Upon reading further, I think I kind of understand? It seems to be for the purpose of giving Valjean a moment of changing his heart, since the OFC skips over all of Valjean's backstory and starts with him as M. Madeleine. Because then when he encouters Fantine about to be arrested and dying, he can be all "oh noooooo I behaved wrongly LET ME LEARN TO BE A BETTER PERSON" or something. Although if this IS what it's going for, it doesn't do a very comprehensive job of it, so I might be reading in more than was intended.

I STILL DON'T LIKE IT THOUGH. SOCIALLY AWKWARD SAINT VALJEAN IS MY FAAAAAVE. (....one of my many faves.)