tragicbeauty1991

[tragicbeauty1991]

Les Mis Hidden Name Meanings: Jean Valjean

Every Les Mis character’s name is either a pun or has some deep symbolic meaning– or both at once! Jean Valjean’s name has a ton of layers so let’s dive in.

When we’re first introduced to him, Hugo tells us that his name is quote “a contraction of voilà Jean, or “here is Jean.”” We’re told that he was named after his father, and that his family name probably began as a nickname.

The word “Jean” in french sounds like the word “gens,” which means “people.” So his last name is a pun meant to make you think “viola les gens”/ “here are people.”

The most obvious layer to his name is that Jean Valjean is basically John Doe. He is the anonymous Everyman. His sister’s name is Jeanne, so she’s basically Jane Doe. They aren’t special or exceptional or unusual; they’re just behold! The regular people.

In fact his name is so common-sounding that it's a plot point. Champmathieu, the man who is mistaken for Jean Valjean, has a name that the police connect with his. Javert theorizes that "Champ" is a version of "Jean" in a specific accent, while Mathieu was actually Jean Valjean's sister's maiden name. ("Champ" is also the French word for "field.") The fact that Jean Valjean is a peasant everyman makes it easy for others in his position to be conflated with him.

But the other layer is that this is all an elaborate pun biblical reference!

When Pontius Pilate presents a bound Jesus Christ to the crowd before his crucifixion, he says the words “ecce homo” or “Here is the man!”/”behold the man!”

“Voila Jean” or “here is Jean!”/”behold Jean!” is meant to be a reference to that.

During his death scene Jean Voila-Jean even references the “Ecce homo” line explicitly, gesturing at a crucifix and saying:

“Voilà le grand martyr.”

Which Isabel Hapgood translates as “behold the great martyr.”

At another point in the same scene Marius says to Cosette:

“He has sacrificed himself. Viola l’Homme. Behold the man.”

But more references to that biblical moment appear throughout the novel; Jean Valjean is associated with it constantly, all the time. It’s one of his defining biblical allusions. He’ll be trying to live anonymously, or under an alias– and then suddenly his true name and criminal past will be revealed, he’ll be revealed to be ‘the man,’ and some great horrible act of martyrdom will follow.

Sometimes Jean Valjean is the one revealing his own identity, but sometimes Inspector Javert is put into the role of Pontius Pilate. Javert himself explicitly makes that comparison– Jean Valjean as Jesus, Javert as Pontius Pilate– when he’s contemplating suicide.

And this ties into one of the largest differences between the book and the stage musical.

In the musical, “prisoner 24601” is the name that represents Jean Valjean’s dehumanization–while “Jean Valjean” is the name he uses while standing up for his own humanity. He will be called 24601, and proudly declare that “my name is Jean Valjean” to assert he’s still a person.

And while this is a great storytelling choice, it’s almost the opposite of how the name “Jean Valjean” is handled in the book.

Because in the book…. Jean Valjean IS the name that dehumanizes him. Jean Valjean is the name that he’s running from. The name that Javert uses when he’s insulting him, the name that bigots use when they’re threatening him, the name that ignorant people use when they’re mocking him – it’s not 24601, it’s Jean Valjean.

And there’s a special kind of agony to that.

The name that is being used to torture, humiliate, and dehumanize him isn’t 24601– it’s his name.

He thinks of it as a “fatal name,” as a punishment. Living under that name is living in hell. When Jean Valjean is living under one of his aliases, concealing his identity, he thinks:

That which he had always feared most of all in his hours of self-communion, during his sleepless nights, was to ever hear that name {jean Valjean] pronounced; he had said to himself, that that would be the end of all things for him; that on the day when that name made its reappearance it would cause his new life to vanish from about him, and—who knows?—perhaps even his new soul from within him.

It’s no wonder that he ends up internalizing the way society views him, and developing so much fear and hatred of himself. He’s grown to see his name as just….well, ecce homo, behold the man. His name is just the two words people say before they violently punish him.

