Eponine Thenardier (1815-5 June 1832) was a French woman from Paris who was the first of the revolutionaries at the Rue de la Chanvrerie barricade to fall during the failed June Rebellion of June 1832.
Biography[]
Eponine with her father, 1823
Eponine Thenardier was born in Montfermeil, Ile-de-France, France in 1815, the daughter of the innkeeper Alain Thenardier and his wife Helene, and the sister of Azelma and Gavroche. She and Azelma were spoiled as children, while their parents abused their ward Cosette and, after the Thenardiers' move to Paris, their son Gavroche, who ran away to become a street urchin. After the family lost their inn in the late 1820s, the family moved to the Gorbeau House in Paris, and Eponine helped her parents with their scams. She also befriended their neighbor Marius Pontmercy, falling in love with him, although he did not return her affection. In 1832, Marius sought her help in delivering a love letter to Cosette, with whom he was smitten, and Eponine left the letter at Cosette and her adoptive father Jean Valjean's house on the Rue de Plumet before her father and his gang arrived with the intent of robbing the house. Eponine, not wishing to see Marius in pain, screamed to get the attention of the police rather than let the gang rob Valjean's home, causing Thenardier to slap her and flee. Cosette later gave Eponine a letter to deliver to Marius, paying her to deliver it to him. Eponine had no intent of delivering the letter to him, as she still sought to compete for his affection.
Eponine's death
When the June Rebellion broke out in June 1832, Eponine disguised herself as a man to join the Les Amis de l'ABC revolutionary group, hoping to win Marius' love by fighting alongside him and his school friends. During the first National Guard attack on the barricade, Eponine noticed a soldier preparing to shoot Marius as he climbed atop the barricade with a gunpowder keg, causing Eponine to frantically climb the barricade and wrest the musket away from Marius, at the cost of being shot in the chest herself. While Marius succeeded in scaring off the National Guardsmen with the threat of blowing up the barricade with the powder keg, he returned to Eponine's side to see that she was wounded. A remorseful Eponine gave Marius Cosette's letter and tearfully assured Marius that she wasn't feeling any pain, as she was with him. Eponine died in the comfort of Marius' arms, and she was eulogized by the revolutionary leader Julien Enjolras as the first of them to die upon that barricade.