Character ask: Grantaire

Tagged by anonymous

Favorite thing about them: Despite his small role, he’s such a rich character who appeals on multiple levels. For starters, he’s funny, witty, lively, and fun-loving, which provides much-needed relief from the story’s heavy drama. But at heart, of course, he’s a “sad clown,” and his cynical worldview is poignant and sometimes all too relatable. And then there’s the key contradiction within his character, which is both fascinating and moving: the fact that despite being a resolute skeptic, he adores his idealistic friends, is only happy in their presence despite mocking their beliefs, and loves Enjolras, idealism personified, to the point that he chooses to die with him. He would be a compelling character even without the gay subtext, but the fact that he’s almost explicitly in love with another man makes him all the more engaging for modern audiences. It’s impressive that Hugo managed to put so much substance into a minor character who only appears in a few scenes.

Least favorite thing about them: Well, he is a loose cannon who fails to make himself useful as a revolutionary. As much as we might like him, it’s understandable that Enjolras dislikes him until the end. In the novel (glossed over in the musical), there’s also his casual sexism, which was probably to be expected from such a wild and worldly young man in the 1830s.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I’m often disappointed with the state of the world and feel tempted to become a total cynic.

*I enjoy physical pleasures and sometimes indulge in them too much. (I’m more prone to overeating than drinking, though.)

*I admire Enjolras’s idealism enormously.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I very rarely drink alcohol.

*I don’t belong to a group of revolutionaries.

*I’m female.

Favorite line: From the novel, it wasn’t easy going through his long speeches to pick out favorite lines, but I finally narrowed it down.

About Christ’s cross: “There is a gibbet which has been a success.” (Or, in another translation, “a gallows that made good.”)

About Enjolras: “What fine marble!”

From his first rambling speech: “Life is a hideous invention of I know not whom.”

From the famous dialogue in “Enjolras and his Lieutenants,” when Enjolras asks him if he’s good for anything: “I have a vague ambition in that direction.”

When Enjolras accuses him of believing in nothing: “I believe in you.”

From “Preliminary Gayeties:

"...I suspect that God is not rich. The appearance exists, it is true, but I feel that he is hard up.”

“Marius and his Marie, or his Marion, or his Maria, or his Mariette. They must make a queer pair of lovers. I know just what it is like. Ecstasies in which they forget to kiss. Pure on earth, but joined in heaven.“

And of course, from his ultimate self-sacrifice:

“Long live the republic, I’m one of them!”

And his final words, to Enjolras:

“Do you permit it?”

From the musical:

“I am agog, I am aghast!

Is Marius in love at last?

I have never heard him ooh and aah!

You talk of battles to be won,

And here he comes like Don Ju-an!

It’s better than an o-per-a!”

and

“Drink with me to days gone by.

Can it be you fear to die?

Will the world remember you when you fall?

Can it be your death means nothing at all?

Is your life just one more lie?”

brOTP: His fellow Amis, and in many productions of the musical, Gavroche.

OTP: Enjolras, though less in the main plot than in the afterlife, and/or in a better time and place where they could have reached an understanding sooner.

nOTP: Any woman.

Random headcanon: His backstory, with everything that made him such a skeptic and yet gave him such a profound need for others’ idealism, would probably be worthy of its own novel.

Unpopular opinion: While I do think he’s in love with Enjolras, I don’t take great offense to seeing his devotion read in a platonic way too, because it does have much more depth than just romantic attraction. And I certainly don’t think Enjolras is in love with him; I ship them in a sense of “what could have been.”

Song I associate with them: “Drink With Me.”

Favorite pictures of them:

This illustration by Gustave Brion.

Anthony Crivello with crazy ‘80s hair, Broadway, 1987.

And with normal hair in the 10th Anniversary Concert, 1995.

Paul Truckey, US 3rd National Tour, 1996.

Tom Zemon with Stephen Buntrock as Enjolras, Broadway, 1997.

Hadley Fraser, 25th Anniversary Concert, 2010.

George Blagden, 2012 film.

Character ask game: Javert

Again, this wasn’t requested. I just feel like sharing my thoughts about him on the anniversary of his death.

Favorite thing about them: His staunch sense of honor. He refuses to lie, he demands as much of himself as he does of the citizens he polices, he doesn’t make deals with criminals the way other officers do, and until the end he sincerely believes that all he does is right… which in the eyes of the law, if not in our eyes, it is. For those things I admire him, no matter how much I disagree with most of his actions.

Least favorite thing about them: The short list or the long list? Of course, there’s his general ruthlessness and lack of compassion, and the danger he poses to Valjean, but above all, I’d say his biggest moral stain is his treatment of Fantine. Especially in the novel – at least in the musical, he believes Bamatabois’s lie that she attacked him unprovoked, and later he doesn’t arrive at the hospital to arrest Valjean until after she dies. But in the novel, he just doesn’t care that Bamatabois provoked her, and of course he causes her death (albeit not on purpose, and she likely wouldn’t have lived more than a few days longer anyway) by verbally attacking her and seizing Valjean at her sickbed, with no remorse afterwards.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I sometimes tend toward black-and-white thinking, and sometimes feel confused and upset when I’m forced to see nuances. (In my case, it’s because of autism.)

*I’m extremely honest.

*I want to be morally spotless and I’m disappointed in myself whenever I fail.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I’m female.

*I have compassion for other people.

*I question authority.

Favorite line:

From the novel:

*In the scene where he demands that “Monsieur Madeleine” fire him for “wrongly” denouncing him as Jean Valjean:

“I have often been severe in the course of my life towards others. That is just. I have done well. Now, if I were not severe towards myself, all the justice that I have done would become injustice. Ought I to spare myself more than others? No! What! I should be good for nothing but to chastise others, and not myself! Why, I should be a blackguard!”

