'Ponine

This is how I do character work.... lol. I mean, honestly, it was very helpful to draw this.

As some of you know, I get to play Eponine in a production of Les Misérables in June. So, this is me analyzing her as a character. At my last rehearsal, we talked REALLY in depth about our characters and their motives and their reasoning and their logic and their thought processes. Needless to say, it was extremely intense. Thought I should do a bit of homework on dear 'Ponine, and see what I figure out. I didn't draw inspiration from any one person/actress. I just tried to draw the character and the outcome is what you see.

Eponine is a tortured soul, but it is self-inflicted, (as it often is.) She is deeply in love with Marius, and she lets that love consume her, and control her, and motivate her. She would do anything just to be near him. And to please him?! Ohh, to receive attention and praise from the one man who is always on her mind, and whose affection would mean the world! This is not to say that Eponine is completely selfless when it comes to Marius. She is like any young girl in love. Flirtatious, and calculating, thinking, "Hey, how can I make this work to my advantage?" when he asks her to find Cosette for him. Not thinking it through completely, just delighting in this new attention from her Marius, she delivers what he asks, but then realizes exactly what that entailed. I also think of Eponine as tough, she has to be, she's a Thenardier. She's persistent and thick-skinned. So she keeps coming back for more, because she figures, "I'd rather be around him as a friend than not at all." But deep down in her most secret of thoughts, she longs for them to be together. She longs for him to love her back. It's the one thing she actually desires. But when she really, really thinks about it and faces reality, she knows that there is no way. I think there is a tiny scrap of hope in her that thinks "MAYBE." But it is not very much.

Aaaaaaaand that was LONG. Sorry, guys. It helped to get that all out, though!!! WOAH, that's long. Hehe....

If anyone has thoughts they'd like to share about your take on her character, I'd love to hear them. I'm very interested and it would be good to hear multiple perspectives.

THANKS, ALL!!!!

ENJOY!!