Fraternity: Enjolras, Combeferre, Grantaire and Underage Tennis Players [Part 1]
My introduction to slash came through Les Misérables. It was then that I started down my current path to that special hell.
Anyhow. The predominant slash pairing was Enjolras/Grantaire (and this still seems to be the case). All of this slash stuff was quite new and exciting to me; I read it and loved it and searched for more of it and devoured it.
And then I suffered a backlash.
It turned out that I actually didn’t like E/R ("R" being a familiar abbreviation for "Grantaire") as a pairing. Unfortunately, due to its overwhelming prevalence, what should be just a matter of preference tends to have something of a knee-jerk negative response from me now. But I do my best to be a good fan and play nice.
Still, it’s probably obvious that I am of the Enjolras/Combeferre bent. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine - I don’t believe that it would actually happen. But I would like for it to be able to happen - I believe that it would be good for Enjolras while not pushing the boundaries of character and canon as I see E/R doing (at least when it’s good for him).
Enough shipping, though!
So. There's an "Enjolras in camp" section at the end, but on a whole, this here is about Combeferre and Grantaire. Why am I doing a canon compilation/essay for two characters that I don't (and won't ever) play in CFUD?
My impression is that Enjolras's two most notable relationships in canon are with Combeferre and Grantaire -- extremely different, but both important for a character who has next-to-no personal interactions. Both Combeferre and Grantaire are fascinating characters on their own and you should app them, but they also help me to get a better grip on Enjolras, who risks floating away from the rest of humanity without them. You know what they say about getting to know someone by seeing whom they hang around with. Or something like that. Actually, I'm not sure exactly what they say, but it's something to that effect, I'm sure.
Anyways.
Combeferre: The Right-Hand Renaissance Man
Combeferre is a medical student/doctor, a member of Les Amis de l'ABC (the republican political club of which Enjolras is the de facto leader), a complete geek and probably the most underappreciated of Les Amis. While not as flashy or obviously charming as some of the other Amis, he's a witty voice of reason and helps to connect Enjolras to the rest of us lesser mortals. Very often portrayed in fandom as wearing spectacles.
You should app him. I would app him in a heartbeat, except that the playercest would kill me.
Enjolras might be the very model of a modern insurrectionist and lead Les Amis de l’ABC, but I believe that Victor Hugo places his support behind Combeferre. Enjolras’s flaw is that he’s a perfect revolutionary. Combeferre, on the other hand, is, you know, human. When all of Les Amis are introduced, Enjolras is listed first, for he is, as the narrator points out, the leader. What’s interesting, though, is that Combeferre’s introduction is actually the longest. My personal theory is that Combeferre is the narrator’s idealized stand-in among the students, the one that the reader is actually supposed to listen to.
Interestingly enough, a lot of Combeferre’s introduction (Book III, Volume IV, Chapter 1) doesn’t just describe him - it describes him in relation to Enjolras, how the two of them work together. And...
Well. Why don’t I just give you some of it.
Beside Enjolras who represented the logic of the Revolution, Combeferre represented its philosophy. Between the logic of the Revolution and it philosophy, there was this difference - that its logic could conclude in war, while its philosophy could only end in peace. Combeferre completed and corrected Enjolras.
Just butting in here to say... I mean, just look at that phrase: completed and corrected. The primary meaning here is most likely in an ideological/political/symbolic sense - i.e. what I was saying before about Enjolras being the primary student but not the point at which the reader most directly connects to the students. But I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to take this personally as well - in Les Misérables, ideologies and symbolic roles are personal. Despite how little we see of the students’ personal lives - and then, mainly more social and outgoing characters such as Courfeyrac, Bossuet and Joly, who would seek out Marius the Main Character - I assume that they do, in fact, have personal lives. So there’s a lot of extrapolation going on here. Given that we’re dealing with Enjolras, an individual for whom his beliefs largely are his life, I don’t think that we have to extrapolate too terribly far.
He was lower and broader. His desire was to instill into all minds the broad principles of general ideas; his motto was "Revolution, but civilization"; and he spread the vast blue horizon around the steep mountain. Hence, in all Combeferre’s views, there was something attainable and practicable. Revolution with Combeferre was more possible than with Enjolras. Enjolras expressed its divine right and Combeferre its natural right. The first sprang from Robespierre; the second stopped at Condorcet. More than Enjolras, Combeferre lived the life of the world in general. Had it been given to these two young men to take a place in history, one would have been the upright man, the other the wise man. Enjolras was more virile, Combeferre was more humane. Homo and Vir indeed express the exact shade of difference. Comebferre was gentle, as Enjolras was severe, from natural purity. He loved the word "citizen," but he preferred the word "man."
Obligatory but pathetically bad "homo" joke goes here.
He read everything, went to the theater, followed the public courts, learned the polarization of light from Arago, had explained the double function of the exterior cartoid artery and the interior cartoid artery, one of which supplies the face, the other the brain; he kept pace with the times, followed science step by step, confronted Saint-Simon with Fourier, deciphered hieroglyphics, broke the pebbles that he found and talked about geology, drew a moth from memory, pointed out the mistakes in French in the Dictionnaire de l'Académie, studied Puységur and Deleauze, affirmed nothing, not even miracles; denied nothing, not even ghosts; looked over the files of the Moniteur, reflected. He declared that the future was in the hands of the schoolmaster and busied himself with questions of education.
So while Enjolras is off there, staring into the distance (but not really, not until after 1830, I don't think, but I'm talking about Combeferre here, not Enjolras, so I'll leave that for another time) through his tunnel vision, Combeferre has his feet planted in a million places on the ground. That's an important thing to have, I think, and something that I feel that Enjolras, though not engaging in it himself, would accept because Combeferre does it all with such a sense of significance, that this is meaningful. Though Combeferre is certainly an idealist, too ("'even chimeric,' said his friends"), he's of a different shade than Enjolras. In fact, he has shading, period, as opposed to being so black-and-white and narrow.
Enjolras was a chief; Combeferre was a guide. You would have preferred to fight with the one and march with the other. Not that Combeferre was incapable of fighting; he did not refuse to grapple with an obstacle, and to attack it by main strength and by explosion, but gradually, by the teaching of axioms and the promulgation of positive laws, to put the human race in harmony with its destinies, pleased him better; and of the two lights, his inclination was rather toward illumination than conflagration. A fire would cause a dawn, undoubtedly, but why not wait for the break of day? A volcano illuminates, but the morning enlightens still better. Combeferre, perhaps, preferred the pure radiance of the beautiful to the flaming glory of the sublime. A light disturbed by smoke, an advance purchased by violence, only half satisfied this tender and serious mind.
[. . . ]
In short, he wanted neither halt nor haste. While his tumultuous friends, chivalrously devoted to the absolute, adored and asked for splendid revolutionary adventures, Combeferre inclined to let progress do her work -- the good progress, cold, perhaps, but pure; methodical, but irreproachable; phlegmatic, but imperturable. Combeferre would have knelt down and clasped his hands, asking for the future to come in all its radiant purity and for nothing to disturb the immense virtuous evolution of the people. "The good must be innocent," he repeated incessantly. And in fact, if it is the grandeur of the Revolution to stare at the dazzling ideal, and to fly to it through the lightning, with blood and fire in the talons, then it is the beauty of progress to be without stain; and there is between Washington, who represents the one, and Danton, who incarnates the other, the same difference that separates the angel with the wings of a swan, from the angel with the wings of an eagle.
...my canon encourages wing!fic.