Names and namelessness are a major theme in Les Mis, and he’s the character who has the most complex relationship with his own names. He has a legal name, but it’s used to torture him, and he has a series of false names he uses to escape torture.

If I were to describe Jean Valjean– one of the most complex characters in all of literature, in one word, that word would be “grief.”

The criminal justice system takes everything from him, including things he wasn’t aware he was able to lose. His name, the last connection he had to his family and his old identity, gets warped into this thing needs to view with fear and horror. The thing society despises isn’t 24601, isn’t a number they’ve placed on him – the thing they despise is Jean Valjean, some intrinsic inherent part of himself. He isn’t hated for what he did, he’s hated for what he is, and that is something he can never escape.

{But speaking of complexity we’ve actually barely scratched the surface of how Jean Valjean reacts to names, because he spends most of the novel living under a series of nicknames aliases. And guess what! Each of these names also has some elaborate symbolic meaning! If you’re interested in more posts covering his different aliases, feel free to leave a comment in the replies!}

[thanks for reading! For more in-depth analysis, check out the @lesmisletters readalong or join our discord server!]

[tragicbeauty1991]

Listen, always having to have the villain die to be redeemed is a cop-out. I wanna them struggle and grow and have big feelings about who they used to be and the damage they did. I wanna see them fight their inner demons and work to convince not just everyone else but themselves that they can be more than their past. I wanna see them do whatever they can to repair relationships they ruined and heal the hurts they caused. I wanna see them choose light over darkness, love over hate, forgiveness over revenge. I wanna see them look their old self in the eyes and say, “I am not that person anymore. Whatever pain someone else caused me that made me into the monster that I was, the cycle of abuse ends now with me.”

Fandom Problem #6796:

"Not EVERY villain needs to have a redemption arc!!!" I mean…true, but villains are often interesting and fun to watch, so I hate that for a story to be considered to have a satisfactory ending, they have to die every time. Sometimes a redemption is the only way to get to have them stick around longer. Except that oftentimes a villain redemption will have them die almost instantly.

(Also most villains don't get a redemption arc, and just because you can list off a handful that did still isn't the same as "every villain" getting a redemption arc)

[tragicbeauty1991]

my favorite kind of character is the kind who deep in their soul is constantly screaming LOVE ME LOVE ME LOVE ME and outwardly expressing literally anything else

[tragicbeauty1991]

This is absolutely precious and adorable and it should have been used. I’m so glad we got the rough version here, though! Poor Donald carrying those crowns reminds me of Pascal and Maximus with the rings in “Tangled Ever After.”

OMG????

Fantasia 2000 - Disney Princess "Pomp and Circumstance" Deleted Scene

Everyone please watch this deleted scene...Woah...😶

This is masterpiece 😭😭

[tragicbeauty1991]

my taste in fictional men is just the unstable, traumatized and dangerous ones who radiate strong "I'm not a bad dog. I'm a wounded and terrified dog who bites to survive" vibes honestly

[tragicbeauty1991]

[tragicbeauty1991]

A debate that I’ve always found to be kind of odd in fandom spaces regarding redemption arcs is whether a character’s actions are forgivable. It’s relevant when discussing how other characters feel about them, and how you feel about them, but not whether they can/should have a redemption arc. A redemption arc isn’t about forgiveness. It’s not about “making up” for what they’ve done in the past, it’s about changing and making different choices in the future. Maybe a character has done horrible, unforgivable things. But if it’s well-written, they can still have a redemption arc. You don’t have to like them. The characters don’t have to like them. But that doesn’t stop it from being an entirely valid redemption arc.

[tragicbeauty1991]

Not my usual fandom content but I wanted to post here because I haven’t seen nearly as many people talking about the devastation in the Southeastern US from Hurricane Helene as I would have expected and wanted to make those who may not know the extent of the damage more aware of the situation from my personal experience. I don’t think people who aren’t living it realize just HOW bad it is.

