1.2.3-Pilferingapples

Ninety Three, 1.2.3,Noble and Plebian in Concert
Apparently this whole chapter is just about Boisberthelot and La Vieuville makin’ me hate them. I mean, WOW. There are few paths out of my heart faster than talking smack about other people being Less People than you, and HERE THEY GO FOR PAGES, and oh wow also they just can’t wait to find someone BRUTAL ENOUGH for this war against their own countrypeople, and also, vitally, not an icky peasant, I mean OBVIOUSLY, ew. PEASANTS AMIRITE.

I am…actually not going to try and piece together all the names they’re throwing around? I’m CERTAIN they’re relevant to the story in some way, everything Hugo adds to his stories is relevant SOME way, but I don’t know how much, and that kind of reference-mining is, for me, very much a second-read sort of endeavor.

But I do notice that beside/along with their snotty Ugh Peasants attitude, the Captain and the Lieutenant are (a) very set on restoring an order that puts them above others, and enforces a role on others that they have *violently rejected and (b) judging the actions of people in situations they actually aren’t personally familiar with. And while the Republican army may have sort of drafted Michelle into citizenhood, that was an expression of equality and solidarity, in a very immediate and practical sense— it was totally a Share Your/Our Fate moment, and they were risking a fair amount to make that statement, and will be risking more to stand by it. And that ties into the second thing going on in the conversation here: the ship’s officers aren’t cowards, or armchair soldiers ( I loathe their philosophy, but they are doing some stone-hard scary stuff here with their stealth mission), but they’re also not in the thick of the fighting. They’re at sea; to some extent what’s happening in Brittany and the Vendee is theoretical for them. And in that remove, they’re calling for more blood, less mercy. The soldiers, who actually ARE in the fight, in an up close and personal way, take the first chance they find to show mercy, to have LESS blood, to be compassionate fools by the officers’ thinking. I’m not sure if that’s leading to a larger point (it’s Hugo, so PROBABLY, but I don’t know what) but in the moment it’s a very sharp point of contrast.

But OH LOOK there’s about to be some mighty excitement on board ship! I hope it’s an explosion.

Commentary
Needsmoreresearch THESE ARE WORDS THAT I AGREE WITH.