I... I don't know if there's anything I can say to add to that. Aside from the fact that Enjolras and Combeferre are presented as related entities, different but complementary.
And so, we continue through the rest of the introductins: Prouvaire, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Bossuet, Joly and Grantaire (whom we shall see more of later).
In the next chapter, Combeferre is portrayed as a moderating force, a sort of playful voice of reason. When Bahorel starts shooting his mouth off and declaring "Down with tragedy!" because he's Bahorel and he does stuff like that, Combeferre replies:
"You're wrong, Bahorel. The bourgeoisie love tragedy, and on that point we must leave the bourgeoisie alone. Tragedy in a wig has its reason for being, and I am not one of those who, in the name of Aeschylus, deny it the right to exist. There are rough drafts in nature; in creation there are ready-made parodies; a beak that isn't a beak, wings that aren't wings, fins that aren't fins, claws that aren't claws, a mournful cry that makes us want to laugh, there you have the duck. Now, since fowl exists alongside bird, I don't see why classical tragedy shouldn't exist opposite ancient tragedy."
The next snippet of conversation consists of Courfeyrac making a flippant remark about Rousseau, to which Enjolras basically responds "STFU and sit down."
First thought: Enjolras must really know his shit, because why the hell else would these guys tolerate him, jesus christ.
Second thought: I really see Combeferre as being a sort of link between Enjolras and the others, relationship-/character-wise. Like Enjolras, Combeferre will shut you down if you say something stupid. However, unlike Enjolras, Combeferre will actually, you know, have a sense of humor about it. I do have some bleed-over of sense of humor with the way that I play Enjolras, mainly because I see him as having been forced to adapt, now that he's on his own here. Because he's- all right, so maybe he's not an entirely reasonable human being, but he's a rational one, and he desires to neither have his ass kicked (unless it's for a worthy cause, of course) or go crazy here. And even with that, it largely depends on whom he's talking to (which will be covered in the last section).
The chapter after that gives us more day-in-the-life of the back room of the Café Musain.
In the last corner, politics was the subject. They were denigrating the Charter of Louis XVIII. Combeferre defended it mildly, Courfeyrac was energetically battering it.
I get the sense that Combeferre does a lot of things mildly. Not that he doesn't care or thinks that things don't matter at all -- his introduction speaks against that possibility -- but he seems to have this sort of zen that is matched by very characters in the book (perhaps the Bishop of Digne -- he's pretty groovy). And just... yeah. Jesus, I love this guy.
It was winter; two logs were crackling in the fireplace. It was tempting, and Courfeyrac could not resist. He crushed the poor Touquet Charter in his hand and threw it into the fire. The paper blazed up. Combeferre looked philosophically at the burning of Louis XVIII's masterpiece, and contented himself with saying; "The charter metamorphosed in flames."
Combeferre has no need for your dramatic gestures. Combeferre is too awesome for you, and you know it.
This is built upon in the next chapter, where Enjolras makes a statement against Napoleon, which sends the Napoleon-worshipping Marius Pontmercy on a two-page long paean to Napoleon, and he probably would never have shut up, were it not for Combeferre's intervention.
"[. . .] To repeatedly call forth constellations of victories at the zenith of centuries, to make the French Empire the successor of the Roman Empire, to be the grand nation and to bring forth the Gran Army, to send your legions flying across the whole earth as a moutain sends out its eagles, to vanquish, to rule, to strike thunder, to be for Europe a kind of golden people through glory, to sound through history a Titan's fanfare, to conquer the world twice, by conquest and by resplendence, that is sublime. What could be greater?"
"To be free," said Combeferre.
Marius in his turn bowed his head. These cold and simply words had pierced his epic effusion like a blade of steel, and he felt it vanish within him. When he raised his eyes, Cobeferre was gone. Satisfied probably with his reply to the apotheosis, he had gone out, and all except Enjolras had followed him. The room was empty. Alone with Marius, Enjolras was looking at him gravely. Marius, meanwhile, having rallied his thoughts somewhat, did not consider himself beaten; there was still something simmering within him, which undoubtedly was about to find expression in syllogisms marshaled against Enjolras, when suddenly they heard somebody singing on the way downstairs. It was Combeferre:
Si César m'avait donné
Le gloire et la guerre,
Et qu'il me fallût quitter
L'amour de ma mère,
Je dirais au grand César:
Reprends ton sceptre et ton char,
J'aime mieux me mère, ô gué!
J'aime mieux me mère.
The wild and tender tone with which Combeferre sang gave this stanza a strange grandeur. Marius, thoughtful and with his eyes to the ceiling, repeated almost mechanically, "my mother--"
At that moment, he felt Enjolras's hand on his shoulder.
"Citizen," said Enjolras to him, "my mother is the Republic."
The song translates to: "If Caesar had given me/ Glory and war,/ And if I must abandon/ The love of my mother,/ I would say to great Caesar:/ Take your scepter and chariot/ I love my mother more, alas!/ I love my mother more."
In other words? Combeferre pwns you. Less flippantly, Enjolras and Combeferre have different ideas and values, but Combeferre somehow comes out in support of Enjolras, whether purposefully or by authorial design. And Combeferre obviously has the smarts and convictions to be able to lead others, but he chooses to back Enjolras.
The next time we see our heroes, it's the notorious "Enjolras and His Lieutenants" chapter that I talk about in my Enjolras canon compilation. Now, I'm not sure how much of this is translation, but Enjolras basically lists off places where Les Amis have to go to talk to people -- to get a feel for the political climate down on the ground, to encourage enthusiasm in the right places -- and either says "so-and-so will go here" or "so-and-so, you will do this."
Except for Combeferre.
"Combeferre has promised me to go to Picpus."
Now. I will proceed to read entirely too much into that. But as an English student, a writer, an actor and, most importantly, a fangirl -- I'm supposed to microanalyze things like this. Because for me, it just says something about how they relate to each other -- that everyone else is basically given an order by Enjolras, but Combeferre gave Enjolras a promise. They're pretty damn on level with each other.
...and yeah. As with Enjolras, we don't see Combeferre again until June 5, 1832, when they're on the way to build the barricade.
The beginning of the barricade building, covered in Part 2 of my Enjolras canon compilation, establishes that the main guys at the barricade at Enjolras, Combeferre and Courfeyrac. Enjolras is obvious: he's the leader. Courfeyrac is obvious, too: he's the best friend of Marius (the book's romantic hero) and one of the most normal (as opposed to, say Joly and Bossuet, who also have fun personalities but are also on the eccentric side) and sociable of Les Amis. Combeferre's presence as one of the primary personalities at the barricade reinforces my belief from the character introductions that Combeferre, despite not being as flashy as some of the other Amis, is really meant to be an important character and one to whom the reader should pay attention.
Most of Combeferre's scenes are covered in Enjolras's canon compilation because, well, barricade action tends to center around Enjolras, but I'll repeat some things here, for the sake of convenience. C&P for the win!
Barricade building begins; there's a verbal confrontation with Grantaire; barricade building continues.
Gavroche, a street urchin, had joined the group running through the streets and has ended up with a useless gun.
Still, [Gavroche] was furious at his hammerless pistol. He went from one to the next demanding, "A musket! I want a musket! Why don't you give me a musket?"
"A musket for you?" said Combeferre.
"Well?" replied Gavroche. "Why not? I had one in 1830, in the argument with Charles X."
Enjolras shrugged his shoulders.
"When there are enough for the men, we'll give them to the children."
