Lovely Maureen J.

Macatuggal
BSED Science 2

Literary Piece: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Literary Background: "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a novel written by French author
Alexandre Dumas and was first serialized in 18 parts between 1844 and 1846. It is
considered one of Dumas' greatest works and a classic of world literature. It’s a complex
and suspenseful story of betrayal, revenge, and redemption. It follows the journey of
Edmond Dantès, a young man who is falsely accused of treason and imprisoned in the
Château d'If. After years of imprisonment, Dantès escapes and discovers a hidden
treasure, which he uses to exact revenge on those who wronged him and to reclaim his
lost love. The novel is known for its intricate plot, vivid characters, and themes of justice,
forgiveness, and the corrupting influence of power. It has been adapted into numerous
films, television series, and stage productions, and remains a beloved classic of
literature.
Background of the Author: Alexandre Dumas was born in 1802 in the village of Villers-
Cotterêts, fifty miles northeast of Paris. His father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, had been
a general under Napoleon, but 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 keep afloat. Despite the problems that Napoleon caused to the Dumas
family, Alexandre remained a lifelong admirer of the former emperor. The younger
Dumas was not a good student, but he had excellent handwriting. When he moved to
Paris in 1823, hoping to make his fortune as an author, his lovely handwriting earned
him a job as a minor clerk. He took an active role in the Revolution of 1830, helping to
capture a powder magazine at Soissons, and he was appointed as organizer of the
National Guard at Vendee. Encountering strong local opposition, Dumas gave up the
position, refusing to act against the wishes of the majority. Returning to the literary
community of Paris, Dumas continued to write popular plays, sticking to historical works
that he filled with melodrama. He also began to write travel literature, which led to a
walking tour of southern France in 1834 (a tour that would later be put to use in The
Count of Monte Cristo). In 1844, Dumas’s most remembered novels were produce,
including the three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Twenty Years After, and
Queen Margot. Dumas’s self-indulgent lifestyle and excessive generosity eventually took
a toll on his finances. By the time he suffered a stroke in 1870, he was far from a rich
man, despite the fact that he had earned millions of dollars in his lifetime. He died in
December 1870 at the home of his son, the novelist Alexander Dumas the younger.
Literary Analysis:
A. Setting:

Time:

1814
 -During this year, Napoleon was officially exiled to the island of Elba off the coast
of Italy.

February of 1815

-This time, the novel takes place. The watch-tower of Notre Dame de la Garde
signaled the arrival of the three masters Pharaon, from Smyrna, Trieste, and
Naples.

-The country is in political turmoil, and corruption is everywhere.

-Napoleon escaped Elba and fled to France. He returned to Paris and ruled the
French for one hundred days. He was still very popular among the French, but
later, his army was defeated by European powers, so he was exiled to the island
of Saint Helena, far, far away in the Atlantic Ocean.

-The story still spans around this year until around 1838. We knew from
Danglars's report at the very beginning of the novel that Edmond has stopped at
the island of Elba to retrieve a letter on his way back to Marseilles which is
addressed to Noirtier. Thus, the story begins right after Napoleon's first exile to
Elba, and throughout the novel, we hear about Napoleon's armies, his escape to
Paris, and about the royalist parties. Villefort, for example, is a royalist, but his
father (Noirtier) fights for Napoleon.

Place:

Marseilles
-This place is the hometown of Edmund Dantes, and the home of his dad and his
love, Mercedes. It is also the hometown of Fernand Mondego, the Morrel family,
and the Villeforts.

Today, this place is one of the largest cities in France. Back in the early 1800s, it
was an incredibly powerful military base and port of France.

Chateau d'If
This place is where Edmond Dantès spends fourteen years in prison.It is a
famous prison located in the island of Mediterranean Sea. Because it is
completely surrounded by water, prisoners have a really hard time escaping from
it.
 This prison is damp and cold, but prisoners with a bit of wealth and title to their
name like the Abbe Faria, can request certain things to make their stay more
pleasant.

