BN DigitalCountofMonteCristo_THMB.jpg

the count of monte cristo

Alexandre Dumas

technical director

Maxwell Krohn

editorial director

Justin Kestler

managing editor

Ben Florman

series editors

Boomie Aglietti, Justin Kestler

production

Christian Lorentzen

writer

Yael Goldstein

editors

Matt Blanchard, Dennis Quinio

Copyright

2002

by SparkNotes

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isbn 140140555X

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Contents

context 1napoleon bonaparte and

THE

COUNT

OF

MONTE

CRISTO

2

plot overview 4

character list 7edmond dants and aliases 7other characters 8

analysis of major characters 12edmond dants 12danglars 12mercds 13caderousse 13

themes, motifs & symbols 15the limits of human justice 15relative versus absolute happiness 15love versus alienation 16names 17suicide 17politics 18the sea 18the red silk purse 19the elixir 19

summary & analysis 20chapters 15 20chapters 614 23chapters 1520 26chapters 2125 30chapters 2630 32chapters 3134 36chapters 3539 38chapters 4046 41

i v

chapters 4753 44chapters 5462 48chapters 6367 51chapters 6876 54chapters 7784 58chapters 8588 61chapters 8993 63chapters 94102 66chapters 103108 70chapters 109113 73chapters 114117 76

important quotations explained 80

key facts 83

study questions & essay topics 85

review & resources 87quiz 87suggestions for further reading 92

note:

This SparkNote refers to the OxfordWorlds Classics edition of

The Count of MonteCristo.

Like most English-language editionssince the publication of the novel, this edition isbased on the

1846

translation by Chapman andHall. There are several discrepancies betweenthis edition and the standard French text,including the omission of several scenes and adifferent chapter arrangement. Other English-language editions may vary.

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Context

lexandre dumas was born

in

1802

in the village ofVillers-Cotterts, fifty miles northeast of Paris. His father,Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, had been a general underNapoleon, though in

1799

the two men had a falling outand never reconciled. Thomas-Alexandre never received

the pay due to him as a former officer, so his family was left poor. In

1806

the elder Dumas died, and his wife and two children struggled to keepafloat. Despite the problems that Napoleon caused to the Dumas family,Alexandre remained a lifelong admirer of the former emperor. Indeed,there are strong democratic leanings evident in Dumass literary works.

The younger Dumas was not a good student, but he had excellenthandwriting. When he moved to Paris in

1823

, hoping to make his for-tune as an author, his lovely handwriting earned him a job as a minorclerk. Dumas spent six years as a clerk, during which time he wrote plays,conducted torrid love affairs, and lived beyond his means, until, in

1829

,he had his first dramatic success, with

Henry III and His Court.

This playthrust Dumas into the limelight as one of the forerunners of the emergentFrench Romantic movement, which emphasized excitement, adventure,and high emotion in an attempt to rebel against the conservative climateof the Restoration period that followed the French Revolution.

Like his Romantic colleagues, Dumas believed in the principles ofsocial equality and individual rights, and he tried to infuse his dramaticworks with these principles. Dumas went further than writing about hisbeliefs, however. He took an active role in the Revolution of

1830

, help-ing to capture a powder magazine at Soissons, and he was appointedorganizer of the National Guard at Vende. Encountering strong localopposition, Dumas gave up the position, refusing to act against thewishes of the majority.

Returning to the literary community of Paris, Dumas continued towrite popular plays, sticking to historical works that he filled withmelodrama. He also began to write travel literature, which led to awalking tour of southern France in

1834

(a tour that would later be putto use in

The Count of Monte Cristo

). In the late

1830

s, Dumas beganwriting novels, as much for financial gain as for artistic reasons. It hadbecome common for cheap newspapers to run novels in serial form, andif a writer was adept at writing quickly and melodramatically, asDumas was, the financial incentives were enormous. Dumas was sogood at this sort of writing that he sometimes had three or four serialnovels running simultaneously. His writing soon made him the mostfamous Frenchman of his day, and he gained renown throughout the

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Western world. In

1844

, the same year he published

The Three Muske-teers,

Dumas began the serialization of

The Count of Monte Cristo.

Hecontinued writing prolifically for most of his life, publishing his lastnovel,

The Prussian Terror,

in

1867

, three years before his death.Dumas also found the time to live like one of his dashing, dramatic,

reckless heroes. He was constantly engaged in love affairs, foreignadventures, and exorbitant spending. He was also a generous man,granting money and gifts to virtually anyone who asked. Dumass self-indulgent lifestyle and excessive generosity eventually took a toll on hisfinances. By the time he suffered a stroke in

1870

, he was far from a richman, despite the fact that he had earned millions of dollars in his life-time. He died in December

1870

at the home of his son, the novelistAlexandre Dumas the younger.

Dumass liberal borrowing from outside sources occasionallybrought him accusations of plagiarism. While he lifted many of his plot-lines from the works of other authors and from historical events, hemolded these stories in his own characteristic way, making them his own.

The Count of Monte Cristo

is an example of the appropriation processDumas frequently employed. His inspiration for the novel was an anec-dote he read in

Mmoires historiques tirs des archives de la police deParis,

a collection of intriguing criminal cases recorded by Jacques Peu-chet, a former police archivist. The anecdote relates that in

1807

, a mannamed Franois Piaud became engaged to a pretty and wealthy girl,inspiring the envy of his friends. One of these friends, Loupian, per-suaded the others to join him in denouncing Piaud as an English spy.Though innocent of the charge, Piaud was arrested and kept in prisonfor seven years. While in prison, he befriended a rich Italian cleric wholeft Piaud his vast fortune when he died. Piaud returned to Paris in

1815

as a wealthy man. Using his wealth, as well as numerous disguises, heenacted a complex plan to avenge himself on his enemies, murdering sev-eral of them. Though this real-life story has the all the essential plot ele-ments of Dumass novel, it lacks the fantastical, epic proportions of greatmelodrama. Dumass greatest gift was his ability to grant epic proportionto existing stories, just as he granted such proportion to his own life.

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APOLEON

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The Count of Monte Cristo

is a novel set firmly in history, with many keyplot points based on external political events. The key figure in Frenchpolitics during the first quarter of the nineteenth century was NapoleonBonaparte, who, though he does not appear in the novel, plays such asignificant role that he can almost be counted as one of the major char-acters. Napoleon was a general who rose to prominence during theFrench Revolution, which occurred in

1789

. He saved the revolutionary

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government from an angry mob and led the French army to victoriesover Austria, Italy, and Egypt, claiming all of these lands for France. In

1799

, Napoleon led a coup against the existing government of Franceand formed a consulate, installing himself as its dictatorial leader.

In

1804,

Napoleon revised the constitution he had written severalyears earlier, and the French senate voted him emperor of all of thevast lands he had conquered. Napoleon remained widely beloved bythe people, largely because in all the lands he conquered, he abolishedserfdom and feudalism and guaranteed basic human rights. He simpli-fied the court system, took steps to make education universally avail-able, and standardized national codes of law to ensure that the rightsand liberties won during the French Revolutionequality before thelaw and freedom of religioncould not be taken away.

In

1814

, dogged by an increasing number of enemies and loomingmilitary defeat, Napoleon was forced to abdicate his throne. He wasexiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, where Edmond Dants findshim at the beginning of

The Count of Monte Cristo.

In March

1815

,Napoleon escaped from Elba, secretly sailed to France, and marched onParis, defeating the royal troops. It is information about this return topower that is contained in the letter Dants is caught conveying to Paris.

After his return to power, Napoleon advocated an even more liberalconstitution than the one he had first instituted. After a brief period,however, Napoleon was forced to make a preemptive strike againstencroaching enemies, and he met defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.Parisian crowds, supporting Napoleon as fervently as ever, beggedhim to keep fighting. Several key politicians withdrew their support,however, and Napoleon surrendered. His short second reign is knownas the Hundred Days. With Napoleon defeated, France fell back intothe hands of the ultraconservative Louis XVIII. Napoleon was exiledto the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where he lived until hisdeath in

1821

. However, Napoleons absence from France only inten-sified his mythic status, and he became an even greater hero than atany time he was actually present in France. Dumass idealization ofNapoleon is not at all rare, as Napoleon, in his time, was hailed asthough he were a patron saint of France.

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Plot Overview

t the age of nineteen,

Edmond Dants seems tohave the perfect life. He is about to become the captain ofa ship, he is engaged to a beautiful and kind youngwoman, Mercds, and he is well liked by almost every-one who knows him. This perfect life, however, stirs up

dangerous jealousy among some of Dantss so-called friends. Dang-lars, the treasurer of Dants ship, envies Dantss early career success;Fernand Mondego is in love with Dantss fiance and so covets hisamorous success; his neighbor Caderousse is simply envious thatDants is so much luckier in life than he is.

Together, these three men draft a letter accusing Dants of treason.There is some truth to their accusations: as a favor to his recentlydeceased captain, Dants is carrying a letter from Napoleon to a groupof Bonapartist sympathizers in Paris. Though Dants himself has nopolitical leanings, the undertaking is enough to implicate him for trea-son. On the day of his wedding, Dants is arrested for his alleged crimes.

