You have killed that woman
This simple quote from Jean Valjean, said to Javert, is one I find arresting in the context of the current chapter.
All of Jean Valjean’s scrambling after his confession revolved around his fear that it would mean the end for Fantine and Cosette. The one thing he wanted to accomplish was securing Cosette and returning her to her mother with the hopes that both would be setup to do well in the event that he ended up in prison. Instead, we have the truth that Valjean had sought to conceal - the truth about himself and his confession, and the truth about Cosette still being with the Thenardiers - now laid bare by the unflinching “justice” of Javert.
Despite Valjean’s pleas to move the conversation to a private place, Javert persists loudly in front of Fantine and the end result is a terrified heart attack. Fantine has died, and the cost that Valjean feared has been paid, at least in part.
The death of Fantine can be viewed from several angles, with plenty of blame to go around. We could say that society killed Fantine, for the system and structures of society had torn her down, left her destitute, and taken her daughter from her. We could say that the Thenardiers killed Fantine, with their active role in extracting everything they could from her, reducing her to a mere shell that was slowly dying. We could say that Valjean killed Fantine, with his half truths about Cosette and his confession. In a very real sense all of the present circumstances exist because of Jean Valjean’s choices. None of that negates what Jean Valjean says to Javert here. It is still true that what Javert did and what Javert refused to do, in the name of justice, were directly responsible for driving Fantine into a state of terror that resulted in her death.
The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life
The Apostle Paul’s words in his second epistle to the Corinthians ring true when it comes to Javert. Paul was talking about the Mosaic Law, but the principle remains the same. Javert’s code required a strict adherence to and exercising of the law, but the law itself can only expose, judge and condemn. It contains no power to quicken, change, transform or save anyone. It is not an instrument of life.
In this sense Javert’s unflinching, maniacal and aggressive wielding of the law resulted in the exposure and condemnation of Valjean and the actual death of Fantine.
The main question I am left with is whether or not this is something that Javert can recognize. There is blood on his hands. It may have gotten there in the pursuit of “justice” but it was surely not the product of a pursuit of goodness, beauty or life. As an instrument of the law, Javert is a weapon. A weapon devised to bring death.