The Island of Monte Cristo

This island holds AbbéFaria's buried treasure. It is where Edmond transforms
himself into the Count. He built his mini castle beneath the rocks and in the caves
of this island.

When Albert de Morcerf stumbles across this paradise, he finds lavish rooms
decorated in the most luxurious riches.

Rome, Paris, the summerhouse in Auteuil

Paris is the metropolitan center of France, and it is where the Villefort, the
Morcerf, and the Danglars families all have settled. These families have found a
way to live expensively and luxuriously.

It is where the Count got his own apartment and a summerhouse, near
Versailles. The summerhouse once was the site of Villefort and Madame
Danglars's affair, and is where they attempted to smother their new born baby.

B. Characters:
Major Characters:

Edmond Dantes
Before his imprisonment, he is kind, innocent, honest, and a loving man. Though
naturally intelligent, he is a man of few opinions, living his life instinctively by a traditional
code of ethics that impels him to honor his superiors, care dutifully for his aging father,
and treat his fellow man generously. He is filled with positive feeling, admiring his boss,
Monsieur Morrel; loving his father; adoring his fiancée, Mercedes; and even attempting
to think kindly of men who clearly dislike him.
-Jealous rivals get him imprisoned on grounds that he is a threat to the crown.
While in prison for fourteen years, he receives the education of an aristocrat from a
fellow prisoner, the Abbe Faria. His years in prison also allow him to obsess about
avenging himself upon those who wronged him. The means to effect his revenge come
from the abbe himself, who shares with him the location of the treasure of Monte Cristo.
 -After his transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo, he reveals his true name
to his enemies as each revenge is completed.

Mercedes Herrara/Countess de Morcerf

-She is Dantes’s fiancée at the beginning of the novel, and is part of the reason
for the betrayal. Her cousin Fernand is in love with her and wants to remove the
competitions from Dantes. She marries Fernand and bears his son, Albert.

-She remains miserable for the rest of her life, despising herself for her weakness
and longing for Dantes, whom she has never stopped loving. Yet, for all her avowed
weakness and fear, she proves herself that she is capable of great courage on three
occasions: first, when she approaches Dantes to beg for her the life of her son, Albert;
second, when she reveals her husband’s wickedness in order to save Dantes’s life; and
third, when she abandons her wealth, unwilling to live off a fortune that has been tainted
by misdeeds.
At the end of the novel, she is left with nothing to live for.
FernandMondego/Count de Morcerf

-He is the cousin of Mercedes, later her husband and the father of Albert de
Morcerf. Jealousy over Mercedes preference for Dantes prompts him to conspire with
Danglars to incriminate Dantes.

-Known publicly as a military hero and actually earned his fortune by betraying
the Pasha of Janina, Haydee’s father.

-He helps in framing Dantès for treason and then marries Mercedes himself
when Dantès is imprisoned. Through acts of treachery, he became wealthy and powerful
man and later takes on the name of the Count de Morcerf.
-He is the first victim of Dantes’s vengeance.
-He commits suicide after Monte Cristo reveals his military treason. He betrayed
his benefactor in Greece, Ali Pasha, surrendered the Greek city to the Turks, and sold
Ali's wife and daughter into slavery.
Monsieur Danglars/Baron Danglars

-Originally the purser on the same ship as Dantes. He is led by professional envy
to convince Fernand to help get rid of their rival.
 -He became a well-known, respected, and extremely wealthy banker and baron
in Paris. His daughter is Eugene.His wife and he are alienated, especially that his wife is
a money hungry as he, ruins part of his fortune.
-He is also a greedy and ruthless man, and cares only for his personal fortune.
He has no qualms about sacrificing others for the sake of his own welfare, and he goes
through life shrewdly calculating ways to turn other people’s misfortunes to his own
advantage.
-He abandons his wife and attempts to sell his own daughter, Eugenie, into a
loveless and miserable marriage for three million francs.
-His greed grows as he grows richer, and his lust for money continues to drive all
his actions in the two decades that the novel spans.
Caderousse

-He is Dantes’s neighbour in Marseilles, and is incredibly jealous of Dantes. He

was being murdered by his friend Benedetto at the house of Monte Cristo.

