what are......?

Fantine represents women and women's unfair place in society (womens rights and lack of education)

Valjean represents how good people become criminals out of desperation, and how poor people are treated unfairly by the courts (corrupt criminal system)

Marius represents the condition of children (destruction of the family and orphans)

Bishop of Digne represents spiritual love and the promise of God

Javert represent unquestioned loyalty to the law even when he knows the law is wrong

The many pseudonyms the characters use to protect their identity are for survival, the characters that reveal their true identity are whom Hugo says are the good, honest characters.

Physical objects like silver candlesticks (love, hope), slang represents poetry of everyday men, and lastly excrement was used to compare the sewers to the battlefields and how Waterloo and the sewers were cleansed and reborn.

Some scholars compare Valjean to Christ. Valjean gives up his life to save Champmathieu.