Part I, Book 8, Chapter 4
Authority Reasserts Its Rights
Fantine, who hasn’t seen Javert since he tried to arrest her for just existing, is rightfully terrified of him. “Monsieur Madeleine, save me!” she cries, and it is so sweet and heartbreaking how much she has come to rely on this man as her savior and protector. If you’ve ever rescued a sweet little cat, it’s the exact same energy.
It is the last time (as far as I know) that our main protagonist is ever referred to as “Madeleine.” He stands up and Hugo refers to him as “Jean Valjean,” saying, “from now on we shall not refer to him otherwise.”
As you may recall, Hugo called him “Jean Valjean” for the first time since Book 2 when he outed himself in the courtroom, but in the chapters since he has been called “Madeleine” again by the characters who know nothing about what went down in Arras. It feels significant that Hugo declares that Madeleine is no more and that Jean Valjean—now that he has been unmasked—is his only name now.
Poor Fantine has no idea what’s going on. To be fair, she never does. I frankly don’t think she’s understood anything going on in her life ever since she got with Bad News Tholomyès. She sees Javert seizing Jean Valjean by the collar and cannot fathom what is happening.
Valjean quietly asks to speak to Javert in private, but of course Javert doesn’t believe in the dignity of disgraced mayors, so Valjean–still very quietly—asks Javert to please give him three days to go get Fantine’s child. He offers to pay whatever is needed to allow this, and even says Javert can accompany him to make sure he doesn’t run off, but Javert is having none of it, because this man has cruelty running through his veins.
Javert yells, out loud, that it’s quite funny that Jean Valjean thinks Javert will let him go away for three days and that it’s a likely story he’s going to “fetch this whore’s child,” which of course exposes the lie that Fantine has been operating under and reveals to Fantine that Cosette is not there.
Fantine, very understandably, is upset at the realization that Cosette is in fact not near at hand, and cries that she wants to know what’s going on. Javert looks straight at her and tells her what’s going on: that her beloved Monsieur Madeleine is a fraud and that he’s really a convict named Jean Valjean and that everything she believes in is a big fat lie.
JAVERT, THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU.
This is all too much for Fantine, who dies from the shock. This now makes Javert the second character to kill someone by talking to them.
Fantine’s death here is incredibly upsetting in its cruelty and emotional violence, particularly for those of us who are used to her comparably more peaceful death in the musical. At least in “Come to Me” she passes with her beloved Madeleine by her side—and most importantly, without Javert in the room—and with full faith that this good man will take care of Cosette and keep her safe.
Book Fantine dies with all her hopes broken, which is an absolutely brutal way to go for a character who has already suffered so much.
Javert doesn’t lose a beat having just SHOCKED A WOMAN TO DEATH. He orders Valjean to move, and this is when Valjean takes that moment to remind us all that he secretly has Mr. Incredible powers: he strides over to an old iron bedstead in the corner, easily breaks off an iron strut like it’s nothing, and looks at Javert like the little rat he is. “I advise you not to disturb me just now,” he says calmly, like a total badass.
Javert backs into the corner and starts trembling because JAVERT IS A LITTLE BITCH. TREMBLE, BITCH, TREMBLE.
This whole situation is dire, but there’s also something so funny about the fact that Valjean just casually busts out the superhuman strength every once in a while to show people (Javert) that his compliance and gentleness is completely voluntary. Once again, this is cat behavior. I cannot believe Javert thinks he can contain this man.
While I would have liked to see Valjean proceed to beat the crap out of Javert, who definitely deserves it for breaking poor Fantine’s heart so bad she died, Valjean takes advantage of his Javert-cowering-in-the-corner time to quietly spend some time with the dead Fantine, gazing at her meditatively. He eventually whispers in her ear and Sister Simplice—who has apparently been here this entire time—said afterwards that after Valjean whispered to her, “an ineffable smile” appeared on Fantine’s face. I think this is highly implausible, but Simplice never lies, so I shall simply accept it and move on.
Valjean adjusts Fantine on the bed, tidying her hair and nightdress, closes her eyes, and kisses her hand. It is such a lovely touch, a peaceful goodbye to a woman who was so wronged in life. Having made his farewell—and, we assume, a promise—he then gives himself over to Javert.
Not in that way, you perverts.
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