*His famous moment of humor that announces his presence at the Gorbeau House robbery, when Thénardier and Patron-Minette are trying to escape through the window, the gang wants to draw lots for who should climb down first, and Thénardier sarcastically suggests drawing their names out of a hat:

“Would you like my hat?”

*When Mme. Thénardier threatens him with a paving stone:

“What a grenadier! You’ve got a beard like a man, mother, but I have claws like a woman.”

*When Valjean sets him free at the barricade, upending his entire world:

“You annoy me. Kill me, rather.”

From the musical:

*From “Fantine’s Arrest”:

“Tell me quickly, what’s the story?

Who saw what and why and where?

Let him give a full description.

Let him answer to Javert.”

*From “Confrontation”:

“Valjean at last, we see each other plain!

Monsieur le Mayor, you’ll wear a different chain!”

*When Valjean sets him free at the barricade:

“Once a thief, forever a thief!

What you want you always steal!

You would trade your life for mine!

Yes, Valjean, you want a deal!

Shoot me now for all I care!

If you let me go, beware!

You’ll still answer to Javert!

*All of both “Stars” and “Javert’s Suicide.”

brOTP: None; he doesn’t have any friends or family.

OTP: None; I ship him with therapy.

nOTP: Fantine, Éponine or Cosette.

Random headcanon: This might be implicit canon, not just a headcanon, but I’ll list it anyway: he has only one name. He’s not Philippe Javert, or Emil Javert, or Snookums Javert, or any other name the fandom has given him. He’s just Javert. This is because he was taken from his imprisoned mother as a baby and raised in a foundling hospital. Foundlings raised by the French state in that era were stripped of any ties to their birth families, including their surnames, and just given a single name. This means that his very name is a constant reminder of his “gutter” origins, both for himself and for everyone who knows him.

Unpopular opinion: In an adaptation set in modern times, I’d rather see him cast as a man of color than as a white man, especially if Valjean is a man of color too. I remember how the 2014 Dallas production of the musical was praised for the “relevant” casting of a white Javert alongside a dark-skinned Valjean. But Hugo’s Javert isn’t the equivalent of a racist white cop in today’s America. He’s not a privileged oppressor. His origins are even lower and “dirtier” than Valjean’s, and as Hugo explains, he joined the police force to defend society because he could never belong to it and his only other choice would have been to “prey on it” as a criminal. As I once wrote in another post, a Javert from a marginalized ethnic group who has internalized bigotry, and who serves the system that oppresses him to try to protect himself from oppression, feels much truer to Hugo’s vision than a racist white Javert. Besides, even though Javert is an antagonist, the fact remains that he’s supposed to be sympathetic and tragic. I’d rather we not be asked to pity and cry for a racist white policeman who spends the whole story persecuting impoverished dark-skinned people (I’m imagining that Valjean, Fantine and Cosette would all be POC in this adaptation, as they were in the Dallas production). Ideally, I’d like a modern Javert and Valjean to both be the same ethnicity, neither white, to highlight that they’re two sides of the same coin.

Song I associate with them:

What else? “Stars.”

Favorite picture of them:

This illustration by Gustave Brion

This illustration of Fantine’s arrest by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot

Roger Allam, London, 1985

Terrence Mann with Braden Danner as Gavroche, Broadway, 1987

Philip Quast with Normie Rowe as Valjean, Sydney, 1987

Stephen Bishop, 3rd National Tour, 1999

David Masenheimer, Broadway, 2002

Michael McCarthy, London, 2004

Norm Lewis, London, 2010

Character ask game: Gavroche

Again, no one requested this, but I just felt like sharing my thoughts about him on the anniversary of his death.

Favorite thing about them: There’s very little not to like about him. He’s lively, fiery, incredibly brave, funny, clever, streetwise, yet kind to those even less fortunate than he is. It’s no wonder that he’s one of the best-loved and most iconic of all the Les Mis characters.

Least favorite thing about them: He’s a bit of a loudmouth. Depending on the boy actor in the musical, his frequent shouting (“FOLLOW ME!” “LISTEN, EVERYBODY!” “LIAR!” etc.) can be grating to a noise-sensitive person on the autism spectrum.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I like to sing.

*Injustice and oppression make me angry.

*I try to be generous to people in need.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I’m older than twelve.

*I’ve never been homeless.

*I’m nowhere near as fearless as he is.

Favorite line:

From the novel:

It’s hard to choose because he has so many good smart-aleck lines, but I’ll pick these.

*His response to a gentleman’s complaining when he splashes mud on the man’s shoes:

“The office is closed. I do not receive any more complaints.”

*This poignant response to one of his little brothers saying that they don’t know where their parents are:

“Sometimes that’s better than knowing where they are.”

*His whole playful argument with Enjolras when he wants a gun at the barricade: but especially this line:

“If you are killed before me, I shall take yours.”

*To Javert, after he exposes his identity at the barricade:

“It’s the mouse who caught the cat.”

*And in the same scene, to the Amis:

“By the way, you will give me his [Javert’s] gun! I leave you the musician, but I want the clarinet.”

From the musical:

*From “Look Down”:

“We live on crumbs of humble piety.

Tough on the teeth, but what the hell?”

*From the same song, in the 2012 film and later stage productions:

“This is the land that fought for liberty.

Now when we fight, we fight for bread.

Here is the thing about equality:

Everyone’s equal when they’re dead.”

