#I don't even wanna tag 'the French sneeze' here because he's not being mean just blunt

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

Marius’s Napoleon Speech

Not Empereur’s Mercy this time I Swear

This take is probably milquetoast, but I was rereading the Corsica speech (3.4.6) the other day for Reasons, and I know we (I) like to make fun of Marius being obsessed with Napoleon and his inability to read the room and to talk about Combeferre’s iconic takedown, and that’s great, that is not a bad or even wrong take,

however,

I invite the reader to please consider: Marius’s whole point in making his speech is not just to say “Napoleon is the best” but “I keep hearing you guys disparaging Napoleon, but objectively, he is a -- perhaps the -- greatest man to ever exist across the board: if not him in charge, then whom?”

What makes Combeferre’s response so earthshattering to Marius is that his answer is to basically tell Marius, “No one man should be in charge.”

Until now, Marius has been thinking in terms of the country depending on one person to run, and it’s a pretty black and white issue: continue with the royal family (as his grandfather believes), or allow this new blood in who has proven his worth again and again (as his father believed).  (It’s worth noting that, with the exception of Bahorel, the oldest ami’s birth year is listed as being around 1803/4, aka around the time Napoleon was coming to power.)  It’s a very binary decision, and Combeferre has just introduced Marius to the decimal system with eight more new digits.

This entire effect is even more profound if one considers it within its context.

Before this scene, Marius keeps hearing everyone discussing all of these new philosophies that he cannot even begin to wrap his head around: in 3.4.3, we see Marius basically thrown into Advanced Theory (Courfeyrac and Enjolras debate Rousseau, Bahorel and Combeferre make tongue-in-cheek comments about the bourgeoisie) without even a foundational class.  The only common knowledge they seem to share, Napoleon, they still have wholly different takes on that Marius cannot even begin to parse, so he keeps his thoughts and feelings to himself until finally, finally, in 3.4.6, he sees his chance to contribute to a conversation in a way that he thinks can beget an academic and meaningful discussion.  He is given ample opportunity to explain himself in a whole and complete way and make his point as completely as possible,

and in one move Combeferre has him at checkmate.

And it’s not a snide thing!  No one else really knows where to begin with responding to That Whole Speech without really giving Marius the entire Introduction to Representation schpiel, and it’s not something they really think warrants a debate either because, well, it’s clear that Marius is not only not on the same page, he’s in an entirely different book.  With one phrase, Combeferre is able to concisely introduce Marius to this entirely new philosophy.

Now let’s get on to the part no one discusses despite it clearly being the funniest thing in this whole damned book:

After all of this happens, Marius just.  Loses sense of his surroundings for a bit.  We don’t know how long, but when he finally recovers he and Enjolras are the only ones left in the room.  At some point, everyone had filed downstairs, and while I’m sure Combeferre was very composed after that mic drop, I have to assume that the general mood by the time they made it downstairs was p much this

because Combeferre is singing, and not only is he singing, he’s singing

If Caesar had given me

Glory and war

And if I must abandon

The love of my mother

I would say to great Caesar:

Take your scepter and chariot

I love my mother more, alas!

I love my mother more.

so clearly He Knows What He’s Done.

(sidenote: 1972 Les Mis has this scene with the song, and you cannot begin to imagine the sheer glory)

Thing is, Marius still isn’t convinced, he thinks he can salvage this whole thing if only he had the audience, and he attempts to gather his thoughts to make this final rally before hearing part Deux of Combeferre’s (and everyone’s) stance, the above refrain.

Marius begins repeating this, “My mother, my mother, my mother,” et cetera, which I interpret as him trying to make sense of the song and its meaning (note: Napoleon is often compared to Caesar, especially in the bricc), and he’s like, “Who is ‘my mother’ referring to?”  He’s still thinking in these very singular, binary, one-to-one correspondence terms.  Who could possibly be more important than a leader who can lead your country to glory?

And Enjolras tells him, since he’s clearly struggling:

“‘My mother’ is the Republic.”

(With that being said, although it’s probably not correct, the first time I read this scene the song was in French but the dialogue was English and I wasn’t reading the translation notes as I went, so I just thought Marius was asking the Virgin Mary for, idk, mercy on his soul, or praying to his deceased mother for help in these trying times, and Enjolras was like, “HAH, look at this nerd, still hasn’t learned his lesson about idolizing a single figure, I’ll show him” and just

Water Tribe’d Marius’s ass with a “My 'mother' is the Republic” -- which may not be correct but definitely sparks joy.)

To be clear: I don’t think this was Combeferre or Enjolras or the Amis making fun of him (okay, maybe a little bit, but not meanly).  I think they saw this as the perfect opportunity to once and for all clear and prepare the fields for planting of new ideas (a metaphor that continues into the beginning of 3.4.6:

He was experiencing what the earth may experience at the moment when it is opened by the plough so wheat may be sown: it feels only the wound; the thrill of the seed and joy of the fruit do not come until later.

)

One final note: although we’re never given an express timeline for this event, we do know that Marius met Bossuet and Courfeyrac in 1828, can infer that he met the rest of the amis shortly after, and can also pretty reliably assume that this incident took place within the first six months of them becoming acquainted.  With this in mind, the “seed” that has been “planted” here has, minimum, three years to germinate before the June Revolt.  I like to believe that, in this time, the amis continued to spend time with and educate Marius.  In the beginning of 3.4.3, after all, Courfeyrac introduces Marius as “a student” after declaring Marius’s political stance to be Pretty Fucking Middling With Potential, and I do think the amis knew what they were getting into with him.