Les Miserables: Grantaire and Enjolras - More than Friends?

I saw this discussion on Goodreads, and I was actually going to answer it right away there, but I realised that my answer has become too long. This is indeed an interesting issue, especially if you watch what the fans are doing in Tumblr. Somehow Enjolras/Grantaire has become increasingly popular. Is it true, though, that they are more than friends? Here's my opinion.

I seriously disagree with those who think that they are homosexuals. No! But their relationship is of course special, from a point that their beliefs are as far as the north to the south.

Honestly, what is more important and interesting from the Friends of the ABC aside from their differences in opinions and ideologies and still, they fight together for the things they believe in. Combeferre believes in education, Courfeyrac in human being, and so on. Without that aspect, the Friends would be no more than a bunch of kids hanging out in a cafe, chatting and having fun. But the fact that they believe and fight for what they believe in, makes them special.

Enjolras is one side of the extreme. His whole life revolves around the Republic. His mother is the Republic, his mistress is Patria. What could be clearer than that? Leave alone love, he doesn't even care about his life when it comes to the nation.

Enjolras' brightness and radiance attract Grantaire. He's a nihilist. He doesn't want to believe in ANYTHING – except Enjolras. Enjolras is capable of being a leader and of inspiring people that all his friends – even Grantaire – see him as a great person. Rather than 'love', it's more like idolatry, or even 'fanboying' of some sort. Enjolras, on the other hand, despises Grantaire's lack of belief, and hates his comments about others'.

That's it.

What makes it sounds so "romantic" is of course the fact that this admiration is not mutual. The story now becomes, "Grantaire loves Enjolras deeply but he doesn't seem to care, whilst deep inside Enjolras loves him all the same." It's not canon, and not likely to happen, even in alternate universe, if both Enjolras and Grantaire stay true to their characters.

Another thing that support the 'theory' that there might be something between them is the musical. On stage, some Enjolras become extremely friendly with Grantaire. It's not Hugo-supported, and it is done so on stage to express the weird friendship between the two, just like Grantaire's lines "will the world remember you when you fall/can it be your death means nothing at all/is your life just one more lie" are put there to make it clear that Grantaire doesn't believe in any of those.

Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser as Enjolras and Grantaire
in Les Miserables musical

“But they died holding hands,” some might say. Isn't it touching? Very. I'd proudly say that I cried reading it. For once, and the last time, Enjolras views Grantaire as a worthy friend. Is it “romantic”? Read the passage in 16^th century view point. It's not even close.

I seriously think people should re-consider what they think about those best-friendships in literature. I've seen people talking about Sherlock and Watson, using ACD's 19^th century vocabulary as a proof ('intimate relationship' and so on). At this point, we only need another film played by good-looking actors to make Caesar/Antony or Hamlet/Horatio relationship romantic.  

Les Miserables Final Review: What Does Hugo Want to Say?

Let me first make a confession. I have watched Les Miserables 25^th Annyversary in Concert, yes, the musical. Is it necessary to say that I cried like a baby when I did so? It may be the music, or the lyrics, or maybe because I link every line to the novel, rich with its description and deep philosophy.

As I read Les Miserables, since I understood that Myriel is not the focus of the story, I have always asked myself: What does Hugo want to say? Why does he put so much details, sometimes even seem irrelevant with the main story at all? Why so much history and philosophy? I have put it somewhere in the volume-by-volume review of the novel that I don't think Jean is Hugo's center of thought during his writing Les Miserables. Something much greater lies there.

Myriel. He is a saint. Let's say he always tries to do what is right up to the point of his limit. Doesn't he say that it is men's duty to do the best that they can? He rains his kindness and fortune upon those who need it, not only upon those who he thinks deserve it. One of them is Jean Valjean. Myriel dies without knowing what actually happens to Jean. He doesn't live to see all the good things that Jean does thanks to his kindness towards the unfortunate man. Perhaps Hugo wants to say that we never know if the good things we have done to people will change their lives for good. Perhaps he wants to say that it's out of our business to think about that. We just need to do our best, and let things work the way they will.

