Jean Valjean 🔒 Members

🔒 Members only: join for £4.99 a month

Age and build

Robust and physically powerful in his prime

“He was intelligent, robust, adroit; he did his best” (Les Miserables, part 16)

Elderly and weakening by the novel's end

“he felt of his wrist and could not find his pulse; his breath was short and halted at times; he recognized the fact that he was weaker than he had ever been before” (Les Miserables, part 187)

Face and hair

Hair bristling wildly on his savage head

“his hair bristling all over his savage head” (Les Miserables, part 17)

Eyes that become frightful and glassy when troubled

“Jean Valjean’s eyes had assumed a frightful expression. They were no longer eyes; they were those deep and glassy objects which replace the glance in the case of certain wretched men” (Les Miserables, part 120)

Pale and hollow-eyed from sleeplessness

“He was very pale. His eyes were hollow, and so sunken in his head by sleeplessness that they nearly disappeared in their orbits” (Les Miserables, part 181)

Dress

Yellow passport marking him as a convict

“because of my yellow passport, which I had shown at the town-hall” (Les Miserables, part 13)

Poor man's clothes when travelling

“He still wore his yellow coat, his black breeches, and his old hat. In the street, he was taken for a poor man” (Les Miserables, part 60)

Workingman's clothes when going out alone

“When he went out alone, which was generally at night, he was always dressed in a workingman’s trousers and blouse, and wore a cap which concealed his face” (Les Miserables, part 117)

Voice and speech

Speaks with difficulty and embarrassment when accused

“he spoke with difficulty, replied with embarrassment, but his whole person, from head to foot, was a denial” (Les Miserables, part 39)

Cries out in a terrible voice when startled

“he stretched out his hand towards his cudgel and cried in a terrible voice, “Who’s there” (Les Miserables, part 18)

Speaks in a low, dull voice when confessing

“in a voice so low and dull that one would have said that he was talking to himself rather than to Marius” (Les Miserables, part 181)

Signature words

Conscience and duty

“I heard my father Fauchelevent through the door saying: ‘Conscience . . . doing my duty” (Les Miserables, part 182)

References to the galleys and his past

“I was nineteen years in the galleys. For theft” (Les Miserables, part 181)

Speaks of himself as outside of life

“I stand outside of life, sir” (Les Miserables, part 181)

Gait and mannerisms

Walks with his cap in hand, meditating

“Jean Valjean fell to meditating once more, his cap in his left hand, his club in his right hand” (Les Miserables, part 17)

Paces back and forth when troubled

“Jean Valjean was pacing to and fro. He paused before a mirror, and remained motionless” (Les Miserables, part 182)

Raises his hand to his brow when memory returns

“he raised his hand to his brow, a gesture habitual to those whose memory suddenly returns” (Les Miserables, part 120)

Sits in profound absorption and meditation

“Jean Valjean was sitting in a cross-walk on some planks deposited at the gate of a timber-yard. His face was turned towards the highway, his back towards the light; he had forgotten the sun which was on the point of rising; he had sunk into one of those profound absorptions” (Les Miserables, part 119)

Strengths

Herculean physical strength

“This scoundrel, who is endowed with Herculean strength, found means to escape” (Les Miserables, part 49)

Intelligent and capable at work

“He was intelligent, robust, adroit; he did his best; the master seemed pleased” (Les Miserables, part 16)

Unwavering moral conscience

“There is a silence which lies. And my lie, and my fraud and my indignity, and my cowardice and my treason and my crime, I should have drained drop by drop” (Les Miserables, part 181)

Capacity for redemption and transformation

“to save, not his person, but his soul; to become honest and good once more; to be a just man” (Les Miserables, part 32)

Flaws

Driven by instinct to escape rather than reason

“Instinct said to him, “Flee!” Reason would have said, “Remain!” But in the presence of so violent a temptation, reason vanished; nothing remained but instinct” (Les Miserables, part 15)

Initially wild and ferocious from galley years

“When he was recaptured, the fresh severities inflicted on him only served to render him still more wild” (Les Miserables, part 15)

Capable of dark thoughts toward Marius

“he thought he was becoming savage and ferocious once more, and he felt the old depths of his soul, which had formerly contained so much wrath, opening once more and rising up against that young man” (Les Miserables, part 119)

Traits

Devoted father to Cosette

“He held her hand as they walked, and said sweet things to her” (Les Miserables, part 60)

Generous to the poor and suffering

“he looked behind him to make sure that no one was observing him, stealthily approached the unfortunate man, put a piece of money into his hand, often a silver coin, and walked rapidly away” (Les Miserables, part 60)

Capable of profound pity and tenderness

“Upon his face and in his attitude there was nothing but inexpressible pity” (Les Miserables, part 43)

Tormented by his past and identity

“All situations have their instincts. Old and eternal Mother Nature warned Jean Valjean in a dim way of the presence of Marius. Jean Valjean shuddered to the very bottom of his soul” (Les Miserables, part 119)

Honest and truthful despite personal cost

“From what motive, in fact, has this convict just said ‘I am a convict’? Well, yes! the motive is strange. It is out of honesty” (Les Miserables, part 181)

Lines in their own words

Introducing himself to the Bishop

“My name is Jean Valjean. I am a convict from the galleys. I have passed nineteen years in the galleys” (Les Miserables, part 13)

Expressing his moral struggle

“I have a thread in my heart, which keeps me fast. It is when one is old that that sort of thread is particularly solid” (Les Miserables, part 181)

Declaring his exclusion from happiness

“I stand outside of life, sir” (Les Miserables, part 181)