Essays! Analyzing my favorite things! Maybe even dested things in the future, who knows!

My Romantic Reading of Enjorlas & Grantaire

Table of Contents:
Intro
Bckground
Romantic Foils
Conclusion

Intro

Les Miserables is a book written by Victor Hugo published in 1862, it’s the story about Jean Valjean, and uses his life as an example to demonstrate how the system is built to fail those who are unfortunate, the poor people of france. It explains France’s history at every turn, using the architecture, people, and cities to explain in detail everything that connects to a small simple point in the story; which is why it is a comically huge book.

Many characters’ lives are intertwined with Jean Valjean, but it is he and Cosette and Marius who are the main characters. While following Marius’ life we meet a group of young revolutionaries who are idealists, who want to try and change the government into something that serves the people rather than keep them under its boot. They are organizing a rebellion, the june rebellion which happened between the 5 and six of june 1832, a small attempt to induce change and reverse the establishment of the monarchy in 1830 under Louis Philippe I. This is where Enjorlars and Grantaire are featured.

Background

The June Rebellion serves as the novel’s climax, where many events converge and many main events take place, the rebels, that is to say, Les Amis de l’ABC. When they are introduced; a huge description of each important member is given, Enjolras and Grantaire are presented as opposites, and a certain tension between them can be seen both in the text and subtext. Enjolras is the leader and Grantaire is just there because he wishes to see him, because he enjoys the company of Les Amis de l'ABC, and in the only two moments they have an interaction, an intense spark can be felt in the way the speak to one another.

Romantic Foils

Enjolras is a hot blooded believer in peace and yet calm leader,described as incredibly handsome and angelic of a mind for no other thing than France itself irrevocably and indefinitely occupied with thoughts of liberation and freedom for the future republic of France, he inspires everyone and organizes everyone, gives speeches with intense love and passion for their cause and discusses philosophy and political ideals with his friends. He is born in privilege and yet not blind to the struggles of the people. The fact that he is an angel of divine beauty is remarked upon constantly.

Grantaire is a man of the arts, loves Paris and knows the best place for everything in the city, practices boxing as well as dancing and indulges in alcohol intensely. He is a pessimist and does not believe in hope for the world. He declares disdain and regret and stays drunk to cope with the pain of his soul and the pain for the world. He claims to not believe in anything, and to not have any values or goals, and doesn’t concern himself with the revolutionaries and their beliefs.

Except for Enjolras. He reveres, admires and loves Enjolras. He is described to feel nothing for anything else, passionate love and adoration for Enjolras is the entire reason he frequents Les Amis de l’ABC, the pure desire to see him, hear him, and be in his presence. He can never bring himself to have so much hope for the world but his love for him is so vast that he will spend entire days at the coffee shop where they have their meetings and discussions. Enjolras expresses distaste and scorn to Grantaire’s attitude, and is even shown to hate the man, he dislikes his demeanor and can’t stand him.

Because of this, many analyze this relationship to be one-sided, and even platonically one-sided. But the hatred that he displays does not seem to be against his person, Enjolras is a highly idealistic fighter who believes in the liberation and does not truly despise any human to their core, throughout the story it seems clear to me that the hatred stems from his incapability to understand Grantaire’s plight, and why he is so pessimistic and lacks faith and beliefs. For him it is impossible to understand how one couldn’t believe in the freedom of the peoples of the world, and for Grantaire it is almost impossible to understand how one could have such grand love and cemented belief for it. But the romantic love he carries for Enjolras brings him to even offer himself as a helper of Les Amis d’lABC when they lack enough people to organize for the barricade despite his philosophy of not believing in anything; Enjolras does not believe him capable as he has only expressed incredulity; nevertheless he does, and not only that he even follows them to the barricade. He is miserable and drinks himself into passing out and stays asleep during the entire battle but if a small flame of belief out of love for Enjolras hadn’t been lit in his heart he wouldn’t even have been present.

Which is why upon waking up, declares himself a republican and a participant of the rebellion, and asks for Enjolras’ hand, which is representative of marriage and eternal love, and not only that but they are killed together and stay holding hands with a smile.

A few parallels are made between Marius and Cosette with Enjolras and Grantaire. The day in which Cosette and Marius get engaged they vow to never let go of their hands expressed by Marius in particular with the declaration of love he recites to her, and hand holding in general symbolizes a sacred, sublime form of romantic or familial display of love in the book. They can be compared to several myths that represent intense love, they are directly compared to Aristogeiton and Harmodius, and indirectly compared to Iccarus and The Sun. Enjolras is doubtful that Grantaire would even make an actual effort into recruiting people for the cause and is curious enough to even follow him and find out his intentions for himself, if he felt any indifference he would not care enough to know. But right before they die, upon realizing that Grantaire had the capacity to believe all along Enjolras lets himself display the affection he no doubt had for him, and accepts his hand.

Conclusion

It is strange to me that their love is assumed to be strictly platonic or one-sided, never mentioned or discussed anywhere in academia, despite it definitely being in the text itself. To my knowledge there has not been an adaptation which delves into the subject, and after an extensive research it appears pretty clear that in literature classes it is usually glossed over.I do not claim to know for sure what Victor Hugo intended, as one can never do with works of art; but it is very easily open to interpretation, and very more easily read as Romantic than platonic, so I find it quite disappointing that not a single adaptation has had the creativity to flesh it out and give them more time and scenes together before their downfall. Aren't there so many songs and works of art about lovers being eternally together, even on the other side?

If you read this entire thing, I am extremely impressed. Thank you so much!