Legle/Lesgle/Laigle/Bossuet

Headcanon: he has almost passed any number of law classes, but Something always comes up before exams-- a death in the family, a financial disaster, an arrest, a severe injury or illness , someone else being arrested or injured or ill and needing help, etc, etc (he was really very relieved the time it turned out the Semester's Disaster was just Marius Pontmercy) . He may be nowhere near graduation, but he is very well-informed about a lot of classes and has a semi-lucrative gig going where he either tutors nervous young students or, more often, does a lot of their work outright-- a thing that might trouble his conscience if he or anyone whose opinion he values thought law school was anything but a joke.

Heartcanon: he's actually got sort of a fondness for some of the nights he's spent/ still sometimes spends just wandering around outside, no particular home to go to, nowhere to be. He's not about to romanticize it; he'd be the first to say that it really depends on the weather and he knows there is a huge difference between being out on the street when he knows, really, he could go stay with any of a dozen friends, and being out on the street and having zero idea where his next solid bed is, he's experienced a Wide Range of situations on that scale and he knows , and he's also quite sure already that what's sort of meditative and relaxing at 25 will probably be much less so at 45, but all the same, such is the Human Experience that , yes, actually, some of those nights have been very dear to him, and really helped him recover from some major emotional hits rather than otherwise. (It's all one of the things he never really talks about--unlike Grantaire, he's really good at deciding what he'll talk about ,however long he rambles on-- and he's only ever really connected with Prouvaire on it, and even then, it never feels satisfying to talk about it, so they mostly don't . But it's nice to know someone else understands.)

Gutcanon: he and Grantaire had many FWB makeouts in their early college-ish years, of Mixed but Generally Not Great quality, since it tended to happen only when they were both Kinda Messed Up in one way or the other. They razz each other about Sexual Prowess from (outdated, mostly drunk/Young Fools Doing an All-Nighter) experience :P

Spleencanon: somewhere between Actual Canon and General Spleen, I guess? -- he's actually really graceful (that's canon! all the descriptions of his movements involve him being graceful and elegant, even when he's absolutely plastered!) and one of the more effective fighters in the group. IMO there's a sharp edge to Legle that is largely unseen , but he wouldn't be where he is, hanging out with who he does, after everything in his life, if he didn't have a solid core of Fight in him..

Joly

Headcanon: not only prone to catching Everything Going Around now, but spent most of his childhood catching every illness going around-a terrifying experience for his parents and a plain unfun one for himself. This is why his parents are fairly undemanding about the pace of his studies--they know he gets sick a lot and will be happy if he's able to graduate at all. It is also why he started life in Paris with a bizarrely high capacity for just about every drug available-- a childhood spent having Helpful 19C Medicines on a daily basis got him accustomed to concoctions that would worry Dionysus.

Heartcanon: he has a great love and appreciation for puns (obviously) but no flair for them on his own. It's all about at the habit/ami level. He still laughs every time, and everyone else usually laughs too, because he's just so pleased about it that it's delightful anyway.

Gutcanon: ..honestly feel like he's not on the Surgeon track? he's. The other thing. I've looked it up like three times and then the computer crashes, but like..the equivalent of being a General Doctor But Not A Surgeon. I'd even think he was going on the Pharmacist track if the way Hugo introduced him didn't make that seem Off. It just seems more suited to him somehow?

Spleencanon: haha it's very funny that despite his chronic health issues he's going to live to a very happy old age! Wacky!!!1!!!

Bini!

Headcanon: oh they absolutely met for the first time in a Very Awkward Mixup over who was supposed to be dating Musichetta that night. For Legle this was already very normal; for Joly it was the first time anything of the sort had happened. But it worked out Very Well for everyone involved, eventually!

Heartcanon: both of them individually had the sense and practical wisdom to not start feeding the neighborhood stray cats. Their Forces Combined were utterly susceptible to the plaints of little mewing voices under the window, and now there's a small army of Technically Strays that visit regularly. There has been a distinct improvement in the apartment's rodent issues, so the landlady isn't complaining...

Gutcanon: Legle is still prone to worrying about Overstaying His Welcome, a holdover reflex from several years of couchsurfing, and occasionally just absents himself for several days no matter how often Joly assures him that really it's fine, why do you think I gave you a spare key (and then another spare key and another one when those vanished) . They're gonna iron it out eventually, it's just a question of time and habit.

Anyway it’s commonly noticed (among fancademia, academia pays not a lick of attention to this stuff that I’ve found) that the Amis in their intro have a bit of a sliding scale of, well, Various Concepts really,  from Enjolras at one end to Grantaire at the other. And one of the very obvious concepts is “The Domestic” as thought at the time would have it–that would include women, romance, family, home life, housekeeping–all the things that could also be summed up as “Women’s Sphere”, you know? 

And on the other end was The Political– public life, politics in the sense of Actual Government Action, military Whatever, Economics-with-a-Capital E, The Patriarchy, etc. Manly! 

And obviously these things have a lot of overlap! But they were  seen as Spheres and being Complementary rather than, IDK, Inherently Unified. 

Also, as suggested above, suuuuuuper  gendered. Like whoa  gendered. I’m not getting into this and the evolving concept of gender roles in the 19C the way it deserves because that would take semesters of lectures and essays I am not remotely qualified to write but like. Consider it noted, right?

