PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

HugoÂ’s plot is intertwined with innumerable threads-that of the reconciliation between Marius and his grandfather, the ultimate defeat of the evil of Thenardier, the aspects of victory and defeat in the insurrection, the love affair between Marius and Cosette, and the constant chase of Javert for Valjean.

Holding it all together, however, is the psychological journey of Valjean who moves from place to place, doing good for all in an attempt to free himself from his own condemnation only to find that in order to free himself he must first reveal and debase himself before one who has the power to punish him. The galleys dehumanzied Valjean. Each new hiding place, each change of address restores some aspect of his humanity-although such restoration is often accompanied with emotional agony.

He is a whole person again at the moment of his death because it is at that moment that he is able to accept the forgiveness of others and thereby realize that he has finally forgiven himself for crimes of which the medieval styled law has convicted him. He lives a martyr of the law and dies a martyr to himself.

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