Gavroche turned fiercely, and answered him, "If you're killed before me, I'll take yours."
"Gamin!" said Enjolras.
"Smooth-face!" said Gavroche.
I've always loved this little exchange. In which Combeferre is Sane, as usual, and Enjolras sounds vaguely human. I just get this little mental image of Combeferre both trying not to laugh and trying not to bang his head against the wall as Enjolras and Gavroche go at each other.
Enjolras and Combeferre had sat down, carbine in hand, near the opening of the large barricade. They were not talking, they were listening; seeking to catch even the faintest, most distant sound of a march.
[Gavroche is heard singing, coming back to the barricade.]
They grasped each other by the hand.
"It's Gavroche," said Enjolras.
"He's warning us," said Combeferre.
BECAUSE THAT’S OBVIOUSLY WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU GET EXCITED ABOUT THE SOLDIERS COMING YOU TURN AROUND AND GRAB ONTO YOUR NEAREST MAN-FRIEND.
The barricade is built; there's the initial attack, where Bahorel is killed. Later on, a man who had joined the students and helped to build the barricade is wandering around outside and, being the villainous sort, shoots and unarmed civilian. Bad move on his part -- next thing he knows, Enjolras has him by the collar and has forced him to his knees. A crowd gathers.
"Collect your thoughts," said [Enjolras]. "Pray or think. You have one minute."
"Pardon!" murmured the murderer, then he bowed his head and mumbled some inarticulate oaths.
Enjolras did not take his eyes off his watch; he let the minute pass, then he put his watch back into his fob. This done, he took Le Cabuc, who was writhing against his knees and howling, by the hair, and placed the muzzle of his pistol at his ear. Many of those intrepid men, who had so tranquilly entered upon the most terrible of enterprises, looked away.
Butting in for a moment -- in my mind, Combeferre would not be one of those who looked away. Because... well, read on.
They heard the explosion, the assassin fell face forward on the pavement, and Enjolras straightened up and looked around the circle, determined and severe.
Then he pushed the body away with his foot, and said, "Throw that outside."
Three men lifted the wretch's body, which was quivering with the last reflex convulsion of the life that had flown, and threw it over the small barricade into the little Rue Mondétour.
Enjolras had remained thoughtful. Shadow, mysterious and grand, was slowly spreading across his fearful serenity. He suddenly raised his voice. There was a silence.
"Citizens," said Enjolras, "what that man did is horrible, and what I have done is terrible. He killed, that is why I killed him. I was forced to do it, for the insurrection must have its discipline. Assassination is still a greater crime here than elsewhere; we are under the eyes of the Revolution, we are priests of the Republic, we are the sacramental host of duty, and no one can defame our combat. As for myself, compelled to do what I have done, but abhorring it, I have judged myself also, and you shall soon see to what I have sentenced myself."
Those who heard shuddered.
"We will share your fate," cried Combeferre.
[IV.X.8]
While Combeferre's speaking on behalf of everyone else is questionable, he's definitely aligning himself with Enjolras here. As for his speaking on everyone else's behalf... There are a few things backing that up, I think. For one thing, as seen in the earlier chapter where he pwned Marius and emptied the room, Combeferre definitely can be a leader when he wants to be. Enjolras leads the People, Combeferre leads the people. Also, Combeferre, while idealistic, is also practical and realistic. He isn't fooling himself about this: everyone at the barricade is a killer.
There's the first attack. Bahorel is killed, and when the smoke clears...
They called the roll. One of the insurgents was missing. And who? One of the dearest. One of the most valiant, Jean Prouvaire. They looked for him among the wounded, he was not there. They looked for him among the dead, he was not there. He was evidently a prisoner.
Combeferre said to Enjolras, "They have our friend; we have their officer. Have you set your heart on the death of this spy?"
"Yes," said Enjolras; "but far less than on the life of Jean Prouvaire."
This took place in the basement room near Javert's post.
"Well," replied Combeferre, "I'm going to tie my handkerchief to my cane, and go with a flag of truce to offer to give them their man for ours."
"Listen," said Enjolras, laying his hand on Combeferre's arm.
There was a significant clicking of weapons at the end of the street.
They heard a manly voice cry out, "Vive la France! Long live the future!"
They recognized Prouvaire's voice.
There was a flash and an explosion.
Silence reigned again.
"They've killed him," exclaimed Combeferre.
Enjolras looked at Javert and said to him, "Your friends have just shot you."
[IV.XIV.5]
I just want to ask why Enjolras is touching Combeferre all the damn time. No, seriously. Because it's either sorta weird or sorta gay.
Also, while I'm using the novel and not the musical as my canon, this does remind me of a wonderful moment from a performance I saw by the national touring company about four years ago. In Act II, after Gavroche has revealed Javert to be a spy, the students tie Javert up and many are shouting (well, singing) for him to be shot. The lines go as thus...
COURFEYRAC
Take the bastard now and shoot him!
FEUILLY
Let us watch the devil dance!
LESGLES
You'd have done the same, Inspector,
If we'd let you have your chance!
JAVERT
Shoot me now or shoot me later,
Every schoolboy to his sport!
Death to each and every traitor!
I renounce your people's court!
COMBEFERRE
While we may not all survive here,
There are things that never die.
GRANTAIRE
What's the difference, die a schoolboy,
Die a policeman, die a spy?
Now, I renounce the Combeferre on the Complete Symphonic Recording because he manages to sound so incredibly bitter and spiteful and rageful on that lie that it hurts me in the kokoro. In the national touring production that I saw, though, the other students were aiming to shoot Javert, and on his line, Combeferre just went and stood in front of Javert and stared the rest of them down, singing his line as calmly as calm can be. And at that moment, I declared my undying love for that actor (Graham Rowat, by the way ♥). Just... yes.
In any case, that's the last we hear of them until Volume Five (Jean Valjean).
We've reached the time of waiting. You're at a barricade, you've been attack, you'll be attacked again -- what to do? Well... stand around and talk.
Combeferre, surrounded by students and workmen, spoke of the dead, of Jean Prouvaire, of Bahorel, of Mabeuf, and even of Le Cabuc and of the stern sadness of Enjolras. He said, "Harmodious and Aristogeiton, Brutus, Chereas, Stephanu, Cromwell, Charlotte Corday, Sand -- after the deed, all of them had their moment of anguish. Our hearts are so fluctuating, and human life is such a mystery that, even in a civic murder, even in a liberating murder, if there is such a thing, the remorse of having struck a man surpasses the joy of having served the human race."
And, such is the meandering course of conversation, a moment later, by transition from Jean Prouvaire's poetry, Combeferre was comparing the translators of the Georgics, Raux with Cournand, Cournand with Delille, pointing out the few passages translated by Malfilâtre, particularly the omens at the death of Caesar; and from this word, Caesar, they came back to Brutus.
[V.I.2]
See? Enjolras's friends really do all talk about him as if he's not there. In any case -- another instance of Hugo putting Combeferre into a position of authority, and, this time, authority regarding Enjolras, even. It's sort of funny, really. He's acting like a bloody professor, and one of today's subjects just happens to be Enjolras. It's as though he's translating him for the common folk. (As a point of contrast, when Bossuet and Courfeyrac are talking about Enjolras during the Patria bit, the main jist of their sallies and joking is that they don't understand him.)
The night passes. Enjolras goes lurking around, doing a reconnaissance and sees that the situation is not good. So, he gathers everyone up and is, like, "ur all gonna die lolz." Or something. In any case, he says that staying at the barricade is basically a death sentence and that those who can be spared -- fathers, sole breadwinners, etc. -- should be, should get the hell out.