This concept of Domestic  is exactly what Enjolras rejects. Hugo goes to some length to make it clear that this is what Enjolras rejects. That’s what the whole thing about him not being moved by the bare breast of Evadne and thinking flowers are only good to hide swords and giving the Abyssal Glare to women who try to flirt with him is about–he rejects the importance of Family Life, Women, Romance, etc etc.* Enjolras, when introduced, is 100 percent About The Manly Political Aspect of the Revolution and of the Republic.

On the other end of the list, Grantaire cares about nothing at all in the Manly Political Sphere. “He loves the girls and he loves good wine”, but really  what he loves is personal, domestic -type connections. He doesn’t care a single damn about the government or abstract social theory or social ideals or any of it.  He loves Enjolras, he loves his friends, his knowledge of Paris is entirely framed in personal, home-comfortish ways— he knows the best places for dancing, dating, dinner . (Grantaire being the internally incoherent disaster man he is, he starts his arc unwilling to admit even to loving his friends, because even that  is too much commitment for him. But the narrator is tattling on him from the get-go.)

Obviously the idea that these things are complete separate or  genuinely separable is absurd. But that’s the social concept Hugo is dealing with in this regard!

–Also obviously, there is a certain Secret Sneaky Crossover Link here and it’s Friendship, but Friendship And The Amis is like. A Mini-novelette length essay if I ever have the focus. I’m not good at focus, as we’re seeing! 

ANYWAY!  From Enjolras to Grantaire the Amis generally take up an increasing weight of “domestic”associations. Combeferre and Jehan are, like Enjolras, very much about Ideas and Ideals  and Politics and Philosophy, though their philosophy is increasingly more concerned with those domestic aspects of society (women, families, children, feelings ).  Feuilly, Courfeyrac, and Bahorel are very much About the Manly Man World of politics–they’re all Actiony and Political and even Combative, tied to Politics and Work and Socializing in a Very Activist Way. But Feuilly gets more family-linked language in his intro than Enjolras or Combeferre do, and Feuilly’s family is dead.  Courfeyrac rejects an aspect of his family identity, but we hear about it!  

Bahorel, coming after the Balancing Point that Courfeyrac represents, is explicitly linked not just to concepts  of family , but in a happy relationship to his own Actual Family, and their history– and he personally   holds this up as part of his identity, too. (We also hear more specifics about Bahorel’s fashion choices in just his intro  than we do about Enjolras or Combeferre’s or Feuilly’s in ever–  another Domestic, Personal signifier.) After Bahorel, things take a massive  turn for the Personal and Domestic in Intro-land. Bossuet gets a whole story about his family background,and  dating stories,  and ..well, and Joly   (who in his turn gets all his science being directed into personal concerns and home treatments and furniture arranging , like…this is a very homey couple of revolutionaries here) Bossuet and Joly are explicitly, practically linked at the start, and then again repeatedly and at length in other passages in the novel. They have separate characters, but a major part of both those characters is this..well..pair-bond.  Between two people who live, eat, and sleep together.  Super domestic!  AND NOW the “of the Revolution” part!

In Preliminary Gayeties–well, a lot happens. And it’s all, again, domestic as hell.  They eat, they drink, they support a friend in a very (specifically!) not political way.  And in this chapter with a title that echoes the chapter title of children being raised at the convent –seriously the domestic coding is intense –  their personal bond is not only stressed again, it’s pretty much established as key to their function as political actors.  “They are what the subordinate monks are called, BINI”–  the bini  were, as established, monks who were supposed to go out into the world paired, to support and aid each other in  carrying out their Divine Mission.  In this case the Divine Mission is trying to bring about the Republic–and in this chapter we specifically see them doing their double-act as part of leading a friend back to the cause (who keeps Grantaire where the barricade is? Who’s Grantaire quoting with “J’en suis”?  Yeah.) , relying on personal connection and simple, domestic  comforts to work. 

And to those who will say “oh come on, they’re just a couple of dorks hanging out”– yeah. They are. That’s kind of the Point. 

Because that’s the thing,–there’s no way to completely separate the Political and the Personal , the Public and the Domestic.  Any modern reader has probably heard “The Personal is Political” to the point of it wearing flat, but, well, it is . And the political is personal, too– if someone’s mother can be The Republic, if they can take Humanity and Justice for their mother and father, then they can make their friends their republic, too; they can seek justice and progress and societal balance through personal connections and friendship and just being kind. And in fact people kinda have to; the systemic plays out on the personal level, after all. A major part of Enjolras’ character arc is getting to the point where he can embrace that personal domestic aspect and understand its importance to the (per Hugo) Divine Ideal.  But Joly and Bossuet are already there; it’s what they are. 

Sources! 

There’s too many things to mention about the Gender Role stuff and I’m doing synthesis more than specific quotes, but: start with Socialism’s Muse by Naomi J Andrews and follow the bibliography from there if you’re really wanting to get into it.  

For the Bini stuff, please look at @barricadeur‘s excellent posts on the topic; I’m particularly referencing this one, which has a bucket o’sources on The Importance of the Buddy System in Catholic Thought, including Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, and , you know, the Gospel.