The deputy public prosecutor, Villefort, sees through the plot to frameDants and is prepared to set him free. At the last moment, though,Dants jeopardizes his freedom by revealing the name of the man towhom he is supposed to deliver Napoleons letter. The man, Noirtier, isVilleforts father. Terrified that any public knowledge of his fathers trea-sonous activities will thwart his own ambitions, Villefort decides to sendDants to prison for life. Despite the entreaties of Monsieur Morrel,Dantss kind and honest boss, Dants is sent to the infamous ChteaudIf, where the most dangerous political prisoners are kept.

While in prison, Dants meets Abb Faria, an Italian priest andintellectual, who has been jailed for his political views. Faria teachesDants history, science, philosophy, and languages, turning him into awell-educated man. Faria also bequeaths to Dants a large treasurehidden on the island of Monte Cristo, and he tells him how to find itshould he ever escape. When Faria dies, Dants hides himself in theabbs shroud, thinking that he will be buried and then dig his wayout. Instead, Dants is thrown into the sea, and is able to cut himselfloose and swim to freedom.

Dants travels to Monte Cristo and finds Farias enormous treasure.He considers his fortune a gift from God, given to him for the sole pur-pose of rewarding those who have tried to help him and, more impor-tant, punishing those who have hurt him. Disguising himself as anItalian priest who answers to the name of Abb Busoni, he travels backto Marseilles and visits Caderousse, who is now struggling to make a

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living as an innkeeper. From Caderousse he learns the details of the plotto frame him. In addition, Dants learns that his father has died of griefin his absence and that Mercds has married Fernand Mondego. Mostfrustrating, he learns that both Danglars and Mondego have becomerich and powerful and are living happily in Paris. As a reward for thisinformation, and for Caderousses apparent regret over the part heplayed in Dantss downfall, Dants gives Caderousse a valuable dia-mond. Before leaving Marseilles, Dants anonymously saves Morrelfrom financial ruin.

Ten years later, Dants emerges in Rome, calling himself the Count ofMonte Cristo. He seems to be all knowing and unstoppable. In RomeDants ingratiates himself to Albert de Morcerf, son of FernandMondego and Mercds, by saving him from bandits. In return for thefavor, Albert introduces Dants to Parisian society. None of his oldcohorts recognize the mysterious count as Edmond Dants, thoughMercds does. Dants is thus able to insinuate himself effortlessly intothe lives of Danglars, Mondego, and Villefort. Armed with damningknowledge about each of them that he has gathered over the pastdecade, Dants sets an elaborate scheme of revenge into motion.

Mondego, now known as the Count de Morcerf, is the first to bepunished. Dants exposes Morcerfs darkest secret: Morcerf made hisfortune by betraying his former patron, the Greek vizier Ali Pacha, andhe then sold Ali Pachas wife and daughter into slavery. Ali Pachasdaughter, Hayde, who has lived with Dants ever since he bought herfreedom seven years earlier, testifies against Morcerf in front of the sen-ate, irreversibly ruining his good name. Ashamed by Morcerfs treach-ery, Albert and Mercds flee, leaving their tainted fortune behind.Morcerf commits suicide.

Villeforts punishment comes slowly and in several stages. Dantsfirst takes advantage of Madame de Villeforts murderous intent, subtlytutoring her in the uses of poison. As Madame de Villefort wreaks herhavoc, killing off each member of the household in turn, Dants plantsthe seeds for yet another public expos. In court, it is revealed that Ville-fort is guilty of attempted infanticide, as he tried to bury his illegitimatebaby while it was still alive. Believing that everyone he loves is dead andknowing that he will soon have to answer severe criminal charges, Ville-fort goes insane.

For his revenge on Danglars, Dants simply plays upon his enemysgreed. He opens various false credit accounts with Danglars that costhim vast amounts of money. He also manipulates Danglarss unfaithfuland dishonest wife, costing Danglars more money, and helps Danglarssdaughter, Eugnie, run away with her female companion. Finally, whenDanglars is nearly broke and about to flee without paying any of hiscreditors, Dants has the Italian bandit Luigi Vampa kidnap him and

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relieve him of his remaining money. Dants spares Danglarss life, butleaves him penniless.

Meanwhile, as these acts of vengeance play out, Dants also tries tocomplete one more act of goodness. Dants wishes to help the brave andhonorable Maximilian Morrel, the son of the kind shipowner, so hehatches an elaborate plot to save Maximilians fiance, Valentine Ville-fort, from her murderous stepmother, to ensure that the couple will betruly happy forever. Dants gives Valentine a pill that makes her appeardead and then carries her off to the island of Monte Cristo. For a monthDants allows Maximilian to believe that Valentine is dead, whichcauses Maximilian to long for death himself. Dants then reveals thatValentine is alive. Having known the depths of despair, Maximilian isnow able to experience the heights of ecstasy. Dants too ultimatelyfinds happiness, when he allows himself to fall in love with the adoringand beautiful Hayde.

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Character List

E

DMOND

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AND

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LIASES

note:

This SparkNote refers to Dants by his given name through Chapter 30, after which it generally refers to him as Monte Cristo.

Edmond Dants The protagonist of the novel. Dants is an intelligent, honest, and loving man who turns bitter and vengeful after he is framed for a crime he does not commit. When Dants finds himself free and enormously wealthy, he takes it upon himself to act as the agent of Providence, rewarding those who have helped him in his plight and punishing those responsible for his years of agony.

The Count of Monte Cristo The identity Dants assumes when he emerges from prison and inherits his vast fortune. As a result, the Count of Monte Cristo is usually associated with a coldness and bitterness that comes from an existence based solely on vengeance.

Lord Wilmore The identity of an eccentric English nobleman that Dants assumes when committing acts of random generosity. Lord Wilmore contrasts sharply with Monte Cristo, who is associated with Dantss acts of bitterness and cruelty. Appropriately, Monte Cristo cites Lord Wilmore as one of his enemies.

Abb Busoni Another of Dantss false personas. The disguise of Abb Busoni, an Italian priest, helps Dants gain the trust of the people whom the count wants to manipulate because the name connotes religious authority.

Sinbad the Sailor The name Dants uses as the signature for his anonymous gift to Morrel. Sinbad the Sailor is also the persona Dants adopts during his time in Italy.

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OTHER CHARACTERSMercds Dantss beautiful and good fiance. Though Mercds

marries another man, Fernand Mondego, while Dants is in prison, she never stops loving Dants. Mercds is one of the few whom Dants both punishes (for her disloyalty) and rewards (for her enduring love and underlying goodness).

Abb Faria A priest and brilliant thinker whom Dants meets in prison. Abb Faria becomes Dantss intellectual father: during their many years as prisoners, he teaches Dants history, science, art, and many languages. He then bequeaths to Dants his vast hidden fortune. Abb Faria is the most important catalyst in Dantss transformation into the vengeful Count of Monte Cristo.

Fernand Mondego Dantss rival for Mercdss affections. Mondego helps in framing Dants for treason and then marries Mercds himself when Dants is imprisoned. Through acts of treachery Mondego becomes a wealthy and powerful man and takes on the name of the Count de Morcerf. He is the first victim of Dantss vengeance.

Baron Danglars A greedy, envious cohort of Mondego. Danglars hatches the plot to frame Dants for treason. Like Mondego, he becomes wealthy and powerful, but loses everything when Monte Cristo takes his revenge. Danglarss obsession with the accumulation of wealth makes him an easy target for Monte Cristo, who has seemingly limitless wealth on hand to exact his revenge.

Caderousse A lazy, drunk, and greedy man. Caderousse is present when the plot to frame Dants is hatched, but he does not take an active part in the crime. Unlike Danglars and Mondego, Caderousse never finds his fortune, instead making his living through petty crime and the occasional murder.

Grard de Villefort The blindly ambitious public prosecutor responsible for sentencing Dants to life in prison. Like the others, Villefort eventually receives punishment from Dants. Villefort stands out as Monte Cristos biggest opposition, as he employs his own power to judge people and mete out punishments as he chooses.

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Monsieur Morrel The kind, honest shipowner who was once Dantss boss. Morrel does everything in his power to free Dants from prison and tries to save Dantss father from death. When Dants emerges from prison, he discovers that Morrel is about to descend into financial ruin, so he carries out an elaborate plot to save his one true friend.

Louis Dants Dantss father. Grief-stricken, Louis Dants starves himself to death when Dants is imprisoned. It is primarily for his fathers death that Dants seeks vengeance.

Maximilian Morrel The son of Monsieur Morrel. Brave and honorable like his father, Maximilian becomes Dantss primary beneficiary. Maximilian and his love, Valentine, survive to the end of the story as two good and happy people, personally unaffected by the vices of power, wealth, and position.

Albert de Morcerf The son of Fernand Mondego and Mercds. Unlike his father, Albert is brave, honest, and kind. Mercdss devotion to both Albert and Dants allows Monte Cristo to realize her unchanging love for him and causes him to think more deeply about his sole desire for revenge.

Valentine Villefort Villeforts saintly and beautiful daughter. Like Maximilian Morrel, her true love, she falls under Dantss protection.