Javert is a grand lesson about the limitation of the law of men. There are things that men cannot see, and cannot understand. There are things that simple sentences signed by a nation cannot solve. The law is good, and law helps to organise society. But that same law cannot be relied upon for everything in the world. Some condition allows human beings to go beyond the law they know. Is that the thing you want to say, Hugo?

The friends of the ABC are heroes of revolution. They have a dream of a better world, and they do everything that they can to make it happen. They believe the government must change, they think it will change everything. On the other hand, Hugo praises both Napoleon and Louis Philippe in his novel, saying that both are great man, and moreover, says that Louis Philippe is a good man. Does he try to say that everything has its goodness anyway, that no matter what kind of political government you believe in, you still can live peacefully with others? Or does he try to say that even great people and good people in the government, no matter of what type, can't really solve the problem of society?

One lesson that I will always remember from Jean Valjean is the importance of listening to the voice of your conscience. There are and will always be things in the “grey zone”, things we can't classify as true or false. But if listen to our conscience, no matter how hard the decision may be, we can always face ourselves without the feeling of guilt. Jean makes so many difficult choices in the novel: whether to save Champmathieu or not, whether to kill Javert or not, whether to save Marius or not, and he chooses well, so that when his death is near, he has nothing to fear, he has no regret.

Jean's experience also shows us that people can change – for better or worse. There's no such thing as 'too late' to be good. When you want to leave your past and live a new life, things won't be easy for you, but there is always a way. It doesn't depend on the society. It depends on you. Jean has done all that he could, despite the difficulties he has to face.

Eponine, Gavroche, and the two little boys on the street reminds us that there are people suffering so much pain out there. Have we ever stopped and think about them? Those miserable little people who always need help should be helped. Do we care? Well, Hugo did.

I haven't read anything so long as this since Monte Cristo, perhaps. Les Miserables will be one of my treasures from now on. I must confess that I need to read it more than once to grasp the full idea of it. There are so many things to contemplate on in this book. One day, perhaps, I will open the book again and re-read it.  

Here's my volume-to-volume review of Les Miserables:

Volume 1: Fantine

Volume 2: Cosette

Volume 3: Marius

Volume 4: Saint-Denis

Volume 5: Jean Valjean

Les Miserables, Vol V: Everything Must Come to An End

“Listra,” said one of my friends, “I bet you will cry reading Les Miserables. I am a man, and I cried when I read it.”

It doesn't need a prophet to predict that I did. I did cry reading the finale of Les Miserables. There are so many things happen, and everything moves its way towards the conclusion. I don't even know how to start relating what's going on in this last volume. But I will try my best.

The Insurrection

The people of Paris, tired with all political insecurity and inadequate life standard start to move. The Friends of the ABC leads in the front line. That night, Paris is a living storm. Javert is captured, Marius and Jean join the people's army. Enjolras, Combeferre and other friends are on fire, Grantaire soundly sleeps, and everything seems right. Then one by one people die.

Almost all those who stay in the barricade die; Enjolras and Grantaire are the last of them. Jean however, manages to slip away, carrying Marius, heavily wounded, on his back and goes through the sewer.

The Marriage

Jean is sure of Marius' love and state, and decides to give Cosette to him. On the other hand, Marius and his grandfather are now reconciled. The marriage arranged as soon as possible, and the couple are now finally married, happy, and rich – thanks to Cosette's inheritance from her kind foster father.

Jean, on the other hand, sinks into the darkness again. He has lost his reason for living. He still lingers in the old memories when Cosette was just a little girl, wearing black dress to mourn her mother. He doesn't have anyone else in the world, but he doesn't want to either drag Cosette to his world of drag himself to hers. Both are, in his eyes, wrong. He at last makes a decision on which I can't agree – separate himself from Cosette's happiness.

Jean's Confession

Jean, being sure that Cosette will be happy with Marius, confesses to him that he is an ex-convict. Marius at first states no objection, but later he realises that Jean's situation could bring danger to him and Cosette. He allows Jean to meet Cosette, but Jean slowly withdraws himself from the happy couple.

I'd be very glad if I could say that Jean's decision is stupid. But there are times when you feel that withdrawing yourself from people you love would bring them more happiness, especially when you feel that there's nothing you can do to help them, or that you will just be a burden to them. Perhaps that thought lingers in Jean's mind.