*The chorus of “Little People,” which he reprises as his last words:

“And little people know, when little people fight,

We may look easy pickings, but we’ve got some bite!

So never kick a dog because he’s just a pup!

We’ll fight like twenty armies, and we won’t give up!

So you’d better run for cover when the pup grows up!”

*And some of the more politically biting lyrics James Fenton wrote for him, which were cut from the show when Fenton was fired and replaced by Herbert Kretzmer:

“We saw the coaches passing on the way to the ball.

I wonder if you noticed we had nothing at all.

We smelt you coming out again with brandy for breath.

I wonder if you noticed we were starving to death.”

brOTP: His siblings and the Amis.

OTP: None.

nOTP: Any adult or either of his sisters.

Random headcanon: Even though he was too little to be friends with Cosette at the Thénardiers’ inn the way they are in the anime Shoujo Cosette, she did help to take care of him when he was a baby. As the inn’s only “servant” and with his mother wanting as little to do with him as possible, she had no choice. He has vague memories of being held by a little girl who wasn’t Éponine or Azelma but he has no idea who she was.

Unpopular opinion: This isn’t universally unpopular, but for want of anything better… I like the fact that so many productions of the musical give him a special friendship with Grantaire, Courfeyrac, or any other Ami. I disagree with people who say, “Its only purpose is to needlessly milk extra pathos from Gavroche’s death” or “It confuses the audience by making them think Grantaire/Courfeyrac/whoever is Gavroche’s brother or father.” As far as I’m concerned, it enhances the warmth and humanity of both Gavroche and the Ami in question, and it does add poignancy to his death to show someone deeply and personally mourning for him, beyond the general horror and outrage that everyone shares.

Song I associate with them:

“Little People,” or “La faute a Voltaire,” as it’s called in the musical’s French version which uses the lyrics of Gavroche’s famous song from the novel. Here’s the complete French version of the song, from the 1980 Original French Concept Album:

Favorite picture of them:

This sketch by Victor Hugo himself – much uglier than we usually see him portrayed, but full of personality!

This illustration by Émile Bayard

Emmanuel Curtis, 1982 French miniseries

Braden Danner, Broadway, 1987

Gregory Grant, Broadway, 1990

David Jacobs, Duisburg, 1996 (I think)

Jordan Siwek, Broadway, 1997

Robert Madge, 25th Anniversary Concert, 2010

Daniel Huttlestone, 2012 film

Reece Yates, 2018 miniseries

Character ask game: Éponine

Again, no one requested this, but today is the anniversary of Éponine’s death, so I wanted to share my thoughts on her.

Favorite thing about them: I like characters who are tough on the outside, tender on the inside. Without question, she’s a deeply tragic and vulnerable character, one of the purest examples of a misérable in the whole story. But she’s not just a bundle of misery, and it’s annoying when fanfic writers portray her that way. She’s strong-willed, intelligent, and streetwise, she takes pride in her skills, she can be playful and sassy, and though her pain and self-loathing are evident, she tries her best to hide them under a bold, lighthearted façade. This obviously makes her much more interesting than if she were only a suffering waif. I also love the fact that even though her society and her parents have taught her to be hard and selfish, her capacity for goodness and selflessness always wins in the end. (Yes, even in the novel, though in the musical it wins more easily.)

Least favorite thing about them: In both the novel and the musical, the fact that she followed her mother’s example and mistreated Cosette when they were children. In the novel alone, there’s also the fact that she leads Marius to the barricade to die with her rather than lose him to Cosette, and never regrets it either, but just can’t bear to actually see him be killed.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I’m a brunette female.

*I’ve struggled between selfish and unselfish instincts.

*I sometimes prefer my imagination to the real world.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I’ve grown up in comfort and privilege.

*I have good relationships with my parents.

*I’m less brave than she is, but I’m also less suicidal.

Favorite line:

From the novel:

*Her snarky complaining about the oversized men’s shoes Thénardier makes her wear to be allowed into a church:

“I tell you I won’t put these shoes on again, and that I won’t, for the sake of my health, in the first place, and for the sake of cleanliness, in the next.”

*Her assertive response to Marius’s cold treatment of her in his moodiness over Cosette:

“Stop, you are in the wrong. Although you are not rich, you were kind this morning. Be so again now.”

*Her response to Father Mabeuf calling her “an angel” for watering his flowers:

“No, I am the devil, but that’s all the same to me.”

*Her speech as she defends the Rue Plumet house from six armed men:

“As you like, but you shall not enter here. I’m not the daughter of a dog, since I’m the daughter of a wolf. There are six of you, what matters that to me? You are men. Well, I’m a woman. You don’t frighten me. I tell you that you shan’t enter this house, because it doesn’t suit me. If you approach, I’ll bark. I told you, I’m the dog, and I don’t care a straw for you. Go your way, you bore me! Go where you please, but don’t come here, I forbid it! You can use your knives. I’ll use kicks; it’s all the same to me, come on!”

*And, of course, her famous last words:

“And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I believe I was a little bit in love with you.”

From the musical:

*“Little he knows, little he sees.”

*“He was never mine to lose.”

*From “On My Own”:

I love him, but when the night is over

He is gone, the river’s just a river.

Without him, the world around me changes.

The trees are bare and everywhere

The streets are full of strangers.

*And from “A Little Fall of Rain”:

“This rain will wash away what’s past,

And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close.

I’ll sleep in your embrace at last.”

brOTP: Her siblings, Marius, and in a different time and place, Cosette.

OTP: Sometimes I imagine “what could have been” with either Marius or Cosette, but mostly I ship her with happiness and comfort.

nOTP: Any member of her family.