Noirtier Villeforts father. Once a powerful French revolutionary, Noirtier is brilliant and willful, even when paralyzed by a stroke. He proves a worthy opponent to his sons selfish ambitions.

Hayde The daughter of Ali Pacha, the vizier of the Greek state of Yanina. Hayde is sold into slavery after her father is betrayed by Mondego and murdered. Dants purchases Haydes freedom and watches her grow into adulthood, eventually falling in love with her.

Signor Bertuccio Dantss steward. Though Bertuccio is loyal and adept, Dants chooses him as his steward not for his personal qualities but because of his vendetta against Villefort.

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Benedetto The illegitimate son of Villefort and Madame Danglars. Though raised lovingly by Bertuccio and Bertuccios widowed sister-in-law, Benedetto nonetheless turns to a life of brutality and crime. Handsome, charming, and a wonderful liar, Benedetto plays the part of Andrea Cavalcanti in one of Dantss elaborate revenge schemes.

Madame dVillefort Villeforts murderous wife. Devoted wholly to her son Edward, Madame dVillefort turns to crime in order to ensure his fortune.

Julie Herbaut The daughter of Monsieur Morrel and sister of Maximilian. Angelically good and blissfully in love, Julie and her husband, Emmanuel, prove to Monte Cristo that it is possible to be truly satisfied with ones life.

Emmanuel Herbaut Julies husband. Emmanuel is just as noble and perpetually happy as his wife, Julie.

Madame Danglars Danglarss wife. Greedy, conniving, and disloyal, Madame Danglars engages in a never-ending string of love affairs that help bring her husband to the brink of financial ruin.

Eugnie Danglars The Danglars daughter. A brilliant musician, Eugnie longs for her independence and despises men. On the eve of her wedding, she flees for Italy with her true love, Louise dArmilly.

Louise dArmilly Eugnie Danglarss music teacher and constant companion.

Lucien Debray The secretary to the French minister of the interior. Debray illegally leaks government secrets to his lover, Madame Danglars, so that she can invest wisely with her husbands money.

Ali Dantss mute Nubian slave. Ali is amazingly adept with all sorts of weapons.

Luigi Vampa A famous Roman bandit. Vampa is indebted to Dants for once setting him free, and he puts himself at the service of Dantss vengeful ends.

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Major Cavalcanti A poor and crooked man whom Dants resurrects as a phony Italian nobleman.

Edward dVillefort The Villeforts spoiled son. Edward is an innocent victim of Dantss elaborate revenge scheme.

Beauchamp A well-known journalist and good friend to Albert de Morcerf.

Franz dEpinay Another good friend to Albert de Morcerf. DEpinay is the unwanted fianc of Valentine Villefort.

Marquis of Saint-Mran The father of Villeforts first wife, who dies shortly after her wedding day.

Marquise of Saint-Mran The wife of the Marquis of Saint-Mran.

Jacopo A smuggler who helps Dants win his freedom. When Jacopo proves his selfless loyalty, Dants rewards him by buying the poor man his own ship and crew.

Ali Pacha A Greek nationalist leader whom Mondego betrays. This betrayal leads to Ali Pachas murder at the hands of the Turks and the seizure of his kingdom. Ali Pachas wife and his daughter, Hayde, are sold into slavery.

Baron of Chteau-Renaud An aristocrat and diplomat. Chteau-Renaud is nearly killed in battle in Constantinople, but Maximilian Morrel saves him at the last second. Chteau-Renaud introduces Maximilian into Parisian society, which leads to Maximilian and Dants crossing paths.

Peppino An Italian shepherd who has been arrested and sentenced to death for the crime of being an accomplice to bandits, when he merely provided them with food. Monte Cristo buys Peppino his freedom.

Countess G A beautiful Italian aristocrat who suspects that Monte Cristo is a vampire.

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Analysis of Major Characters

EDMOND DANTS Before his imprisonment, Edmond Dants is a kind, innocent, honest,and loving man. Though naturally intelligent, he is a man of few opin-ions, living his life instinctively by a traditional code of ethics thatimpels him to honor his superiors, care dutifully for his aging father, andtreat his fellow man generously. Dants is filled with positive feeling,admiring his boss, Monsieur Morrel; loving his father; adoring his fian-ce, Mercds; and even attempting to think kindly of men who clearlydislike him.

While in prison, however, Dants undergoes a great change. Hebecomes bitter and vengeful as he obsesses over the wrongs committedagainst him. When his companion, Abb Faria, dies, so too doesDantss only remaining deep connection to another human being.Dants loses the capacity to feel any emotion other than hatred for thosewho have harmed him and gratitude toward those who have tried tohelp him. He moves through the world like an outsider, disconnectedfrom any human community and interested only in carrying out his mis-sion as the agent of Providence. It is not until Dants finds love again, ina relationship with Hayde, that he is able to reconnect to his ownhumanity and begin to live humanly again.

DANGLARS A greedy and ruthless man, Danglars cares only for his personal fortune.He has no qualms about sacrificing others for the sake of his own wel-fare, and he goes through life shrewdly calculating ways to turn otherpeoples misfortunes to his own advantage. Danglarss betrayal ofDants starts him on the path to utter disregard for other peoples lives,but this betrayal is not the cruelest of his acts. Danglars abandons hiswife and attempts to sell his own daughter, Eugnie, into a loveless andmiserable marriage for three million francs.

Though he manages to claw his way into a position of great wealthand power, Danglarss greed grows as he grows richer, and his lust formoney continues to drive all his actions in the two decades that thenovel spans. Even when faced with the prospect of starvation, Danglarsprefers to keep his fortune rather than pay an exorbitant price for food.Finally, Danglars relents in his pathological avarice, allowing that he

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would give all his remaining money just to remain alive. Only after Dan-glars repents for the evil he has done does Dants consider Danglarsredeemed and pardon him.

MERCDS Resigned to the blows that fate deals her, Mercds acts as a foil to heronetime fianc, Dants. Though she is a good and kind woman, her tim-idness and passivity lead her to betray her beloved and marry anotherman, Mondego. Mercds remains miserable for the rest of her life,despising herself for her weakness and longing for Dants, whom shehas never stopped loving. Yet, for all her avowed weakness and fear,Mercds proves herself capable of great courage on three occasions:first, when she approaches Dants to beg for her the life of her son,Albert; second, when she reveals her husbands wickedness in order tosave Dantss life; and third, when she abandons her wealth, unwillingto live off a fortune that has been tainted by misdeeds. At the end of thenovel, Mercds is left with nothing to live for, aside from the hope thatAlbert might somehow improve his own life. She is the character whosesuffering is the most complete, despite the fact that there are others whobear far more guilt.

CADEROUSSE Caderousse exemplifies human dissatisfaction, helping to illustrate thathappiness depends more on attitude than on external circumstances.Though fateor, more precisely, Dantstreats Caderousse fairlywell, he is never truly satisfied with his life. No matter how much he has,Caderousse always feels that he deserves more. With each improvementin his position, Caderousses desires only increase. He is pained by thegood fortune of his friends, and his envy festers into hatred and ulti-mately into crime. Not only covetous but also lazy and dishonest, Cad-erousse consistently resorts to dishonorable means in order to acquirewhat he wants, thieving and even murdering in order to better his ownposition. Ultimately, Caderousses unending greed catches up with him,and he dies while trying to rob Monte Cristo.

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Themes, Motifs & Symbols

THEMES

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Limits of Human Justice Edmond Dants takes justice into his own hands because he is dismayedby the limitations of societys criminal justice system. Societal justice hasallowed his enemies to slip through the cracks, going unpunished for theheinous crimes they have committed against him. Moreover, even if hisenemies crimes were uncovered, Dants does not believe that their pun-ishment would be true justice. Though his enemies have caused himyears of emotional anguish, the most that they themselves would beforced to suffer would be a few seconds of pain, followed by death.

Considering himself an agent of Providence, Dants aims to carry outdivine justice where he feels human justice has failed. He sets out to pun-ish his enemies as he believes they should be punished: by destroying allthat is dear to them, just as they have done to him. Yet what Dants ulti-mately learns, as he sometimes wreaks havoc in the lives of the innocentas well as the guilty, is that justice carried out by human beings is inher-ently limited. The limits of such justice lie in the limits of human beingsthemselves. Lacking Gods omniscience and omnipotence, humanbeings are simply not capable ofor justified incarrying out the workof Providence. Dumass final message in this epic work of crime and pun-ishment is that human beings must simply resign themselves to allowingGod to reward and punishwhen and how God sees fit.

Relative versus Absolute Happiness A great deal separates the sympathetic from the unsympathetic charac-ters in The Count of Monte Cristo. The trait that is most consistentlyfound among the sympathetic characters and lacking among the unsym-pathetic is the ability to assess ones circumstances in such a way as tofeel satisfaction and happiness with ones life. In his parting message toMaximilian, Dants claims that [t]here is neither happiness nor miseryin the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another,nothing more. In simpler terms, what separates the good from the badin The Count of Monte Cristo is that the good appreciate the goodthings they have, however small, while the bad focus on what they lack.