Marius, doubting the source of Jean's fortune, decides to live a simple life with Cosette. We all know how stubborn he is in financial matters. Marius even begins to think that Jean has not only committed a thief, but also a murder. He doesn't know that Javert commited suicide.

Light can emerge from the most unexpected place, even the darkest place we can imagine. Such light enlightens all matter in Les Miserables. Thernadier, thinking that he could discredit Jean, tells Marius that Jean didn't kill Javert or steal from M. Madeleine. He then tells Marius of the sewer episode, not knowing that it was Marius that Jean brought with him that night.

Marius and Cosette dash to Jean's place, when the old man is already dying. Before his death Jean wraps everything in Les Miserables to a conclusion, and then he leaves Cosette to live happily with Marius.

It would be a lie to say that I'm not sad. But I'm satisfied that Jean dies with much satisfaction, because he knows that he has done the right thing, not always in the right manner, but with the right motive. I'm happy that he has fulfilled his promise to M. Myriel and Fantine. I have nothing to complain.  

Les Miserables, Vol IV: Different Shades of Love

The fourth volume of Les Miserables is about love. It talks much about love and little about anything else. My reading was not as joyful as the other volumes, perhaps because I read it with less concentration and speed than the previous volumes.

This volume feels a lot longer than the others I have read. Fifteen books! There are so many things worth noting, too many things that it's so difficult to determine what I should be talking about before anything else.

So I will talk just about love.

The first love is paternal love so intense and so deep that it becomes possessive and selfish. Jean's love for Cosette is undoubted. He refuses all luxury for himself but denies Cosette nothing. Cosette is his pearl and treasure. He is also very protective but kind to her. It's a pure fatherly love, like the love from God to His children – but a little bit too much. Jean, tasting love for the first time, begins to fear the possibility of not being loved any longer, as if love is divisible, as if love is a finite thing which amount will decrease when ir is given to more people. Also, because he well knows that he is Cosette's nobody, his fear becomes even bigger.

“ I have been first, the most wretched of men, and then the most unhappy, and I have traversed sixty years of life on my knees, I have suffered everything that man can suffer, I have grown old without having been young, I have lived without a family, without relatives, without friends, without life, without children, I have left my blood on every stone, on every bramble, on every mile-post, along every wall, I have been gentle, though others have been hard to me, and kind, although others have been malicious, I have become an honest man once more, in spite of everything, I have repented of the evil that I have done and have forgiven the evil that has been done to me, and at the moment when I receive my recompense, at the moment when it is all over, at the moment when I am just touching the goal, at the moment when I have what I desire, it is well, it is good, I have paid, I have earned it, all this is to take flight, all this will vanish, and I shall lose Cosette, and I shall lose my life, my joy, my soul, because it has pleased a great booby to come and lounge at the Luxembourg.”

This love materialises into series of inquiries, series of suspicion, and ends in hatred towards the rival: Marius. Happily, though, such hatred doesn't go further, because Jean thinks that Marius is going to die anyway, and his rivalry will end. It won't be so, will it?

Marius' love is another shade of affection. It's a gentle and warm love. It's amorous, but neither fierce nor ardent. The love in him is so deep that it overcomes lust, because lust is a lesser form of love.

“They touched each other, they gazed at each other, they clasped each other’s hands, they pressed close to each other; but there was a distance which they did not pass. Not that they respected it; they did not know of its existence. Marius was conscious of a barrier, Cosette’s innocence; and Cosette of a support, Marius’ loyalty. The first kiss had also been the last. Marius, since that time, had not gone further than to touch Cosette’s hand, or her kerchief, or a lock of her hair, with his lips. For him, Cosette was a perfume and not a woman. He inhaled her. She refused nothing, and he asked nothing. Cosette was happy, and Marius was satisfied.”

What I object, though, from Marius' love, is lack of determination in his part. Marius easily gives up to obstacles. As we can conclude form the last volume, Marius is a proud young man, and the same pride costs him his grandfather's blessing for his marriage. If he could just stay and say why he loves this lady so, his grandfather who loves him so much would surrender to his will. Also to choose death as an escape from his problems is not a very commendable thing to do. Marius is such a gentle person, and I like that, but he's not yet mature enough to be called a man.

