Characters

 Char acter List

//**Jean Valjean**: //
Also known as Monsieur Madeleine, Ultimus Fauchelevent, Monsieur Leblanc, Urbain Fabre, 24601, and 9430, Jean was convicted in 1796 for stealing bread to feed his starving sister and her seven children. He spent nineteen years in the galleys at Toulon, forced to row French Naval ships. Five of those years were for the original crime; fourteen for trying to escape multiple times. Even in his later years, Jean was highly reknowned for having the strength of an ox. Life in the galleys had hardened him, made him the stereotypical felon everyone assumed he was. But when he met Monseigneur Bienvenu, the bishop of Digne, he learned that he didn't have to be what they made him. From that point on, he was a kind and generous man with few points of weakness. He died a happy man at the age of eighty. **//Aliases of Jean Valjean//**

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**Monsieur Madeleine**: After leaving Digne, Jean wentto the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer and saved a man from a burning building. In the rush of events, no one checked his passport, which was still the canary yellow of a convict, so he settled in for a new life. In six years, he established a business that completely changed the economic structure of Montreuil-sur-Mer. He made a great fortune but was very generous with it, so those of lesser fortune called him Father Madeleine, or Father, for short. News of Montreuil-sur-Mer's economic rise reached the king, who eventually made him Mayor of the town. The upper class, having new respect for the man they assumed was just ambitious, dubbed him Monsieur. ====== **Ultimus Fauchelevent**: Jean, with Cosette in tow, was being pursued by the police. On the run, he accidentally landed in the convent that his old citizen Fauchelevent from Montreuil was working. Fauchelevent owed him a favor, so Jean became Ultimus, the older brother who happened to work as a gardener and needed a job. Cosette was raised and educated by the nuns at the convent. **Monsieur Leblanc**: He was only known by this to some of the townsfolk, most notably Marius Pontmercy. Marius took a stroll through the gardens of the convent every day, where Jean and Cosette happened to sit. He didn't know their names, so Jean became Monsieur Leblanc for his startlingly white hair. **Urbain Fabre**: Upon capture by the crook Thenardier, Jean said his name was Urbain Fabre as a disguise. The initials are the same as Ultimus Fauchelevent, because Thenardier had a handkerchief embroidered with U.F. that belonged to Jean. **24601** was Jean's number in Toulon for the original 19 year sentence. **9430** became Jean's number when he was reinstated to Toulon the second time. This time he escaped, and the authorities thought Jean Valjean was dead.

//**Fantine:** //
Cosette's blond and beautiful mother. She was too poor to take care of her baby, so she found what seemed to be kind and hardworking parents with daughters of their own -the Thenardiers, who lived in Monfermeil. Fantine intended on getting her baby back once she made enough money, and payed a monthly bill to the foster parents. She moved on to Montreuil, and stayed there for six years. The Thenardiers tried to extort more and more money, and she was fired from her job because she had an illegitimate child, so she became very poor. So poor, she eventually resorted to selling her hair, her two front teeth, and prostitution. Towards the end she had a crippling disease (probably tuberculosis) and she asked the Mayor for her daughter, Cosette. Once she saw he didn't have her, Fantine passed away, leaving Monsieur Madeleine (Jean Valjean) to find her lost child.

//**Cosette**: //
Cosette was a light in the darkness for Jean Valjean. He rescued her from neglect and mistreatment at the age of six, and she went with him on his travels from then on. He was a father to her, and he made her the heir of his vast wealth. She was dark-haired and had a naturally angelic nature. Jean thought it was ironic that 'God paired the angel with the demon'. She was raised and educated at the Petit-Picpus convent for nine years. At the age of fifteen, Jean was forced to move and he withdrew Cosette from the nuns care. Also at fifteen, Cosette fell in love with Marius Pontmercy. This tore at Jean and Cosette's normally steadfast father/daughter relationship. She never knew he had ever been a convict.

//**Marius:** //
Marius Pontmercy is the son of the Baron Colonel Georges Pontmercy, but is raised byhis grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand. He originally hates his father due to his grandfathers opinions, but Marius learns that his father was a great man. A dead one by now, but great. Marius learns that he inherited his fathers' title of Baron, one vastly disputed because it was given by Napoleon Bonaparte, not the King of France. Although most people don't believe it, such as Marius' grandfather, he calls himself Baron for the rest of his life. He fell in love with Cosette, but shunned Jean after he learned the truth about Jean's past. Marius was raised a Royalist. and a bigot, and throughout the book he struggles to relinquish those ideas.

//**Javert**: //
A Royalist Gendarme (French police) who will do anything to uphold France's laws, even if it means sentencing a redeemed man to death. He hounds Jean Valjean constantly, attempting to bring him to justice, but failing every time. He saw through the saintlike exterior of Monsieur Madeleine and almost turned Jean over to the courts, but in the end Jean didn't go until he was willing. When Javert walks into a room full of revolutionaries bent on killing him, Jean secretly saves his life and lets him go free, only to have Javert try to arrest him later. The steadfast officer, knowing that the laws he loves so much are immoral in the case of Valjean, lets him go. But he can't live with the realization that the law system isn't perfect, and commits suicide by throwing himself into the Seine.

//**Bishop Myriel:** //
Also known as the Bishop of Digne, Myriel was the one who turned Jean from a daemon into a saint. He allowed Jean a room in the attic of the church, and was very generous. He didn't care at all about Jean's unlawful past. Whenever Jean felt like he was going to stray from his path, he thought of the Bishop and kept at it. Before he died, Marius offered to get Jean a priest but he refused and said there was already one watching over him.

//**Petit Gervais:** //
<span style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He was a little boy Jean met on the way out of Digne. The boy dropped a small coin and Jean stepped on it, then pretended he didn't have it. The boy ran away fearfully. Afterwards, Jean remembered his vow to the Bishop and felt awful. He went to the nearby village of Montreuil to look for the boy but couldn't find him. Throughout his life, he kept that coin and was forever searching for Petit Gervais. He never saw the boy again. <span style="color: #ff0000; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">25/25 hopefully you can see the Broadway version and see these characters come to life.