Eponine
Eponine Thénardier is considered one of the most popular characters in Les Misérables. She is about sixteen years old and lives at first in an inn and then on the street. She is tough from living on the street and knows how to handle people that get in her way, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her kind side - she is madly in love with a student named Marius and would do anything to please him, even if it was setting him up with another girl or even dying.
We first see Eponine as a young child living with her parents in their inn. She is a spoiled brat and is very cruel to the young girl that her parents are supposed to take care of but instead treat as a slave - Cosette.
Fast-forward ten years. The inn has closed down and the entire Thénardier family is living on the streets of Paris. (Cosette has long since been taken from them by the main character, Jean Valjean, but I want to keep this simple so we won't go into that.) Eponine has fallen in love with a student named Marius but he sees her as nothing but a friend and thinks of her flirting as friendly teasing.
One day Marius discovers Cosette and immediately falls in love with her. He asks Eponine to find out where Cosette lives. Despite her own feelings for Marius, Eponine obeys, because she would do anything to make him happy. She shows Marius Cosette's home and watches with terrible pain as Marius and Cosette express their love for one another.
Meanwhile, the students at the university are planning a revolution against the unfair government of Paris. Marius reluctantly decides to join in the fighting. Upon hearing this, Eponine follows Marius to the barricades but he sends her back to Cosette's house with a note for his beloved. This is where Eponine sings her heart-wrenching show stopper solo, On My Own.
Upon returning to the barricades after delivering the letter, Eponine is shot by the National Guardsmen. As she collapses into Marius's arms, she confesses her love to him - then dies. Marius feels terrible guilt as he realizes how he neglected to see how much Eponine cared for him.
At the very end of the show, Eponine comes back as either a ghost or an angel (whichever one you'd like her to be) with the spirits of all the others who died at the barricades.
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