lizavert
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Silly question, but...OK
I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, and it's more book than musical based, but I think some of it applies to the musical as well. Anyway.
I was reading Orestes Fasting and Pylades Drunk at lunch today, and something that I missed in other readings of the brick finally occured to me. Why exactly does Enjolras accept Grantaire at that last moment?
I mean is it a "we're all going to die, so why not" thing, or does Enjolras accept R because of R's count me in line.
Or did I just answer my own question?
Any thoughts?
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Orestes Fasting
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It's the "count me in" line (also translated as "I'm one of them"), and R's willingness to die for the Republic. Enjolras' whole problem with R is that he hangs around their political meetings, inexorably drawn to the cause and yet scoffing at the idea of professing loyalty or belief in anything--so when he finally does, and puts his life on the line for it, Enjolras is only too happy to accept him.
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lizavert
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That's what I thought.
I was just wondering if it was that simple.
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bigR
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Yep. But the funny thing is that I don't think that R really dies for the Republic. His "Vive la Republique" is his way to say that he is one of them and to get the soldiers to shoot him, but I highly doubt that he suddenly wakes up transformed into a fanatic republican...
If I remember correctly, he wakes up and he "understands" what has happened. That all his friends have died. And that's when he stands up and declares that he is one of them (had he woken up to a revolutionary victory he would had been the same old skeptic grantaire). It's the death of his friends that makes him act, not a republican sudden feeling.
Actually, when introducing him, Hugo is really hard on the guy. He compares him with a toad and with a dwarf woman, and he qualifies his mind as misshapen and sick. But he�s got the one redeeming quality: "Son indiff�rence aimait. Son esprit se passait de croyance et son coeur ne pouvait se passer d'amiti�".
Of course, whether Grantaire acts because he's suddenly and magically become a republican (very doubtful) or out of friendship or love, the point is that he finally shows himself as someone that Enjolras can respect and accept as one of their own. Enjolras constant repproach to Grantaire had been that he is unable to act, to believe, to live, to stand for anything� and here, he proves that he is able to do it, and thus he becomes someone that enjolras can finally respect and accept.
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lizavert
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I never thought of it that way before.
That's a very interesting view of the scene. It works well with what Hugo writes about the two of them.
Thanks for giving me something to think about the next time I read that chapter bigR.
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bigR
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Hei, lizavert. I was going through the Brick (checking some stuff for some nerdy project you might have heard of  ), when this bit about the fall of the barricade made me think about this thread:
"Mais pour �tre superbe... il suffit de donner sa vie pour une conviction ou pour une loyaut�"
"But to be superb... it is enough to give one's life for a conviction or for a loyalty"
I guess it could be considered Hugo's answer to your original question?
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lizavert
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Ooh. Hugo answering me from the dead. Weired. heh.
Although that sentence works really well with the fic I'm writing.
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