The other shade is Eponine. She loves Marius dearly, and at least the does something to get him from Cosette. She fights for her love for Marius in a better determination than Marius, fighting for Cosette's. Eponine dies sacrificing herself for Marius' life, thus declaring herself as a better lover of the two. Marius loves as a scholar does, Eponine, as a knight.

“Promise to give me a kiss on my brow when I am dead.—I shall feel it... And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I believe that I was a little bit in love with you.”

The 4^th volume of Les Miserables is a volume of love. There are too many love to write completely here. There is love for the country, for the people, that materialises in civil war; Enjolras and his friends are agents of it. There is love of a boy to other children whom he hardly know, and yet love doesn't withhold its kindness. That boy is Gavroche.

I still hope that somehow the end will be happy. Let every man gets what he deserves, not by the law of men, but by the greater law, the law of love.

Les Miserables, Vol. III: The Known, the Unknown

Third volume of Les Miserables, two more to go. But that's not the point. I know. I'd like to share what I have experienced by reading Marius' story, because the third volume is mostly about him.

As usual, the volume starts with loads and loads of description. We see Marius at first as an ungrateful child. Knowing nothing about his father but mere gossips and misleading information from the grandpa, he concludes that his father is merely nothing. But things changes. After his father dies, Marius falls in love with his father and his ideology, no matter how old and outdated it may seem. His grandpa banishes him from him, but not without concern. But the proud little being waves the money his grandfather offers him and falls into misery.

Aside from Marius, we meet other new actors on the stage as well – Enjolras and his friends. Those youths are intelligent and idealistic, but not in line with Marius'. I like the description of these people, how they truly live to what they believe in – at least from Enjolras, and how they unite together with their similarities and differences. But that's all from them this far. More will be told of Enjolras and his friend in later volume.

Well, now we meet our old friends. By the grace or curse of chance, Marius falls in love with a young lady who usually walks with her father. Marius is madly in love with her, to the point of self-destruction. This lady is Cosette. And the father? Why, Jean of course.

As if fate had not been cruel enough, we meet other people as well – the corrupt Thernadier. He now lives a miserable life with his wife and daughters. But his misery doesn't make him humble as it does Jean, or make him wise as it does Marius. It makes him grow even more sinister. Why, he tries to rob Jean and almost kills him. I was really furious when I read that chapter.

There is also Javert. He's still there, lingering, still a good hand of the law. But not much is told about him, so I think it is not yet the time.

Reading this volume, I just pray for a happy ending. Is it possible? Is there any way to make them all happy? Jean, Cosette, Marius and Javert especially. Is there any chance for them to be happy at the end of the story?

The story is getting closer to its end. The gaps are filled. We are waiting for something to explode, a climax. I can't wait to read how things will end in Volume IV and V.  

Les Miserables, Vol. II: Love and Humility

That's how Jean describes his relationship with Cosette and the nuns. How does he get there?

We remember him as a wealthy and honourable ex-convict who then sacrificed all that he had for the life of another. He gave himself to authority, but then he remembered his promise to Fantine, about her little daughter. Thus he escaped to arrange Fantine's funeral and his wealth. That's how the first volume ends.

In the second volume, things get a little more complicated, let me say the word, boring, at the first book. The whole book talks about Napoleon, and because I was expecting Jean and Cosette, the details became so insufferable. I finally thought that maybe Hugo was a little fan of Napoleon. Was he?

The second book is our rendezvous with Jean. He is once more a prisoner. By a trick combined with generosity, he escapes and makes the authority believe that he is dead, while he has another thing in mind. Jean doesn't forget a promise he made to Fantine, that he would make sure of her daughter's welfare. So once he gets his freedom back, he heads to Montfermeil – Thernadier's place.

Thernadier inflames my heart with fury and rage. The old fox thinks only for his benefit, and null for others. He's like a hyena that feeds on people's corpses – others' misfortune. I can imagine how years in that den must have drained Cosette's spirit. The little child is poorer than a stray kitten. Even lost animals still have time for themselves, while Cosette has nothing. The poor child must

clean the house, serve in the inn, and fetch water in winter, all by herself. I don't know how Jean could show so much patience to the ravenous innkeeper. When he asks money from him to take Cosette, Jean pays without the slightest hesitation. I would have threatened him that unless he gave me Cosette, I would tell Javert about all the cruelty he treats Cosette with.

