Misrable Essay, Research Paper
Hugo, Victor: Les Meserables
protaganist and antaganists
Good
In the novel Les Mesarables there are both protagonists and antagonists in it.
One of the major protagonists is Jean Valjean. He was once a bad character but now he
has changed for the good by the love and kindness shown to him by one man has changed his
whole life. And one of the major antagonists is Thnenardier. From the beginning we see
all that can be bad inside of a character, and later in the story he even tries to kill
Valjean to get money.
Jean Valjean starts off in the story as being a convict that has been in the galleys for
19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. But through the bishop’s love and kindness that he shows
him rub off onto Valjean and then we slowly see a change of heart in him after he realizes all
the wrong that he has done in his lifetime so far. His first heroic act happens when he comes
upon the village of m___ sur m____, where he goes rescues two kids from a burning building.
And by doing this he is thought to be a hero and is welcomed in this town so he stays and makes
a fortune off an invention. And he uses a lot of the money that he has made and gives a lot of
it to the city and the poor. After a while he becomes mayor and by doing this he is able to help
the city out even more. One day, one of the few enemies he has, gets caught between a carriage
and he goes and risks his life by going under and lifting up the carriage and saves his life, he
also pays the hospital bills, and pays for the broken carriage and the dead horse. After all this
another name by a name of Champmathieu is convicted of the crimes that Jean Valjean has committed.
But he decides to reveal his identity and his past to help save Champmathieu’s life, by doing
this he risks losing his new found life, and all that he has earned, and going back to the galleys.
He does this because this is what is right and he feels he must do it at all costs. After this
Valjean goes and looks after Fantine, who is very sick and promises to get her child for her.
But before he can do this he is put on a ship to go to the galleys, but while he is on this ship
he saves a sailor who almost falls over board. After this happens he goes and gets Cossette from
the Thenardier’s full filling his promise, and he treats her like a daughter. And he also decided
to take Cossette out of the covenient to give her free choice in what she wants to do in her life.
Later, we find out that Jean Valjean is still giving to the poor when he acts as a philanthropist
at the Thenardiers’s apartment. Later when Jean Valjean is in the barricades, he has a chance to
kill Javert, who has been following him around, and trying to send him to the galleys, has mercy
on him by not killing him as well as letting him go. He yet saves another persons life when
Marius gets wounded he goes and carries Marius threw 4 miles of sewers back to his house. And
later in the story he tells Cossette that they have to forgive the Thenardiers for all the bad
and wrong that they have done to them.
From the beginning we see that Thenardier is an antagonist in the story. When we see
Fantine, a woman who’s husband just dies, is looking for a job and has next to no money, who
is raising up a child Thenardier begins to con her into paying more money then was needed to
raise up the child Cossette. And when they start off raising Cossette he sells off all of
her clothes and dresses her in rags, he feeds her scraps and leftovers for food, and made
her into a servant into the servant of the house and yet he still demanded more money from
the mother to raise Cossette up, and lied when inquired how Cossette was by saying that she
was very happy. The second time we see Thenardier is when he is living in an apartment and
tries to con Jean Valjean, who gives money to all those people who sees has the need for it,
into giving him a lot of money by making himself look like he is worst off then he really is.
One of the ways he does this is by making his youngest daughter break the window with her
hand to make it feel colder in the room, when she does this, her hand starts bleeding and
Thenardier looks at this as a good thing because it would make them look worse then they really
are. When Valjean comes he threatens to kill him unless Valjean gives him money, and almost
does but Valjean escapes.
Later in the story we see Thenardier in the sewers greedily trying to sell a key to
Valjean for some money. And at the end of the novel we see Thenardier trying to destroy
Valjean’s reputation by selling some misinterpreted information that he has seen to Marius.
As we can see in real life there are many different types of people, some are good and
some are bad. But even though there are many bad people in the world we have to learn to live
with them and give them a chance, or show them kindness or love and then they might turn out
to become one of the good people in the world.