Leader to the tips of his fingers, Enjolras, seeing that they murmured, insisted. He resumed with authority, "Let those who fear to be only thirty say so."
The murmurs increased.
"Besides," observed a voice from one of the groups, "to leave is easy to say. The barricade is hemmed in."
"Not toward Les Halles," said Enjolras. "The Rue Mondétour is open, and by the Rue des Prêcheurs you can reach the Marché de Innocents."
"And there," put in another voice from the group, "he'll be taken. He'll fall upon some fine guard of the line or the suburb. They'll see a man going by in cap and blouse. 'Where are you coming from? You wouldn't belong to the barricade, would you?' And they look at your hands. You smell of gunpowder. Shot."
Enjolras, without answering, touched Combeferre's shoulder, and they both went into the lower room.
They came back a moment later. Enjolras held out in his hands the four uniforms he had kept in reserve. Combeferre followed him, bringing the cross belts and shakos.
"With this uniform," said Enjolras, "you can mingle a with the ranks and escape. Here are enough for four."
And he threw them onto the unpaved ground.
[V.I.4]
I'm not clear about whether Enjolras had told Combeferre about the uniforms before and so the tap was just the signal for "okay, we go get uniforms now" or if Combeferre didn't know and it was more of a "c'mere and gimme a hand with this super sekrit thing." Either way, I find it impressive that Enjolras, a rather verbal character, is to the point of communicating non-verbally with Combeferre to such an extent. If you go through and count (...which I've done), Combeferre is the person whom Enjolras touches the most. The first runner-up is the bullet-riddled corpse of a mentally-ill old man who was killed at the barricade -- those touches and all of the (very few) others are moments of significance. With Combeferre, it always feels... surprisingly casual. We don't see him being so comfortable with any other person.
Anyhow. Guys at the barricade aren't buying the whole "you don't all have to die, some of you should leave, no rly" deal. So Enjolras yells at them and Combeferre really has his big speech in [V.I.4]. And it's two pages long, so I'm not typing out the entire thing. In summary, it’s a feminist argument about how society has left women in a position of being dependent on men, and the women you love are caught in that society, so if you get yourself killed, they’re going to suffer for it and his thoughts on yaoi. But at the end of it...
Strange contradictions of the human heart in its most sublime moments! Combeferre, who spoke this way, was not an orphan. He remembered the mothers of others, and he forgot his own. He was going to be killed. He was "selfish."
Marius speechifies. Enjolras, Combeferre and Marius all yell at them. Jean Valjean arrives at the barricade. They finally get some guys to leave.
Enjolras's Really Big Speech occurs in the next chapter (V.1.5), "What Horizon is Visible from the Top of the Barricade." The chapter is pretty much entirly Enjolras talking. It begins, though, with a few paragraphs telling the reader how special Enjolras is. Relevant to this topic is the following:
Within himself Enjolras had the plenitude of revolution; he was incomplete notwithstanding, as much as the absolute can be; he clung too much to Saint-Just, not enough to Anacharsis Clootz; still his mind, in the society of the Friends of the ABC, had finally taken on a certain polarization from Combeferre's ideas; for some time, he had little by little been leaving the narrow forms of dogma, and allowing himself to tread the broad path of progress, and he had come to accept, as its definitive and magnificent evolution, the transformation of the great French Republic into the immense human republic. As to immediate means, in a condition of violence he wanted them to be violent; in that he had not varied; and he was still of that epic and formidable school summed up in the spirit of 1793.
I always found it surprising and notable that Enjolras's ideas were not polarized from having spent time with the other Amis de l'ABC -- he was, according to Hugo, influenced by Combeferre and Combeferre alone. Like I said earlier, the narrator gives the reader indicators that Combeferre's views are the "right" ones; naturally, then, Combeferre would be the one to win over the Revolutionary, the ideas that he represents being triumphant over Enjolras's de-humanized dogma. But within the reality of the story, it also supports Enjolras and Combeferre working on a very equal basis, and Combeferre having an understanding of Enjolras that no one else does.
A few chapters later in V.I.8, the National Guard break out the grapeshot, and the barricade takes a beating -- one shot leaves two dead and three wounded, which is quite a few when you only have thirty men.
"Let us prevent the second discharge," said Enjolras.
And, lowering his rifle, he took aim at the captain of the gun, who, at that moment, was bearing down on the breach of his gun and rectifying and definitely fixing its pointing.
The captain of the piece was a handsome sergeant of artillery, very young, blond, with a very gentle face, and the intelligent air peculiar to that predestined and redoubtable weapon which, by dint of perfecting itself in horror, must end in killing war.
Combeferre, who was standing beside Enjolras, scrutinized this young man.
"What a pity!" said Combeferre. "What hideous things these butcheries are! Come, when there are no more kings, there will be no more war. Enjolras, you are taking aim at that sergeant, you are not looking at him. Fancy, he is a charming young man; he is intrepid; it is evident that he is thoughtful; those young artillery-men are very well educated; he has a father, a mother, a family; he is probably in love; he is not more than five and twenty at the most; he might be your brother."
"He is," said Enjolras.
"Yes," replied Combeferre, "he is mine too. Well, let us not kill him."
"Let me alone. It must be done."
God, I love Combeferre's attitude. Enjolras tries to take the symbolic high ground ("EVERY MAN IS MY BROTHER ZOMG") and Combeferre is just, like, "Right. Put down the gun." Combeferre is like the balance between Grantaire and Enjolras, taking the despair out of the cynicism, putting the humanity back into the idealism. He's there for the cause, he believes in it, but he's so aware of their limitations, too.
Gavroche is still around, by the way. Not for much longer, though. The barricade is running low on ammunition, so Gavroche, being the cheeky little thing he is, runs out to get some. And then begins singing and dancing at the National Guard. Yeah. Anyhow, he gets shot.
Marius had sprung out of the barricade. Combeferre had followed him. But it was too late. Gavroche was dead. Combeferre brought back the basket of cartridges. Marius brought back the child.
Combeferre goes out after the kid. Yeah, and comes back with the cartridges, but the kid is pretty well dead, might as well have his sacrifice not be in vain, not to mention that Marius is the romantic hero and has just had a dramatic death scene with Eponine where he was asked to take care of Gavroche, so he obviously needs more emo fuel.
And to summarize the action: things go downhill fast.
"Does anybody understand these men," exclaimed Feuilly bitterly (and he cited the names, well-known names, fumous [sic] even, some of the old army), "who promised to join us, and took an oath to help us, and who were bound to it in honor, and who are our generals, and who abandon us!"
And Combeferre simply answered with a grave smile, "There are people who observe honor as we observe the stars, from far off."
Tossing wit about, even in the face of death, and ever the realist, again, without turning bitter or cynical a la Grantaire.
Eventually, the final attack comes.
Combeferre, pierced with three bayonet thrusts in the chest, just as he was lifting a wounded soldier, had only time to look to heaven and expired.
All of the remaining Amis, except for Enjolras (who is our Fearless Leader) and Grantaire (who has been passed out drunk inside the entire time), are killed in that one paragraph. Combeferre’s is the only death to merit any description.
In short? Combeferre is a completely awesome guy. In fact, he is so awesome that even Enjolras is aware of his awesomeness, or at least won over by it, if not consciously aware. Combeferre might function as Enjolras's right-hand man, but he's actually quite equal to Enjolras (perhaps even a little more than equal at times).
