Les Miserables Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Jean Valjean

A hardened ex-convict, nineteen years in the galleys for stealing bread, who arrives in Digne expecting cruelty and receives the opposite. He spends the rest of his life trying to become the man the bishop insisted he already was.

Appears in:: Part 1: A Door Slams in Every Face; Part 2: Silver on the Table; Part 3: Caught, and Then Undone by Kindness; Part 4: A New Man, Built on a Lie of Mercy
Themes:: Mercy over justice; The possibility of becoming someone else; Poverty as a machine that manufactures crime; Conscience as a debt you cannot discharge

Monseigneur Bienvenu

The Bishop of Digne, an old man who has given away his palace, his carriage, and nearly everything else, keeping only the silver. He sees a thief at his table and calls him a guest.

Appears in:: Part 1: A Door Slams in Every Face; Part 2: Silver on the Table; Part 3: Caught, and Then Undone by Kindness
Themes:: Mercy over justice

Madame Magloire

The bishop's housekeeper and the practical conscience of the household, who hangs the silver by the bishop's bed every night because she trusts no stranger. She is right, and it does not matter.

Appears in:: Part 1: A Door Slams in Every Face; Part 2: Silver on the Table

Javert

The policeman who believes the law is the same thing as justice and cannot forgive a man for being more than his record. He hunts Valjean for decades and is destroyed by the moment Valjean shows him mercy.

Appears in:: Part 4: A New Man, Built on a Lie of Mercy
Themes:: Mercy over justice

How they are connected

Key relationships

Javert Jean Valjean
He hunts Valjean for decades and is destroyed by the moment Valjean shows him mercy.

Go deeper

Les Miserables themes & symbols

Mercy over justice · The possibility of becoming someone else · Poverty as a machine that manufactures crime · Conscience as a debt you cannot discharge

Themes explained

Read the full Les Miserables summary

The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.

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