Les Mis and Salvation

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Razanir

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I finally saw Les Misérable last weekend. Especially weird given it was in theatres and my high school did it two years ago. That aside, it was interesting because it was the first time in, well, EVER that I’ve noticed the main characters of something being explicitly Catholic and actually acting like it.

This, of course, got me thinking about the ending. Primarily that we saw Valjean in what was implied to be Heaven, but not Javert. Then I realized. After earning his freedom, Valjean runs into the Bishop of Digne and from there becomes Catholic. And from the looks of it, he’s fairly pious, if him praying at a home altar and carrying a Rosary mean anything. Because of this, I also wouldn’t be too shocked if he frequents Confession, especially with his troubled past. So in the end, it actually seems a perfectly reasonable possibility for him to have made it to Heaven.

On the other hand, there’s Inspector Javert.

Note: I know we’re not supposed to judge other people’s lives. But he’s a fictional character, and therefore it’s called “literary analysis” :rolleyes:

Anyway, he, also, can be assumed to be Catholic. The thing that stuck me with that was the scene where he is shown praying in Notre Dame. And in his defense, he acts only as he believes to be right. He strives to uphold the law first and foremost, even when it would indirectly hurt people, such as Cosette. However, he committed suicide at the end because he could not bear to be indebted to a former criminal (Valjean). And while we can’t judge a person’s salvation, suicide IS still a mortal sin. It’s presumptuous, assumes we know the end of our life better than God, and takes a life. And interestingly enough, we don’t see him in the finale.

Your thoughts?
 
Interesting.

I love Les Miserables. My kids are obsessed with it - and so we’ve seen various versions of it over the past 13 months.

I never thought about Javert not being in heaven at the end. It would be reasonable to think that Val Jean was simply being greeted by those who he had a great connection with.

Javert led his life in a way that he believed was the epitomy of piety. He saw the world as only black and white. He could not conceive that anybody that he thought of as bad could ever be anything but bad. So when he allowed Val Jean to escape at the end because he felt indebted to him because when the tables were reversed Val Jean let Javert out. He could not accept that he, himself, was caught in a trap - and no matter what he did, he was doing evil.

I can’t judge whether God would have overlooked his paradox. God doesn’t give us challenges that we are incapable of handling.

However, i recently saw an article on Victor Hugo. I think I remember that Hugo was agnostic. he saw the downside of the church. His son was totally anti-Catholic - and he was upset that Victor Hugo made the bishop such a protagonist. If I find the link, I’ll put it in this thread. It was an interesting article.

Here, I found the link to a Wall Street Journal Article:

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324669104578204281398771420.html
 
Razanir said:
I finally saw Les Misérable last weekend. Especially weird given it was in theatres and my high school did it two years ago. That aside, it was interesting because it was the first time in, well, EVER that I’ve noticed the main characters of something being explicitly Catholic and actually acting like it.

This, of course, got me thinking about the ending. Primarily that we saw Valjean in what was implied to be Heaven, but not Javert. Then I realized. After earning his freedom, Valjean runs into the Bishop of Digne and from there becomes Catholic. And from the looks of it, he’s fairly pious, if him praying at a home altar and carrying a Rosary mean anything. Because of this, I also wouldn’t be too shocked if he frequents Confession, especially with his troubled past. So in the end, it actually seems a perfectly reasonable possibility for him to have made it to Heaven.

On the other hand, there’s Inspector Javert.

Note: I know we’re not supposed to judge other people’s lives. But he’s a fictional character, and therefore it’s called “literary analysis” :rolleyes:

Anyway, he, also, can be assumed to be Catholic. The thing that stuck me with that was the scene where he is shown praying in Notre Dame. And in his defense, he acts only as he believes to be right. He strives to uphold the law first and foremost, even when it would indirectly hurt people, such as Cosette. However, he committed suicide at the end because he could not bear to be indebted to a former criminal (Valjean). And while we can’t judge a person’s salvation, suicide IS still a mortal sin. It’s presumptuous, assumes we know the end of our life better than God, and takes a life. And interestingly enough, we don’t see him in the finale.

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Javert’s sin parallels that of Judas. Theologically, Judas’s sin was not primarily that he betrayed our Lord (even Peter did that) - it is that he denied the possibility of being forgiven through God’s Grace. Suicide is an affront to the Holy Spirit. Similarly, Valjean extends unearned forgiveness and grace to Javert (he refuses to kill Javert, which Javert expects and even demands), and forgives Javert for his actions, not once but twice.

