✜ APPLICATION ✜
Mar. 8th, 2013 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivelavenirP L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Addy
OOC Journal: N/A on Dreamwidth [nerdrage @ LiveJournal]
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: Over 18.
Email + IM: maddie.salters@gmail.com [gmail/gtalk]; maddiejs [skype]
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None!
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Jean Prouvaire [called "Jehan" by himself and friends; pronounced 'Jay-Ahn'.]
Canon: Les Misérables [novel]
Original or Alternate Universe: Canon
Canon Point: Directly before his death/execution, when the shots are fired by the National Guardsman.
Number: 126 (or RNG if that one has been taken in the meantime!)
Setting:
On the French Restoration
Jehan would have been raised at the start of this period in time, as he died in 1832 (presumably in in his early twenties like most of the students, though his age is never explicitly stated). Working class conditions began to deteriorate during this time period, promoting frequent unrest among French citizens.
On the June Rebellion
The exact point he hails from in his canon, being one of the students who set forth to bring about the June Rebellion and also meeting his end there. Jehan, like the others in the fictional student society Les Amis de l'ABC, would have politically been a shade of Republican.
On Les Misérables, in General Provides some insight into Victor Hugo's idea of the time period and what he identifies as the tallest maladies of French society during it. These include poverty, low levels of education, and the increased burden of suffering onto women and children. Jehan, as a character, is particularly moved by these human struggles and they define his interest in the movement.
In addition to what is already mentioned in these links, it is important to highlight that in 1832, disease was particularly rampant. While it mainly tore apart the throngs of the lower classes, cholera ended up taking the life of Republican politician Jean Maximilien Lamarque; a favourite among the people and the student societies. His funeral was (and is in Jehan's canon) a spark to the flame of the June Rebellion. 1832 was a year of civil disquiet all across France and Paris was particularly well-suited to revolts as 'barricading' streets was a popular method of fighting the government. Paris, at this time, had not yet been redesigned. Streets were still small enough and the city layout was confused enough to support barricades. This is why Hugo often goes into explicit details about directions in the novel; by the 1860's, the time of its publication, much of the French landscape had changed. Even more of it was different in the 1900s. (Therefore, Jehan's character perspective on Paris may come at odds with modern European notions.)
History:
Jehan's personal history within his canon is seldom spoken-about and receives very little attention. However, educated guesses can be taken from what the author tells us about him at his 'present time' (1832). This history will attempt to utilize no headcanon whatsoever, but to support gray areas with other elements found in the novel.
While nothing is said about his childhood except for the location he is raised, it is noted that Jehan is an only son and wealthy. As he is not endowed with a title of any sort nor is he a capitalist, this would imply that he hails from an upper-middle class family; likely bourgeois. Whether this means that his family financially supports him despite his contentious political viewpoint of equality for all men, or that his parents have already died by 1832 and that his wealth comes from inheritance, is not stated. Either way, he is a bit more well-off than the bulk of his friends by 1832.
That Jehan was well looked-after growing up cannot be considered a point of contention. There must have been investiture in his education and upbringing: Jehan is a musician (he plays the flute), is described as "well-read to the point of erudition" (books were expensive luxuries in this time period), and is an avid reader of poetry. He takes it upon himself to learn Latin, Greek, Italian and Hebrew sheerly so he could read verses penned by Aeschylus, Juvenal, Dante and Isaiah. This points to the fact that he must have had tutors at some point to lay down the foundations of all this higher learning, especially seeing as he is a fervent believer in education and thinks it should be available for all citizens.
Additionally, Jehan in 1832 is noted to have his own apartment, where he raises pots of flowers. He reads poetry frequently (both current to him and classic), whiles away hours staring at clouds and walking through cornfields-- legitimately. He spends many nights in the café Musain among friends, discussing the romantic, the humane and the immense. What he does by morning is to ponder and educate himself on political and social issues. He writes verses and reads almost too much. While it isn't explicitly stated, it is therefore probably unlikely that Jehan had a job-- or at least, not a very demanding one. To support an apartment, the purchase of paper and books, as well as supplies to care for flowers and then to spend most nights out again highlights the fact that in this epoch, he was independent but wealthy. Social causes and justice for the people became the occupation of his mind and heart through his learning.
