Marius Pontmercy

Character
Name:	Marius Pontmercy
Occupation:	law student, revolutionary
Relationships:	Georges Pontmercy (father), Gillenormand (maternal grandfather), Cosette (eventual wife), Courfeyrac (roommate), Les Amis de l'ABC (friends)
Fandom:	Les Misérables
Other:	Marius is based on Victor Hugo's younger self.
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Marius Pontmercy is a main character and protagonist from the 1862 Victor Hugo novel Les Misérables and its subsequent adaptations. He is a student, later lawyer, who falls on hard times after being thrown out by his grandfather for political differences and later falls in love with Cosette. Marius takes part in the June Rebellion along with Les Amis de l'ABC and eventually marries Cosette.

Canon

Marius is raised by his maternal grandfather, Gillenormand, who is a staunch Royalist. As Marius' father was a Colonel under Napoleon Bonaparte, Gillenormand tells Marius that his father abandoned him. When Marius finds out about his grandfather's deception, he begins to reject his Royalist ideals and becomes a Democrat-Bonapartist. Upon discovering this, Gillenormand and Marius have a fight that ends in Gillenormand throwing Marius out. Marius ends up running into fellow law student Bossuet and his friend Courfeyrac, the latter of whom he moves in with. Soon after, Courfeyrac introduces Marius to Les Amis de l'ABC, where Marius is met with Republican opinions that run counter to his own Bonapartism.

One day, Marius sees Cosette and falls instantly in love with her. One day he finds her home and asks the doorman about her, prompting Jean Valjean to assume he is a spy for Javert. This leads to Valjean moving himself and Cosette to another house, and Marius doesn't see her for a while. After meeting Éponine, who is in loved with him, Marius enlists her help in finding Cosette again. Once he does, he eventually leaves her a love letter, the two finally meet and they fall in love. As the June Rebellion draws nearer, however, Valjean decides that he and Cosette are moving to England. When Marius arrives to find her house empty, he decides to join Les Amis de l'ABC at the barricade and almost dies there. After seeing a letter Marius wrote for Cosette, Valjean goes to the barricade and once the fighting is over, rescues Marius. After recovering from his wounds, Marius reconciles with Gillenormand and marries Cosette.

Common Pairings

The canonical Cosette Fauchelevent/Marius Pontmercy is one of the most popular ships in the fandom, with Éponine Thénadier/Marius Pontmercy also being very popular, albeit mostly in the musical-focused part of it, as the love triangle between the three is much more prominent in the musical than in the original novel. Éponine used to be a somewhat more popular choice for Marius than Cosette, but in the modern fandom, Éponine is often paired off differently. The most popular slash ship with Marius is Courfeyrac/Marius Pontmercy, because of, among other things, the line:

Marius said to Courfeyrac: "I have come to sleep with you."

Fanon

• Due to how quickly Marius learns English and German to work as a translator, he is sometimes portrayed as interested in languages in Modern AU.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.