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totally consume the ideology. In addition, they have to critically think about what they believe. It is reflected through the act of Sister Simplice when she has to take
care of Fantine. Furthermore, the bishop symbolizes Hugo’s desire drive. At first, Hugo
states that the story of the bishop has no direct connection to the whole tale. In fact, the bishop becomes the creator Madeleine and leads to a longer narration of Jean
Veljean and Javert. This part initiates Hugo’s ideology when he begins to write Les Miserables
. Regarding to Hugo’s life, he proclaims himself a socialist and writes some socialist essays for humanity.
The other main characters such as Jean Veljean and Fantine are also the depiction of how social structure constructs human desire. The way Hugo builds
each character with vi vid social background reflects Hugo’s idea of how social
structure controls human life. When the Bishop represents Hugo’s conscious desire to show people that it is social structure who create criminals and judge them guilty
for their crime action, the other characters like Jean Veljean, Fantine, and Javert show Hugo’s other part. Les Miserables is written based on Jean Veljean’s
transfiguration and how revolution can be a moment to end one era and begin another era. However, Les Miserables also shows that
it is true that someone’s identity, ideology, and even desire affected by social structure as shehe is a
product of social structure and history, so an author is. As a product of social structure, each character in Les Miserables represents that even an author, as an
individual, has his own intention, the intention is built based on social condition.
B. Insanity In Sanity
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The concept of insanity, based on psychoanalytic-Marxism, is created since the sanity concept exists. It is similar to rationality concept that things outside the
rationality is considered irrational. The emergent can be seen as an insane idea within the dominant or the sane frame. With the psychoanalytic view, an individual
psychotic dimension which is developed in particular collective world or society is analyzed at once.
Hugo’s double consciousness leads him to be aware of the social condition in the society. He used to be a monarchist who radically changes his political view.
He even openly supports the revolution that makes him sent into the exile. This condition shows that as an individual who acts against the dominant or collective,
Hugo, is judged insane. The society depicted in Les Miserables is described as people who live in the darkest place, but then they realize the allusion of social
structure. The social condition should be compared to the night and the day that always change
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. Hugo thinks that he is right, for he notices something wrong with the social system. As a matter of fact, Hugo produces literary works to instill a new
vision to the society, and it leads to a complex situation. This condition is reflected in Les Miserables. As a projection of the real reality, each character in Les
Miserables depicts the psychotic condition of the emergent within the dominant or the psychotic dimension of the insanity within the sanity concept.
The third character in Fantine’s narration is Javert. In the beginning of the story Javert is described as another symbol of an ideal society. Javert and Jean
Veljean come from lower class fami ly. It is shown is Hugo’s narration about
Javert:
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V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 754
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He had been born in prison, the son of a fortune-teller whose husband was in the galleys. As he grew older he came to believe that he was outside
society with no prospect of ever entering. But he noted that there were two classes of men whom society keeps in exorability at arm’s length - those
who prey upon it, and those who protect it. The only choice open to him was between those two.
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Just like Jean Veljean, Javert was born to be part of the outcast, the marginalized people. Both are alike, they consume an ideology and make it the conscience for
their lives. Javert becomes a great police who always fights for justice based on law. Though Madeleine is elected a mayor for his business and Javert has a great
occupation to fight for justice, Javert is more antagonist than Madeleine, the protagonist of the novel or the hero of the tale. Despite the fact that Javert is the
only character who has great occupation for living, he reflects unhappy life and lonely soul. His occupation is just the way for him to be part of higher social class.
With the detail story of the social condition where there are too many poor people, thinking about getting a great occupation is one of the most common ideas
at that time. Javert seems to be an example of a successful person. He is simply just an ordinary worker. Further, he dedicates his life to be a police officer. However,
Hugo creates Javert as a happy person with miserable feeling. Javert complex situation, where he tries hard to dedicate his life to his belief, again emphasizes a
complex relation between the characters and the ideology they believe. A false consciousness where the characters, especially Javert, mistakenly see
superstructure, in this case law, as something that shapes their identity and their life occurs in Javert’s life. Since Javert has stated his faith in law, he tries to fit all of his
life aspects to obey the law. Javert even states that he is a representative of
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V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 65
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authority and he has been harsh to himself and others to defend what he believe and to obey the law
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. Knowing that “man is characterized above all by his going beyond a
situation, and by what he succeeds in making of he has been made”
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. Sartre explains that life of a human is the projection of what controls him. Through Javert
character, the projection of the dominant ideology in Les Miserables is projected. At the same time, Javert’s conscience leads him to lose his definition of justice.