Jehan was an ardent learner and the more he studied, the more his interests in current events politicized his views on behalf of the common people. This coincided with the time period, as the so-called 'July Monarchy' reign of Louis-Philippe had come about via Revolution in 1830. This revolution managed to only oust one King and replace him with another. Though democratically elected by a Chamber of Deputies, Louis-Philippe was considered no better than a constitutional monarch; and a poor one, at that. Austere times followed, including rampant famine, disease, inflation and a starker difference between the poor and higher classes. Jehan, a young adult during the first revolt, took to the cause of the Republicans who were furious at the worsened condition of the people and their bloated constitutional monarch in spades.
During his time as an upper learner in Paris, he therefore joined a society of like-minded individuals, with whom he could talk to about politics, equality and necessary change-- along with history, mythology and literature. The group was mostly motivated by similar political beliefs.
Jehan was one of the principle actors in that student group, Les Amis de l'ABC. The 'Amis' were headed by leader Enjolras; a strong-willed young man who stood for the rights of the people and whom Jehan strongly believed in. The name of the group is a pun in French, with ABC sounding like the French word for 'abased'. Therefore, they were the friends of the abased citizens: the hungry, the poor, the oppressed.
Jehan was a student throughout his enlistment in the ranks of the ABC; though what he studied outside of his personal pursuits isn't said. He was cordial with the working-class men of Paris and was a favourite among the 'Amis' (called "one of the dearest"), forming with them familial brotherhood. He, like all of the principle students except for Laigle, was from the South of France.
A fervent believer in human rights, Jehan was considered 'softer' than the de-facto second in command, Combferre, but was also described as being "intrepid". He found the conditions of women (forced into prostitution, destitute, unregarded) lamentable in the extreme and the situation of children (starving, poor, often abandoned) pitiable. As such, he was one of the more daring members of the group and was politically very fervent when it came to change (though more forgiving of past 'scoundrels' than his friends, such as Napolean). This willingness to put future change ahead of his own wellbeing is illustrated in several scenes that ultimately decide his fate.
First, he decides to join his friends in the June Rebellion against the French Government, following the death of General Lamarque. He is described as being among "the most determined" at the barricade, and takes up a dangerous position defending it, along with Enjolras, Combferre and Courfeyrac. He eventually meets his end through such theatrics, being captured outside of the barricade during the very first phase of combat. Only one other principle student dies in this phase and he does so within the barricade, with no aggressor (the aggressors in this case being the National Guardsman, the army of the State) passing the barricade. Therefore, it can be assumed that Jehan left the barricade himself for a reason that is unclear (but may have been to gather ammunition, gunpowder, simply to get a better aggressive position or to defend his friends more acutely.)
Jehan is executed by the National Guardsman soon after, his last words being shouted: "Long live France! Long live the Future!" Hopeful, idealistic and fervent to his last moments.
Personality:
Jehan is, on the surface, a typified romantic of his era. The movement, based on literature, the arts and education, the nobility of feeling over rationalization, and the evolution of politics away from the hands of the wealthy elite and into the hands of free thinkers: all of this defines Jehan well. He is touched by poetry, daydreams frequently, and prefers to spend his free hours whiling away in thought. On the one hand, while Jehan is often shy; he blushes easily, smiles easily and has a gentle voice; he also can be excited into a bolder state. He has it within him to be very brave, to become animated and excitable on subjects that interest him (this is especially so when the conversation is among friends), to suddenly speak in a deep and commanding voice when he feels the need to. This balance in Jehan's personality adds depth to his inherent sentimentality. While on the one hand, he is introduced as almost a dreamy, foppish character (taken with poems and history and mythology and flowers), his selfless courage, his vehemence to achieve social equality and his passion for change marks him out as committed, plucky, and outspoken when meeting a challenge. He is a passionate man.
Despite having that as his core, Jehan is more often the sensitive, effected type. Jehan is noted as being "above all, good." He is tender, sentimental, and 'in love with love'. He embraces the aesthetic of understanding life through emotion, and he feels his emotions deeply. The plight of women and children move him to tears, the contemplation of God and country occupies him for silent hours.
Jehan, also being exceedingly taken with educating himself, has almost too wide a variety of interests. Aside from social and political fascination and along with his vested study of poets, lyricists and great literary works, he is also curious about finance, religions, marriage, personal freedoms, property, manufacturing, criminology, and the fates. He is an independent and critical thinker, disbelieving almost nothing as everything is up for debate. He believes that closing yourself off to an idea is a form of ignorance (ie. when people were 'certain' that the earth was flat, because 'science and logic said so'), not enlightenment, and that many ideas thought to be unable to co-exist can and do. Just because he might believe in the Catholic God does not mean the Greek Gods cannot exist, for example. This also connects to a romantic's desire to place original thought above all else.