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Dantss enemies betray him out of an envy that arises from just thisproblem: despite the blessings these men have in their own lives,Dantss relatively superior position sends them into a rage of dissatis-faction. Caderousse exemplifies this psychological deficiency, findingfault in virtually every positive circumstance that life throws his way.Caderousse could easily be a happy man, as he is healthy, clever, andreasonably well off, yet he is unable to view his circumstances in such away as to feel happy. At the other end of the spectrum are Julie andEmmanuel Herbautthey are fully capable of feeling happiness, evenin the face of pressing poverty and other hardships. The Dants of theearly chapters, perfectly thrilled with the small happiness that God hasgranted him, provides another example of the good and easily satisfiedman, while the Dants of later chapters, who has emerged from prisonunable to find happiness unless he exacts his complicated revenge, pro-vides an example of the bad and unsatisfiable man.

Love versus Alienation Dants declares himself an exile from humanity during the years inwhich he carries out his elaborate scheme of revenge. He feels cut off notonly from all countries, societies, and individuals but also from normalhuman emotions. Dants is unable to experience joy, sorrow, or excite-ment; in fact, the only emotions he is capable of feeling are vengefulhatred and occasional gratitude. It is plausible that Dantss extremesocial isolation and narrow range of feeling are simply the result of hisobsession with his role as the agent of Providence. It is not difficult toimagine that a decade-long devotion to a project like Dantss mighttake a dramatic toll on ones psychology.

Yet Dantss alienation from humanity is not solely due to his obses-sive lust for revenge but also to his lack of love for any living person.Though he learns of his enemies treachery years before he escapes fromprison, his alienation from humanity begins to take hold only whenAbb Faria dies. Until Farias death, Dantss love for Faria keeps himconnected to his own humanity, by keeping the humanizing emotion oflove alive within him. When Dants learns that his father is dead andthat Mercds has married another man, his alienation is complete.There are no longer any living people whom he loves, and he loses holdof any humanizing force.

This humanizing force eventually returns when Dants falls in lovewith Hayde. This relationship reconciles Dants to his humanity andenables him to feel real emotion once again. In a triumphant declarationof emotion, he says to Hayde, through you I again connect myselfwith life, through you I shall suffer, through you rejoice. Dantss over-comes his alienation, both from society and from his own humanity,through his love of another human being.

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MOTIFS

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the texts major themes.

Names The constant changing of characters names in The Count of MonteCristo signifies deeper changes within the characters themselves. Likethe God of the Old Testament, Dants assumes a host of differentnames, each associated with a different role in his schemes as the agentof Providence. He calls himself Abb Busoni when standing in judg-ment, Lord Wilmore when engaging in acts of excessive generosity, andMonte Cristo when assuming the role of avenging angel. That Dantspossesses so many identities suggests that he lacks a true center.

Villefort also changes his name, though for different reasons: herefuses to adopt his fathers title of Noirtier, a name closely associatedwith the despised Bonapartist party. Villeforts choice of names signifiesboth his political opportunism and his willingness to sacrifice ruthlesslythose close to him for his own personal gain. Fernand Mondegoschange of name to Count de Morcerf is, on one level, merely a sign of hisascent into the realm of power and prestige. Yet, since Mondego pre-tends that Morcerf is an old family name rather than merely a title hehas purchased, the name-change is also a symbol of his fundamentaldishonesty. Mercds also undergoes a change of name, becomingCountess de Morcerf. This change in name, however, as we learn whenMercds proves her enduring goodness, does not accompany a funda-mental change in character. Instead, her name-change merely empha-sizes her connection to her husband, Dantss rival, and, by association,her disloyalty to Dants. Only Benedettos change of name, to AndreaCavalcanti, seems to signify nothing deeper than the fact that he isassuming a false identity. All of the other name changes in the novel areexternal signals of internal changes of character or role.

Suicide Many characters in The Count of Monte CristoDants, MonsieurMorrel, Maximilian Morrel, Hayde, Fernand Mondego, MadamedVillefort, and Albert de Morcerfcontemplate or even carry out sui-cide during the course of the novel. Dumas presents the act of suicideas an honorable and reasonable response to any devastating situation.As in much Romantic literature, suicide in The Count of Monte Cristois most closely linked with failed romantic relationships.

In fact, eagerness to take ones own life for the sake of a beloved isheld up as one of the only sure signs of absolute devotion. Monte Cristois convinced that Maximilian loves Valentine, for instance, only whenhe sees that Maximilian sincerely wants to die when confronted with

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her loss. Likewise, Monte Cristo believes that Hayde loves him onlywhen she swears that she would take her life if he abandoned her. Thefrequency with which suicide is mentioned or contemplated by charac-ters might seem to reflect a cavalier attitude toward this most serious ofacts. However, suicide is clearly regarded as a serious action: Dantsgravely warns Maximilian not to take his life if there is anything in theworld that he regrets leaving. The characters in the novel are not arro-gant about lifethey simply live it melodramatically, finding the worlddevoid of hope and meaning on a fairly regular basis.

Politics The Count of Monte Cristo is a historical novel, with key plot elementsdrawn from real historic events. Politics, therefore, play a significantrole in the novel, particularly in branding certain characters good orbad. All of the major sympathetic characters are somehow connected tothe democratic ideals of the Bonapartist party, from Morrel and Noirt-ier, who were once ardent fighters in the Bonapartist cause, to Dants,who emerges as a champion for individual rights. Likewise, in his woo-ing of Valentine, Maximilian fights for social equality, anotherBonapartist ideal. Many of the major unsympathetic characters, bycontrast, are overwhelmingly associated with the oppressive, aristo-cratic royalists, such as Morcerf and Villefort. Others are simply self-serving capitalist opportunists, such as Danglars, responsible for usher-ing in the soul-deadening age of the Industrial Revolution. In this sense,Dumas does not assign political allegiances arbitrarily, but uses them aswindows into the souls of his characters.

SYMBOLS

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Sea When Dants escapes from prison, he plunges into the ocean, experi-encing a second baptism and a renewed dedication of his soul to God.He has suffered a metaphorical death while in prison: the death of hisinnocent, loving self. Dants emerges as a bitter and hateful man, benton carrying out revenge on his enemies. He is washed in the waters thatlead him to freedom, and his rebirth as a man transformed is complete.The sea continues to figure prominently in the novel even after this sym-bolic baptism. Considering himself a citizen of no land, Dants spendsmuch of his time on the ocean, traveling the world in his yacht. The seaseems to beckon constantly to Dants, a skilled sailor, offering him per-petual escape and solitude.

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The Red Silk Purse First used by Monsieur Morrel in his attempt to save the life of Dantssfather, Dants later uses the red silk purse when he is saving Morrelslife. The red purse becomes the physical symbol of the connectionbetween good deed and reward. Morrel recognizes the purse anddeduces the connection between the good deed performed on his behalfand the good deed he once performed himself. Morrel concludes thatDants must be his savior, surmising that he is working from beyond thegrave. Morrels daughter, Julie, then emphasizes the symbolic power ofthe purse by keeping it constantly on display as a relic of her fathersmiraculous salvation.

The Elixir Dantss potent potion seems to have the power both to kill and to bringto life, a power that Dants comes to believe in too strongly. His overes-timation of the elixirs power reflects his overestimation of his ownpower, his delusion that he is almost godlike, and his assertion that hehas the right and capacity to act as the agent of Providence. It is signifi-cant that, when faced with Edwards corpse, Dants thinks first to usehis elixir to bring the boy to life. Of course, the elixir is not powerfulenough to bring the dead to life, just as Dants himself is not capable ofaccomplishing divine feats. The power to grant lifelike the power tocarry out ultimate retribution and justicelies solely in Gods province.It is when Dants acknowledges the limits of his elixir that he realizes hisown limitations as a human being.

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Summary & Analysis

CHAPTERS 15

Chapter 1: The Arrival at Marseilles In the port of Marseilles, France, an eager crowd watches as a shipcalled the Pharaon pulls into dock. The ships owner, Monsieur Morrel,is greeted with sad news: the ships captain has died at sea. The nineteen-year-old first mate, Edmond Dants, reassures Morrel that despite theloss of the captain, the trip went smoothly and all the cargo arrivedsafely. Morrel is impressed with the young mans performance as tem-porary captain.

Danglars, the ships supercargo, who is responsible for all financialmatters, attempts to undermine Morrels good opinion of Dants. Mor-rel boards the ship and Danglars tells him that Dants forced the ship tostop at the Isle of Elba, which cost them precious time. When Morrelconfronts Dants with this accusation, Dants explains that he stoppedthe ship at Elba in order to carry out his captains dying request: todeliver a package to an exiled grand-marshal, Marchal Bertrand. Hesays that while he was on the island he spoke with Napoleon, thedeposed emperor of France.

With this matter cleared up, Morrel asks Dants for his opinion ofDanglars. Dants answers honestly, explaining that he has a personaldislike for Danglars but that Danglars does his work very well. Morrelapproves of Dantss behavior at Elba, of his honest assessment of anenemy, and of his character in general. Morrel declares that after heconsults with his partner, Dants will be named the new captain of thePharaon, despite his young age. Dants is ecstatic, while Danglars isbeside himself with envy.

