Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Jean Valjean

There are plenty of characters in this story, but Jean Valjean is definitely our main man. For starters, he's in the book longer than anybody else. But on top of that, he's also the character who undergoes the biggest spiritual changes and challenges. He starts out as a desperate ex-con, then has a spiritual epiphany, then becomes rich, then becomes a fugitive, then becomes a dad, then saves his worst enemy's life, then dies. That sounds like a textbook protagonist to us.

And as with most protagonists, Valjean has to endure some pretty brutal moral conundrums along the way, like whether he should step forward and admit his true identity when someone else might go to jail in his place. We're happy to say that in the end, Valjean always does the right thing. It's nice to have a protagonist you can count on.