Random headcanon: This is silly, but I sometimes think of that 2012 YouTube commentator who called the novel’s Éponine “a female Ratso Rizzo.” Now, I haven’t seen Midnight Cowboy, and I have no desire to, with the awful political stance of one of the two lead actors and the #MeToo record of the other. But from what I’ve read about that movie, especially @midnightcowboy1969​’s posts about it, it sounds like that comment comparing Rizzo to Hugo’s Éponine was fairly accurate, even if he never attempts a murder-suicide-by-cop the way she does – even the fact that he dies of TB corresponds to her “sickly chest.” So, I imagine that they’ll eventually meet in the afterlife (of course she’ll be there for 137 years before he arrives) and become friends. They could start an “I was an unsavory yet pathetic street rat who secretly fell in love with my best male friend and died with him at my side” club.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t mind the fact that the musical romanticizes her. A fast-paced 3-hour stage musical (or 2 and ½-hour movie musical), with many important characters to keep track of, just doesn’t have room for the complex characterizations a novel does, especially not for a supporting character. And as @cto10121​ has posted in the past, a musical is innately a more emotional, less intellectual work of art than a novel. Boublil and Schönberg probably had to scrub out Éponine’s unsavory qualities and make her purely likeable if they wanted audiences to care for her at all. Likewise, if they wanted to make it clear that she loves Marius, they probably had to fill her role with inner monologues where she pines for him; Hugo’s method of only hinting at her love until her dying confession would have been too subtle. I like both the novel’s Éponine and the musical’s Éponine, even if they do sometimes seem like different characters. That said, I’ll admit that the musical loses much of what makes her compelling in the novel, and I do get tired of seeing her played as just a spunky ingenue, neither believable as a street rat nor as the Thénardiers’ daughter. Kudos to every actress who offers a gritter portrayal and brings at least something of Hugo’s Éponine to the role!

Song I associate with them:

“On My Own”

“A Little Fall of Rain”

Favorite picture of them:

This illustration by Émile Bayard:

This illustration of her fending off the gang by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot:

This illustration of her death by Alphonse de Neuville:

Frances Ruffelle, London, 1985:

Natalie Toro, Broadway, 1990:

Christeena Michelle Riggs, Broadway, 1996:

Natalie Mendoza, Sydney, 1997:

Jessica Boevers, Broadway, 2000:

Chasten Harmon, US 25th Anniversary Tour, 2010:

Samantha Barks, 2012 film:

Character ask game: Jean Valjean

No one requested this, but if @ariel-seagull-wings​ can sometimes fill out this form without a request just because she wants to share her thoughts about a character, then so can I.

Favorite thing about them: His sheer goodness and warm heart. This isn’t entirely Bishop Myriel’s effect on him: even as a gruff young “idiot,” pre-prison, he shows the beginnings of it as he selflessly provides for his nephews and nieces, “a little grudgingly” or not. And while the Bishop urges him to become “an honest man,” it’s his own choice to go above and beyond “honesty,” and to devote the rest of his life to helping others, making sacrifices and taking on burdens for them (that he does too much, poor man), repeatedly saving people’s lives, and staunchly doing the right thing even when it’s far from easy. Add his fatherly love for Cosette to all of this and it’s no wonder that he’s such a beloved, iconic hero, whom readers and musical audiences both admire and regard almost as a personal friend.

Least favorite thing about them: His possessiveness and overprotectiveness of Cosette. It’s more sympathetic in the novel than in some adaptations, but it still makes me sad that in her young womanhood he temporarily becomes her “jailer” (to quote SparkNotes) and unwittingly stands in the way of her happiness. And wanting Marius to die at first? Not okay.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I seem gentle and sweet to other people, but I have a capacity for rage, which I don’t like about myself.

*I tend to be private and enjoy living a quiet, peaceful life.

*My self-esteem is sometimes low.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I’m female.

*I’ve never been in prison.

*I’m not a parent, adoptive or biological.

Favorite line:

From the novel:

*His whole allegorical speech about the usefulness of nettles and how they only turn dangerous when they’re neglected, especially the last line:

“Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.”

*From the scene where he saves Fantine from jail:

“Inspector Javert, the highest law (or “justice,” depending on the translation) is conscience.”

*To Fantine:

“I was praying to the martyr there on high.” And he added in his own mind, “For the martyr here below.”

*This sad passage from the scene where he confesses his identity to Marius:

“You ask why I speak? I am neither denounced, nor pursued, nor tracked, you say. Yes! I am denounced! yes! I am tracked! By whom? By myself. It is I who bar the passage to myself, and I drag myself, and I push myself, and I arrest myself, and I execute myself, and when one holds oneself, one is firmly held.”

*From his dying speech:

“Love each other well and always. There is nothing else but that in the world: love for each other.”

From the musical:

*From “Valjean’s Soliloquy”:

“Take an eye for an eye! Turn your heart into stone!

This is all I have lived for! This is all I have known!”

and

“He told me that I have a soul. How does he know?”

*From “Who Am I?”

“Who am I? How can I ever face my fellow men?

How can I ever face myself again?”

*From “Confrontation”:

“I am warning you, Javert, I’m a stronger man by far!

There is power in me yet! My race is not yet run!”

*From “Bring Him Home”:

“God on high, hear my prayer.

In my need, you have always been there.

He is young, he’s afraid.

Let him rest, heaven blessed.

Bring him home, bring him home, bring him home.”

*To Cosette in the finale:

“Now you are here, again beside me.

Now I can die in peace,

For now my life is blessed.

brOTP: Cosette, Fantine, Fauchlevant.

