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On Feuilly and Combeferre at the Barricade
Wednesday, 26 December 2018 02:00[Tiny meta originally posted on Tumblr 8 May 2013, but that I wanted to preserve]
So the other day, there was a quote going around, but because it was Feuilly appreciation day, it didn’t feel right to use the quote to talk about Combeferre, so I’ve waited until now to do it. It’s not much, just some thoughts I was having at the time.
On the one hand, Feuilly’s bitter disappointment in this quote is absolutely heartbreaking because he believed in the men whose names he rattles off - he believed that they’d help and it’s utterly foreign to him, the notion that they would do something as utterly dishonourable as to abandon them in their time of need.
On the other, it’s Combeferre’s response that kills me. Because everything about Combeferre’s response - the “grave smile,” the simplicity of his answer, the way that he answers a very complex question with a response that doesn’t begin to cover the same ground - it all points to one thing.
Combeferre knew.
Combeferre has his share of idealism, true, but he is also practical and understands people better than Enjolras does, and so Combeferre knew that those men, even as they vowed to aid them, had no intention of following through when the time came. While Enjolras fully believed that they would not be fighting alone, Combeferre knew that the odds were that they might be, but he hoped that they wouldn’t, and it was his hope for humanity, for the fact that they might not fight alone, that kept him there.
So while Feuilly is disappointed and betrayed, Combeferre is merely grave and unsurprised, because he knew all along that they would be alone, and something about that sort of breaks my heart a bit.
So the other day, there was a quote going around, but because it was Feuilly appreciation day, it didn’t feel right to use the quote to talk about Combeferre, so I’ve waited until now to do it. It’s not much, just some thoughts I was having at the time.
“Does anybody understand these men,” exclaimed Feuilly bitterly, (and he cited the names, well-known names, famous 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 the rules of honor as we observe the stars, from far off.”
And Combeferre simply answered with a grave smile, “There are people who observe the rules of honor as we observe the stars, from far off.”
-Les Miserables, “The Heroes.”
On the one hand, Feuilly’s bitter disappointment in this quote is absolutely heartbreaking because he believed in the men whose names he rattles off - he believed that they’d help and it’s utterly foreign to him, the notion that they would do something as utterly dishonourable as to abandon them in their time of need.
On the other, it’s Combeferre’s response that kills me. Because everything about Combeferre’s response - the “grave smile,” the simplicity of his answer, the way that he answers a very complex question with a response that doesn’t begin to cover the same ground - it all points to one thing.
Combeferre knew.
Combeferre has his share of idealism, true, but he is also practical and understands people better than Enjolras does, and so Combeferre knew that those men, even as they vowed to aid them, had no intention of following through when the time came. While Enjolras fully believed that they would not be fighting alone, Combeferre knew that the odds were that they might be, but he hoped that they wouldn’t, and it was his hope for humanity, for the fact that they might not fight alone, that kept him there.
So while Feuilly is disappointed and betrayed, Combeferre is merely grave and unsurprised, because he knew all along that they would be alone, and something about that sort of breaks my heart a bit.
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