"If We Must Die"

This poem made me think of Enjorlas and the last stand at the barricades.

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs
Making a mock at our accursed lot.
If we are to die, oh let us nobly die!
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us, though dead.
Oh kinsman! we must meet the common foe
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave.
And for their thousand blows deal one death blow,
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack.
Pressed to the wall, dying; but fighting back.

~Claude McKay

Even More Obscure Names :S

Combeferre is speechifying at the barricade (page 1179), and he says some really cool things, but I've always skipped over it because I was intimidated by the names. So, here's some clarification on the names, and at the bottom are his quotes.

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Harmodius and Aristogeiton: They became known as the Tyrannicides after they killed the Peisistratid tyrant Hipparchus, and were the preeminent symbol of democracy to ancient Athenians.

Brutus: He was a politician of the late Roman Republic. He was a leading conspirator against Julius Caesar.

Chereas: Another conspirator, who killed Caius

Stephanus: Possibly, one of the first converts to Christianity through Paul

Cromwell: Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Charlotte Corday: A lady during the French Revolution who was guillotined after assassinating a Jacobin leader.

Sand: I'm not certain which "Sand" he's referring to. It may be the French female novelist who wrote under the name of "George Sand."

Georgics: Is a poem in four books, likely published in 29 BC. It is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil, following his Eclogues and preceding the Aeneid.

Raux: Pierre Paul Émile Raux was a French physician,bacteriologist and immunologist. Roux was one of the closest collaborators of Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), a co-founder of thePasteur Institute, and responsible for the Institute's production of the anti-diphtheria serum, the first effective therapy for this disease.

Cournand: André Frédéric Cournand was a French physician and physiologist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1956

Delille: A French poet

Malfilatre: Another French poet

Caesar: A Roman general and political leader. Very influential on history. Here's a source about him.

Cicero: Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist. Especially critical of Caesar. Later assassinated

Zoilus: Zoilus or Zoilos was a Greek grammarian, Cynic philosopher, and literary critic from Amphipolis in East Macedonia, then known as Thrace. He took the name Homeromastix later in life.

Homer: Homer is best known as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets.

Maevius: Bavius and Maevius were two poets in the age of Augustus Caesar, whose names became synonymous with bad verse and malicious criticism of superior writers.

Virgil: Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. Best known work is the Aenied.

Vise: Jean Donneau de Visé was a French journalist, royal historian, playwright and publicist. He was founder of the literary, arts and society gazette. A known rival to Moliere

Moliere: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature

Pope: Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare.

Shakespeare: William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. (see here for a website with adapted plays)

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(on murder) "Harmodius ..., Brutus, ...--after the deed, all of them had their moment of anguish. Our hearts are so flucuating, and human life is such a mystery that, even in civic murder... the remorse of having struck a man surpasses the joy of having served the human race.' ...

(on critics) "'Caesar,' said Combeferre, 'fell justly. Cicero was sever on Caesar, and he was right. That severity is not diatribe.'" (see definitions) "'When ... Pope insults Shakespeare... it's an old law of envy and hatred at work; genius attracts insult, great men are always barked at more or less.'"

Fantine and Cosette: Hearts made to Love

Two of the closest people to Jean Valjean are Fantine and Cosette.
They are both beautiful women and they are also very loving.

When Hugo is describing Cosette's love, he says this: "If, at this period of her life, Cosette had fallen in love with an unscrupulous man... she would have been ruined. For there are generous natures that give themselves, and Cosette was one." (pg 1003) ...and Fantine's was another.
As Hugo says, "Fantine's love was a first, an only, a faithful love." (pg 122)

What made these two people's hearts the way they were? What set them up for so much joy or so much sorrow? How should we love?

Throughout the story, we see both of these characters showing amazing amounts of trust. Fantine trusts Tholomyes with her virtue, believing he'll be faithful. Cosette trusts Marius to protect her virtue. They also trust Jean Valjean. When he tells Fantine to wait, she waits--albeit a little impatiently. As they're escaping Javert, Jean Valjean tells Cosette to be quiet and she is.

