page_title: Jean Valjean
section_title: Part One: Fantine
hierarchical_section_title: Jean Valjean / In the novel / Part One: Fantine
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Il lui ferma les yeux, illustration d'Émile Bayard pour l'édition Eugène Hugues du roman de Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, 1ère partie, "Fantine", livre 8e, "Contre-coup", chapitre 4, "L'autorité reprend ses droits".
context_page_description: Jean Valjean is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables. The story depicts the character's 19-year-long struggle to lead a normal life after serving a prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his sister's children during a time of economic depression and various attempts to escape from prison. Valjean is also known in the novel as Monsieur Madeleine, Ultime Fauchelevent, Monsieur Leblanc, and Urbain Fabre.
  Valjean and police Inspector Javert, who repeatedly encounters Valjean and attempts to return him to prison, have become archetypes in literary culture. In the popular imagination, the character of Jean Valjean came to represent Hugo himself.
  In 1871, when Hugo was living in Brussels during the radical revolt known as the Paris Commune, anti-revolutionary mobs attacked his house and broke windows shouting "Down with Jean Valjean!"
context_section_description: After devoting the novel's opening chapters to Bishop Myriel, a kind-hearted old clergyman in the town of Digne, Hugo, without any transition, launches into the story of Valjean. He is a strange man, who arrives one October evening in Digne, searches for a place to stay the night and is turned away. At last he is taken in by the bishop, who trusts him, feeds him supper, and gives him a bed for the night. Hugo then details Valjean's background. He was born sometime in 1769 in a small town and orphaned as a child. He became a pruner and helped support his widowed sister and her seven children. In the winter of 1795, when resources were scarce, Valjean stole a loaf of bread from a local baker by breaking the window. He was caught and imprisoned for five years in the Bagne of Toulon, the Toulon prison. He attempted to escape four times, and each time his sentence was lengthened by three years; he also received an extra two years for once resisting recapture during his second escape. After nineteen years in prison, he was released, but by law must carry a yellow passport that announces he is an ex-convict.
  During the night, he awakens and steals the bishop's silverware and silver plates, and runs off. He is arrested and brought back to the bishop. However, the Bishop admonishes Valjean (in front of the police) for forgetting to also take the silver candlesticks that he'd given Valjean, reminding Valjean of his "promise" to use the silver to become an honest man, claiming to have bought Valjean's soul with it, withdrawing it from evil and giving it to God. Despite the Bishop's words, it is later revealed that the police marked the event down in Valjean's permanent record.
  Bewildered and not understanding what the bishop is talking about, Jean Valjean heads instead back out into the nearby mountains and meets a young traveling worker from Savoy named Petit Gervais. Valjean places his foot on a coin that Petit Gervais drops, then refuses to return it, despite Gervais' protests, and threatens to beat him. When the boy flees the scene and Valjean comes to his senses, remembering what the bishop told him, he is ashamed of what he has done and searches for the boy in vain.
  Hugo introduces Fantine and explains how she came to be abandoned by her child's father. In late 1815, Jean Valjean, now using the name Madeleine, arrives in Montreuil-sur-Mer. He revolutionizes the town's manufacturing and earns a fortune, which he spends mostly for the town's good, paying for the maintenance (including required staff) of hospital beds, orphanages and schools. He is appointed mayor after refusing the first time. He declines the king's offer to make him a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
  Madeleine (Valjean) saves an old man named Fauchelevent from death. Fauchelevent had fallen beneath his wagon as his horse fell and broke two of its legs. Madeleine offers to pay anyone who could raise the wagon but nobody wants to risk his life climbing under the wagon. Javert, who witnessed the scene, tells Madeleine that he had only known of one man capable of doing such a feat, and that was a convict doing forced labor in Toulon. Madeleine turns pale, but gets down into the mud and lifts the wagon off Fauchelevent. Since Fauchelevent had earlier lost his business and now had a broken kneecap, Madeleine (Valjean) arranges a job at a convent for Fauchelevent. Valjean also brings the broken cart and horse as an excuse to give Fauchelevent money.
  Later, Javert arrests Fantine, who has become a prostitute, when he sees her scratch and try to hit a bourgeois named Bamatabois, who had taunted Fantine and thrown snow down her dress while she walked back and forth trying to get business. Valjean was told what had happened and knew that Bamatabois should have been the one arrested and ordered Fantine free. Javert knew only what he'd seen and was furious with Valjean for interfering with police work. When Valjean orders Javert to leave in front of Javert's squad, Javert leaves and denounces "Madeleine" to the prefect of police at Paris, saying that he suspects Madeleine is
caption: The death of Fantine; Valjean (as Monsieur Madeleine) closes her eyes.
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