In your opinion, is Inspector Javert a hero in Les Mis?

Yeah, but what we're discussing here has nothing to do with the music or musical performance.

 

Sure... but that doesn't affect my analysis in any way. You're actually reinforcing it. Whether one dimensional as he is through most of the book, or potentially more multifaceted as in the end, Javer is there to help tell a story and maybe make a point about the human condition. We're essentially saying the same thing.

 

No sense in defending yourself. Your thread was moved.

As it should have been.

 

I just didn't understand what the fictional part had to do with it. Might he also have been the same as a non-fictional character? That I guess was my question.

 

I think you explained nicely how it relates to being a fictional character ( composite).

A fictional character may represent something. A real life example might not exist who adequately represents the point being made.

 

Valjean broke parole. That's why Javert kept trying to bring him in.

 

In the Victor Hugo book, he’s meant to be a kind of villain.

 

Perhaps the musical made him more sympathetic.

 

Javert represented French society of the time, cold and uncaring, relentless in the persecution of those such as Valjean and Fantine. His suicide perhaps represented the hope that society could reconsider it's treatment of les misérables.

Javert was society and society was the villain.

 

Neither. Just a man of principles.
"Hero" and "villain" are concepts that should not be used too much outside the superhero stuff...
I prefer myself "lead" and "antagonist" better.

 

Nicely said.
It's a heck of a book.

 

Very excellent point. Every character is just that (or should be). Black and white characters have no dimension to them. Even Darth Vader was a complex and compelling character.

 

He was the law, and the law is NOT MOCKED!

 

Horrible casting of the film of the musical aside, Javert is definitely, or rather ultimately, a hero.

 

This presumes self-slaughter as something outside the acceptable range of human choice.

And/or that Javert is not heroically battling some form/s of mental illness.

 

He possesses the humanity to recognize that he's done Valjean terrible wrongs in pursuit of what he believed was right, and is tormented by this; he's heroically human.

 

The various "transgressions" of both Valjean and Javert are far more numerous and complex than the incidents noted above.

 

Characters have lives beyond the full understanding of their authors.

And their readers.

Examining these unexpressed/unexposed aspects of their lives is one of the great joys of fiction.

 

He also stole from the child, though Javert doesn't know this.

 

And that part was not in the musical

 

The musical is too busy with it's 800 songs (and 1200 reprises of those songs) promising a bright new tomorrow via revolution!

 

The songs are good, so I won't complain!

 

I sppose that it is good to have songs in a musical...

What they have done with this musical was to practically make it an opera. If you watch the 10th or the 25th anniversary videos of the play, the characters stand on an open stage and sing one musical number after another.

The numbers are tied together with brief dialog by the actors standing in front of mic stands, while in character.

It literally strips away the "play" itself and takes everything back to the core if the production. Once we see and recognize this, we have a clarity on the entire story, how it is presented as a musical, be it the play or the movie version.

Yes, there are songs and reprisals.

 

That's part of what I love about Les Mis...there is virtually no spoken dialog, and no dancing either. It's a story told through music. I can't dance, and I never cared for watching people dance, what's the point? Musicals are better without dance. And I'd rather hear nice melodies than hear people talk.