Évariste Gamelin
The novel is something close to a satirical allegory in which the dominant use of symbol are the characters themselves. For instance, Évariste Gamelin something akin to a symbol of the French Revolution itself. He starts out burning with fires of idealism and soon enough becomes consumed by the flames of zealotry. He is symbolic of how the purest intentions can become corrupted by perverse righteousness.
Maurice Brotteaux
Brotteaux is symbolic tails to the Gamelin’s heads on the coin of emotion versus intellect. Whereas Gamelin pursues his idealism with a passion that leads him astray, his older, more logical friend Maurice denies not only the existence of God, but has serious doubts about the potential for the masses to really be worthy of the belief his friend invests in them. As such Brotteaux becomes a symbol of integrity: he believes what he believes for better or worse and without any potential for those beliefs to be corrupted.
Élodie Blaise
The last name of this character may briefly seem to read blasé. And that could be by design because if the heroine of the story (or the closest thing to one) can be said to be anything about the political upheaval going on all around her it is blasé. While that may not quite the perfect translation to describe them in reality, her commitment to a cause and ease of swaying toward whichever way the ideological winds are blowing makes her the perfect satirical symbol for the French people by an author who saw the world through Brotteaux’s eyes much more than Gamelin’s.
Orestes
Even a character not actually a character in the story is used as symbol. Gamelin is an artist before he becomes a revolutionary and his most worthy painting is the subject of debate over whether it was intended to be a self-portrait. The de fact subject of the painting is the ancient Greek dramatic figure of Orestes; specifically the Orestes who appears in the play by Euripides. Like France’s novel, that story of Orestes involves unwholesome political pacts and the madness of heroic idealism perverted by corruption.
Robespierre
Although not a major character in the sense of active engagement in the narrative, the specter of the architect of the Reign of Terror hangs over the entire story in a way that contributes to making him even more of a symbolic figure than flesh and blood character. Keep in mind that none of the characters are really deeply developed because they all exist to serve their function within the allegorical structure. What is interesting about the use of Robespierre as symbol in the novel is that pretty much 99.9999% of all the fiction ever written about the French Revolution, this real life historical personage is implicated as its ultimate villain; even more so than the King or Marie Antoinette. For France, however, Robespierre is really just the symbolic flip side of Élodie. She represents the lack of any real fidelity to a cause among the people of France. Robespierre is symbolically implicated as just another evil to be dealt with; no different in any significant way from the King, the Catholic Church or the mobs that ultimately turn on Robespierre himself.