-A lazy, drunk, and greedy man. He is present when the plot to frame Dantès is
hatched, but he does not take an active part in the crime. Unlike Danglars and Mondego,
he never finds his fortune, instead making his living through petty crime and the
occasional murder.
-He is never truly satisfied with his life. No matter how much he has, he always
feels that he deserves more. He is pained by the good fortune of his friends, and his
envy festers into hatred and ultimately into crime. He is not only covetous but also lazy
and dishonest. Ultimately, his unending greed catches up with him, and he dies while
trying to rob Monte Cristo.
Monsieur de Villefort

He is the ambitious public prosecutor of Marseilles, and the one who sends
Dantes to prison to protect his own name and advance his career.

-His father was a known Bonapartist, thus his policy for Bonapartist conspirators
was harsh. He sought to protect his own name. He succeeds in becoming the public
prosecutor in Paris.
-His first marriage is one that is politically advantageous. He has one daughter by
that marriage, Valentine. He also has a son by his second marriage.
 -He had an affair with Madame Danglars, which produced a baby whom he tried
to get rid of by burying. In the end, his secret past is revealed and he is shamed before
the whole community.
Minor Characters:

Abbe Faria

-He is a political prisoner, a priest,and brilliant thinker whom Dantes meets in

prison at the Chateau d’If.

-He became Dantes’s intellectual father during their many years as prisoners. He
then bequeaths to Dantès his vast hidden fortune. Thus,he is the most important catalyst
in Dantes’s transformation into the vengeful Count of Monte Cristo.
Ali Pacha
-He is a Greek nationalist leader whom Mondego betrays. This betrayal leads her
at the hands of the Turks and the seizure of his kingdom. His wife and his daughter,
Haydee, are sold into slavery.
Albert de Morcerf

-He is the son of Mercedes and Fernand, and initially engaged to marry Eugenie
Danglars.

-He was being saved from the bandits by the Count of Monte Cristo in Italy. He
thus introduces his savior into Parisian society.

-At first he challenges the Count to a duel, however, his mother relates to him the
truth, after which he apologizes to the Count. He has his mother's noble character, thus
he renounces his fortune and name, and leaves to seek his own glory and fortune in the
army.

Monsieur Morrel

-He is initially Dantes’s employer and his only supporter after his arrest. His
children are Julie and Maximilian.

-He is kind, honest ship owner, does everything in his power to free Dantès from
prison and tries to save Dantès’s father from death.
- He was about to commit suicide because he can no longer pay his debt but
Monte Cristo anonymously saves him from such a plight.
Louis Dantes

-He is Dantes’s father. He is proud, andhonorable man who starves to death after
his son was imprisoned.This is another one of Dantes' motive for revenge.

Maximilian Morrel

-He is Monsieur Morrel’sson and is in love with Valentine de Villefort.

-He became a good friend of the Count. He even agreed to be the Count's
second man in a duel.
-He is brave and honorable like his father.
-He and his love, Valentine, survive at the end of the story as two good and
happy people, personally unaffected by the vices of power, wealth, and position.

Valentine de Villefort

-She is Villefort’s saintly and beautiful daughter by his first wife, and is engaged
to Franz d’Epinay but secretly in love with Maximilian Morrel.

-Like Maximilian Morrel, her true love, she falls under Dantes’s protection.

-In the end with the help of Monte Cristo, she was able to avoid being poisoned
and eventually marry Maximillian.

Monsieur de Noirtier

-He is Villefort’s father, a senator, and a staunch Bonapartist. He suffered stroke

that leaves him paralyzed and unable to speak, yet he is his granddaughter Valentine’s
protector and advocator.