Aaaaah, if the playercest wouldn't kill me, I would so app him.
[ Part Two]
Anyhow. The predominant slash pairing was Enjolras/Grantaire (and this still seems to be the case). All of this slash stuff was quite new and exciting to me; I read it and loved it and searched for more of it and devoured it.
And then I suffered a backlash.
It turned out that I actually didn’t like E/R ("R" being a familiar abbreviation for "Grantaire") as a pairing. Unfortunately, due to its overwhelming prevalence, what should be just a matter of preference tends to have something of a knee-jerk negative response from me now. But I do my best to be a good fan and play nice.
Still, it’s probably obvious that I am of the Enjolras/Combeferre bent. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine - I don’t believe that it would actually happen. But I would like for it to be able to happen - I believe that it would be good for Enjolras while not pushing the boundaries of character and canon as I see E/R doing (at least when it’s good for him).
Enough shipping, though!
So. There's an "Enjolras in camp" section at the end, but on a whole, this here is about Combeferre and Grantaire. Why am I doing a canon compilation/essay for two characters that I don't (and won't ever) play in CFUD?
My impression is that Enjolras's two most notable relationships in canon are with Combeferre and Grantaire -- extremely different, but both important for a character who has next-to-no personal interactions. Both Combeferre and Grantaire are fascinating characters on their own and you should app them, but they also help me to get a better grip on Enjolras, who risks floating away from the rest of humanity without them. You know what they say about getting to know someone by seeing whom they hang around with. Or something like that. Actually, I'm not sure exactly what they say, but it's something to that effect, I'm sure.
Anyways.
Combeferre: The Right-Hand Renaissance Man
Combeferre is a medical student/doctor, a member of Les Amis de l'ABC (the republican political club of which Enjolras is the de facto leader), a complete geek and probably the most underappreciated of Les Amis. While not as flashy or obviously charming as some of the other Amis, he's a witty voice of reason and helps to connect Enjolras to the rest of us lesser mortals. Very often portrayed in fandom as wearing spectacles.
You should app him. I would app him in a heartbeat, except that the playercest would kill me.
Enjolras might be the very model of a modern insurrectionist and lead Les Amis de l’ABC, but I believe that Victor Hugo places his support behind Combeferre. Enjolras’s flaw is that he’s a perfect revolutionary. Combeferre, on the other hand, is, you know, human. When all of Les Amis are introduced, Enjolras is listed first, for he is, as the narrator points out, the leader. What’s interesting, though, is that Combeferre’s introduction is actually the longest. My personal theory is that Combeferre is the narrator’s idealized stand-in among the students, the one that the reader is actually supposed to listen to.
Interestingly enough, a lot of Combeferre’s introduction (Book III, Volume IV, Chapter 1) doesn’t just describe him - it describes him in relation to Enjolras, how the two of them work together. And...
Well. Why don’t I just give you some of it.
Beside Enjolras who represented the logic of the Revolution, Combeferre represented its philosophy. Between the logic of the Revolution and it philosophy, there was this difference - that its logic could conclude in war, while its philosophy could only end in peace. Combeferre completed and corrected Enjolras.
Just butting in here to say... I mean, just look at that phrase: completed and corrected. The primary meaning here is most likely in an ideological/political/symbolic sense - i.e. what I was saying before about Enjolras being the primary student but not the point at which the reader most directly connects to the students. But I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to take this personally as well - in Les Misérables, ideologies and symbolic roles are personal. Despite how little we see of the students’ personal lives - and then, mainly more social and outgoing characters such as Courfeyrac, Bossuet and Joly, who would seek out Marius the Main Character - I assume that they do, in fact, have personal lives. So there’s a lot of extrapolation going on here. Given that we’re dealing with Enjolras, an individual for whom his beliefs largely are his life, I don’t think that we have to extrapolate too terribly far.
He was lower and broader. His desire was to instill into all minds the broad principles of general ideas; his motto was "Revolution, but civilization"; and he spread the vast blue horizon around the steep mountain. Hence, in all Combeferre’s views, there was something attainable and practicable. Revolution with Combeferre was more possible than with Enjolras. Enjolras expressed its divine right and Combeferre its natural right. The first sprang from Robespierre; the second stopped at Condorcet. More than Enjolras, Combeferre lived the life of the world in general. Had it been given to these two young men to take a place in history, one would have been the upright man, the other the wise man. Enjolras was more virile, Combeferre was more humane. Homo and Vir indeed express the exact shade of difference. Comebferre was gentle, as Enjolras was severe, from natural purity. He loved the word "citizen," but he preferred the word "man."
Obligatory but pathetically bad "homo" joke goes here.
He read everything, went to the theater, followed the public courts, learned the polarization of light from Arago, had explained the double function of the exterior cartoid artery and the interior cartoid artery, one of which supplies the face, the other the brain; he kept pace with the times, followed science step by step, confronted Saint-Simon with Fourier, deciphered hieroglyphics, broke the pebbles that he found and talked about geology, drew a moth from memory, pointed out the mistakes in French in the Dictionnaire de l'Académie, studied Puységur and Deleauze, affirmed nothing, not even miracles; denied nothing, not even ghosts; looked over the files of the Moniteur, reflected. He declared that the future was in the hands of the schoolmaster and busied himself with questions of education.
So while Enjolras is off there, staring into the distance (but not really, not until after 1830, I don't think, but I'm talking about Combeferre here, not Enjolras, so I'll leave that for another time) through his tunnel vision, Combeferre has his feet planted in a million places on the ground. That's an important thing to have, I think, and something that I feel that Enjolras, though not engaging in it himself, would accept because Combeferre does it all with such a sense of significance, that this is meaningful. Though Combeferre is certainly an idealist, too ("'even chimeric,' said his friends"), he's of a different shade than Enjolras. In fact, he has shading, period, as opposed to being so black-and-white and narrow.
Enjolras was a chief; Combeferre was a guide. You would have preferred to fight with the one and march with the other. Not that Combeferre was incapable of fighting; he did not refuse to grapple with an obstacle, and to attack it by main strength and by explosion, but gradually, by the teaching of axioms and the promulgation of positive laws, to put the human race in harmony with its destinies, pleased him better; and of the two lights, his inclination was rather toward illumination than conflagration. A fire would cause a dawn, undoubtedly, but why not wait for the break of day? A volcano illuminates, but the morning enlightens still better. Combeferre, perhaps, preferred the pure radiance of the beautiful to the flaming glory of the sublime. A light disturbed by smoke, an advance purchased by violence, only half satisfied this tender and serious mind.
[. . . ]
In short, he wanted neither halt nor haste. While his tumultuous friends, chivalrously devoted to the absolute, adored and asked for splendid revolutionary adventures, Combeferre inclined to let progress do her work -- the good progress, cold, perhaps, but pure; methodical, but irreproachable; phlegmatic, but imperturable. Combeferre would have knelt down and clasped his hands, asking for the future to come in all its radiant purity and for nothing to disturb the immense virtuous evolution of the people. "The good must be innocent," he repeated incessantly. And in fact, if it is the grandeur of the Revolution to stare at the dazzling ideal, and to fly to it through the lightning, with blood and fire in the talons, then it is the beauty of progress to be without stain; and there is between Washington, who represents the one, and Danton, who incarnates the other, the same difference that separates the angel with the wings of a swan, from the angel with the wings of an eagle.
...my canon encourages wing!fic.
I... I don't know if there's anything I can say to add to that. Aside from the fact that Enjolras and Combeferre are presented as related entities, different but complementary.