OTP: Sometimes I ship him with Fantine (more in adaptations where they’re closer in age than in the novel with the 30-year age gap, though), but most often I ship him with health, safety, and happiness.

nOTP: Cosette.

Random headcanon: He’s asexual; probably aro-ace. Besides all the practical reasons for his lifelong chastity, he’s genuinely never had any desire for either sex or romance. Other forms of love are enough for him.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t ship him with Javert outside of comedy fic. I don’t care much for shipping enemies with each other to begin with, and while I do see the appeal, I’ve never read a fully convincing justification for the pairing. The idea that they “know each other so well” falls especially flat. Javert doesn’t really understand Valjean until after Valjean frees him at the barricade, and he’s so confused and appalled by what he discovers then that he drowns himself.

Song I associate with them:

“Bring Him Home” – I don’t care that it’s “out of character” because Hugo’s Valjean hates Marius at this point, it’s his most iconic solo in the musical.

Favorite picture of them:

This illustration by Gustave Brion, which looks strangely like Colm Wilkinson despite long predating his birth:

This illustration by Émile Bayard, where he closes the dead Fantine’s eyes while warily gazing at the offscreen Javert:

This illustration of his death by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot:

Timothy Shew with Norman Large as Javert, Broadway, 1988 (I love seeing such a big, hulking Valjean who towers over Javert!):

Craig Schulman, Broadway, 1990:

Colm Wilkinson, 3rd National Tour, 1998 (I like this one better than his original London and Broadway photos because here he looks the age of the character):

Fred Inkley, Broadway, 1998:

Simon Bowman with Niklas Andersson as Marius, London, 2000:

John Owen-Jones, 25th Anniversary Tour, 2009:

Hugh Jackman, 2012 film:

Character ask: Enjolras

Requested by anonymous.

Favorite thing about them: His sheer heroism. His unshakable faith in his vision of a world where justice and freedom reign for everyone, and his willingness to fight for that world and die for it if need be. He’s an inspiration.

Least favorite thing about them: The cold, severe aspect of his dedication to his ideals. Chiefly his treatment of Grantaire in the novel and “Marius, you’re no longer a child...” in the musical.

Yes, I know Grantaire is genuinely annoying and unreliable, and Enjolras also has every right to be annoyed when Marius glorifies his new romantic love at the revolution’s expense. But I don’t think either Hugo or the musical’s writers meant him to be entirely in the right in placing ideals above human bonds. If so, Hugo wouldn’t have written that the gentler, more humane Combeferre “corrected” Enjolras and influenced him for the better, or balanced his austere first impression with gradual proof of how much he loves his friends and detests violence even as he uses it, or ended his life with a smile at Grantaire while clasping his hand. And I doubt that Herbert Kretzmer would have chosen wording as harsh as “Who cares about your lonely soul?” if he had meant us to fully side with Enjolras at that point.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I’m idealistic, or at least I want to be.

*I care passionately about helping the poor and the outcasts of the world.

*I dislike violence, but I know that sometimes it’s necessary for social change.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I’m female.

*I’ve never fought in an armed conflict.

*My temperament is as far from “marble” as can be.

Favorite line:

From the novel:

From his speech after executing Le Cabuc:

“It is a bad moment to pronounce the word love. No matter, I do pronounce it. And I glorify it. Love, the future is thine. Death, I make use of thee, but I hate thee.”

To Javert, explaining why they refuse to use a knife to kill him:

“Spy, we are judges and not assassins.”

And from his speech in “The Horizon Which One Beholds from the Summit of the Barricade”:

“Citizens, do you picture the future to yourselves? The streets of cities inundated with light, green branches on the thresholds, nations sisters, men just, old men blessing children, the past loving the present, thinkers entirely at liberty, believers on terms of full equality, for religion heaven, God the direct priest, human conscience become an altar, no more hatreds, the fraternity of the workshop and the school, for sole penalty and recompense fame, work for all, right for all, peace over all, no more bloodshed, no more wars, happy mothers!”

“Citizens, whatever happens today, through our defeat as well as our victory, it is a revolution that we are about to create.”

“Brothers, he who dies here dies in the radiance of the future, and we are entering a tomb all flooded with the dawn.”

From the musical:

The refrain of “Red and Black”:

“Red – the blood of angry men!”

Black – the dark of ages past!

Red – a world about to dawn!

Black – the night that ends at last!”

After the news of Lamarque’s death:

“The time is near!

Let us welcome it gladly with courage and cheer!

Let us take to the streets with no doubt in our hearts,

But a jubilant shout!

They will come one and all! They will come when we call!”

Not his lines alone, but he’s the first to sing them:

“Do you hear the people sing?

Singing the song of angry men?

It is the music of a people

Who will not be slaves again!

When the beating of your heart

Echoes the beating of the drums,

There is a life about to start

When tomorrow comes!”

From “One Day More”:

“One more day before the storm

At the barricades of freedom!

When our ranks begin to form,

Will you take your place with me?”

And of course his famous last words:

“Let others rise to take our place until the earth is free!”

brOTP: All the Amis.

OTP: Like most of the rest of the fandom, I enjoy Enjoltaire, but first and foremost I ship him with his patria.

nOTP: Javert or Gavroche. I’m glad I’ve never seen him shipped with either of them.

