Javert the character

                                                 Napoleon isn't dead kids, he just got a new job

  

 

For all those musical fans, I’m sure you are aware of Les Miserables, so you can skip the opening paragraph.  For those that don’t know, it was an old French written after the Revolution about the prison system, redemption, and poverty within the nation.  Jean is arrested for stealing a loaf of bread and is put in jail for 20 years (most of that is from escape attempts).   After his realize, he runs away, but eventually reforms, becoming a mayor and a businessman of a town who cares for everybody and an all around good person.  However a police man with some truly remarkable memory is sent after him, Inspector Javert, who is  more interesting as a character than Jean himself.  He is a man who was born inside a jail, but through some absurd hard work, worked his way into the law system.  He says that he has never broken a law and follows it to the letter, never allowing any injustice to slide.  

I’d say this was a complex and in-depth issue but um…LE.  Yeah.  Not much to say there.  He is Lawful by definition basically and while you might dub him LN, the system he supports is a pretty evil one and supports an unjust and unfair law system. 

Well that was a pretty simply article actually, so lets move on a bit from there into the character a bit more about the nature of the character.  I always liked the idea of Javert, an obviously antagonistic character whos total commitment to the law makes him a rather admirable character simply for his devotion, to the law and the idea of a perfectly “honorable” character in that he puts the law before anything else.  However this fails to strike a cord in a modern audience however, because quite frankly he lacks nobility.  The French law system at the time is so slanted and corrupted that it is really hard to feel conflicted for a guy who’s “law” is basically an oligarchy’s way of keep power.  What would make this character more interesting?  If he was supporting a more well, valid system I might feel a little more sympathy for him and more conflicted over who I should be rooting for (well I rooted for him anyways because Jean is kinda annoying but still).  For example, what if we had say….the same story in America.  Jean is like an African American who grew up in a horrible environment, (yeah I’m tapping a stereotype I know, but it is one that is based upon reality) with no father, a mother who had him while young and is involved in drugs and grows up without any proper education (because of the current American education for the poor is basically a huge “Fuck you”), and the people he grows up with are almost all involved with drugs, crime, prostitution, and gangs.  A generally good kid, who tries to help his folks, but not perfect, he does something stupid, as kids always do and find himself in jail for like 15 years.  After being realized, he reforms and starts trying to fix up his community.  The Javert character is either an FBI agent or some other sort of law enforcement who is trying to track Jean down and  bring him back to jail.  The difference here is that he follows American law to the letter, including getting warrants for ever address/search and making sure that no abuse is done to people below him.  In short, ensuring that while he does serve the role of the antagonist, he goes out of the way to make sure he upholds the law, so much as providing the main charater a fail trial.  That would be a lot more interesting I think, also if this Javert too came out of poverty and still was able to never break a law.  I don’t know, I thin the dynamic would be more interesting if you had a more kind legal system.

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EE