Éponine Thénardier ( , ), also referred to as "Ponine", the "Jondrette girl" and the "young working-man", is a fictional character in the 1862 novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
The character is introduced as a spoiled and pampered child, but appears later in the novel as a ragged and impoverished teenager who speaks in the argot of the Parisian streets, while retaining vestiges of her former charm and innocence.
In the novel
Life in Montfermeil Éponine is born in 1816, the oldest child of the Thénardiers. As children, Éponine and her younger sister Azelma are described as pretty, well-dressed, and charming. They are pampered and spoiled by their parents, the Thénardiers, who run an inn in Montfermeil, France. Three years later, when Fantine and her illegitimate daughter Cosette come across the inn, Fantine sees Éponine and Azelma playing outside. Cosette joins the two sisters and the three play together. Fantine asks the Thénardiers to take care of Cosette while she goes to look for work in her hometown. The Thénardiers abuse Cosette, dress her in rags and force her to work, while spoiling their daughters and letting them play. Following their parents' example, Éponine and Azelma are unkind to Cosette and treat her like a servant.
During the 1823 Christmas fair, Éponine and Azelma admire a big, beautiful and expensive doll in a shop window. That night, they play with their own doll, while ignoring Cosette. Their doll is "very much faded, and very old and broken". They then cast the doll aside to play with a kitten. Cosette, never having owned or played with a doll, quickly grabs it and attempts not to be noticed with it. After fifteen minutes, Éponine and Azelma discover that Cosette has taken their doll and tell their mother, who yells at Cosette. Jean Valjean, who has witnessed the scene, leaves the inn and buys the expensive doll. He returns a moment later and gives it to Cosette. For the first time, Éponine and Azelma "looked upon Cosette with envy".
Life in Paris
Hugo depicts Éponine again in 1832. After her family's bankruptcy of the inn, they move to Paris and live in a small run-down apartment at Gorbeau House under the assumed name of "Jondrette". They live next door to the apartment of Marius Pontmercy. In adolescence, Éponine becomes a "pale, puny, meagre creature", with a hoarse voice like "a drunken galley slave's", having been "roughened by brandy and by liquors". She wears dirty and tattered clothing, consisting solely of a chemise and a skirt. She is missing a few teeth, is barefoot, has tangled hair, bony shoulders, and heavy brooding drooping eyes, while the "grace of her youth was still struggling against the hideous old age brought on by debauchery and poverty" and has only a trace of beauty lingering upon her face. She had "the form of an unripe young girl and the look of a corrupted old woman; fifty years joined with fifteen; one of those beings who are both feeble and horrible at once, and who make those shudder whom they do not make weep".Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, Wordsworth Classics, p. 496 She and Azelma help their father, who writes to rich people under different names, to beg for money. The two sisters pass Marius while running away from the police, unaware that they dropped their package of forged letters begging for alms. Marius takes the package back to his apartment.
The next day, Éponine visits Marius at his apartment and gives him a letter from her father begging for money. Marius notes that the handwriting and the stationery are identical to the letters in the package. Éponine looks around Marius' room and goes to look at Marius' mirror while singing to herself. To impress him, she proves that she is literate by reading aloud a passage from one of his books and writing "The (police) are here" on a piece of paper. Éponine tells Marius that she sometimes goes to the theatre, that he is handsome, and mentions that she has noticed him a number of times before. Changing the subject, Marius hands her back the other letters. Éponine is grateful to him for finding them. She then tells Marius that she sometimes walks by herself at night, how she and her family lived under the arches of bridges the previous winter, how she contemplated drowning herself and that she had hallucinations due to lack of nourishment. Pitying her, Marius gives her five francs, and she thanks him in a chain of argot. Éponine leaves, but not before picking up a piece of hardened bread from Marius' bureau and biting into it.
The attack at Gorbeau House After Éponine leaves, Marius observes her and her family in their apartment next door. They live in utter squalor. Marius hears Éponine claim that she has arranged for a philanthropist from the local church to come to their home and give them money to help pay the rent. In an effort to make his family look poorer, Thénardier orders Azelma to punch out the window, which she does, cutting her hand open. It turns out that the "philanthropist" is in reality Jean Valjean, as yet unrecognized by the Thénardiers and known by a different name, and he visits to inspect their circumstances. He is accompanied by Cosette, with whom Marius is in love. Valjean promises to return later with money.