Chapter 2: Father and Son Leaving the docks, Dants goes straight to see his father. He is shockedby the old mans physical deterioration and soon discovers its cause: hisfather has been starving for the past few months. Though Dants left hisfather with 200 francs, the tailor Caderousse demanded that the elderDants pay him a debt that his son owed, which left the old man withonly sixty francs on which to live. Dants tells his father the good newsof his promotion and hands him a modest pile of gold, telling him to buyhimself all the provisions he needs.

Caderousse then enters the small room to welcome Dants home.Dants receives Caderousse politely, telling himself he is a neighbourwho has done us a service . . . so hes welcome. Caderousse has already

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heard the news of Dantss promotion and congratulates him. Cader-ousse then leaves the father and son and goes downstairs, where Dang-lars is waiting for him. The two men discuss their dislike for Dants andaccuse him of being arrogant. Caderousse reveals that Dantss goodluck might be about to change: the woman he loves, Mercds, has beenseen in the company of another man. Danglars and Caderousse, hopingfor the worst, decide to wait by the road near Mercdss house, in orderto determine whether Dants has really been jilted.

Chapter 3: The Catalans As expected, Dants next goes to visit Mercds, a beautiful girl whobelongs to the Spanish community of Catalans. He finds Mercds inthe company of Fernand Mondego, her lovestruck cousin, who hasbeen trying for years to make her his wife. Mercds welcomes Dantswith a passionate embrace, and Fernand stalks off, enraged. Fernandpasses Danglars and Caderousse drinking wine by the side of the road,and they call him over. As the three men drink together, Danglars andCaderousse try to whip Fernand up into a frenzy of envy and angermuch like their own. Dants and Mercds appear, blissfully obliviousto the malice directed toward them. The couple tells Fernand, Cader-ousse, and Danglars that they plan to be married the next day becauseDants must travel to Paris to fulfill the last commission of his deadcaptain. Though Dants does not state explicitly why he is going toParis, Danglars suspects Dants is delivering a letter that has beenentrusted to him by Napoleon to Bonapartist plotterssupporters ofNapoleon who are helping him plan to overthrow the French govern-ment. The allusion to the letter sparks an evil idea in Danglarss mind.

Chapter 4: The Plotters Danglars and Fernand plot Dantss downfall as Caderousse descendsdeep into intoxication. Fernand is unwilling to kill Dants, sinceMercds has promised to commit suicide should Dants die. Danglarssuggests that they should have him imprisoned instead. Danglars draftsa letter informing the public prosecutor that Dants is bearing a letterfrom Napoleon to the Bonapartist Committee in Paris. Caderousse pro-tests against this defamation of Dantss character, so Danglars makes ashow of tossing the letter into a corner, telling Caderousse that he ismerely jesting. Danglars then leads Caderousse away, and Fernand, asexpected, retrieves the letter and plans to mail it.

Chapter 5: The Betrothal Feast In the middle of Dants and Mercdss betrothal feast, royal guardsburst in and arrest Dants. Everyone is confused, especially Dants,who has done nothing wrong, as far as he knows. Danglars offers totake over duties as captain of the Pharaon until Dants is released, andMorrel gratefully accepts this offer.

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Analysis: Chapters 15From the opening of The Count of Monte Cristo, the hero, EdmondDants, comes across as a model of honesty, competence, and inno-cence. Despite his youth, he is an effective leader to his sailors. He isdevoted to his aging father and to his young fiance. Perhaps mostadmirable, Dants is capable of overlooking his personal dislike forDanglars, Caderousse, and Fernand, and he treats all of them fairly andcivilly. When Morrel asks Dants to evaluate Danglarss work on theship, Dants could easily ruin his enemys career with a mean word. Yethe chooses to put aside his personal feelings and honestly evaluatesDanglars on a professional level, noting his competence as the ships fin-ancier. Similarly, rather than rebuke Caderousse for mistreating hisfather, Dants politely welcomes him into his home and offers to lendhim money. Dants even manages to curb his ill will toward Fernand,his rival for Mercds affections. Dants is loyal to those he loves andsees the best in those who are flawed. These traits elevate him above anyof the other characters introduced so far.

While Dants sits atop the pedestal of honesty and generosity, histhree enemies could not be further from it. Unaware of Dantss kind-ness and tolerance, they have convinced themselves that he is unbear-ably arrogant. When Dants exults in his good luck, the other men feelinjury to their own egos. Viewing Dantss joy through the prism oftheir envy, they consider it to be a sign of arrogance. Dumas is careful tomention several times that Dants is beloved by all the sailors who workunder him. This fondness suggests that Dants is extremely likable andthat those who perceive arrogance on his part must have other rea-sonssuch as their own insecuritiesfor this perception. Actually,only two of the enemies, Caderousse and Danglars, actually dislikeDants at this point; Fernands hatred of Dants, by contrast, does notstem from any willful misreading of Dantss character. Fernand simplydislikes Dants because he is the main obstacle to his own happinesswith Mercds. Dumas sets these three grudging men up as foilschar-acters whose attitudes or emotions contrast with and thereby accentu-ate those of another characterto the noble-hearted Dants.

Though the three men all participate in Dantss downfall, they areeach guilty of a different crime that corresponds to their differentattributes and relationships to Dants. Dumas clearly portrays Dang-lars as the most villainous of Dantss three enemies, the only one whoacts on a premeditated plan and the only one who acts rationally andcoolly toward his designs. Perhaps most important, since Danglars isthe only one who suspects the contents of the letter Dants is carrying,he is the only one who understands the ramifications of the accusationsplanned against Dants. Fernands crime, on the other hand, is animpetuous crime of passion. Gripped with the overwhelming desire to

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have Mercds for himself, Fernand takes Danglarss bait and mails theletter. Different still, Caderousse is merely guilty of cowardice andweakness. He is not an active participant in drafting or mailing the let-ter. Yet, though Caderousse knows Dantss motives regarding the letterare innocent, he says nothing in Dantss defense when he is arrested.Though Caderousse feels pity for Dants as well as guilt over his part inthe crime, he is too fearful of implicating himself and chooses to remainquiet and let an innocent man go to prison. Danglarss clear, calculatingambition, Fernands impetuous criminality, and Caderousses coward-ice and spinelessness remain the characteristics that define these threemen throughout the novel.

CHAPTERS 614

Chapter 6: The Deputy Procureur In another part of town, a very different betrothal feast is taking place.This feast is in honor of an aristocratic couple: the young daughter ofthe Marquis of Saint-Mran and her fianc, Grard de Villefort, thedeputy public prosecutor of Marseilles. Villefort, we learn during thecourse of the lunch conversation, is the son of a prominent Bonapartist.In the wake of Napoleons defeat and the subsequent reinstatement ofKing Louis XVIII, Villefort, an ambitious young man, has decided toally himself with the royalists. He renounces his father and his fatherspolitics, and swears to the assembled guests that he will brutally punishany Bonapartist sympathizer who falls into his hands. The betrothalfeast is interrupted when Villefort is called away to deal with a Bonapar-tist plot that has just been uncovered.

Chapter 7: The Examination After dismissing Morrels efforts to intercede on his employees behalf,Villefort enters his office and finds the accused plotter, Edmond Dants.He confronts Dants with the allegations against him. Dants admitsthat he is carrying a letter to Paris and that the letter was entrusted tohim by Napoleon. He pleads innocent, however, to any politicalinvolvement, explaining that he is merely carrying out the dying wish ofhis ships captain. Dants announces that he has no opinions other thanhis love for his father, his love for Mercds, and his admiration forMonsieur Morrel.

Villefort takes a liking to Dantss open, sincere character and isplanning to let him go free until Dants unwittingly lets slip the name ofthe man to whom the Bonapartist letter is addressed. The intendedrecipient is a man named NoirtierVilleforts father. Terrified thatword of his fathers treasonous activities could leak out and damage hisfamily name, Villefort decides that he must send Dants away forever.

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Chapter 8: The Chteau DIf Villefort has Dants locked away in the Chteau dIf, a notorious prisonreserved for the most dangerous political prisoners. There, Dantsdemands to see the governor and violently threatens the guard when heis refused this privilege. As punishment, Dants is sent down into thedungeon, where the insane prisoners are kept. The guard tells Dantsabout one particular prisoner in the dungeon, a man who constantlypromises the guards millions of francs in exchange for his liberation.

Chapter 9: The Evening of the Betrothal Villefort returns to his fiances home and announces that he must leavefor Paris. He confides to his father-in-law that if he can only reach theking in time, his fortune will be made. On his way out, Villefort encoun-ters Mercds, who is seeking information about Dants. Faced withthe fact that he is destroying an innocent mans happiness for the sake ofhis own ambitions, Villefort is seized with agonizing regret.

Chapter 10: The Little Room in the Tuileries Villefort rushes to Paris to tell King Louis XVIII of the schemes con-tained in the letter Dants was carrying. He informs the king that thereis a conspiracy afoot to bring Napoleon back to power.

Chapter 11: The Corsican Ogre Villeforts warning has come too late. Napoleon has already landed inFrance and is marching on Paris. Nevertheless, Villefort wins the kingsgratitude, as he is the only person who was able to uncover Napoleonsplot in advance.

