Enjoltaire

Enjoltaire is the slash ship between Enjolras and Grantaire from the Les Misérables fandom.

Canon
In both the musical and book, Enjolras and Grantaire are members of Les Amis de l'ABC, the rebel group opposing the French government. Enjolras is the charismatic and inspiring leader of the group. While Grantaire is a pessimistic drunk and Enjolras's main skeptic. Grantaire questions Enjolras's ideals, so many might wonder why he is part of the revolution. His reason, in fact, is Enjolras, and he has no desire for revolution. From there, the dynamic between the two develops in a series of exchanges in which Grantaire puts himself close to Enjolras, who attempts to reject him outright and send him away, but is unable to discourage the other man’s presence, as the discouragement is met with either stubbornness or mockery. Each time, Enjolras expresses skepticism at either Grantaire’s ability to help or his motivations for doing so and Grantaire responds with a combination of absolute sincerity and sarcasm.

Grantaire deeply "loved, admired and venerated Enjolras", even referring to him as Apollo. Grantaire's pessimism is not shown throughout the musical except in the song "Drink with Me". He wonders if their deaths will even matter in the end. As their revolution fails and the barricade falls, Enjolras is to be executed by firing squad. Having slept through the entirety of the fighting, ignored for dead by the national guardsmen, Grantaire awakens from his drunken slumber to find Enjolras cornered by soldiers in the upper room. Immediately upon recognizing what is going on, Grantaire gets the soldiers’ attention and takes his place beside Enjolras before telling the guardsmen to “‘Finish both of us at one blow.’” However, Grantaire does not just decide to die beside Enjolras, he turns to Enjolras and asks him a simple question: “Do you permit it?” To which Enjolras responds with a simple smile, holding Grantaire's hand in his. So the both of them die hand-in-hand.

Grantaire developed romantic or sexual feelings for Enjolras, since in the novel, they are compared to many Greek and Roman lovers, such as Achilles and Patroclus, or Hadrian and Antinous. Throughout the novel, Grantaire is described as not knowing exactly what he feels for Enjolras, aside from the obvious, but right before death, Grantaire is said to have been hit by a "coup de foudre," which literally, means "a bolt of lightning," but is more commonly used as a French expression for "love at first sight." Because of this, it's likely that Victor Hugo had meant that Grantaire died because of his love. He loved Enjolras and so, despite being able to escape the squad, he decided to take his place beside his Apollo.

Les Misérables Musical Adaptations
In the stage musical, the subtext between Enjolras and Grantaire has gradually been played up more, with further interactions between the two, including hugging, hair-stroking and hand kisses, depending on the actors. Thus the ship has arguably been canon in many stage productions since the mid-2010s.

A classic case of a pair of actors playing up a sense of intimacy between Enjolras and Grantaire to great effect can be found in Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser’s performance of “Drink With Me” during the Les Misérables 25th Anniversary Concert. During this number, the two rely almost exclusively on body language to get across the way in which their characters feel about one another.

Between the extremely subtle shifts in expression and posture that Ramin’s Enjolras makes while Hadley’s Grantaire is singing and the fact that from the line “Could it be you fear to die?” and onward, Grantaire very pointedly does not look at Enjolras until a full two to three seconds after he has stopped singing and the chorus has come in, their interpretation of Enjolras and Grantaire’s dynamic is one that is both conflicted and friendlier (at least on the part of Enjolras) than what appears in the book. However, it is the moments directly after Grantaire’s solo is over that are the most striking about their rendition of the E/R dynamic. Almost immediately after his verse is over, Grantaire looks at Enjolras for a moment before turning away to leave, but is stopped when Enjolras grabs his arm. He jerks away initially, but after a short, unheard conversation, he stops and reaches up to rest his hand along the nape of Enjolras’ neck before they both exit the stage.

Fanon
is the most popular ship in the modern Les Misérables fandom. Although fans of the novel already noticed Grantaire's love for Enjolras, the ship started gaining a lot more prominence with yunger generations in the 2010s, after the release of the 2012 movie adaptation.

Most fanfiction involving this pairing takes place in a modern setting. Likewise, their revolution takes a modern twist, and they are often social justice activists. On AO3, they are the most written ship in the Les Misérables tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Grantaire/Enjolras on FanFiction.Net
 * Grantaire/Enjolras (book) on FanFiction.Net
 * Enjoltaire on Quotev
 * Enjoltaire on Quotev

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