In reading Les Misérables, I recently got to the courtroom scene where Monsieur Madeleine reveals his true identity as Jean Valjean. He does this to protect Champmathieu, who was thought to be Jean Valjean and who was going to be sent to the galleys for life. In the preceding chapters, it was explained that Champmathieu allegedly stole a branch of apples. The particular object of his alleged theft got me thinking about religious parallels here, and in Chapter 11 ("Champmathieu More and More Astonished"), I found many of them.
First, from the previous chapters, Champmathieu's alleged theft of apples is a parallel to Adam and Eve's taking the forbidden fruit from the tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6). Jean Valjean intercedes for him, and in doing so, I found a lot of parallels between Valjean and Christ. By correcting the misplacement of the identity, Valjean obviates the punishment that Champmathieu would have been faced with. Similarly, Christ takes on humanity's punishment in the crucifixion. To some degree, 1 Corinthians 15:22 demonstrates this parallelism and Christ as a second Adam: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."
Chapter 11 itself starts with a description of Monsieur Madeleine (not yet revealed as Jean Valjean). It's specifically noted that "his hair, already grey when he came to Arras, was now perfectly white." There's a footnote in my edition that explains that "To have hair turn white overnight from an emotional shock is a common melodramatic device in nineteenth-century fiction." I suppose "emotional shock" is a valid reading, but if Valjean is Christ-like in his intercession, that whiteness demonstrates purity and even the Transfiguration. Later in the chapter, the narrator says, "Nobody said to himself that he there beheld the effulgence of a great light, yet all felt dazzled at heart." The revelation of Valjean's identity is also called a "luminous fact." This isn't too different from "And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light" (Matthew 17:2). Valjean reveals his identity before Brevet, Chenildieu, and Cochepaille, three of his former galley-mates, and Christ's identity as true God at His Transfiguration is revealed before Peter, James, and John, three of his disciples. After Valjean provides some details about some suspenders that Brevet owned in the galley, Brevet is "struck with surprise" and "gazed wildly at him" - a reaction that isn't too dissimilar from the disciples: "When the disciples heard this ["This is my beloved Son"], they fell on their faces and were terrified" (Matthew 17:6).
Immediately after Valjean reveals his identity, "That species of religious awe was felt in the hall," and as he leaves the courtroom, "there was at this moment an indescribable divinity within him." Like the Transfiguration, there are features that indicate a deity.
When an attorney calls for a doctor, thinking Monsieur Madeleine has gone mad, Valjean interrupts him "with a tone full of gentleness and authority" - more Christ-like attributes. Valjean also says, "I tell you the truth," which Christ frequently says in the Gospels.
Finally, while Valjean's intercession for Champmathieu could be read as Christ's intercession for Adam (and for humanity as a whole), there are also parallels to Christ's trial before His crucifixion. There's the obvious similarity that both are trials, but more specifically there's the crowd's choice to release Barabbas instead Christ where here Valjean acts to release Champmathieu and offers himself instead. There are slight differences, since Christ didn't act to release Barabbas and Valjean is actually guilty, but the decisions of each that lead to the courtroom scenes are similar. Before being turned over in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39). Valjean goes through his own version of this, asking himself what is the right thing to do and pondering over it for multiple chapters. But he too does as God wills (or as he thinks God wills) and gives himself up.
At the end of the chapter, Champmathieu is released from all accusations, because even though Valjean thinks Champmathieu is guilty (in his lengthy considerations in Book Seven, Chapter 2, he tells himself, "He has stolen! it is useless for me to say he has not stolen, he has stolen!"), he still interceded for him.
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After writing the original draft of this post, I found in later chapters some parallels that are more crucifixion-centered. At the beginning of Chapter 5 in Book Eight, the narrator describes the reaction that the citizens of M--- sur M--- have after Monsieur Madeleine is revealed to have been Jean Valjean the galley slave. "We are sorry not to be able to disguise the fact that, on this single sentence, he was a galley slave, almost everybody abandoned him. ... Three or four persons alone in the whole city remained faithful to his memory." This is similar to Christ's disciples' falling away after His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Then all the disciples left him and fled" (Matthew 26:56).
About a page later, Valjean escapes from prison and returns home. The narrator explains that
It has never been known how he had succeeded in gaining entrance into the court-yard without opening the carriage port. He had, and always carried about him, a pass-key which opened a little side door, but he must have been searched, and this taken from him. This point is not yet cleared up.This seems to have some connection to Christ's appearing to His disciples (after the resurrection) even though they were within a locked room. "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you'" - John 20:19.
I'm not sure if the Valjean-as-Christ parallels continue throughout the book (I guess I'll find out), but they do seem particularly strong in these chapters.