Random headcanon: Just to rebel against the popular fanon that he’s estranged from royalist parents, I’ll imagine that his parents are republican too and that he inherited his ideals from them. When he says “Citizen, my mother is the Republic,” his real mother would have been proud to hear it.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t think it’s blasphemy or “queer erasure” to ship him with a female character. He’s not explicitly gay, after all; he can just as easily be read as aro-ace, or as a chaste “priest of the ideal” regardless of his sexuality. I just don’t see much of a point to shipping him with a female character. Shipping him with Grantaire at least has support in the novel and can be meaningful for both of their character arcs. But what purpose does it serve to give him a girlfriend beyond “I’m a female fic writer and I think he’s hot, so I’m pairing him with a self-insert”? Then again, probably 80% of Enjoltaire fic is written because the writer thinks Enjolras is hot and uses Grantaire as a self-insert.

Song I associate with them:

“Red and Black”

“Do You Hear the People Sing?”

Favorite picture of them:

This 1938 illustration by Lynd Ward:

Michael Maguire, Broadway, 1987:

Greg Blanchard comforting Reece Holland’s Marius after Éponine’s death, 2nd National Tour, 1988:

Keith Burns, London, 1992:

Brian Herriott, 3rd National Tour, 1996:

Stephen Buntrock with Tom Zemon as Grantaire, Broadway, 1997:

Ramin Karimloo, London, 2004:

David Thaxton, London, 2008:

Aaron Tveit, 2012 musical film:

Kyle Scatliffe, Broadway, 2014:

Character ask: Marius Pontmercy

Requested by anonymous

Favorite thing about them: I love how passionate, tender, and romantic he is, how deeply he feels everything, and I love that he’s allowed to be that way, without having to become “manlier” to be worthy of respect. I laugh like the rest of the fandom at his goofy, awkward, and melodramatic moments (his “Pontmercying,” as fans call it), but with affection, not disdain. The comic relief those moments provide from the story’s general heaviness endears him to me all the more. I also like his idealism and social conscience, even though the latter is imperfect in the novel compared to the musical. Of course, he has his flaws, and I fully understand why he’s a divisive character, but I always want to defend him whenever someone outright dislikes him.

Least favorite thing about them: In the novel, the obvious worst thing he does is separating Valjean and Cosette after he learns Valjean’s past. But beyond that, there’s the simple fact that when he’s unhappy or uncomfortable, he tends not to be very nice. His coldness to Éponine is the textbook case, but sometimes not even Cosette herself is spared – for example, his hissy fit when she tells him she’s leaving for England, as if he thinks she’s willfully abandoning him even though she’s crying and clearly as distraught as he is. This is a very human flaw, but it’s unpleasant.

In the musical, it’s something my rational mind knows is really heroic. The fact that no matter how much his love for Cosette briefly distracts him, his loyalty to his friends and their cause ultimately comes first, even if it means losing Cosette forever (so he thinks) for their sake. My rational mind admires him for this, but I’m tired of men shoving women aside in favor of their causes, their careers, or their bonds with other men. I feel sorry for musical Cosette, because only after Marius’s friends all die can she really be as central to his life as he is to hers.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I’m sensitive and can be melodramatic.

*I can be socially awkward.

*I’m idealistic, or at least I want to be.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*My parents are both still alive.

*I’ve never taken part in an armed conflict.

*I’m female.

Favorite line:

From the novel:

The entire text of his love letter to Cosette in the chapter “A Heart Beneath a Stone,” but probably these two lines above all:

“God is behind everything, but everything hides God. Things are black, creatures are opaque. To love a being is to render that being transparent.”

This line probably inspired the musical’s famous “To love another person is to see the face of God,” and in the novel it’s a quote from Marius!

And the letter’s concluding line:

“If no one loved, the sun would go out.”

From the musical:

His verse in “Red and Black”:

“Had you been there tonight, you might know how it feels

To be struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight!

Had you been there tonight, you might also have known

How your world may be changed in just what burst of light,

And what was right seems wrong, and what was wrong seems right!

Red – I feel my soul on fire!

Black – my world if she’s not there!

Red – the color of desire!

Black – the color of despair!”

And from “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”:

“Phantom faces at the window, phantom shadows on the floor.

Empty chairs at empty tables, where my friends will meet no more.

Oh, my friends, my friends, don’t ask me what your sacrifice was for!

Empty chairs at empty tables, where my friends will sing no more.

brOTP: All the Amis, especially Courfeyrac, and Éponine, though more so in the musical than in the novel.

OTP: Cosette.

nOTP: His grandfather, his aunt, Valjean, Javert, or either of the Thénardiers.

Random headcanon: When he’s older he’ll become an author and eventually write a Les Misérables-like novel. His fictionalized counterpart in that book will be named Victor.

Unpopular opinion: I’m of two minds about his relationship with Éponine in the novel vs. the musical, and I don’t prefer one over the other. On the one hand, I like their friendship in the musical. It’s very endearing to see him be so warm and kind to her, be grateful for all she does for him, and value her as a friend despite the class difference between them. But on the other hand, his aloofness in the novel is more realistic, and the fact that he treats her this way despite being framed as a good person, Hugo’s self-insert no less, creates more pointed social commentary. The same applies to his response to her death. It’s moving and heartwarming to see musical Marius mourn her passing and (implicitly) learn to appreciate her love and sacrifices, but there’s more social commentary in the fact that Hugo’s Marius so quickly turns his mind to Cosette’s letter and rarely thinks again of the “unfortunate creature” who gave her life for him. I suppose each version is most appropriate for its own medium, with a musical needing simpler, more likable characterizations, while a novel allows for more complexity.

Song I associate with them:

“A Heart Full of Love"

“Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”

“Love Changes Everything” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love. It has nothing to do with Marius, but it’s fitting all the same, and it’s the signature song of Michael Ball.