The situation puts Javerts in dilemma. The similar feeling like the feeling that Jean Veljean feels when he is released by the Bishop after he steals silver plates. For he
is devoted to law that he believes, the situation where he finds that the law does not preserve justice as he expects, Javert experiences complex situation that he cannot
handle and lead him commit to suicide. As Wofenstein explains that justice is indeed a domination, loss of freedom,
he points out Freud’s ideas that liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization Freud, 1930.p.95
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. However, an individual freedom is something against the dominant ideology. In the case of Javert, he believes that law is formulated to
accomplish justice for everyone without considering that the law is a prison for an individual freedom. The complexity of Javert character in Les Miserables shows a
tendency of people who totalize everything and being totalized at the same time. Paying attention to Javert as the antagonist in Les Miserables with a
complex psychotic condition leads us to see Hugo’s insane idea. First, through
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V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 200
236
Paul Sartre, “Writing, Reading, and the Public”, Literature in the Modern World Critical Essats and Documents, ed Dennis Walder New York: Oxford University Press, 1990 82
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E. Wolfenstein, 43
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Javert, we can see that the law fails to shape the society. At one side, Javert totalizes the meaning of justice by fighting for the law. At the other side, the
romantic plot in which Javert’s heart is touched when Jean Veljean saves his life, the similar feeling as Jean Veljean’s when the bishop sets him free and gives him
candlesticks. The heroic act of Madeleine when he saves Fantine and promises to take care of Cosette also occurs when Javert is around. The hard time in his
childhood is also part of his past which develops the conscience. Relating to every fact in Javert’s past and Hugo’s narration:
Conscience is the labyrinth of illusion, desire, and pursuit, the furnace of dreams, repository of thoughts of which we are ashamed; it is the
pandemonium of sophistry, the battlefield of passions.
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Javert can be seen as the projection of human life which is consumed by the dominant ideology. At the same time, Javert also represents Hugo’s radical
intention. Though this narration is written to put Christianity idea as the emergent to give new ideology vision to the dominant, Javert character indeed reflects
Hugo’s thought which leads him to be a radical republican.
Second, in the situation of extreme property, Javert symbolizes a complex situation for with his great occupation and high rank, but he has miserable
psychotic situation and unhappy. Javert spends his life in hatred to the ex-convict, Jean Veljean. Javert’s past life makes him desperately want to be part of the
dominant society, and he hates people who go against the law without understanding any social condition that makes them criminals. Javert himself is
constrained by his social condition which shapes his desire and consciousness. In
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V. Hugo, Les Miserables, 208
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addition, Javert’s stable economic condition and high rank represent what lower class people want.
Indeed, Javert’s complex condition leads us to analyze how Hugo’s idea to reconstruct a society is reflected. Hugo focuses on the social system, as he
explains in his essay, “The Mind and the Masses”. In this essay, Hugo argues that someone’s history is constrained by the social system which includes their desire
drive. This condition occurs to Jean Veljean: For whole hour he remained in a state of indecision in which there was an
element of conflict. [...] Then he swung his legs over and almost without knowing it found himself seated on the bed with his feet on the floor
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In the narration, Hugo shows that Jean Veljean himself even has no clue that his social condition has developed his criminal mind. Thus, the dominant point of
view lies on great economic condition and high social status which create mutual relation between social classes. The mutual relation between upper class and lower
class triggers false consciousness in the society. Therefore, instead of supporting the false consciousness in the society, Les Miserables becomes an active reflection
which points out the social consciousness through Javert character. Javert shows that the economic factor is not the main reason that supports human life. Economic
aspect is the way to fulfill the needs to live. It is similar to Jean Veljean crime actions to fulfill his needs of food.
C. The religious monarchist who becomes radical republican
