I understand that Javertโs characterization is meant to be representative of a wider societal mindset demonizing the impoverished and those forced to commit crimes to survive, keeping them in a cycle of prison and poverty. I understand that his single minded drive to punish a non violent single offender who did an objectively small and insignificant crime was meant to be an indictment on a cruel and corrupt system
But also taken literally within the narrative he is so funny
His life long white whale he could never stop chasing was a guy who served his full jail time for stealing one (1) loaf of bread but then didnโt meet with his parole officer. This man lived and died by his obsession with the worlds most boring offender
And then when he as a middle aged man considered for the first time that morality may not be black and white his reaction was to immediately kill himself
Most character ever