Favorite picture of them:

Michael Ball, London, 1985

Matthew Porretta with Jacquelyn Piro as Cosette and Gary Barker as Valjean, 3rd National Tour, 1989

Rich Affannato (RIP), 3rd National Tour, 1996

Tom Lucas with Amanda Salmon as Éponine, London, 1999

Niklas Andersson crying over Éponine’s death with Jason McCann as Enjolras, London, 2000

Hadley Fraser with Helen French as Cosette and Sophia Ragavelas as Éponine, London, 2002

Peter Lockyer with Sandra Turley as Cosette, Broadway, 2002

Eddie Redmayne, 2012 film

Rob Houchen, London, 2013

Paul Wilkins, London, 2017

Character ask: Madame Thénardier

Tagged by @ariel-seagull-wings​

Favorite thing about them: Well, in the musical at least, she’s funny. Also, she gave birth to Éponine and Gavroche.

Least favorite thing about them: Her treatment of little Cosette and of her sons.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I’m heavyset.

*I have a temper, though hopefully I control it better than she does.

*I like romantic books.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I’m not married.

*I’m not a mother.

*I would never abuse a child.

Favorite line:

Her verse in “Master of the House”:

“I used to dream that I would meet a prince,

But God Almighty, have you seen what’s happened since?

Master of the house isn’t worth my spit

Comforter, philosopher, and lifelong shit

Cunning little brain, regular Voltaire

Thinks he’s quite a lover, but there’s not much there

What a cruel trick of nature, landing me with such a louse!

God knows how I’ve lasted living with this bastard in the house!”

brOTP: No one.

OTP: Her husband. They’re a lousy couple, but I wouldn’t ship either of them with anyone else.

nOTP: Marius, Cosette, or any of her own children.

Random headcanon: Her husband has never beaten her. He favors psychological abuse instead, making her feel inferior and helpless without him. Her father (now long dead), on the other hand, did beat her. She had to have learned it from somewhere, and there has to be a reason besides her husband for her dislike of males.

Unpopular opinion: She’s not a worse person than her husband – at least she loves her daughters, while he loves no one – and it’s worthwhile to consider her vulnerability as a woman trapped in a dysfunctional marriage and in poverty. The refusal of some people to even consider any sympathy for her probably does stem partly from misogyny and fatphobia. That said, we shouldn’t bend over backwards to sympathize with her. She’s still cruel and ruthless and still a child abuser.

Song I associate with them:

“Master of the House,” namely the last part:

“Waltz of Treachery”:

Favorite picture of them:

This illustration by Gustave Brion:

Jenny Galloway, 10th Anniversary Concert, 1995:

Gina Ferrall, Broadway, 1996:

Fuschia Walker, Broadway, 1997:

Mandy Holliday, London, 2000:

Betsy Joslyn (far removed from her “Johanna in Sweeny Todd” days), Broadway, 2002:

Aymee Garcia, Broadway, 2003:

Jodi Capeless, 3rd National Tour, 2003:

Jennifer Butt, 3rd National Tour, 2004:

Helena Bonham Carter, 2012 film:

Character ask: Fantine

 Tagged by anonymous

Favorite thing about them: All her warmth, love and inner strength as she makes every sacrifice for Cosette and clings to the hope of seeing her again. Also, the fact that particularly in the novel, she’s not a “perfect victim.” She’s angry, she has “dark thoughts,” she drowns her sorrows in brandy, she gradually becomes hardened and bitter toward everyone but Cosette, and she attacks Bamatabois like a ferocious animal when he provokes her. (All of this is downplayed in the musical, but a good actress can still bring it across.) Yet just like Valjean as an embittered convict, Hugo still gives her all his sympathy and portrays society’s treatment of her as cruel and unfair. There’s no gendered double standard.

Least favorite thing about them: That she has to suffer so much, and in the novel she doesn't even get to die in peace. On a personal level, her mistake of leaving Cosette with the Thénardiers – I don’t blame her for it, but both she and Cosette do suffer for it.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I’m sensitive and loving.

*I can be impulsive.

*I’ve sometimes failed to perform the social roles that others expect of me, although I’ve never been punished for it as brutally as she is.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I’m not a mother.

*I’ve been lucky enough to have a loving family and support system.

*Unlike Hugo’s Fantine, I’m not blonde.

Favorite line:

From the novel:

“My child is no longer cold. I have clothed her with my hair.”

“Ah, you old wretch of a mayor, you came here to frighten me, but I’m not afraid of you!”

“I have been a sinner; but when I have my child beside me, it will be a sign that God has pardoned me.”

“She is an angel, you see, my sisters. At that age the wings have not fallen off.”

And the entire text of her “Cornflowers are blue” lullaby.

From the musical:

“Is there anyone here who can swear before God she has nothing to fear, she has nothing to hide?”

All of “I Dreamed a Dream.”

The last verse of “Lovely Ladies,”

“Come on, Captain, you can wear your shoes

Don’t it make a change to have a girl who can’t refuse?

Easy money, lying on a bed

Just as well they never see the hate that’s in your head

Don’t they know they’re making love to one already dead?”

And in the finale, her words to Valjean as she leads him to heaven,

“Come with me, where chains will never bind you

All your grief at last, at last behind you”

brOTP: Cosette, Valjean, Sister Simplice, and her neighbor Marguerite from the novel.

OTP: Sometimes I ship her with Valjean (more in adaptations where they’re closer in age than in the novel with the 30-year age gap, though), but most often I ship her with health, safety and happiness.

nOTP: Tholomyes, Bamatabois, the factory foreman from the musical, and the abusive street musician from the novel.

Random headcanon: Hugo’s Fantine dies of chronic consumption, while the musical’s Fantine dies of galloping consumption. Here’s an article by a doctor from 1862 about the differences between these two variants of TB: https://www.nytimes.com/1862/08/16/archives/dr-r-hunter-on-gailoping-consumption.html. This is the only way her death still makes sense in the sped-up timeline of her scenes in the musical.

Unpopular opinion: I like the fact that the musical has her die in peace before Javert arrives, and I don’t think it would be an improvement to bring back her horrified, anguished death from the novel. There’s only so much misery an audience can take. In the novel, Hugo at least creates a sense after her death that she’s at peace, as her lifeless face seems to faintly smile at Valjean’s reassuring words and becomes “strangely illuminated,” with Hugo’s narrator voice asserting that death is "entrance into the great light.” But those nuances would be lost onstage, so to ensure that her story isn’t overwhelmingly bleak and depressing for the audience, it’s probably for the best that she dies happy in the musical.

Song I associate with them:

What else? "I Dreamed a Dream."

Favorite picture of them:

This illustration by Émile Bayard (or possibly Alphonse de Neuville – I’ve also seen it attributed to him) of her pleading with Javert at the police station:

Émile Bayard’s raw and intense (if not a little melodramatic) depiction of her death:

Patti LuPone, London, 1985:

Laurie Beechman with Craig Schulman as Valjean, Broadway, 1990:

Susan Gilmour, Broadway, 1994:

Rebecca Thornhill, London, 2000:

With Simon Bowman as Valjean:

Kerry Ellis, London, 2005:

Anne Hathaway, 2012 film:

Allison Blackwell, Dallas Theatre Center, 2014 (I love that this modern-dress production not only made the relevant choice to cast a black actress in the role, but chose a fairly heavyset actress, showing the audience that a woman doesn’t need to be a small, delicate conventional beauty to be preyed on and abused by lascivious men):

Character ask: Cosette

 Tagged by @ariel-seagull-wings

Favorite thing about them:

I like her for most of the same reasons I like classic versions of Cinderella or Snow White. She’s innocent, sweet, loving and caring, and she survives an early life of misery to not only find love and happiness herself, but to bring love and happiness to Valjean and later Marius when they most need it. I also like her gentle liveliness and playfulness (qualities that can get lost in the musical compared to the novel, though a good actress can bring them across) and her eagerness to experience life, and in the novel, I love the way she encourages Valjean to take care of himself and not overdo his pious, guilt-based self-denial.

Least favorite thing about them:

The fact that she lets Valjean withdraw from her life after she’s married (novel)/just before she gets married (musical). Of course it’s clear that she still loves him, she doesn’t realize he never intends to come back, and I always try to remind myself of her past trauma too – that because she was an abused child, it’s her instinct to obey and accept things without objection and put on a cheerful mask. But Hugo frames it less in that way and more as “She loves Marius more than she loves her father,” which is less sympathetic, no matter how he tries to present it as “natural.” I do like that the 2012 film of the musical makes her more heartbroken when Valjean leaves and clearly wistful and missing him even at her wedding party.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I have brown hair (yes, in the novel she has brown hair, even though 90% of adaptations portray her as a stereotypical blonde ingenue)

*I had a fairly sheltered upbringing

*I love gardens, music, and making other people happy

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I was never abused as a child

*I still haven’t found the right romantic partner

*I dress more for comfort than for fashion

Favorite line:

From the novel:

The lines where she dissuades Valjean from going without a fire in his room and from eating nothing but nasty black bread:

“I shall come here so often that you will be obliged to have a fire” and “Well, if you eat it, I will eat it too.”

Her teasing remark when she walks in on Valjean confessing his identity to Marius but doesn’t hear what’s being said:

“I will wager that you are talking politics. How stupid that is, instead of being with me!”

And from the last chapter, when Valjean is dying, but Cosette insists that he’s going to live and come home with her:

“We have a carriage at the door. I shall run away with you. If necessary, I shall employ force.”

From the musical:

All of “Castle on a Cloud.”

From “In My Life”:

“In my life, there are so many questions

And answers that somehow seem wrong.

In my life, there are times when I catch in the silence

The sigh of a faraway song.

And it sings of a world that I long to see,

Out of reach, just a whisper away,

Waiting for me!”

brOTP: Valjean, Fantine if only she could have known her, and Éponine in a different time and place where they could have been friends.

OTP: Marius.

nOTP: Valjean or Javert.

Random headcanon: In the novel, if not the musical, I think she has CPTSD. Maybe it’s a moderate case, since she doesn’t show many symptoms, but it would explain her passive, conflict-avoidant tendencies, and the fact that as a young woman she has barely any memory of her childhood before Valjean adopted her, even though she was eight years old at the time, not a toddler.

Unpopular opinion: In some circles, it would be unpopular to say that I like her at all, and don’t consider her deathly boring or “icky-gooey.” Another one might be that in adaptations, she doesn’t need to be made “feistier” or “more independent” to be interesting.

Song I associate with them:

“Castle on Cloud”

“In My Life” and “A Heart Full of Love”

Favorite picture of them:

Émile Bayard’s iconic illustration:

Eden Riegel, Broadway, 1990:

Rebecca Caine, with Simon Bowman as Marius, London, 1986:

Zoë Curlett, with an older Simon Bowman as Valjean, London, 2000:

Melissa Anne Davis, Broadway, 1992:

Christeena Michelle Riggs, Broadway, 1997:

Ali Ewoldt, Broadway, 2006:

Isabelle Allen, 2012 film:

Amanda Seyfried, 2012 film:

Virginie Ledoyen, 2000 French miniseries (a quirky adaptation, but one with a perfectly cast Cosette):