Valjean v. Javert

Last Friday on the drive up to San Jose, I had the pleasure of listening to the London Cast Recording of Les Miserables. I had noticed in the past that "What I Have I Done" or Jean Valjean's soliloquy after leaving the priest's house forgiven and blessed was set to the same score as "Javert's Suicide." However, not until this listening did I fully realize that the composer was contrasting the two men's reactions to unrequested mercy. Both men had received mercy from someone they had wronged.

Jean Valjean was to be sentenced to be returned to jail for life had the priest not forgiven him for stealing and covered for him. To top it off, the priest told him to keep the stolen articles and then added more, claiming Jean Valjean for God! This was grace in addition to mercy. Jean Valjean, a victim of the unjust penal system that robbed him of sixteen years, wrestled with this likewise unjust act and decided to give his life to God. He accepted mercy, and the acceptance turned him to good.

Javert spent his life adhering to a perverted justice system. Strictly following the rules, which were technically just because they were the law, allowed him to think he controlled his life. When Jean Valjean freed him from an otherwise certain death penalty for spying, Javert could not accept this mercy. He had pursued Jean Valjean for years and, furthermore, perceived death as a just punishment for spying. Now, it's interesting that Jean Valjean did not necessarily think that he was giving Javert mercy. I think he saw it more as grace as Javert was "just doing his job.Javert, however, could not accept mercy from a "criminal." His pride and system of control could not psychologically or spiritually accept it. Thus, he committed suicide in order to satisfy his own rules. So fascinating! And set to the same music. The lyrics are below.

Valjean's Soliloquy
What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?
If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate this world
This world which had always hated me
Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!
One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom,
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit came to move my life?
Is there another way to go?
I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!

Javert's Suicide
Who is this man?
What sort of devil is he
To have me caught in a trap
And chose to let me go free?
It was his hour at last
To put a seal on my fate
Wipe out the past
And wash me clean off the slate!
All it would take was a flick of his knife.
Vengeance was his and he gave me back my life!
Damned if I'll live in the debt of thief
Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase
I am the law and the law is not mocked
I'll spit his pity right back in his face
There is nothing on Earth that we share
It is either Valjean or Javert!

How can I now allow this man
To hold dominion over me?
This desperate man that I have hunted
He gave me my life. He gave me freedom.
I should have parished by his hand
It was his right
It was my right to die as well
Instead I live.. but live in hell
And my thoughts fly apart
Can this man be believed?
Shall his sins be forgiven?
Shall his crimes be reprieved?
And must I now begin to doubt
Who never doubted all these years?
My heart is stone and still it trembles
The world I have known is lost in shadow
Is he from heaven or from hell?

And does he know
That granting me my life today
This man has killed me, even so?
I am reaching but I fall
And the stars are black and cold
As I stare into the void
Of a world that cannot hold
I'll escape now from that world
From the world of Jean Valjean
There is nowhere I can turn
There is no way to go on