What about us? Should we be like that? Should we trust people absolutely?
I believe that before we trust others, and before we even trust ourselves we need to trust God. We need to trust His counsel and trust His wisdom.
If Fantine had had this trust before she met Tholomyes she would not have forsaken her virtue. She may even have realized the kind of man he was, and not sought for love there.
As Jean Valjean justifies the trust of these two women they become bright, happy and even more trusting. In a way, they are reaching God through him, in that they reach true love, selflessness, and some wisdom.

In conclusion, as we seek love and as we seek happiness, let us first put our trust in God. Then, as we find our foundation in His power and wisdom, we can better reach out to others and find those whom we truly can trust.

"God willed that the love Cosette met should be a love that saves." (pg 1004)

The Marriage Triangle

"The birth of two souls into one must be an emotion for space. ... Something of this joy goes to God. Where there really is marriage, that is to say where there is love, the ideal is mingled with it. A nuptial bed makes a halo in the darkness." (pg 1381)

Quote-- Honor: Combeferre

"There are those who observe the rules of honor as we observe the stars, from far off!" (pg 1244)

Tholomyes, Blacheville, Listolier, Fameuil and Zephine, Favourite, Dahlia

Felix Tholomyes, of Toulouse; the second, Listolier, of Cahors; the next, Fameuil, of Limoges; the last, Blachevelle, of Montauban. Naturally, each of them had his mistress. Blachevelle loved Favourite, so named because she had been in England; Listolier adored Dahlia, who had taken for her nickname the name of a flower; Fameuil idolized Zephine, an abridgment of Josephine; Tholomyes had Fantine, called the Blonde, because of her beautiful, sunny hair.

Favourite, Dahlia, Zephine, and Fantine were four ravishing young women, perfumed and radiant, still a little like working-women, and not yet entirely divorced from their needles; somewhat disturbed by intrigues, but still retaining on their faces something of the serenity of toil, and in their souls that flower of honesty which survives the first fall in woman. One of the four was called the young, because she was the youngest of them, and one was called the old; the old one was twenty-three. Not to conceal anything, the three first were more experienced, more heedless, and more emancipated into the tumult of life than Fantine the Blonde, who was still in her first illusions.

Dahlia, Zephine, and especially Favourite, could not have said as much. There had already been more than one episode in their romance, though hardly begun; and the lover who had borne the name of Adolph in the first chapter had turned out to be Alphonse in the second, and Gustave in the third. Poverty and coquetry are two fatal counsellors; one scolds and the other flatters, and the beautiful daughters of the people have both of them whispering in their ear, each on its own side. These badly guarded souls listen. Hence the falls which they accomplish, and the stones which are thrown at them. They are overwhelmed with splendor of all that is immaculate and inaccessible. Alas! what if the Jungfrau were hungry?

Favourite having been in England, was admired by Dahlia and Zephine. She had had an establishment of her own very early in life. Her father was an old unmarried professor of mathematics, a brutal man and a braggart, who went out to give lessons in spite of his age. This professor, when he was a young man, had one day seen a chambermaid's gown catch on a fender; he had fallen in love in consequence of this accident. The result had been Favourite. She met her father from time to time, and he bowed to her. One morning an old woman with the air of a devotee, had entered her apartments, and had said to her, "You do not know me, Mamemoiselle?" "No." "I am your mother." Then the old woman opened the sideboard, and ate and drank, had a mattress which she owned brought in, and installed herself. This cross and pious old mother never spoke to Favourite, remained hours without uttering a word, breakfasted, dined, and supped for four, and went down to the porter's quarters for company, where she spoke ill of her daughter.

