import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
 
public class Main {
 
    private static JTextField inputTextBox;
    private static JLabel displayLbl;
 
    public static void main(String s[]) {
 
        //create new frame
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Unicode Characters");
 
 
        //add window listener
        frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
            public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {System.exit(0);}
        });
 
        //create new JPanel
        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel();
 
        frame.setContentPane(contentPane);
 
        contentPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
        contentPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(100,100,100,100));
 
        inputTextBox = new JTextField(JTextField.CENTER);
        displayLbl = new JLabel();
 
        //this sets the text to what the user would enter
        inputTextBox.setText("\\u00C3");
        JButton showBtn = new JButton();
 
        showBtn.setText("Show");
        displayLbl.setText(" ");
 
 
        //add objects to JPanel
        contentPane.add(inputTextBox);
        contentPane.add(displayLbl);
        contentPane.add(showBtn);
 
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible(true);
 
 
        //add listener for button
        showBtn.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                //do something, in this case we call method
                //showBtnActionPerformed
                showBtnActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });
 
 
    } //main
 
 
  private static void showBtnActionPerformed (java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt){
        String userText;
        char myUnicodeChar;
 
        //get user inputed unicode character ex: \u00C3
        userText = inputTextBox.getText();
 
        //display character for unicode code
        displayLbl.setText("" + userText);
 
        //the line below displays what I want to display
        //but I want the user to be able to enter "\u00C3"
        //and then I want to display the character that is
        //represented by it.
        //displayLbl.setText("\u00C3");
 
 
    } //showBtnActionPerformed
 
}

Character ch = new Character('\u00C3');
char prim = ch.charValue();
System.out.println(prim);

private static String unescape(String s) {
int i=0,len=s.length(); char c; StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(len);
while (i<len) {
     c = s.charAt(i++);
     if (c=='\\') {
          if (i<len) {
               c = s.charAt(i++);
               if (c=='u') {
                    c = (char) Integer.parseInt(s.substring(i,i+4),16);
                    i += 4;
               } // add other cases here as desired...
          }
     } // fall through: \ escapes itself, quotes any character but u
sb.append(c);
}
return sb.toString();
}