ABSTRACT
Of all the characters in Victor Hugo’s novel, Inspector Javert is the most susceptible to the changes and mutations of adaptation, for he inhabits the unstable boundary between villain and tragic figure. Throughout the novel, Hugo complicates a straightforward reading of Javert. He encourages the reader’s reaction to oscillate from antipathy to pity and admiration, often evoking several contradictory responses to Javert at the same time through antithetical terms such as “all the evil of good” [“tout le mauvais du bon”; LML 230].2 Critical studies reveal the character’s paradoxical ambiguity and irreconcilable duality (Dubois; Roche 83-91). Kathryn Grossman analyzes him as a “failed hero” (Figuring Transcendence 80) who moves from self-confidence to self-destruction, observing that Hugo balances Javert’s infernal side with qualities deserving of respect (868). The possible ambiguity of how to judge Javert extends to his suicide, as J. A. Hiddleston’s varied readings of Javert’s “suicide” note suggest (204; see also Bradley 158, and Grant 163). By contrast, Valjean and characters such as Fantine remain sympathetic protagonists with whom we can empathize or admire in their positive trajectories toward selflessness. For a character such as Javert, even small changes through adaptation have the potential to tip the balance in our judgment of him as a villain or as an honorable though misguided man. Furthermore, since Javert is characterized as outwardly impassive and his external actions appear cruel, an understanding of his character and motivation depends crucially upon the access Hugo’s narrator gives us to Javert’s inner thoughts. This results in an additional challenge in transposing Javert to visual media, where psychological conflicts and mental processes are harder to convey. Indeed, the powerful internal drama of Javert’s suicide, crucial to Hugo’s larger message in the novel, runs the risk of being incomprehensible onscreen. Inspector Javert is thus arguably the character who is most prone either to flattening or to expansion in unexpected directions due to the freedoms and constraints of adaptation.