Chapter 12: Father and Son Noirtier visits Villefort. Villefort tells his father that the police are look-ing for a man who fits Noirtiers description in connection with the mur-der of a royalist general. While Villefort looks on, Noirtier shaves hisbeard and changes his clothes. As he leaves, he tells Villefort that Napo-leon is advancing quickly and is again being hailed as emperor by a still-admiring public.

Chapter 13: The Hundred Days Napoleon quickly recaptures all of France. Now that Bonapartism is nolonger considered a crime, Monsieur Morrel approaches Villefort mul-tiple times to intercede on Dantss behalf, but he is always placatedwith promises. Danglars, unaware that Villefort has an intense personalinterest in keeping Dants locked away, fears that Dants will bereleased and then will seek revenge. Danglars resigns from Morrels ser-vice and moves to Madrid. Fernand comforts Mercds and wins hergratitude, but has to leave to join Napoleons army. In the meantime,Dantss father dies of misery over his sons imprisonment. Morrel paysfor the old mans funeral and settles the small debts he has incurred.

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After only one hundred days in power, Napoleon is deposed again, andLouis XVIII reassumes the throne.

Chapter 14: In the Dungeons The inspector-general of prisons visits the Chteau dIf, where Dantsbegs him for a fair trial. The inspector is moved by Dantss pleas andpromises to look into his case. When he examines the register, he seesthat Villefort wrote that Dants took an active part in Napoleonsreturn from Elba. The inspector decides that he cannot help Dants.

Analysis: Chapters 614Nineteenth-century France was divided by a deep political schismbetween revolutionary Bonapartists, who hoped to bring Napoleon andhis liberal democratic ideas back to the French throne, and conservativeroyalists, who were committed to the old French royal family and theirtraditional rule. This divide plays an important role in the early chaptersof The Count of Monte Cristo. Characters associated with the Bonapar-tist cause, such as Morrel, Dants, the dead captain, and Noirtier, areportrayed in a sympathetic light, while the aristocratic royalists, such asVillefort and the Marquise de Saint-Mran, are cast in the roles of vil-lains. This stark division between good Bonapartists and bad royalists isnot surprising, since Dumas was a great admirer of Napoleon and hadstrong democratic leanings. His father had been a general in Napoleonsarmy, and Dumas grew up with a love of freedom and a respect for indi-vidual rights.

The Count of Monte Cristo is heavily tinged with these Napoleonicideals, which Dumas clearly prefers over the old aristocratic tenets.Dants is undone not only by the jealousy of dishonorable men but alsoby the oppressive political system of the post-revolutionary era, a sys-tem that routinely sentenced suspected radicals to life in prison with lit-tle or no proof of guilt. Dants is a pawn in a game of political intrigue,and his rights as an individual are ignored as Villefort uses him toadvance his personal political goals. Furthermore, Noirtier paints ableak picture of modern political regimes when he tells his son that inpolitics . . . there are no men, but ideasno feelings, but interests; inpolitics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle. The politicalsystems prioritization of ideas over men and interests over feelings,along with its perception of man as an obstacle, is a natural outcome ofits impersonal and dehumanizing nature. Like Napoleon himself,Dants eventually emerges as a champion for the rights of the individ-ual, working against the oppressive tyranny of the political system.

Dantss lack of intellectual opinions follows a model of the Roman-tic ideal. Indeed, Dants is a living embodiment of the Romantic idea ofthe cult of feelings. Romanticism, a cultural movement in nineteenth-

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century Europe, viewed emotion as superior to intellect and admiredthe human who feels over the human who calculates. Dants simplyloves and admires; he does not analyze or judge. Interestingly, when heemerges later as the Count of Monte Cristo, he is guided only by ideas.He is specifically motivated by one idearevenge; consequently, hebecomes incapable of feeling normal human sentiments. Given Dumassaffiliation with the Romantic movement, it is not surprising to find thatthe Dants of the early chapters, a man of unimpeachable character, isportrayed as a person dominated by emotion. For the same reason, itmakes sense that when Dants later falls into error and sin, becoming astrange mixture of hero and antihero, it is his intellect that takes over asa dominating yet dangerous force. This dichotomy between emotionand intellect allows Dumas to show his belief in the supremacy of theRomantic individual over the rational human being.

By giving Chapter 12 the same subtitle as Chapter 2Father andSonDumas invites us to compare the two father-son pairs portrayedin these chapters. In Chapter 2 the father and son are Louis and EdmondDants, a pair bound by absolute love and devotion. In Chapter 12,however, the father-son pair of Noirtier and Villefort is bound by littlemore than mutual distrust. When Dants hears of his newfound goodfortune, his first thought is of how he might improve life for his father;he fantasizes about all the nice things his newfound affluence will enablehim to provide for the old man. Villefort, in contrast, is prepared to sac-rifice his father in order to increase his own fortune. Though Villefortwarns his father that the authorities are searching for a man of hisdescription, this act is motivated not by loyalty but by self-interest:Villefort knows that his own career will be ruined if his father is chargedwith murder. Later, Villefort attempts to break all ties with Noirtier,even going so far as to renounce his family name. When his future in-laws ask him to state his allegiances, Villefort has no qualms aboutharshly denouncing his father. Here, filial loyalty serves to underscorethe vast difference in character between Dants and Villefort. Dantssdevotion to his father reveals his kindness and basic goodness, whileVilleforts neglect and betrayal of his father expose him as a heartlessconniver, looking out only for himself.

CHAPTERS 1520

Chapter 15: Number 34 and Number 27 During his first six years in prison, Dants initially turns to God,immersing himself in prayer. As he contemplates his bad luck, hisdespair increasingly turns to wrath. Dants does not yet know that envi-ous men are responsible for his unfortunate imprisonment. He is so sickwith grief and hopelessness that he finally decides to kill himself by

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means of starvation. Just when he feels that he is about to die, however,he hears a scratching sound coming from the other side of his cell.

When the jailer comes to give him his dinner, Dants cleverly placeshis dish in a spot where the jailer will be sure to step on it. The dish shat-ters and the jailer leaves the entire pot for Dants. Dants is thus able touse the handle of the pot to begin scraping at the wall from his side.After hours of scraping he hears the voice of his neighbor. Later, theybreak through, and his neighbor emerges through the hole in the wall.

Chapter 16: A Learned Italian Dantss neighbor tells him that his name is Abb Faria and that he hasbeen imprisoned for his political beliefs, as he is an agitator for a unifiedItaly. Dants realizes that Abb Faria is the mad priest that the jaileronce mentioned. Dants is overjoyed to have a companion. The abb isless happy to see Dants, however, as he had mistakenly believed he hadbeen digging a tunnel to freedom.

Chapter 17: In the Abbs Cell

[I]t has installed a new passion in your heartthat of vengeance. (See quotations, p. 80)

Faria, rather than being insane, proves to be a brilliant and resourcefulman. He has managed to fashion paper, ink, pens, a knife, a needle, alamp, and various other necessities while imprisoned, and has usedthese to write a political treatise and dig the fifty-foot tunnel that con-nects his cell to Dantss. When Dants tells Faria his life story, Fariaquickly discerns that Dants has been framed by Danglars and Fernand.Faria is aware of the connection between Villefort and Noirtier, so he isable to explain that part of the mystery. Stunned by the discovery,Dants turns his thoughts toward revenge.

Over the course of the next two years, the well-educated abbteaches Dants everything he knows. Dants has a wonderful memoryand a quick mind, and he is able to advance quickly in the study ofmathematics, philosophy, history, and several languages. Faria devel-ops another plot to escape, and the two men plan meticulously. Daysbefore they are going to put the plan into action, however, Faria suffersa fit. His right arm and leg become paralyzed, leaving him unable toattempt escape. Dants declares that he will not leave either, swearingto remain with Faria so long as the old man lives.

Chapter 18: The Treasure The next day, Faria begins to talk about a hidden treasure, and Dantsbecomes worried, thinking that his friend is insane after all. Faria con-vinces Dants that the treasure truly exists by telling him the storybehind it. The treasure once belonged to the Spada family, the wealthi-est family in Italy. In the fifteenth century, Caesar Spada hid the treasure

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on the uninhabited island of Monte Cristo, hoping to keep it out of thehands of a murderous, thieving pope. Due to a mishap, however, thelocation of the treasure remained a secret even from the family.

During his employment as the private secretary to the last livingmember of the Spada family, Faria stumbled onto the secret message,written in a mysterious ink. Faria explains that Spada left all he had toFaria, so the treasure actually belongs to him. Faria says that the trea-sure also belongs to Dants, who has become his spiritual son over thecourse of the past two years. Faria shows Dants the piece of paper thatreveals the treasures location.

Chapter 19: The Death of the Abb Faria forces Dants to commit the directions to the treasure to memory.Several nights later, Faria has another attack and dies.