He is nostalgic sometimes to the point of eccentricities. His nickname of 'Jehan' hails from the Middle Ages, when the name 'Jean' was pronounced differently than in 1800's French. Quite a fan of the Middle Ages, he pinions himself with the name, finding it more effusive (even if others would probably find it dandified) and taking to it.
Another example of nostalgia and soft eccentricity, Jehan is described as someone who "dressed badly." Two accounts can be made for why this might be. The first is that love of the Middle Ages and his romantic sentiments. It could simply be that he preferred to dress 'out of style' and in the more lavish and loud colours of the period before his birth. The other explanation for this is that his clothes were simply out of style, owing to a sort of revolt against lavish spending and bourgeois fashions. In truth, it is probably a mix of the two, though his dreamy personality makes the former more likely. It is also more than certain, after reading the original French, that this idea of 'dressing badly' means he doesn't put a lot of effort into his overall neatness; head in the clouds, busied with more important things, he is the type to forget to finish tying his cravat, to mis-button his jacket or to leave home wearing two different shoes. This harkens to the part of Jehan that is described as being occasionally awkward, clumsy, and badly put together in public situations.
Additionally, Jehan was an orientalist. This wasn't rare at that time period in France, as Napoleon's bid in Egypt brought about a great interest in the area beginning in the early 1800s. It begun a revolution in French art that Jehan must have taken to in the way he took to all things that were fanciful, different, exotic and spawned extra thought for him-- especially as these paintings were typically colourful, and called to mind social questions of classism via slavery, love as it contrasted sensuality, and brotherhood among warriors.
Jehan is an honest character and at his core, good. This goodness is his most important feature, 'bordering on grandeur' in the words of the novel. This goodness shows itself not only in his social causes, but in how he treats his friends. He is playful with them (such as when he quips about Joly's nickname) and takes notice of their affairs (being the first to remark that Marius was seriously in love, rather than taken by fancy).
Though he is noted as being "timid only in repose", it might be one's first impression of him; timid. He lowers his eyes when embarrassed, is softly idealistic, and is in love with ideas; sometimes that of love itself. But his preference for the poet Agrippa d'Aubigne over Pierre Corneille, and Corneille above Jean Racine betrays that he understands realism well; he prefers the awing nature of symbolic terror and the apocalypse, tragedy and satire that reflects the pains of real life (such as in d'Aubigne's Les Tragiques) to the more immoral works of "the founder of French tragedy". He preferred both to the more simple verses of Racine. He embraces life's true horrors and tragedies, and though they sometimes bring him to tears and make him deeply melancholy (sometimes even stand-offish or despondent, if he is laid particularly low), he is still optimistic, idealistic, and caring. His bouts of depression for humanity are bravely battled by his sincerest hopes for a future delivered from oppression.
His love of the nostalgic, the romantic, the sentimental and of love itself act as that foil to his understanding of tragedy and suffering; both literary and human. It allows him to traverse from being a dreamer into a valiant fighter, when he needs to be. He is an independent doer, just as he is an independent thinker.
{Please Note: It is widely assumed and generally confirmed that Jehan's character is based on real-life counterpart, poet Gérard de Nerval. For the purpose of the game, Nerval's history has been deeply studied, to provide insight where it can to anything Jehan's canon history may be lacking. I can provide a reading list if necessary; otherwise, segments from Nerval's history will only be taken where the game demands it (ie. if another character were to ask Jehan 'what did your father do?'), as a better alternative to pure headcanon. However, nothing in Nerval's history will influence his personality, derived wholly from canon information. If there are ever any questions regarding this, please let me know!}
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Jehan is, by all accounts, just a normal human. Nothing supernatural or overly-special about him. He's a good reader, has a keen memory, and isn't a bad shot. Granted, he isn't a bad shot on a blunderbuss , as he hails from a time period that will limit him in the scope of his knowledge as compared to more modern characters.
Inventory:
1 small blunderbuss with no ammunition, 1 set of
Appearance:
His appearance isn't ever spoken about in the book, aside from Hugo's blanket terms that all of the youths tended to be rosy, full of life and energetic. The overly-handsome 'Amis' are pointed out by Hugo (Enjolras and his godly hair, Marius and his... similarly godly hair), as are the over-plain ones (
Age:
20 (again, his age isn't explicitly stated, though most of the Amis were in their early twenties, as were a majority of students in the June Rebellion. Jehan was the youngest of these, judged to be anywhere between 18-21 at the time of death.)
