Etienne Javert

Etienne Javert (1780-7 June 1832) was a French police inspector and detective who lived in Paris during the early 19th century. Starting his career as a prison guard at the notorious Bagne prison of Toulon, Javert rose in the ranks to become an inspector of the local police of Montreuil-sur-Mer in 1820 and later as an inspector in the capital of Paris, where he led a squad of policemen in a crackdown on the Patron-Minette gang. In 1832, he worked undercover to gather information on the republican revolutionaries amid the June Rebellion, and he was compromised and nearly executed, only to be saved by his nemesis Jean Valjean, who had broken his parole and been on the run for years. Javert grew disillusioned from his legalistic worldview after Valjean saved his life and that of the young revolutionary Marius Pontmercy, and, despondent, he drowned himself in the Seine.

Biography[]

Etienne Javert was born in 1780, the son of an imprisoned Romani fortune-teller mother and a father who served on a prison galley. Javert was disgusted by the "bohemian race" and "vagabond order" of his family, and became a staunch Roman Catholic who believed in strict legalism - those who abided by the law would be rewarded in heaven, and those who fell from grace would go to hell. Javert started his career as a guard at the notorious Bagne prison in the port city of Toulon in southern France, where he supervised the hard labor of the convicts, including the prisoner Jean Valjean (who had served five years for the crime of breaking a window pane and stealing a loaf of bread, and fourteen more years for his escape attempts). Valjean impressed Javert with his feats of physical strength, and, in 1815, Javert informed Valjean that he had been granted parole, although he warned him to strictly adhere to his itinerary. Valjean would go on to break his parole and start a new life for himself in Montreuil-sur-Mer, where he became a manufacturer and the Mayor under the pseudonym of "Monsieur Madeleine".

In 1820, Javert was appointed inspector of the police force of Montreuil-sur-Mer, where he met Monsieur Madeleine, failing to recognize him as Jean Valjean. In 1822, however, Javert watched as the Mayor lifted a runaway cart to rescue a man who had been pinned beneath it, causing Javert to suspect that Madeleine as Valjean. He filed a report to the authorities in Paris, but the Parisian authorities responded that they had recently rearrested Valjean, causing Javert to report to the Mayor and request that he file charges against him for issuing a false report. Javert also revealed that the real "Jean Valjean" had been rearrested and was due to appear in court that same day. Madeleine showed mercy, saying that everyone committed misjudgements during their lifetimes, and he asked Javert to return to his post.

However, Valjean revealed his identity before a court of law to save the innocent Champmathieu for arrest on his behalf, and he told the judge to ask Javert if he doubted Valjean's true identity; he also told the judge that Javert could find him at the Montreuil hospital. Javert confronted Valjean at the hospital after Fantine - who had asked Valjean to take care of her child - died, and Valjean begged Javert for three days to rescue Fantine's child, after which he would return to custody; Javert refused to accommodate Valjean and insisted on arresting him. Javert and Valjean argued and fought (Valjean with a wooden plank, Javert with his sword) until Valjean dove out of the hospital and into the sea, escaping Javert.

On 25 December 1823, Javert arrived at Montfermeil, where Valjean had gone to retrieve Fantine's orphaned daughter Cosette. Javert came too late, and the innkeepers Alain and Helene Thenardier told Javert hat Valjean had left with the girl without leaving a home address. Javert, infuriated, resolved to continue hunting down Valjean, and, over the next several years, he did so without any luck.

In 1832, Javert was appointed to head a squad of Parisian detectives sent to hunt down the Patron-Minette gang in the city; the gang was led by the Thenardiers, who had since lost their inn. Javert nearly found Valjean when he responded to the Thenardiers' attempted extortion of a passer-by; the Thenardiers identified the man as Valjean, and Javert ordered his subordinates to clear the criminals from the street as he continued his search for Valjean.

When the June Rebellion broke out in June 1832, Javert was assigned to infiltrate the revolutionary circles and discover their plans. At the funeral of General Jean Maximilien Lamarque, he rescued the revolutionary student Jacques Courfeyrac from the dragoons sent to disperse the rioters, and he also located a revolutionary cockade and put it on. As the revolutionaries assembled their barricades and their leader Julien Enjolras asked for one of them to serve as a spy, Javert, pretending to be an Army veteran, volunteered to use his past as a means of infiltrating the Army. Enjolras agreed, and, that night, Javert returned, claiming that the government had armies to spare, and that the government did not intend to attack that night, instead planning to starve the rebels out before any battle, and that they would attack in the morning. Javert's ruse was called by the young street urchin Gavroche, who identified Javert as a police inspector, and the revolutionaries proceeded to subdue Javert after a fight and tie him up in a nearby tavern.

Valjean shooting a wall after sparing Javert

Later that evening, Valjean then entered the tavern and cut Javert loose from his bonds. Javert taunted Valjean, saying that it was right for a bloodthirsty criminal to kill him with a knife, but Valjean assured Javert that his life was safe in his hands, and he cut him loose of his bonds. Javert, surprised, warned Valjean that he would continue to hunt him, and that Valjean still answered to Javert. Valjean assured Javert that he was wrong, and that he (Valjean) was no worse than any man; he also told Javert that there were no conditions or bargains necessary, and gave him his address on the Rue de Plumet for Javert to find him once the rebellion was over, saying that their paths would cross again. Valjean then shot a nearby wall, making it sound as if he had killed Javert, and he then returned to the others as Javert fled.

Javert searching the dead revolutionaries for Valjean

Javert returned to the site of the barricade after the National Guard assaulted it, inspecting the carnage. He was distressed at the sight of the young Gavroche among the bodies of the slain students, and a remorseful Javert unpinned his police medal and left it on Gavroche's body. Javert then searched for Valjean, and, upon noticing an open sewer great and hearing the sounds of a man grunting, Javert deduced that Valjean was in the sewers, and he made his way to the nearest entrance to confront Valjean.

Sure enough, Javert found Valjean carrying the wounded Marius Pontmercy after Valjean emerged from the sewers. A sewage-covered Valjean requested that Javert let him bring Marius to safety and say goodbye to Cosette before he would turn himself in, and Javert - while threatening to shoot Valjean - silently acquiesced, as he felt indebted for Valjean saving his life. Javert agreed to wait for Valjean's return, and Valjean returned to his home with Marius. At the same time, Javert felt deeply conflicted about his crumbling moral code, as he was unable to grapple with the fact that good and evil were not black-and-white. Javert was confused that Valjean had saved his life when he was intent on ending Valjean's, and, refusing to let Valjean have dominion over him, and rejecting a world in which his morals had no place, Javert jumped from a bridge and into the Seine, drowning himself.