Like that of Notre Dame de Paris, the plot of Les Misérables is fundamentally melodramatic; its events are often improbable, and it moves in the realm of the socially and psychologically abnormal. But this melodrama is deliberate; Hugo has chosen an extreme example, the conversion of a convict into a saint, to illustrate a general truth: Man is perfectible.
Moreover, within this general framework, the sequence and interrelation of the events are credible, and the structure is very carefully plotted. Like a good play, it opens on a situation of high suspense, rises to two increasingly tense climaxes at the ends of Part Three and Part Four, and arrives at a satisfactory and logical denouement in Part Five. Its two themes, the struggle between good and evil in the soul of one man and society's struggle toward a greater good, are skillfully interwoven, and Hugo effectively immortalizes this struggle in our imaginations by a number of striking visual tableaux.
Psychological subtleties are not Hugo's forte. He does not, probably cannot, delve into the baffling paradoxes, the complexities, the idiosyncrasies of the soul. His gift is for the fundamental truth. Valjean is a simple character dominated by one powerful emotion: caritas (charity — active, outgoing love for others). He helps a prostitute, protects his workers, gives constantly to the poor. His very raison d'être is literally love since his existence revolves around Cosette; when she leaves him, he dies.