And so, we continue through the rest of the introductins: Prouvaire, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Bossuet, Joly and Grantaire (whom we shall see more of later).
In the next chapter, Combeferre is portrayed as a moderating force, a sort of playful voice of reason. When Bahorel starts shooting his mouth off and declaring "Down with tragedy!" because he's Bahorel and he does stuff like that, Combeferre replies:
"You're wrong, Bahorel. The bourgeoisie love tragedy, and on that point we must leave the bourgeoisie alone. Tragedy in a wig has its reason for being, and I am not one of those who, in the name of Aeschylus, deny it the right to exist. There are rough drafts in nature; in creation there are ready-made parodies; a beak that isn't a beak, wings that aren't wings, fins that aren't fins, claws that aren't claws, a mournful cry that makes us want to laugh, there you have the duck. Now, since fowl exists alongside bird, I don't see why classical tragedy shouldn't exist opposite ancient tragedy."
The next snippet of conversation consists of Courfeyrac making a flippant remark about Rousseau, to which Enjolras basically responds "STFU and sit down."
First thought: Enjolras must really know his shit, because why the hell else would these guys tolerate him, jesus christ.
Second thought: I really see Combeferre as being a sort of link between Enjolras and the others, relationship-/character-wise. Like Enjolras, Combeferre will shut you down if you say something stupid. However, unlike Enjolras, Combeferre will actually, you know, have a sense of humor about it. I do have some bleed-over of sense of humor with the way that I play Enjolras, mainly because I see him as having been forced to adapt, now that he's on his own here. Because he's- all right, so maybe he's not an entirely reasonable human being, but he's a rational one, and he desires to neither have his ass kicked (unless it's for a worthy cause, of course) or go crazy here. And even with that, it largely depends on whom he's talking to (which will be covered in the last section).
The chapter after that gives us more day-in-the-life of the back room of the Café Musain.
In the last corner, politics was the subject. They were denigrating the Charter of Louis XVIII. Combeferre defended it mildly, Courfeyrac was energetically battering it.
I get the sense that Combeferre does a lot of things mildly. Not that he doesn't care or thinks that things don't matter at all -- his introduction speaks against that possibility -- but he seems to have this sort of zen that is matched by very characters in the book (perhaps the Bishop of Digne -- he's pretty groovy). And just... yeah. Jesus, I love this guy.
It was winter; two logs were crackling in the fireplace. It was tempting, and Courfeyrac could not resist. He crushed the poor Touquet Charter in his hand and threw it into the fire. The paper blazed up. Combeferre looked philosophically at the burning of Louis XVIII's masterpiece, and contented himself with saying; "The charter metamorphosed in flames."
Combeferre has no need for your dramatic gestures. Combeferre is too awesome for you, and you know it.
This is built upon in the next chapter, where Enjolras makes a statement against Napoleon, which sends the Napoleon-worshipping Marius Pontmercy on a two-page long paean to Napoleon, and he probably would never have shut up, were it not for Combeferre's intervention.
"[. . .] To repeatedly call forth constellations of victories at the zenith of centuries, to make the French Empire the successor of the Roman Empire, to be the grand nation and to bring forth the Gran Army, to send your legions flying across the whole earth as a moutain sends out its eagles, to vanquish, to rule, to strike thunder, to be for Europe a kind of golden people through glory, to sound through history a Titan's fanfare, to conquer the world twice, by conquest and by resplendence, that is sublime. What could be greater?"
"To be free," said Combeferre.
Marius in his turn bowed his head. These cold and simply words had pierced his epic effusion like a blade of steel, and he felt it vanish within him. When he raised his eyes, Cobeferre was gone. Satisfied probably with his reply to the apotheosis, he had gone out, and all except Enjolras had followed him. The room was empty. Alone with Marius, Enjolras was looking at him gravely. Marius, meanwhile, having rallied his thoughts somewhat, did not consider himself beaten; there was still something simmering within him, which undoubtedly was about to find expression in syllogisms marshaled against Enjolras, when suddenly they heard somebody singing on the way downstairs. It was Combeferre:
Si César m'avait donné
Le gloire et la guerre,
Et qu'il me fallût quitter
L'amour de ma mère,
Je dirais au grand César:
Reprends ton sceptre et ton char,
J'aime mieux me mère, ô gué!
J'aime mieux me mère.
The wild and tender tone with which Combeferre sang gave this stanza a strange grandeur. Marius, thoughtful and with his eyes to the ceiling, repeated almost mechanically, "my mother--"
At that moment, he felt Enjolras's hand on his shoulder.
"Citizen," said Enjolras to him, "my mother is the Republic."
The song translates to: "If Caesar had given me/ Glory and war,/ And if I must abandon/ The love of my mother,/ I would say to great Caesar:/ Take your scepter and chariot/ I love my mother more, alas!/ I love my mother more."
In other words? Combeferre pwns you. Less flippantly, Enjolras and Combeferre have different ideas and values, but Combeferre somehow comes out in support of Enjolras, whether purposefully or by authorial design. And Combeferre obviously has the smarts and convictions to be able to lead others, but he chooses to back Enjolras.
The next time we see our heroes, it's the notorious "Enjolras and His Lieutenants" chapter that I talk about in my Enjolras canon compilation. Now, I'm not sure how much of this is translation, but Enjolras basically lists off places where Les Amis have to go to talk to people -- to get a feel for the political climate down on the ground, to encourage enthusiasm in the right places -- and either says "so-and-so will go here" or "so-and-so, you will do this."
Except for Combeferre.
"Combeferre has promised me to go to Picpus."
Now. I will proceed to read entirely too much into that. But as an English student, a writer, an actor and, most importantly, a fangirl -- I'm supposed to microanalyze things like this. Because for me, it just says something about how they relate to each other -- that everyone else is basically given an order by Enjolras, but Combeferre gave Enjolras a promise. They're pretty damn on level with each other.
...and yeah. As with Enjolras, we don't see Combeferre again until June 5, 1832, when they're on the way to build the barricade.
The beginning of the barricade building, covered in Part 2 of my Enjolras canon compilation, establishes that the main guys at the barricade at Enjolras, Combeferre and Courfeyrac. Enjolras is obvious: he's the leader. Courfeyrac is obvious, too: he's the best friend of Marius (the book's romantic hero) and one of the most normal (as opposed to, say Joly and Bossuet, who also have fun personalities but are also on the eccentric side) and sociable of Les Amis. Combeferre's presence as one of the primary personalities at the barricade reinforces my belief from the character introductions that Combeferre, despite not being as flashy as some of the other Amis, is really meant to be an important character and one to whom the reader should pay attention.
Most of Combeferre's scenes are covered in Enjolras's canon compilation because, well, barricade action tends to center around Enjolras, but I'll repeat some things here, for the sake of convenience. C&P for the win!
Barricade building begins; there's a verbal confrontation with Grantaire; barricade building continues.
Gavroche, a street urchin, had joined the group running through the streets and has ended up with a useless gun.
Still, [Gavroche] was furious at his hammerless pistol. He went from one to the next demanding, "A musket! I want a musket! Why don't you give me a musket?"
"A musket for you?" said Combeferre.
"Well?" replied Gavroche. "Why not? I had one in 1830, in the argument with Charles X."
Enjolras shrugged his shoulders.
"When there are enough for the men, we'll give them to the children."
Gavroche turned fiercely, and answered him, "If you're killed before me, I'll take yours."
"Gamin!" said Enjolras.