It was having rosy nails that were too pretty which had drawn Dahlia to Listolier, to others perhaps, to idleness. How could she make such nails work? She who wishes to remain virtuous must not have pity on her hands. As for Zephine, she had conquered Fameuil by her roguish and caressing little way of saying "Yes, sir."

The young men were comrades; the young girls were friends. Such loves are always accompanied by such friendships.

...

Blachevelle, Listolier, and Fameuil formed a sort of group of which Tholomyes was the head. It was he who possessed the wit.

Tholomyes was the antique old student; he was rich; he had an income of four thousand francs; four thousand francs! a splendid scandal on Mount Sainte-Genevieve. Tholomyes was a fast man of thirty, and badly preserved. He was wrinkled and toothless, and he had the beginning of a bald spot, of which he himself said with sadness, the skull at thirty, the knee at forty. His digestion was mediocre, and he had been attacked by a watering in one eye. But in proportion as his youth disappeared, gayety was kindled; he replaced his teeth with buffooneries, his hair with mirth, his health with irony, his weeping eye laughed incessantly. He was dilapidated but still in flower. His youth, which was packing up for departure long before its time, beat a retreat in good order, bursting with laughter, and no one saw anything but fire. He had had a piece rejected at the Vaudeville. He made a few verses now and then. In addition to this he doubted everything to the last degree, which is a vast force in the eyes of the weak. Being thus ironical and bald, he was the leader. Iron is an English word. Is it possible that irony is derived from it?

(Volume 1; Book 3; Chapter 2)

Fantine

"Fantine was one of those beings who blossom, so to speak, from the dregs of the people. Though she had emerged from the most unfathomable depths of social shadow, she bore on her brow the sign of the anonymous and the unknown. She was born at M. sur M. Of what parents? Who can say? She had never known father or mother. She was called Fantine. Why Fantine? She had never borne any other name. At the epoch of her birth the Directory still existed. She had no family name; she had no family; no baptismal name; the Church no longer existed. She bore the name which pleased the first random passer-by, who had encountered her, when a very small child, running bare-legged in the street. She received the name as she received the water from the clouds upon her brow when it rained. She was called little Fantine. No one knew more than that. This human creature had entered life in just this way. At the age of ten, Fantine quitted the town and went to service with some farmers in the neighborhood. At fifteen she came to Paris "to seek her fortune." Fantine was beautiful, and remained pure as long as she could. She was a lovely blonde, with fine teeth. She had gold and pearls for her dowry; but her gold was on her head, and her pearls were in her mouth.
"She worked for her living; then, still for the sake of her living,—for the heart, also, has its hunger,—she loved."

She is eventually abandoned by her first love--Tholoymes. Soon afterwards, she has Cosette. Unable to care for her, she leaves Paris to return to where she was born: M. sur M. or Montreuil-sur-mer. On the way she leaves Cosette in the care of the Thenardiers at their tavern in Montfermeil, being led to believe that they are good people.
Fantine finds good work in Jean Valjean's factory, but through misunderstandings and deception she is fired. After trying many other forms of work, but with little success and the Thenardiers demanding more money to help Cosette, she finally feels forced to turn to prostitution.
One day, a drunk dandy throws a snowball at her as she's walking by and she turns in a rage and attacks him. Javert arrives and arrests her.
Jean Valjean also witnesses the incident and asks others what happened, then follows Javert and Fantine to the jail where he hears Fantine pleading for her freedom on behalf of her child. Jean Valjean, as mayor, overrides Javert's authority and takes Fantine to the hospital.
Fantine (who became ill before her fall) is dying, but lives in hope of seeing Cosette again. Unfortunately, at the shock of finding out who Jean Valjean is through Javert, she dies before that day.

Quotes-- Love!

If no one loved, the sun would go out. (pg 935)

Of all the things God has made, the human heart is the one that sheds the most light. (pg 1004)

"Love is the foolishness of man and the wisdom of God" (M. Gillenormand) (pg 1347)

To love or to have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. (pg 1382)