▲enjolras, the chief, is liberté - he’s liberty leading the people, he’s the glory of the glorious revolution, he’s the fist of the revolution raised defiantly skyward, and while he may be the ‘leader’ of the amis, and the rebellion, he is not all there is to it
combeferre, the guide, is égalité - he’s the man with the plan, the one man arsenal, fighting for revolution, but civilisation, and while enjolras fights for the citizen, he’s fighting for man, and perhaps he is softer than enjolras, but he is vital - he is the mind of the revolution
and courfeyrac, the centre, is fraternité - he’s genial and friendly and loving and he sees the best in everyone, and he’s genuinely fond of marius, he is compassionate and affectionate, the big, warm heart of the revolution, and when things are most dire, on the barricade, he brings good humour to the others, and hope
together, not only do they lead the revolution, not only do they uphold the revolutionary ideals and fight for them, they embody them.(meta quoted from this post)
ooh, this is such an interesting bit of meta, and it totally outs me as a historian of the twenthieth century, because when i see this, i get so fucking sad.
there’s a fairly common theoretical debate that we bat around in our department, whereby the history of the “age of revolutions” (roughly, 1775-1848) is represented as the triumph of the triptych of liberté, égalité and fraternité — while the ensuing century is the sundering of these three ideals.
liberté becomes liberalism: free trade and free markets and a people free of the yoke of government…. this is classical liberalism, the liberalism of neo-liberal markets and classic democracy.
egalité becomes socialism: the idea that all people should have equal opportunities to succeed — and that equal opportunities can only only occur in a system where the playing field is leveled.
and fraternité becomes nationalism: the imaginary community of people who share membership in the nation above all, as opposed to a community of religion or class or political affiliation.
liberté, égalité and fraternité stand arm-in-arm on the barricades, but by 1871, liberté and the third republic will be the ones manning the guns and mowing down the partisans of égalité. by 1914, fraternité will assassinate a reformist archduke reform and plunge the entire continent into a cataclysm that no one in 1832 could even imagine.
if enjolras, combeferre and courfeyrac really do represent the three ideals of the age of revolution, then maybe it’s better that they perished in 1832, rather than become enemies forty years later.
▲“My mother always told me you Westerosi were a grim lot. Grim, bearded, stinking barbarians that would rowacross the Narrow Sea and steal us from our beds.”
“Did you ever think you’d marry one?”
“I never thought I’d marry anyone at all.”
▲Catelyn: When my husband brought that baby home from the war, I couldn’t bear to look at him. Didn’t want to see those brown stranger’s eyes staring up at me. So I prayed to the gods; ‘take him away, make him die.’ He got the pox. And I knew I was the worst woman who ever lived. Murderer. I condemned this poor innocent child to a horrible death…..all because I was jealous of his mother. A woman he didn’t even know. So I prayed to all seven gods; ‘let the boy live. Let him live. And I’ll love him. I’ll be a Mother to him. I’ll beg my husband to give him a true name, to call him Stark, and be done with it. To make him one of us.
Talisa: And he lived?
Catelyn: And he lived. And I couldn’t keep my promise.
▲History Meme:[8/10 Moments]: The Black Dinner.
Sir Alexander Livingston and Sir William Crichton, who had recently come to a power sharing agreement of sorts, were convinced that the Douglases, led by the young, headstrong 6th Earl of Douglas, were enemies of the throne. They felt it necessary to crush the Douglases to secure their own authority. Although it was fairly easy to secure sufficient evidence to support a charge of high treason against the 6th Earl of Douglas and his associates; it was an entirely different matter to arrest this powerful baron in the midst of his own people in his own castle.
According to legend, a banquet was held in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, and the young James II was charmed with the company of the Douglases. At the end of the feast, the head of a black bull was brought into the hall. Under Scottish custom, this formality presaged the death of the principal guest(s) at a dinner. James II is alleged to have pleaded for the lives of his new friends to be spared, but they were said to have been beheaded in front of the ten year old king.
“But what we do know for certain is that on the arrival of the Earl of Douglas at the castle, he was at once arrrested, together with his only brother David, and his friend and consellor Sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, who had accompanied him; that the three of them were hastily tried for high treason, found guilty, and proptly beheaded on the Castle Hill. The earl and his brother were executed on 24 November, 1440, and Sir Malcolm Fleming four days later. The later execution must have been carried out contrary to the wishes of Livingston, hence probably the four days’ delay. For about three years later, on 16 August 1443, Sir Alexander Livingston, in the presence of Robert Fleming and four bishops, solemnly purged himself upon oath of having given any counsel, assistance, or consent to the slaughter of Sir Malcolm Fleming.
“Some of the old chronicle writers, who like some modern journalists were not averse to inserting fictitious picturesque details, so as to enliven their narratives, declare that the Douglases were arrested while sitting at dinner, on the signal being given by a black bull’s head, supposed to be a sign of sudden death, being placed on the table; and this fable, according to an old historian of the House of Douglas, gave rise to the following doggerel rhyme
:— ‘Edinburgh castle, toun, and tower,
God grant ye sink for sin;
And that even for the black-dinner,
Earl Douglas gat therin.’
▲Elizabeth hardly ever mentioned her mother, but a locket-ring she wore says more than a million words ever could: inside the ring was a picture of Elizabeth and her mother, Anne Boleyn.
▲Enjolras and eponine’s outfits were right beside each other *u*
May have spent too long flailing over that*wipes a tear*
We’ll never get any closer to canon than this.