"Smooth-face!" said Gavroche.
I've always loved this little exchange. In which Combeferre is Sane, as usual, and Enjolras sounds vaguely human. I just get this little mental image of Combeferre both trying not to laugh and trying not to bang his head against the wall as Enjolras and Gavroche go at each other.
Enjolras and Combeferre had sat down, carbine in hand, near the opening of the large barricade. They were not talking, they were listening; seeking to catch even the faintest, most distant sound of a march.
[Gavroche is heard singing, coming back to the barricade.]
They grasped each other by the hand.
"It's Gavroche," said Enjolras.
"He's warning us," said Combeferre.
BECAUSE THAT’S OBVIOUSLY WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU GET EXCITED ABOUT THE SOLDIERS COMING YOU TURN AROUND AND GRAB ONTO YOUR NEAREST MAN-FRIEND.
The barricade is built; there's the initial attack, where Bahorel is killed. Later on, a man who had joined the students and helped to build the barricade is wandering around outside and, being the villainous sort, shoots and unarmed civilian. Bad move on his part -- next thing he knows, Enjolras has him by the collar and has forced him to his knees. A crowd gathers.
"Collect your thoughts," said [Enjolras]. "Pray or think. You have one minute."
"Pardon!" murmured the murderer, then he bowed his head and mumbled some inarticulate oaths.
Enjolras did not take his eyes off his watch; he let the minute pass, then he put his watch back into his fob. This done, he took Le Cabuc, who was writhing against his knees and howling, by the hair, and placed the muzzle of his pistol at his ear. Many of those intrepid men, who had so tranquilly entered upon the most terrible of enterprises, looked away.
Butting in for a moment -- in my mind, Combeferre would not be one of those who looked away. Because... well, read on.
They heard the explosion, the assassin fell face forward on the pavement, and Enjolras straightened up and looked around the circle, determined and severe.
Then he pushed the body away with his foot, and said, "Throw that outside."
Three men lifted the wretch's body, which was quivering with the last reflex convulsion of the life that had flown, and threw it over the small barricade into the little Rue Mondétour.
Enjolras had remained thoughtful. Shadow, mysterious and grand, was slowly spreading across his fearful serenity. He suddenly raised his voice. There was a silence.
"Citizens," said Enjolras, "what that man did is horrible, and what I have done is terrible. He killed, that is why I killed him. I was forced to do it, for the insurrection must have its discipline. Assassination is still a greater crime here than elsewhere; we are under the eyes of the Revolution, we are priests of the Republic, we are the sacramental host of duty, and no one can defame our combat. As for myself, compelled to do what I have done, but abhorring it, I have judged myself also, and you shall soon see to what I have sentenced myself."
Those who heard shuddered.
"We will share your fate," cried Combeferre.
[IV.X.8]
While Combeferre's speaking on behalf of everyone else is questionable, he's definitely aligning himself with Enjolras here. As for his speaking on everyone else's behalf... There are a few things backing that up, I think. For one thing, as seen in the earlier chapter where he pwned Marius and emptied the room, Combeferre definitely can be a leader when he wants to be. Enjolras leads the People, Combeferre leads the people. Also, Combeferre, while idealistic, is also practical and realistic. He isn't fooling himself about this: everyone at the barricade is a killer.
There's the first attack. Bahorel is killed, and when the smoke clears...
They called the roll. One of the insurgents was missing. And who? One of the dearest. One of the most valiant, Jean Prouvaire. They looked for him among the wounded, he was not there. They looked for him among the dead, he was not there. He was evidently a prisoner.
Combeferre said to Enjolras, "They have our friend; we have their officer. Have you set your heart on the death of this spy?"
"Yes," said Enjolras; "but far less than on the life of Jean Prouvaire."
This took place in the basement room near Javert's post.
"Well," replied Combeferre, "I'm going to tie my handkerchief to my cane, and go with a flag of truce to offer to give them their man for ours."
"Listen," said Enjolras, laying his hand on Combeferre's arm.
There was a significant clicking of weapons at the end of the street.
They heard a manly voice cry out, "Vive la France! Long live the future!"
They recognized Prouvaire's voice.
There was a flash and an explosion.
Silence reigned again.
"They've killed him," exclaimed Combeferre.
Enjolras looked at Javert and said to him, "Your friends have just shot you."
[IV.XIV.5]
I just want to ask why Enjolras is touching Combeferre all the damn time. No, seriously. Because it's either sorta weird or sorta gay.
Also, while I'm using the novel and not the musical as my canon, this does remind me of a wonderful moment from a performance I saw by the national touring company about four years ago. In Act II, after Gavroche has revealed Javert to be a spy, the students tie Javert up and many are shouting (well, singing) for him to be shot. The lines go as thus...
COURFEYRAC
Take the bastard now and shoot him!
FEUILLY
Let us watch the devil dance!
LESGLES
You'd have done the same, Inspector,
If we'd let you have your chance!
JAVERT
Shoot me now or shoot me later,
Every schoolboy to his sport!
Death to each and every traitor!
I renounce your people's court!
COMBEFERRE
While we may not all survive here,
There are things that never die.
GRANTAIRE
What's the difference, die a schoolboy,
Die a policeman, die a spy?
Now, I renounce the Combeferre on the Complete Symphonic Recording because he manages to sound so incredibly bitter and spiteful and rageful on that lie that it hurts me in the kokoro. In the national touring production that I saw, though, the other students were aiming to shoot Javert, and on his line, Combeferre just went and stood in front of Javert and stared the rest of them down, singing his line as calmly as calm can be. And at that moment, I declared my undying love for that actor (Graham Rowat, by the way ♥). Just... yes.
In any case, that's the last we hear of them until Volume Five (Jean Valjean).
We've reached the time of waiting. You're at a barricade, you've been attack, you'll be attacked again -- what to do? Well... stand around and talk.
Combeferre, surrounded by students and workmen, spoke of the dead, of Jean Prouvaire, of Bahorel, of Mabeuf, and even of Le Cabuc and of the stern sadness of Enjolras. He said, "Harmodious and Aristogeiton, Brutus, Chereas, Stephanu, Cromwell, Charlotte Corday, Sand -- after the deed, all of them had their moment of anguish. Our hearts are so fluctuating, and human life is such a mystery that, even in a civic murder, even in a liberating murder, if there is such a thing, the remorse of having struck a man surpasses the joy of having served the human race."
And, such is the meandering course of conversation, a moment later, by transition from Jean Prouvaire's poetry, Combeferre was comparing the translators of the Georgics, Raux with Cournand, Cournand with Delille, pointing out the few passages translated by Malfilâtre, particularly the omens at the death of Caesar; and from this word, Caesar, they came back to Brutus.
[V.I.2]
See? Enjolras's friends really do all talk about him as if he's not there. In any case -- another instance of Hugo putting Combeferre into a position of authority, and, this time, authority regarding Enjolras, even. It's sort of funny, really. He's acting like a bloody professor, and one of today's subjects just happens to be Enjolras. It's as though he's translating him for the common folk. (As a point of contrast, when Bossuet and Courfeyrac are talking about Enjolras during the Patria bit, the main jist of their sallies and joking is that they don't understand him.)
The night passes. Enjolras goes lurking around, doing a reconnaissance and sees that the situation is not good. So, he gathers everyone up and is, like, "ur all gonna die lolz." Or something. In any case, he says that staying at the barricade is basically a death sentence and that those who can be spared -- fathers, sole breadwinners, etc. -- should be, should get the hell out.