-He lives with his son, and is extremely close to his granddaughter, Valentine. He saves
her from marrying Franz d'Epinay by informing the Baron that it was he that was
responsible for killing d'Epinays father.
Haydee

-She is the Count’s slave and ultimately his love. She is wholly devoted to the
Count, and refuses to leave him even after he has freed her.
 -She is the daughter of Ali Pacha, the vizier of the Greek state of Yanina, who is
sold into slavery after her father is betrayed by Mondego and murdered. She is Monte
Cristo's new love.
Madame Heloise de Villefort

-She is the second wife of the public prosecutor Villefort, and is the mother of
Edward, their young son, who secretly poisons several people in the family in order to
ensure their inheritance for her son. After the novel's conclusion, she is forced to kill
herself and her son.

Doctor d’Avrigny

He is Villefort’s physician. He is adamant that the deaths are due to poison, yet he does
not reveals his suspicions to the public as Villefort's requested.
Julie Morrel

She is daughter of Monsieur Morrel, Maximilian’s sister and Emmanuel Herbault’s

wife.Angelically good and blissfully in love to her husband, Emmanuel. Their marriage
was made possible by the gift of Sinbad the Sailor (Monte Cristo). The count gave her a
diamond as her dowry.
Emmanuel Herbault

-He is Julie’s husband, and a former clerk of M. Morrel. He is just as noble and
perpetually happy as his wife, Julie.
Madame Danglars

-She is Baron Danglar’s wife, and Eugenie’s mother.

-One of her past affairs comes to light due to Monte Cristo, who uncovers the
baby she and Villefort made together and then buried. After the novel's conclusion, she
is left rich but lonely.
-She is Greedy, conniving, disloyal, and engaged in a never-ending string of love
affairs that help bring her husband to the brink of financial ruin.
Eugenie Danglars

-She is the daughter of Baron and Madame Danglars. She is initially engaged to
marry Albert, but then becomes engaged to Benedetto/Andrea Cavalcanti.
 -Though she was supposed to marry Albert and then Andrea, Monte Cristo ruins
both marriages, causing Eugenie to flee with her lady "friend" to become a musician or
artist
-Her true love is, Louise d’Armilly.

Louise d’Armilly

-He is Eugenie Danglars’s music teacher and constant companion.

Benedetto/Andrea Cavalcanti

-He is presented as a wealthy young noble man and became engaged to

Eugenie Danglars.

-He is the illegitimate son of Villefort and Madame Danglars. Though raised
lovingly by Bertuccio and Bertuccio’s widowed sister-in-law, he turns to a life of brutality
and crime.
-He is Handsome, charming, and a wonderful liar. He plays the part of Andrea
Cavalcanti in one of Dantès’s elaborate revenge schemes.
Lucien Debray

-He is the private secretary of the French Minister of the Interior. He is also the
lover of Madame Danglars. He illegally leaks government secrets to his lover, Madame
Danglars, so the Madame can invest wisely with her husband’s money.
Ali

-He is the count’s mute Nubian slave. He is amazingly adept in all sorts of
weapons.
Bertuccio

-He is the Count of Monte Cristo’s Corsican steward.

-His past is key to Monte Cristo's revenge. He was the one who sees Villefort
who is trying to bury an alive baby, who later is the Andrea Calvacanti who ruins Villefort
by relating his relationship.
-He is loyal and adept, thus Dantès chooses him as his steward not for his
personal qualities but because of his vendetta against Villefort.

Luigi Vampa
 -An Italian Bandit who is indebted to the Count of Monte Cristo. He is the leader
of Italian bandits who are indebted to Monte Cristo. He helps Monte Cristo win Albert de
Morcerf'sfavor by "capturing" Albert and later "releasing" him at the Count's wishes.
Major Cavalcanti

-He is an adventurer, poor and crooked man whom Dantès resurrects as a phony
Italian nobleman.
Edward de Villefort

-He is a mere nine-year old boy,Villefort’s spoiled young son by his second wife,
and who is poisoned by his own mother when she commits her own suicide.

