup, you can tell a lot about the people in this book from their chosen profession and what they choose to do with it.

Marius is a lawyer (but not a successful on, ba-dum-ching!) who believes in social justice, and Jean Valjean is a rich factory owner who is kind to all his employees. No matter what a person's occupation is, Hugo suggests that everyone is capable of being kind to others. Your occupation might say a lot about you, but you can always change the way you go about the work you do.

Physical Appearance

Hugo wants us to judge people based on their actions, but even he often gives into the temptation to judge people based on their appearance. There are numerous characters in this book, for example, like Thénardier and his criminal buddies, whose ugly appearances are tied directly to their ugly personalities.

Here's the key thing, though: like a person's character, an appearance can change. Just look at Cosette, who starts this book as a girl who's been made ugly by years of neglect. After she comes to live with Jean Valjean, she slowly turns into a beautiful girl.