Valjean was extended unearned forgiveness and Grace by the Bishop, acting in persona Christi at the beginning of the film, which turned Valjean’s life around. By being open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Valjean becomes a better man and dedicates his life to God’s service. Javert is unable and unwilling to bend his hardened heart and accept the gift of forgiveness offered by Valjean, and takes his own life (even as Judas did).

If you listen to the music, the same musical theme occurs when the Bishop forgives Valjean as when Valjean forgives Javert in the sewers, and the musical theme when Valjean questions whether he is able to accept forgiveness from the Bishop in the chapel at the beginning of the film is reprised by Javert in the sewers before his suicide, after he is forgiven by Valjean.

Speaking of replaying musical themes…

(continued)
 
I bought the DVD and watched it again (the entire soundtrack was just released, too - the earlier soundtrack had only some of the songs).

The end scene (SPOILER ALERT) came in for some disapproval, even from many of those who liked the film version, as you see all the “good” characters (less Javert, of course) on the barricades again, and this was seen as too political an ending. Watching it again, I noticed that Valjean is focused throughout the film on his own salvation and the needs of others (he is seen giving alms to the poor, worrying about the needs of others, and praying - in the novel, it is made explicit how often he goes to Mass and seeks confession), and the triumphant reprise of the song at the very end captures this same focus…the need to care for others and follow Christ rather than any simple secular political party’s goals. The joyous tone at the end was not that of the student revolutionary’s secular and political goals from earlier in the movie, as they prepare for battle:

*Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Combeferre:
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?

Courfeyrac:
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!

All:
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Feuilly:
Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of France!

All:
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!*

Compare those lyrics to those singing in the Heaven of the epilog, which is that of the Church Triumphant in Heaven calling forth to the Church Militant on earth:

*Do you hear the people sing?
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the ploughshare, they will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!

Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the baricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes

Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the baricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!
Tomorrow comes!!!*
 
Arizona_Mike said:
in the novel, it is made explicit how often he goes to Mass and seeks confession
Click to expand...
I really have to read this book now. For this reason and also I’m interested to see what Javert is really like. Apparently the musical has a flanderized version of him, and he has much more character development in the book
 
Razanir said:
I really have to read this book now. For this reason and also I’m interested to see what Javert is really like. Apparently the musical has a flanderized version of him, and he has much more character development in the book
Click to expand...
It’s worthwhile. Characters that have a short scene in the play and movie become fully rounded characters with their own lives in the novel. Hugo had amazing insights into the psychology of his characters. Valjean’s agonizing over what to do about the man who has been falsely accused of being him goes on for a long time but is fascinating. I’m about 3/4 way through. Some of the digressions run on and on and can be kind of interesting but you want Hugo to advance the plot. The 100 or so pages that describe the Bishop before Valjean arrives remind me an awful lot of our new Pope.
 
Arizona_Mike said:
I bought the DVD and watched it again (the entire soundtrack was just released, too - the earlier soundtrack had only some of the songs).

The end scene (SPOILER ALERT) came in for some disapproval, even from many of those who liked the film version, as you see all the “good” characters (less Javert, of course) on the barricades again, and this was seen as too political an ending.
Click to expand...
Was the objection due to lack of faithfulness with the play/book? Or because of the political nature of it, per se?
 
VeritasLuxMea said:
Was the objection due to lack of faithfulness with the play/book? Or because of the political nature of it, per se?
Click to expand...
Happy Easter, VeritasLuxMea!

I read some reviews and on-line comments that felt returning to the barricades focused more on the secular, political goals of the revolutionaries (which again, I don’t feel was the case.) When I saw the touring company play on-stage, after Valjean’s death Epponine and Fantine throw their arms around Valjean and the three walk to the back of the stage, where the Bishop and the other deceased are waiting behind a back-lit scrim to welcome him into Heaven. The film perhaps wanted a bigger finishing scene, but I think it still works. One of the many things I liked about Hugh Jackman’s performance is the look of happy astonishment he has in the last scene as he realizes he has been saved - throughout the film, Valjean seems to be working out his salvation with fear and trembling.
 
There are a lot of other takeaways from the novel, too. Motivations become much deeper and richer (as in Marius’s relationship to his deceased father, and his relationship with his grandfather, briefly seen in the movie). The man who Valjean rescues from being crushed under the wagon becomes a much more important, and interesting, character. The extended scene of Cosette’s rescue by Valjean from the Thenardiers is very moving. You find out what happened to characters after the events of the play/film (the villainous Thenardier moved to the U.S. to become a slave trader), and relationships become more apparent (the little boy Gavroche is actually Thenardier’s son, abandoned to the streets.)
 
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