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
If it were to be trusted that 'feeling was law', in the widely translated words of Caspar Friedrich, then the law of the moment was a very deep-seeded confusion. To say that Jehan had no idea where he was wasn't entirely true. He assumed, after all, that this was death.
Jehan had not feared death when it had come to him, in the form of a firing squad. Death was as inevitable as life. It was only a pity when it came too soon or embraced those undeserving souls who could not meet it with a full heart. To be frank, if fear had touched him at all at the scene of the barricade, then did so in the form of the spectre of tragedy; that his friends should fall, should fail and that humanity would not budge forward just yet. That Paris would be slow in heeding the call of those dazzling men and their important ideas. He feared loneliness and stagnancy more than death; which gave a little irony to his current situation.
He'd had no time to think on the afterlife in the moment of his execution, but had pondered it extensively before the barricades went up. He'd always been curious if the Catholics were more correct about the hereafter than the Greeks: would there be light, angelic feathers, the bright face of a single God when a man died? Or shadows and steep water, the ferryman Charon demanding his tip?
By the looks of it, neither was quite right.
His throat itched slightly from whatever had been inside of it, his limbs sank with the rapidly drying weight of the water, and his vision now swam in place of his body. He had staggered his way out of the tank and stood still for a long moment, regaining sensation, thought, feeling. Though bewilderment puzzled his senses as much as his mind, he did what men must-- he went forward.
As he went, he noticed the number that shown on his arm, blazing there as if a warden of Bagne of Toulon had missed his shoulder impressively with the brand. It did not smart, but also did not make very much sense to him. He did realized in short order, however, that the number had a matching brother in the form of... well, an iron box. Still mystified but calm, Jehan had made his way towards it.
When he figured out how to pry it open, which was a little trouble given his state and his unfamiliarity with the concept, he was no less surprised to see it contained within it little sentimentalities from life... along with a few more puzzling items. Mysteries atop mysteries! A tomb that only glory can bestow... glorious oddities, a tomb with the clothes of life! The Gods were impish, after all, which was at least fairly pleasing.
After a long moment spent staring at those items (those that were his formerly, and those that were his presently), thinking and coming to no real conclusion other than that above, Jehan reached out and touched. First his old clothing, then the new. He recited lines in his mind, he recalled memories, he breathed in deeply the sterile air. The aesthetic here did not appeal to him, and so, he must find charm in the strangeness of it all. He took another deep breath, quelling himself.
It was decided, then. He would put on the new suit, strange as it was, as it appeared to be what this 'heaven' dictated. Then, pausing, he added his cravat to the mix; well, why not? If feeling was law, then he would put one to the judges of heaven, that a man should be comfortable even in an obscure afterlife.
If he was going to face the oddity of heaven, he would do it with some of the nostalgia of earth.
That decided, he went to take his other things. He ought to get moving. He would not believe that he was to be on his own here, forever. There had to be more to it and other souls. Maybe even some he recognized, though he hoped with sincere tenderness that he did not.
Comms Sample:
[There is a long moment of silence in which Jehan stares at the little screen, both brows raised slightly. For all his interest in its workings, the cool impersonality of it is a little bit of a shock to him. No more than anything else so far, of course, but still.
Should he address it at all? Curious, to imagine addressing a box as one might address their personal God; with questions, prayers, sincerity and misgivings.]
Yes? Is this when I ought to speak?
To whomever takes these messages from our mouths to the ears of those on high, good day. My name is Jean Prouvaire.
[He pauses, wets his lips, looks down. There was an inherent embarrassment about having no idea whom you were speaking to; lady, or gentleman? Angel, gatekeeper, or fellow?
More worried about sounding foolish than looking it, the sash at his neck was tied well and loudly, clashing marvelously with the suit provided for him in his locker. The effect was a little ridiculous, even by his standards; but it was more comfortable than addressing an unknown mass without anything on at all.]
I admit that I am not well-versed in what to do with this version of the afterlife, as it is consciously more sterile than I expected of it. Perhaps... if there might be anyone so kind as to indulge me in conversation, explanation, or theory on the matter?
[Another pause, a tilt of his head and a little colouration of his cheeks was to follow. He did not yet expect any friends in this place. Without them, he must know what he was to do with himself. He'd taken to contemplating his fate for a while before turning on this device, but contemplation only got so far when one had little to work upon.
When one was alone.]
There is a saying... 'to teach your pen a different fire'. On earth, I had the fire of change to light me. It is an irony, then, to be borne here on water...
I would be more comfortable, I think, if I knew what men warm their souls with in this place.
I appreciate any aid. Thank you.