Everything is good enough now, but then, Javert reappears. He's like a ghost in the story, comes and comes again when he is least expected. Somebody should tell him to stop meddling with Jean's business. But then it's his duty. Jean is a fugitive once more. By grand luck or divine protection, he ends up in a convent, full of humble and simple nuns. There he stays while watching Cosette growing up. Then the second volume ends.

I begin to think that Les Miserables is about how a man learn so many things in his life. It's all about Jean's transformation from a lost and lonely wolf into an virtuous man. The Bishop taught him virtue, Cosette teaches him love, and the nuns teaches him humility, while his life as an ex-convict teaches him endurance. I begin to love the person as someone who is perfectly human, with many mental and spiritual battle inside his heart, but then tries to make best decisions possible. Jean is someone full of contemplation, someone who looks at the best of all things, hard though it may seem.

I'm ready to begin the third volume: Marius. No spoiler, please. I will be patient and read it chapter by chapter.  

Les Miserables, Vol I: The Power of Kindness

This is my first time reading Les Miserables. I read this huge thick book after a series of adventurous novels, such as D'Artagnan Romances, Robin Hood and Ivanhoe. Those books talk about great people, grand kings, big adventures, honourable deeds, God and country, loyalty and friendship, things that lift people's hearts to heaven, to another world, to sublime idealism in it. And then, I read Les Miserables.

The book contrasts itself from all majestic aura. Instead, it brings us low, low, to the centre of gravity where small insignificant people live, people we never remember, people we hardly really care about. Their voyage is seeking for today's food, and their ambition is to gain enough to sustain their existence. In heroic stories, our eyes glisten when we read how our hero destroys an army or plays a trick upon his enemy. In Les Miserable, even the life of an unknown man is precious, not just a number in statistical report.

Don't let me bother you too much on that subject. There are three things that steal into my heart and have lodged there since I read the first volume: the power of kindness, justice vs. mercy, and the battle inside our hearts. Let me write of kindness first.

What Kindness Can Do

In the first sentence of the book, we meet Mr. Bienvenu Myriel – a good man. His kindness is so immense that one can hardly believe it's true. He'd rather live in want than seeing another being in want, and he lives a simple life to be able to help those he can help. His acts of kindness blesses him with good reputation, and more importantly, love, from those he helps and those who respect and support his decision.

Later on, his kindness towards Jean Valjean changes the ex-convict's life. After lots of meditation Jean decides to live an honest life, as the Bishop asked him to do, “Be an honest man.” More than honest, Jean shows identical kindness towards the needy. His hands are open to many sorts of good works. He provides a job for people and he helps people out whenever the situation allows him. The kindness offered him becomes to him an example which he imitates most willingly.

Such simple kindness, though may sound extreme if exercised as mentioned in this novel, brings to people new hopes and at times, new chance of life. Such kindness motivates the recipient of kindness to do the same for others. Kindness brings joy to the one who gives and the one who receives. It presents us satisfaction, because we know we have done our neighbour good.

What Kindness Cannot Do

Sad as it is, we have to admit that no matter how much money you pour out for the poor, it will never be enough. It's like pouring rain upon a desert or throwing lives into death. Neither would be satisfied. I have a feeling that Hugo also wants to underline this in his novel. There's something wrong about this world somehow, and it's not the amount of money or wealth it has, not about the government, or the people. There's something that controls the things and it's just wrong – the system.

However I look at it, one cannot cure the misery of life simply by giving more or giving less. You help persons, but you don't change society that way. There are laws that care more about words than about the principles upon which the words are based. Judges care more about justice by laws written on paper than the laws engraved upon their hearts. The problem is so complicated that kindness alone cannot remove it.

I am still waiting for the next part of the novel. The dark effect it gives to me makes me reluctant to continue my reading, because somehow I feel that the more I read, the more disappointment I will have to bear within me. As I said, tragedy is not really my preference, and such stories fill my mind weeks after I finish reading them. But I'm really curious. What will Hugo do with Jean and Cosette? Please wait for the next check point, and in two weeks I will post my thoughts about the second volume.