Marius attempts to follow Valjean and Cosette but is unable to pay for a cab, having given Éponine his remaining five francs. When he returns to his room, Éponine asks what is troubling him and offers to assist him. Marius asks her to find the address of the father and daughter that just visited. Éponine reacts bitterly, realizing his romantic interest in the philanthropist's daughter, but agrees to do so after he promises to give her anything she wishes in return.
Éponine leaves. Marius overhears Jondrette and his wife plotting to rob and murder Valjean with the help of the Patron-Minette street gang. Marius informs Javert in the hope of obstructing their plan. After Marius returns, Thénardier orders Éponine to search Marius’ apartment to see if he is there. Hearing this, Marius hides under his bed. She goes in the apartment, but does not inspect it. She once again looks at herself in Marius' mirror and sings. While she does this, she shouts back to her father that she is looking over the room and there is no one present. Éponine leaves the apartment and she and Azelma are sent outside the building to watch for the police. As the crime unfolds, Marius attempts to stop Thénardier by tossing the note Éponine wrote earlier through a crack in the wall. Thénardier recognizes Éponine's writing. They try to escape, but Javert enters and arrests the Thénardiers and the street gang, while Valjean escapes unnoticed. Éponine is not caught, as she had slipped away from her post for a tryst with Montparnasse, a member of Patron-Minette. She is later caught and joins Azelma in prison. Both sisters are released two weeks later due to lack of evidence.
Marius, Cosette, and Éponine While in jail, Babet sends a letter to Éponine ordering her to investigate a house at the Rue Plumet. Discovering that Valjean and Cosette live there and knowing that Marius is trying to find Cosette, Éponine sends back a biscuit, signaling that there is nothing valuable there. After six weeks of not finding Marius, she visits the churchwarden Mabeuf and offers to water his garden. After she does this, she asks Mabeuf of Marius' current whereabouts, and he tells her. Éponine finds Marius in a park called "The Field of the Lark". She tries to have a conversation with him, but he is unresponsive. She then tells him that she knows where Cosette lives, hoping to impress him and make him happy. Marius is overjoyed, while Éponine is saddened by his reaction. Marius makes Éponine swear not to tell her father the address, and calls her by her name. Éponine notices this and is surprised and happy that he said her name. Marius still commands her not to tell her father, and she finally promises. As she takes him to the house, she reminds him that he promised to give her something in return for finding Cosette, and he offers her his last five-franc coin. She sadly lets the coin fall to the ground, saying she does not want his money.
Éponine secretly watches Marius each time he goes to visit Cosette. One time, she tries to talk to him, but for the first time she is at a loss for words. The next evening, Éponine follows him to the house and is sitting by the gates lost in thought when Thénardier and his criminal companions arrive to rob the house. Éponine first attempts to distract their attention by giving them friendly greetings. When that fails, she threatens to scream and alert the police and the neighborhood. She then sits back down by the gates and sings to herself. Seeing that Éponine is serious in her threat, the men leave, and she cautiously follows them.
Disguise The next day, Éponine devises a plan "to thwart the projects of her father and the bandits upon the house in the Rue Plumet, and to separate Marius and Cosette". Disguised as a boy, she throws Valjean a note that says "remove". He returns to Cosette at the Rue Plumet and tells her they must promptly relocate to their other house and leave for England in a week. Cosette quickly writes to tell Marius and pays Éponine, who is disguised as a workman, to deliver the letter to Marius. Éponine takes the letter with no intention of delivering it.
The following day (5 June), on the night of the insurrection, Éponine visits Courfeyrac's lodgings and waits for Marius, "not to give him the letter, but ... 'to see'". She is still wearing her disguise. Courfeyrac appears and tells her he does not know Marius' whereabouts. Determined that no one else will have Marius, she decides to accompany Courfeyrac to the barricades. She then goes to the Rue Plumet, expecting Marius to visit Cosette at his usual time. When he arrives and discovers that Cosette has departed, Éponine from a hiding place tells Marius that his friends are expecting him at the barricades at the Rue de la Chanvrerie, and she returns there.
Death