Worldviewing - Tumblr Posts
5.5.5: Déposez plutôt votre argent dans telle forêt que chez tel notaire
I would just like to note that Jean Valjean’s only response to Javert’s suicide is to (1) note that he’s free, and (2) think that Javert must have already been crazy to let him go. There’s not an ounce of sadness or regret or even pity about it. Not that I blame Valjean at all. And it’s not even unusual for him. Valjean generally reserves his emotion for Cosette at the best of times, which this is not: he’s already benumbed by her impending marriage.
But the fact that he thinks Javert must have been crazy—as opposed to having changed for the better if just for one moment—is ominous, because it means he’s fully internalized Javert’s worldview. That’s what that action is to Javert, from within Javert’s ideology and viewpoint: madness. Total disorder. And not just a momentary madness, but a sign that sanity and order are henceforth impossible for him. His existence will be wrong no matter what, like I discussed here. Javert would not want Valjean’s pity even a little bit, and believed letting Valjean go was either sin or madness, and is either way unacceptable. That’s part of why I have no objection to the usual musical staging, where Javert isn’t in “barricade heaven” at the end. Javert does not want to be there. He wants no part of the “world of Jean Valjean,” as he sings in the musical. He resigns from God to get away from that world when it looks like that world might exist on earth. And he sure wouldn’t want to live in the kind world where Jean Valjeans are commonly treated with respect, which is what the barricade heaven is. Javert is not someone who hates himself. He hates the class his parents belonged to. Not only does he tries to dissociate himself from other members of that class as much as he can, but he also actively tries to keep them down and oppress them. And he does this for decades, as an adult. He’s not a child like Azelma or Éponine, under the control of their mother, and taking their cues from her regarding how to treat Cosette. He hates that class and does not want to be part of a world where it’s free. Which is part of why Valjean doesn’t really think anything about his suicide after releasing Valjean other than “…well, he was clearly off his rocker anyway.”
…but those are Javert’s standards, not Valjean’s. By Valjean’s own standards, Javert having a moment of understanding and respect for one of the misérables is a change for the better. But Valjean does not apply those standards to himself. He’s internalized Javert’s standards when it comes to himself, meaning he’s internalized self-hatred.