This is a map showing the areas with power outages in the immediate aftermath of the storm and some stats on the rainfall.

I live in upstate SC, and we have been without power since the storm hit Friday. That means some of us have gone about a week with no refrigeration, no AC (it gets toasty down here even in the fall), no internet, no way of powering critical things like oxygen machines for those who require it, and no cell service in some places. We are slowly getting power back but the number of people without power is still in the thousands. Luckily, we do have a generator at my house and we didn’t have any major damage to the house, cars, etc. There are trees and power lines down everywhere, though. I heard about one older lady and her husband who had a tree fall on their camper with them in it… He passed away holding her hand while being crushed by the tree. She is in the hospital and will need rehab. It is getting easier now but for awhile was very difficult to get gas. People were waiting in line for hours. A lot of stores are still just now opening up and groceries are limited because so much was lost with no refrigeration. It was so bad someone pulled a gun in a grocery store to get fresh meat. We had a few places that had a curfew for awhile because all the streetlights and traffic lights were out and it wasn’t really safe to drive. But overall, compared to many, we are doing well. It’s inconvenient but not devastating.

These are some images from Greenville taken during the worst of the storm. I live about 30 minutes away from this area.

Western NC was hit MUCH worse. We were supposed to go to the Asheville/Hendersonville area for my anniversary this past weekend but fortunately we didn’t make it up there because entire towns were just wiped off the map. Chimney Rock Village, one of my favorite places to visit, is just GONE. Asheville was totally cut off from the outside world for a few days and only accessible via air. Flooding there was just DEVASTATING. Parts of I-40 and I-26 between NC and TN were totally washed out. People are reporting coming across bodies of those who didn’t make it out. At one point, over 1000 people in NC were considered missing…

Here’s a pic of the damage to I-40.

And here are some before and after pics of Chimney Rock Village and the surrounding area. Most of what was there is now in Lake Lure.

My church parish (I am Orthodox.) is working with IOCC to help with relief efforts in Western NC. If anyone is able to donate, please consider offering what you can. If you are not comfortable donating through a church organization, I’m sure there are others out there you can donate to but this is one that I know is legit.

If you find a group accepting physical donations rather than cash, these are some suggested guidelines.

Anyone else who has further info on how to donate or who lives in the area and would like to check in, please add your own updates.

[tragicbeauty1991]

A character can be sympathetic while still being 100% wrong; this is the entire premise of many unreliable narrators.

[tragicbeauty1991]

[tragicbeauty1991]

"are you okay?" no I got way too attached to a fictional character and now they're dead

[tragicbeauty1991]

[tragicbeauty1991]

thinking about how javert doesn't allow himself vices— except he does. of course there's his snuff habit, but there's also things he doesn't think of as vices. he lets himself enjoy the chase. he likes to make a sarcastic remark. he relishes the idea of surprising people with his successes. but his biggest indulgence is authority. he allows himself the comfort of not thinking, of following orders.

to javert, there is nothing like being the hound that gets rewarded for its unconditional obedience. not wine, not women, not friends— nothing compares to that feeling of safety, of usefulness, and the knowledge that the hierarchy his life is built upon is stable.

how could he live without this?

how can the dog live once it realizes the hand that feeds would just as soon let it starve?

how can the dog live once it asks for this? how can it live once it decides it deserves it?

[tragicbeauty1991]

coming up with an au were a dead character lives but shaking my head while i do it so everyone watching knows i support the role their death played in the narrative and consider it a legitimate writing choice

[tragicbeauty1991]

Thinking About Fictional Character while you have music on is such a risky activity. there’s no way EVERY song on this album is literally about Fictional Character. and yet……..

[tragicbeauty1991]

Working on a Javert feelings valvert comic (WAHOO) and here’s a sketch I rly liked

[tragicbeauty1991]

“My poor baby. My poor sweet little boy,” I lament out loud over a whole grown adult man who is not mine but is in fact a fictional character with fictional hurts. What matters is my feelings are real