I'm so glad you say that because yeah, I feel like there must have been tons of meta on so many things and yet Tumblr makes it really hard to search for things, or maybe it's because I'm just not very Tumblr-savvy at all. /o\ So I'm glad I'm not boring everyone with the 100th rehash of Hugo's heavy-handed symbolism.
But yeah, that image of Javert wrestling with Valjean in the dark is so fascinating to me, because like you say it shows that completely different approach Javert has - he can't even acknowledge to himself why he wrestles that long with Valjean, and certainly, even after the truth is finally revealed about Madeleine, he could very easily see that it was only possible for Valjean to hide that long and to do all the good he did because he genuinely did good.
And I guess it is still a very black-and-white way of seeing the world, of seeing only degradation both ways, no matter whether he lets Valjean go or turns him in. For one thing, if Javert could choose that degradation of letting him go and facing the fact that he had been wrong all his life, he might find that God/fate would place a rock beneath him as well if he could just take that step. And also, he might find that the world is not that black and white after all, and that some degradation is easier to bear if your suffering is for the good of another person, and if you know that you are morally right even if you place yourself above the law.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-04-21 11:14 pm (UTC)But yeah, that image of Javert wrestling with Valjean in the dark is so fascinating to me, because like you say it shows that completely different approach Javert has - he can't even acknowledge to himself why he wrestles that long with Valjean, and certainly, even after the truth is finally revealed about Madeleine, he could very easily see that it was only possible for Valjean to hide that long and to do all the good he did because he genuinely did good.
And I guess it is still a very black-and-white way of seeing the world, of seeing only degradation both ways, no matter whether he lets Valjean go or turns him in. For one thing, if Javert could choose that degradation of letting him go and facing the fact that he had been wrong all his life, he might find that God/fate would place a rock beneath him as well if he could just take that step. And also, he might find that the world is not that black and white after all, and that some degradation is easier to bear if your suffering is for the good of another person, and if you know that you are morally right even if you place yourself above the law.