Leader to the tips of his fingers, Enjolras, seeing that they murmured, insisted. He resumed with authority, "Let those who fear to be only thirty say so."
The murmurs increased.
"Besides," observed a voice from one of the groups, "to leave is easy to say. The barricade is hemmed in."
"Not toward Les Halles," said Enjolras. "The Rue Mondétour is open, and by the Rue des Prêcheurs you can reach the Marché de Innocents."
"And there," put in another voice from the group, "he'll be taken. He'll fall upon some fine guard of the line or the suburb. They'll see a man going by in cap and blouse. 'Where are you coming from? You wouldn't belong to the barricade, would you?' And they look at your hands. You smell of gunpowder. Shot."
Enjolras, without answering, touched Combeferre's shoulder, and they both went into the lower room.
They came back a moment later. Enjolras held out in his hands the four uniforms he had kept in reserve. Combeferre followed him, bringing the cross belts and shakos.
"With this uniform," said Enjolras, "you can mingle a with the ranks and escape. Here are enough for four."
And he threw them onto the unpaved ground.
[V.I.4]
I'm not clear about whether Enjolras had told Combeferre about the uniforms before and so the tap was just the signal for "okay, we go get uniforms now" or if Combeferre didn't know and it was more of a "c'mere and gimme a hand with this super sekrit thing." Either way, I find it impressive that Enjolras, a rather verbal character, is to the point of communicating non-verbally with Combeferre to such an extent. If you go through and count (...which I've done), Combeferre is the person whom Enjolras touches the most. The first runner-up is the bullet-riddled corpse of a mentally-ill old man who was killed at the barricade -- those touches and all of the (very few) others are moments of significance. With Combeferre, it always feels... surprisingly casual. We don't see him being so comfortable with any other person.
Anyhow. Guys at the barricade aren't buying the whole "you don't all have to die, some of you should leave, no rly" deal. So Enjolras yells at them and Combeferre really has his big speech in [V.I.4]. And it's two pages long, so I'm not typing out the entire thing. In summary, it’s a feminist argument about how society has left women in a position of being dependent on men, and the women you love are caught in that society, so if you get yourself killed, they’re going to suffer for it and his thoughts on yaoi. But at the end of it...
Strange contradictions of the human heart in its most sublime moments! Combeferre, who spoke this way, was not an orphan. He remembered the mothers of others, and he forgot his own. He was going to be killed. He was "selfish."
Marius speechifies. Enjolras, Combeferre and Marius all yell at them. Jean Valjean arrives at the barricade. They finally get some guys to leave.
Enjolras's Really Big Speech occurs in the next chapter (V.1.5), "What Horizon is Visible from the Top of the Barricade." The chapter is pretty much entirly Enjolras talking. It begins, though, with a few paragraphs telling the reader how special Enjolras is. Relevant to this topic is the following:
Within himself Enjolras had the plenitude of revolution; he was incomplete notwithstanding, as much as the absolute can be; he clung too much to Saint-Just, not enough to Anacharsis Clootz; still his mind, in the society of the Friends of the ABC, had finally taken on a certain polarization from Combeferre's ideas; for some time, he had little by little been leaving the narrow forms of dogma, and allowing himself to tread the broad path of progress, and he had come to accept, as its definitive and magnificent evolution, the transformation of the great French Republic into the immense human republic. As to immediate means, in a condition of violence he wanted them to be violent; in that he had not varied; and he was still of that epic and formidable school summed up in the spirit of 1793.
I always found it surprising and notable that Enjolras's ideas were not polarized from having spent time with the other Amis de l'ABC -- he was, according to Hugo, influenced by Combeferre and Combeferre alone. Like I said earlier, the narrator gives the reader indicators that Combeferre's views are the "right" ones; naturally, then, Combeferre would be the one to win over the Revolutionary, the ideas that he represents being triumphant over Enjolras's de-humanized dogma. But within the reality of the story, it also supports Enjolras and Combeferre working on a very equal basis, and Combeferre having an understanding of Enjolras that no one else does.
A few chapters later in V.I.8, the National Guard break out the grapeshot, and the barricade takes a beating -- one shot leaves two dead and three wounded, which is quite a few when you only have thirty men.
"Let us prevent the second discharge," said Enjolras.
And, lowering his rifle, he took aim at the captain of the gun, who, at that moment, was bearing down on the breach of his gun and rectifying and definitely fixing its pointing.
The captain of the piece was a handsome sergeant of artillery, very young, blond, with a very gentle face, and the intelligent air peculiar to that predestined and redoubtable weapon which, by dint of perfecting itself in horror, must end in killing war.
Combeferre, who was standing beside Enjolras, scrutinized this young man.
"What a pity!" said Combeferre. "What hideous things these butcheries are! Come, when there are no more kings, there will be no more war. Enjolras, you are taking aim at that sergeant, you are not looking at him. Fancy, he is a charming young man; he is intrepid; it is evident that he is thoughtful; those young artillery-men are very well educated; he has a father, a mother, a family; he is probably in love; he is not more than five and twenty at the most; he might be your brother."
"He is," said Enjolras.
"Yes," replied Combeferre, "he is mine too. Well, let us not kill him."
"Let me alone. It must be done."
God, I love Combeferre's attitude. Enjolras tries to take the symbolic high ground ("EVERY MAN IS MY BROTHER ZOMG") and Combeferre is just, like, "Right. Put down the gun." Combeferre is like the balance between Grantaire and Enjolras, taking the despair out of the cynicism, putting the humanity back into the idealism. He's there for the cause, he believes in it, but he's so aware of their limitations, too.
Gavroche is still around, by the way. Not for much longer, though. The barricade is running low on ammunition, so Gavroche, being the cheeky little thing he is, runs out to get some. And then begins singing and dancing at the National Guard. Yeah. Anyhow, he gets shot.
Marius had sprung out of the barricade. Combeferre had followed him. But it was too late. Gavroche was dead. Combeferre brought back the basket of cartridges. Marius brought back the child.
Combeferre goes out after the kid. Yeah, and comes back with the cartridges, but the kid is pretty well dead, might as well have his sacrifice not be in vain, not to mention that Marius is the romantic hero and has just had a dramatic death scene with Eponine where he was asked to take care of Gavroche, so he obviously needs more emo fuel.
And to summarize the action: things go downhill fast.
"Does anybody understand these men," exclaimed Feuilly bitterly (and he cited the names, well-known names, fumous [sic] even, some of the old army), "who promised to join us, and took an oath to help us, and who were bound to it in honor, and who are our generals, and who abandon us!"
And Combeferre simply answered with a grave smile, "There are people who observe honor as we observe the stars, from far off."
Tossing wit about, even in the face of death, and ever the realist, again, without turning bitter or cynical a la Grantaire.
Eventually, the final attack comes.
Combeferre, pierced with three bayonet thrusts in the chest, just as he was lifting a wounded soldier, had only time to look to heaven and expired.
All of the remaining Amis, except for Enjolras (who is our Fearless Leader) and Grantaire (who has been passed out drunk inside the entire time), are killed in that one paragraph. Combeferre’s is the only death to merit any description.
In short? Combeferre is a completely awesome guy. In fact, he is so awesome that even Enjolras is aware of his awesomeness, or at least won over by it, if not consciously aware. Combeferre might function as Enjolras's right-hand man, but he's actually quite equal to Enjolras (perhaps even a little more than equal at times).
Aaaaah, if the playercest wouldn't kill me, I would so app him.
[ Part Two]