Many beliefs exist about redemption and the pursuit of such a divine principle. In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, JeanValjean seeks redemption and deliverance from his past sins by acting as a savior of underprivileged citizens in Paris. However, one must also explore the character of Javert, for these men ultimately pursue redemption. Both men obey the duties of their conscience, and both must make sacrifices, yet one man receives deliverance from his sins, and the latter, Javert, is overcome by them. These two men differ only in their interpretation of duty, demonstrating that merely abiding by one's conscience cannot always equal redemption.
             While seemingly good, Javert's actions spur from motives of none but Javert, and as such, render the foundation for greater injustices. The scruple of Javert's actions early became duty alone, and late into Javert's life duty remains his only dictator. Javert's ideal "was not to be humane, not to be great, it was to be reproachable," and perform a duty to society that involves ridding the Parisian world of scum, or what he denounces as such (1324). The fact of the matter remains that with every hour and every action encompassed in this man's life, duty never exists as his primary concern, it exists as his only concern. Furthermore, when confronting the first and only dilemma of his conscience, Javert questions, "Is there anything in the world besides tribunals, sentences, police, and authority?" (1321). Such extreme moral conformity to the dictates of one's chosen conscience shields the beholder from all truths but one's own, and in the case of Javert, this singular conformity becomes the greatest source of the purest selfishness known to man.
             Javert dutifully follows his conscience, which has impurities of great consequence, therefore all actions of Javert's doing have great consequence. This cause-effect reaction ma...