Chapter 20: The Cemetery of the Chteau dIf Dants is thrown into utter despair as he sits with his friends shroudedcorpse. Suddenly, however, he hits upon a brilliant escape plan. He cutsopen the shroud, removes Farias corpse to his own cell, and then sewshimself inside the shroud. Later that night, when the guards come to burythe corpse, it is Dants they remove. Dants, believing that dead prison-ers are buried in a nearby cemetery, plans to dig his way out with a knife.Minutes after he is carried out of the cell, he discovers he is mistaken. Theguards tie a cannonball around his legs and cast him into the sea.

Analysis: Chapters 1520The title of Chapter 15, Number 34 and Number 27, indicates yetanother crime of society against the individual. As prisoners, Dantsand Faria are reduced to numbers and are no longer addressed by theirnames. The disposal of Dantss name is the final affront to his rights asan individual; it amounts to a loss of his self. As an individual, Dants isdeemed worthless when Villefort sacrifices him for his own politicalambitions; this denial of his worth is made official with the loss of evenhis own name. Abb Faria, who is also known merely as a number, savesDantss life and sanity by giving him back his sense of self. Once againtreated as a human being and engaged in reciprocal conversation,Dants rises out of his depression and finds new intellectual pursuits forwhich to live. Faria is able to counteract the harm that oppressive soci-ety has wreaked on Dants by treating him as a human being.

Abb Faria represents the eighteenth-century philosopher archetypethat was prominent in literature of Dumass day and that would havebeen familiar to Dumass contemporary audience. The philosopher is awell-educated, well-read man who believes strongly in the power ofhuman reason and closely studies human nature and human societies.

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Like the other sympathetic characters of the novel, Faria is a greatadmirer of Napoleon and a firm believer in the inevitability of nationaland personal freedom. By thoroughly educating Dants, Faria gives himthe potential to reach the highest aspirations that his individual naturepermits. This emphasis on maximizing human potential was an obses-sion shared by the Revolution-influenced Romantics and the morerational philosophers represented by Faria. The fact that Dumas casts arational, intellectual man like Faria in one of the most sympathetic rolesin the novel demonstrates that Dumas does not rigidly adhere to thescorn of intellectualism that was typical of the Romantic movement.

Farias deduction about the truth behind Dantss downfall is thefirst major turning point in Dantss development, as it is in this momentthat Dants begins his transformation from a happy, innocent, and lov-ing man into a vengeful and miserable one. That Dants is unable tofathom his enemies treachery himself indicates the extent of his initialinnocence. When he enters the prison, he is a person without malice; itnever occurs to him that people could act as cruelly and selfishly as hisenemies have. When Faria reveals the true cause of Dantss imprison-ment, Dantss blinding navet is destroyed. Faria immediately apolo-gizes to Dants for telling him the truth about his history, knowing thathe has infected him with vengeance and thus irrevocably transformedhim. Dants initially does not understand why Faria is apologizing tohim, for he is happy to finally have the truth revealed. However, he soonrealizes the oppressive weight of his newfound knowledge. Coupledwith the knowledge of an enormous treasure that may soon be his own,Dants, much to his horror, finds himself thinking only of the amount ofharm he could wreak with such a fortune instead of the pleasure it couldbring him. Now aware of the evil deeds committed against him, he hasbecome overwhelmed with the desire for vengeance and has thus lost hiscapacity to enjoy life with the innocence of his past.

Dumas compares Dantss imprisonment to death, which castsDantss later actions and circumstances as a rebirth or resurrection. InChapter 14, the narrator tells us that Dants looked upon himself asdead, while in Chapter 17, Dants himself refers to prison as a livinggrave. This morbid language signifies a metaphorical death: the happy,innocent Dants of the early chapters dies and is replaced by the venge-ful, bitter man of the remainder of the novel. This death is not merelyone of innocence, but perhaps also one of humanity. The Dants whoemerges from prison is not simply vengeful: he is nearly superhuman inhis mental and physical capabilities, while subhuman in his emotionalcapacity. He is something both greater and less than a human being.

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CHAPTERS 2125

Chapter 21: The Isle of Tiboulen Dants manages to cut himself loose from the shroud and swims in thedirection of an uninhabited island he remembers from his sailing days.When he feels that he cannot swim any longer, he washes up on thejagged rocks of the island. A storm erupts, and Dants watches help-lessly as a small boat crashes against the rocks, killing all the men onboard. He then sees a Genoese ship in the distance and realizes that thisship is his one chance to finalize his escape. He takes the cap of one ofthe dead sailors off the point of a rock and makes his way to the ship,using a piece of driftwood from the destroyed boat as a float. Dantstells the men on the ship that he was the lone survivor among the sailorswho crashed on the rocks during the storm. His long hair and beardarouse the mens suspicion, but Dants passes his shagginess off as areligious pledge made to God in a time of danger. The men believe hisstory and offer to take him on as one of their crew.

Chapter 22: The Smugglers Dants quickly realizes that the men on the ship are smugglers, but hemakes himself useful to them, and they all grow to love him. Hepatiently waits for a chance to land on the island of Monte Cristo. Thischance finally presents itself when the ships captain decides to use thedeserted island as the site for an illegal transaction.

Chapter 23: The Isle of Monte Cristo While on the island, Dants pretends to injure himself and claims that hecannot be moved. He urges the men to leave him behind and return forhim after a week. Dantss best friend among the crew, Jacopo, offers tostay behind, forgoing his share of the profits from the smuggling opera-tion. Dants is moved by this selfless display, but refuses the offer.

Chapter 24: The Search Once the men are gone, Dants begins searching for Farias treasure. Heuses his enormous ingenuity to uncover the fortune, which is evengreater than he had imagined. Dants falls on his knees and utters aprayer to God, to whom he attributes this windfall.

Chapter 25: At Marseilles Again Dants fills his pockets with a few precious stones from his trove andwaits for the sailors to return. He then sails with them to Leghorn,where he sells the four smallest diamonds for five thousand francs each.The following day, Dants buys a small ship and crew for Jacopo inorder to reward his friends kindness. His one condition for the gift isthat Jacopo sail to Marseilles and ask for news of a man named LouisDants and a woman named Mercds.

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Dants takes his leave of the smugglers and buys a yacht with a secretcompartment. He sails the yacht back to Monte Cristo and transfers theremainder of the treasure to the secret compartment of the yacht.Jacopo arrives on the island several days later with sad news: LouisDants is dead and Mercds has disappeared. Dants tries to hide hisextreme emotion and sails for Marseilles.

Analysis: Chapters 2125Just as Dantss imprisonment is portrayed as a sort of death, his escapeis cast as a sort of rebirth. Dants emerges into the free world by way ofwater, clearly a symbolic reference to the Christian tradition of baptism,in which a newborn baby is doused with water in order to dedicate itssoul to God. Dants is reborn as a man with a single missionto avengethe wrongs done to him. His baptismal pledge, then, can be seen as apledge to carry out this vengeance, which he believes is Gods will. Signsof Dantss transformation emerge immediately, as we see when heboards the smugglers ship bearing falsehoods about his identity. TheDants of the early chapters is a compulsively honest man, yet he now lieseasily and skillfully about his identity. His constructs his first lie withouta second thought, and he follows with a barrage of other untruths.Dantss radically different behavior indicates that he is a new man, bornduring his imprisonment and baptized during his watery escape.

Dumas challenges the rigid and judgmental expectations of Frenchsociety in portraying the smugglers as good, even admirable men. Thesmugglers actions have little to do with justice in an ethical sense.Indeed, though The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel about justice, theconcept of justice in the novel is deep and complex, based on fundamen-tal ethical rights rather than societal law. Indeed, Dantss concept ofjustice does not at all match up with civil societys concept of justice.The distinction between Dantss concept of justice and societys con-cept of justice is further underscored by the fact that the public prosecu-tor, Villefortwho, we see later, is portrayed as the human arbiter ofsocietal lawis cast as a vile and unjust character. Dumass message isclear: societal justice is really no justice at all, as it punishes moral andgood people for petty crimes that have nothing to do with real justice,while rewarding the vile and unethical with wealth and power.

In Chapter 24, Dumas begins to explore an important differencebetween lives filled with hope and lives filled with hopelessness. Prepar-ing himself for the disappointment of not finding the treasure, Dantsreflects that [t]he heart breaks when, after having been elated by flat-tering hopes, it sees all these illusions destroyed. He thus acknowl-edges that hope is what keeps a human being going and thathopelessness is the only thing that destroys the human spirit. Dantsbegins to understand that happiness and despair stem from expecta-

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tions, not from what one actually has or does not have. With all hisdesires now pinned on enacting his revenge, Dants realizes that hefaces the possibility of falling into despair once again if he finds no trea-sure and thus cannot hope to carry out his revenge. He attempts to dimhis hopes in order to save himself the crippling pain that would result ifhe finds these hopes thwarted.

When Dants locates the treasure, he considers the event both joy-ous and terrible, because he knows that with this wealth, he must nowbegin the obsessive, dark endeavor that will consume him for the nextdecade. He must sever ties to normal human life and devote himself todestroying his enemies. This daunting task is made possible by his for-tune alone, and so the fortune itself frightens him. Only when Dantsprays is he able to feel the day is at all joyous. His prayer calms thefeelings of horror and revulsion that the sight of his treasure stirs up andconvinces him that God supports his mission of revenge. Dants con-vinces himself that only God could have orchestrated the successful dis-covery of such an enormous treasure, and that the treasure exists for thevery purpose of carrying out a terrible punishment on Dantss enemies.

