Opening of the darkness

 Greetings!

“All that he had believed was dissipated. Truths, which he had no wish for, inexorably besieged him. He must henceforth be another man. He suffered the strange pangs of a conscience suddenly operated on for the cataract. He felt that he was emptied, useless, broken off from his past life, destitute, dissolved.”

From  Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Book IV, Chapter 1: Javert’s Suicide.

Jean Valjean and Javert stand poles apart as we dive into this eponimous magnum opus of Victor Hugo. But through ups, downs, turns and misdirections in this literary journey - they seem to reverse their fate while following their own callings relentlessly.

Jean, a simpleton and convict of draconian law and running away from it, using his bullok-like strength and rustic sense. 

Javert, a firm believer in the letter of law, and enforcing it with napolean-like zeal, using his ruthless intellect and firm actions.   

As we go through travails of Jean, the likelihood of Book IV being about Jean's suicide seems all the more likely, but not that of Javert's!

So, what really happened? What beliefs of Javert dissipated? What truths besieged him? What made him feel emptied, useless and broke him off from his past life?

Victor was too talented an author to build such characters and not give an eloquent answer. 

Here it is.

“Was it not frightful that Javert and Jean Valjean, the men made to punish and the men made to endure, that these two men, who were both the property of the law, should have reached the point of placing themselves both above the law? What? Such enormities could happen and no one be punished? Jean Valjean, stronger than the whole social order, would be free, and he, Javert, would continue to eat the bread of the government!”

Jean Valjean learnt to chose human morality, a compass of compassion to define his purpose, his raison d'etre. His learnings made him stronger than the whole social order. 

While Javert simply let the written word of law become his moral code and found himself at the cross-roads of his personal code and human morality, where his beliefs along with his self image were shattered mercilessly, against the enormity of facing something that is beyond the realm of law.

I think, this is the greatest of the learnings, from this tragic yet poignant tale.

That, we have to muster courage enough to question own moral code through experiences of life.

Then, we have to be resolute enough to reflect on these questions thoroughly, even when they stand against all of our beliefs.

Finally, we have to be humble enough to accept the outcomes of such soul searching reflection, and then rebuild our moral code.

Else, at the end, we all face the possibility of gazing into the opening of the darkness, in an abyss which would have otherwise been our soul!  

"Javert remained for some moments motionless, gazing at this opening of the darkness, and considered the invisible with an intentness which resembled attention. All at once he took off his hat and placed it on the brink of the quay. A moment after, a tall, black figure, which any belated passer-by might have taken at a distance for a ghost, appeared standing on the parapet, stooped towards the Seine, then drew itself up, and fell straight into the darkness. There was a dull splash, and the shadows alone were in the secret of this obscure form, which had disappeared beneath the waters."

Sincerely Mine!

Anand Kulkarni