Gavroche

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Gavroche is also a French beer, produced by Brasserie de Saint-Sylvestre.

Gavroche is a fictional character from the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Argot 3 Differences in the musical 4 Cultural references 5 Onstage 6 Sources 7 References

[edit] Plot

Gavroche is the eldest son of M. and Mme Thénardier. He has two sisters, Éponine and Azelma, and two unnamed younger brothers. He is also technically unnamed; the reader is told he chooses the name for himself, but is not provided with his real name. Mme Thénardier only loves her daughters, and M. Thénardier shows no affection for any of his children. Gavroche is told by his parents to live in the street, because he would have a better life there. The Thénardiers sell/rent their two youngest sons to a woman named Magnon. Magnon was being paid for her two illegitimate sons by her former employer, M. Gillenormand, Marius's grandfather. When those two sons die, she 'replaces' them with the two from the Thénardiers. The Thénardiers get a portion of the payment. Due to a freak accident, the two boys are separated from Magnon without identification, and run into Gavroche. They do not recognize each other, but Gavroche invites them to live with him. They reside in the hollow cavity of a giant elephant statue, conceived by Napoleon as a fountain, but abandoned unfinished. This was no imaginary construction; located at the Place de la Bastille, it had been designed by Jean-Antoine Alavoine.

During the student uprising of June 5-6, 1832, Gavroche joins the revolutionaries at the barricade. Partially in order to protect him from injury, Marius hands him a letter to deliver to Cosette. After delivering it to Jean Valjean, Cosette's guardian who promises he will hand it to Cosette, Gavroche returns to the barricade.

After an exchange of gunfire with the National Guards, Gavroche overhears Enjolras remark that they are running out of cartridges. He decides he can help. He goes through an opening in the barricade and collects the cartridges from the dead bodies of the National Guard. In the process of collecting the cartridges and singing a song, he is shot and killed.

[edit] Argot

Argot is the slang used by thieves, criminals, and others who live in the streets. Victor Hugo was one of the first to note the slang and write it down. The character of Gavroche is used to introduce the concept of argot to the reader.^[1] The word "argot" has actually come to be the current French and Spanish term for "slang".

[edit] Differences in the musical

There are a few notable plot differences in the Cameron Mackintosh stage musical.

• The playbill for the musical indicates that Gavroche's parents are the Thénardiers, but this is not indicated in the context of the musical itself. In fact, in the musical version, he refers to Éponine as 'Auntie Dear'.
• Gavroche's two younger brothers, and his sister Azelma are cut completely.
• Marius instead gives the letter to Gavroche's sister, Éponine, to deliver, which results in her death.
• The musical changes the song that Gavroche sings at the barricade. (The version on the French concept album, however, is the same as in the book.)

[edit] Cultural references

• In French, the word "Gavroche" has come to mean "street urchin" and "mischievous child".
• There is a homeless organization in Varna, Bulgaria named the Gavroche Association.^[2]
• There are several restaurants across the world which use the name, including one in London run by the Roux brothers, Michel and Albert, which was the first in Britain to be awarded three Michelin stars.
• There is a French-language magazine about Thailand named Gavroche.
• While it predates the novel by three decades, the boy brandishing the pistols in Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People is often associated with Gavroche. Gavroche fires a pistol in the novel; it is possible that Hugo meant to allude to the painting.
• Bulgarian poet Hristo Smirnenski has a poem called The Brothers of Gavroche.
• A famous Polish punk/ska group Alians named one of its albums 'Gavroche'.
• Nobby Nobbs takes the place of Gavroche in Terry Pratchett's Diskworld novel Night Watch, which is loosely based on Les Misérables.

[edit] Onstage

Notable actors who have played Gavroche onstage:

• Nicholas Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers), Broadway 2003
• Rider Strong, San Francisco 1988
• J. D. Daniels, Broadway
• Chris Fountain
• Pax Baldwin, London
• Illya Woloshyn, Toronto 1988
• Sam Riegel, New York
• Grant Livingston, Grosse Pointe South 2008
• Jimmy Menchl, Grosse Pointe 2008

[edit] Sources

• Les Misérables, Victor Hugo. (Marius, Book I; Saint Denis, Book VI; Jean Valjean, Book I)

[edit] References

v • d • e Les Misérables by Victor Hugo Characters Valjean • Fantine • Cosette • Marius • Javert • M. & Mme. Thénardier • Éponine • Gavroche • Patron-Minette • Bishop Myriel • Enjolras Films 1934 • 1935 • 1952 • 1958 • 1982 • 1995 • 1998 • Dream Cast in Concert (1998) • Other adaptations Les Misérables (musical) • Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette • Songs from Les Misérables •