As we see later, Dantss conviction that God is using him as aninstrument to carry out divine will continues to buoy his determinationthroughout the novel. Given Dantss religious interpretation of hismission, it is significant that the island where he finds his treasure iscalled Monte Cristo, which in Italian means the mountain ofChrist. This religious conception of his mission and Dantss certaintyabout its legitimacy allow him to overlook the terrible aspect of hisdiscovery and bask in its joyous aspect.

CHAPTERS 2630

Chapter 26: The Inn of Pont Du Gard Disguised as an Italian priest and going by the name of Abb Busoni,Dants travels to the inn owned by Caderousse and his sickly wife. Hefinds the couple poverty-stricken. Pretending to be the executor ofDantss will, he explains that Dants came into the possession of alarge diamond while in prison. He adds that, as his dying wish, Dantswanted the diamonds worth divided among the only five people he everloved: his father, Caderousse, Danglars, Fernand, and Mercds.

Chapter 27: The Tale Seeing his chance to secure the whole diamond for himself, Caderoussereveals the events behinds Dantss incarceration, confirming what AbbFaria had already deduced. Caderousse states that he has lived in a tor-ment of regret ever since Dants was incarcerated. Dants finds this dis-play of repentance and guilt convincing, and he declares that Caderousseis Dantss only true friend. He gives Caderousse the entire diamond.

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Dants learns from Caderousse what has become of the others. Dan-glars went to work for a Spanish banking house and ended up a million-aire; he is now one of the richest and most powerful men in Paris.Fernand has also become rich and powerful, though the circumstancesof how he acquired his fortune are mysterious. Fernand returnedwealthy from his tour of duty as a soldier in Greece and marriedMercds eighteen months after Dantss imprisonment began. Fernandand Mercds now live together in Paris, believing Dants to be dead.

Caderousse also explains that Dantss father, Louis, starved himselfto death out of grief over the loss of his son. Both Morrel and Mercdsoffered many times to take the old man into their homes and care for him,but he refused every time. Morrel tried to give Louis money, and beforethe old mans death, he left a red silk purse filled with gold on his mantel.Caderousse now has this red silk purse in his possession, and Dants asksto have it. Caderousse explains that Morrel is now on the verge of finan-cial ruin: all his ships except the Pharaon have sunk, and the Pharaon islate coming into port. If the Pharaon has sunk, Morrel will be unable topay his creditors and will be a ruined man. Caderousse reflects that thegood are always punished and the wicked rewarded. Dants, in the guiseof the priest, promises Caderousse that this is not the case.

Chapter 28: The Prison Registers Next, disguised as an English representative of the investment firmThomson and French, Dants goes to visit the mayor of Marseilles, whohas a large investment in Morrels shipping business. The mayor redi-rects Dants to the inspector of prisons, who has an even larger stake inMorrels firm. Dants buys all of the prison inspectors stakes for theirfull price. He then asks to see the prison records for Abb Faria, claim-ing to have once been his pupil. While looking at the records, Dantssecretly turns to his own prison documents. He pockets the letter ofaccusation written by Danglars and delivered by Fernand, and confirmsthe fact that Villefort ordered him locked away for life.

Chapter 29: The House of Morrel and Son Still disguised as the representative of Thomson and French, Dants nextpays a visit to Morrel. Morrel is in a state of extreme anxiety over the factthat his once bustling shipping firm is now crumbling into ruin. Only twoemployees remain on his payroll, including a twenty-three-year-oldclerk, Emmanuel Herbaut, who is in love with Morrels daughter, Julie.Morrels payments to investors are due within days, but he has no moneyto cover them. If the Pharaon does not arrive safely, he will be unable tohonor his debts for the first time in his life, and his business and his honorwill be permanently ruined.

The terrible news arrives while Dants is still in Morrels office: thePharaon has been lost. Dants, who now owns a significant percentage

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of the debt Morrel owes, grants the devastated man a reprieve. He tellsMorrel that he can have an extra three months to find the money to makethe payment. On his way out of the building, Dants pulls Julie aside andmakes her promise to follow any instructions she receives from a mancalling himself Sinbad the Sailor.

Chapter 30: The Fifth of September The three months draw to a close, and Morrel still has very little money.He decides that he must take his own life, unable to bear the shame ofbreaking his obligation to creditors. On the day that his debt is due,Morrel confides his plan to his son, Maximilian, and his son under-stands, granting his approval. As Morrel and Maximilian share thismorbid discussion, Julie receives a letter from Sinbad the Sailor. She fol-lows the instructions in the letter and finds the red silk purse her fatheronce gave to Louis Dants. It is filled with Morrels debt notes, whichare marked as paid. The purse also contains a tremendous diamondtagged for use as Julies dowry, enabling her to marry Emmanuel.

Julie bursts in with this miraculous find just as her father cocks hisgun to take his own life. They hear an uproar from outside. A ship builtand painted to look exactly like the Pharaon is pulling into the port,laden with the same cargo that the original had been carrying when itwas lost at sea. Amid this happy scene, Dants boards his yacht anddeparts Marseilles.

Analysis: Chapters 2630Dantss speech in these chapters makes it clear that he truly considershimself an agent of Providence rather than a man merely carrying out agood cause. He feels qualified to tell Caderousse that God may seemsometimes to forget for a while, whilst his justice reposes, but therealways comes a moment when he remembers. Here, Dants impliesthat the signal that God remembers, in this particular case, is thatGod has given him this vast fortune to use as a tool of reward and pun-ishment. As Dants departs Marseilles, he reflects, I have beenHeavens substitute to recompense the goodnow the God of Ven-geance yields to me his power to punish the wicked! In calling himselfHeavens substitute, Dants could not be more explicit about how heviews his role. Given that he clearly considers himself Gods emissary onearth, it is fitting that he chooses to disguise himself as a priest when vis-iting Caderousse. In some traditions, the priest acts as a direct interme-diary between God and manthe same role Dants sees himself asoccupying in his quest for revenge.

Each of Dantss various disguises correlates with the role that heplays while assuming that identity. He tends to dress as the Abb Busoniwhen he is standing in judgment; thus, he dons the Abb Busoni disguise

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when visiting Caderousse, as he must decide whether Caderousseshould be rewarded as a friend or punished as an enemy. When engag-ing in acts of excessive generosity, as he does toward Morrel, Dantsdresses as an Englishman whom we later learn he refers to as Lord Wil-more. Dants tends to use the name Sinbad the Sailor when acting in aparticularly eccentric manner, though he primarily makes use of thisname when in Italy. Later, Dants assumes the name Monte Cristo whenacting as an angel of vengeance. Like the God of the Old Testament,who uses a different name to refer to each of his different aspectshispunishing side and his compassionate side, for exampleDants, a self-appointed emissary of God on earth, also fractures his personality intoits various components: judging, rewarding, and punishing. Like God,he assigns each aspect a different identity.

Of all the names Dants uses, Sinbad the Sailor bears its own originalsignificance, as it is a recognizable name. Sinbad the Sailor is a characterin a famous Middle Eastern folktale about a merchant who goes onseven dangerous and fantastical journeys, ultimately ending up enor-mously wealthy. There are many reasons why Dants might have cho-sen this familiar name as one of his aliases. There is the obvious fact thatDants himself was a sailor during the happy years of his life. Likewise,there is a clear parallel between Sinbads seven dangerous voyages lead-ing up to his ultimate wealth and Dantss own dangerous journeythrough prison before the discovery of his treasure.

Another, and more meaningful, possible explanation for this nameinvolves the bookends of the Sinbad story, which focus on a poor porterwho envies Sinbads wealth and is dissatisfied with his own boring life.By the end of Sinbads story, which is filled with horrors and dangers, theporter is convinced his own life is not so bad after all. This change in atti-tude highlights a central idea in The Count of Monte Cristo that becomesincreasingly important as the novel unfolds: the importance of appreci-ating what one has in life instead of lusting after what one does not have.Each of Dantss three enemies betrays him out of greed and ambition,giving in to lust for what he does not have. Danglars betrays Dants towin the captaincy of the Pharaon, Fernand betrays Dants to gain Mer-cds for himself, and Villefort betrays Dants to increase his ownpower. By using the name Sinbad the Sailor, Dants tacitly rebukes thesethree men for their shortsighted greed.

The red silk purse, which holds Dantss gift to Morrel, serves as aphysical symbol of the connection between good deed and reward. Firstused by Morrel to help save Louis Dants, the purse is now used to saveMorrel in turn, demonstrating that his kindness and generosity towardLouis are being repaid. However, Dantss use of the purse actuallytaints an otherwise pure act of altruism. By using the purse, Dantsreveals that on some level he wants Morrel to recognize him as the sav-

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ior. We see the purse not merely as a simple symbol of the connectionbetween reward and punishment but as a more complex embodiment ofDantss various motives in acting as a benefactor. Dants has selflessgratitude for Morrels kindness but also a selfish desire to be recognizedas the author of Morrels financial salvation.

CHAPTERS 3134

Chapter 31: