Hi!Hi! Les mis question. So I'm a littel confused as to which of the Amis has the surrogate father to Gavroche. In the production I saw in London, it was quite clearly Grantaire, he was the only one in a green waist coat (which is a really nice visual considering his character) However, in all the movie clips it looks like someone else? Is this open to interpirtation or did the versions swap around characters?
I was in the midst of making my episode 3 summary when I got this question so talk about coincidences.
I’m not the biggest expert Les Mis scholar ever (there’s a lot of more suited people around tumblr, maybe @pilferingapples can help out more than I can) but I don’t think any of the Amis was in canon a “father figure” to Gavroche per se, Gavroche himself was a sort of father for his two younger siblings though, at one point, in a way, when they end up in the streets and for a short while. He does talk with the students and all, interacts with a good bunch of them, but I don’t think there was something as strong as a father figure bond because Gavroche’s character is very centered on his independence and the gamin archetype in a socially compromised context.
The musical introduced that “father figure” thing, for what I know and what people has described, and maybe what you mean is that in the 2012 movie version Courfeyrac is shown to have a much stronger bond with Gavroche than the rest of them, he’s the one who lets him speak and who is shown visibly distressed by his passing and has to be forced to not go try to retrieve him when he’s being shot (Combeferre stops him in this version). In the brick, Courfeyrac does speak with Gavroche when he goes to retrieve the bullets, the scene isn’t quite like in the movie but he does insist him to go back. From the Hapgood translation:
“What are you doing there?” asked Courfeyrac.Gavroche raised his face:–“I’m filling my basket, citizen.”“Don’t you see the grape-shot?”Gavroche replied:“Well, it is raining. What then?”Courfeyrac shouted:–“Come in!”“Instanter,” said Gavroche.And with a single bound he plunged into the street.
It’s also Courfeyrac who tells him to “come along” when he joins them on their way in the Marche Saint-Jean. I’m not as well-versed in all things brick-related to remember Gavroche’s interactions with Grantaire, if any of note, to compare, but I guess what I mean is that maybe this is why the movie went for Courfeyrac for a sort of bond, albeit in the brick nobody was any kind of “father figure”, I don’t think.
Most stage productions that take this stance make Grantaire the one who’s more with him, you’re correct about that. This is something fanon has accepted widely, maybe because fanon has a very usual interpretation on Grantaire and Éponine being friends (there’s a long discussion about why that is that I made in a post at one point, it’s an interesting debate), so maybe both things together can be why fanon sticks to the idea of Grantaire being a sort of “father figure”. Why the musical decided to go on that route, I’m not sure, maybe to give Grantaire a more visual characterization aside from being drunk all the time, especially since his death scene was changed, or maybe one staging did it and it stuck, I need musical historians for this.
In any case, I think the answer would be, if I’m not completely mistaken and people are allowed to call me out if I am: Gavroche doesn’t have what we can refer as a “father figure” among the students in the book, most of the musical productions make Grantaire the “father figure” if you will, the 2012 movie makes Courfeyrac that figure, maybe based on some of the most crucial Gavroche interactions with students in the book happen with Courfeyrac, albeit not with the intensity depicted in the movie.
God, I hope I answered your question well enough.
omg , I’m so glad you tagged me in to talk about Gavroche!
Short answer:
Yeah, the stage musical these days gives Gavroche a close relationship with Grantaire, for whatever reason; I know that’s a *somewhat* new thing, in the sense that the show is several decades strong and it wasn’t there right at first, but I also know it’s been going for several years at least! ( @cometomecosette , @laughingmistress, you know a lot more about the Musical History; do you know when this kicked in?)
The 2012 movie definitely has Gavroche being closest to Courfeyrac! A very reasonable change.
…and yeah, way more relevant to the book’s portrayal of them both than having Gavroche hang around with Grantaire, which…I have no idea where or when that got made a thing? But like the robbery in the square, it’s musical-exclusive.
Book-wise (if that’s relevant; it’s not, really, if you’re just checking musical versions) , Gavroche has his main interactions with (in no particular order) Courfeyrac, Marius (post-powder-barrel stunt), quite a lot with Enjolras, and with Bahorel, who he adopts as his Favorite Adult (and I hope you appreciate the Willpower I am deploying now in not going On about that XD). Grantaire never even meets him, as far as we’re told in the novel.
Now I am hoping more musical-focused bloggers will volunteer some stage history!
I’m not quite sure when the Gavroche/Grantaire bond became a thing onstage. It’s been a trend for as long as I’ve known the show, which is 19 years. (Hey, I’ve been a Les Mis fan exactly as long as Valjean spends in Toulon!)
It’s always been standard blocking for Grantaire to stand with comforting hands on Gavroche’s shoulders while the whole barricade is watching Éponine die. The classic Michael Ball/Frances Ruffelle “A Little Fall of Rain” photo shows Clive Carter’s Grantaire doing just that in the background.
Whether the staging has always had them as buddies throughout, or whether that one bit of blocking grew into something more in future actors’ hands, I don’t know. As for why it’s Grantaire… well, maybe it’s just because he’s the most prominent of all the Amis in the musical. Or maybe they wanted to show him as clearly having a lot of “heart” to make up for his lack of idealism and a strong bond with the little boy was an easy way to do it.