-He is an innocent victim of Dantes’s elaborate revenge scheme.

Franz d’Epinay

-He is the son of General Quesnel, Valentine’s initial fiancée, and Albert’s friend
and company in travelling in Italy.

Marquis and Marquise de Sain-Meran

-They are the parents of Villefort’s first wife, both of whom are murdered. Heloise
De Villefort poisons them in her efforts to secure their fortune for her son.
Jacopo

-He is the smuggler who rescues Dantes from the sea after he escapes from
prison. Dantes rewards him by buying the poor man his own ship and crew.He later
becomes the captain of Monte Cristo yacht.

C. Plot
a. Introduction

At the age of nineteen, Edmond Dantes seems to have the perfect life. He
is about to become the captain of a ship, he is engaged to a beautiful and kind
young woman, Mercedes, and he is well liked by almost everyone who knows
him. This perfect life, however, stirs up dangerous jealousy among some of
Dantes’s so-called friends. Danglars, the treasurer of Dantes’s ship, envies
Dantes’s early career success; Fernand Mondego is in love with Dantes’s
fiancée and so covets his amorous success; his neighbour Caderousse is
 simply envious that Dantes is so much luckier in life than he is. Together, these
three men draft a letter accusing Dantes of treason.
Villefort, the deputy crown prosecutor in Marseille, destroys the letter from
Elba when he discovers that it is addressed to his own father, Noirtier, who is a
Bonapartist, since if this letter came into official hands, it would destroy his
ambitions and reputation as a staunch Royalist. To silence Dantès, he condemns
him without trial to life imprisonment.
b. Rising Action

Edmond spent fourteen years in prison. During that time, he almost

goes crazy and nearly gives up on life, but then, he met a wealthy Italian
prisoner, a priest called AbbéFaria who unravels the mystery of his downfall.

Faria gave Dantès an extensive education in language, culture, and

science. Knowing himself to be close to death, he told Dantès the location of a
treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. When he died, Dantès took his place in
the burial sack.Secretly placing himself in Faria's burial sack, which is to be
thrown over the cliffs and into the river alongside the prison, he managed to
escape.

c. Climax

Dantes found Faria’s enormous treasure on the Isle of Monte Cristo and
started to formulate his revenge.
Before undertaking his revenge, he rewards the one family that remain
true him, the Morrel family.
Ten years later, he emerged in Rome as the Count of Monte Cristo, a
rich, eccentric, powerful man. He seemed to be all knowing and unstoppable.
d. Falling Action

He then slowly brings complete devastation upon Caderousse,

Fernand, Villefort, and Danglars.
 With his obsessive thirst for vengeance, knowledge about his enemies’
weaknesses, along with his limitless resources, the Count sets about
orchestrating each man’s downfall.

e. Denouement/resolution

Dantès enabled the blissful union of Maximilian Morrel and Valentine

Villefort, finally opened himself to emotions other than gratitude and vengeance
and admits his love for Haydee.

f. Major conflict
Unjustly imprisoned, Dantes’s seeks to punish those responsible for his
incarceration; as the vengeful Count of Monte Cristo, he struggles to
transcend his human nature and act as an agent of divine retribution.

D. Point of View

Third Person (Omniscient)

In this mode of narration, the narrator is all knowing. The narration will
reveal more than one characters’ internal workings.

The narrator speaks in the third person, focusing almost entirely on

outward action and behavior rather than delving into the psychological realities of
the characters.

Dumas has total control of the book's narrative. He can switch the focus
of the story abruptly. He does not do much with the "inner monologue" of his
characters – often times when they are thinking something, they simply mutter it.
E. Theme
1. Divine retribution

When Dantes escapes from prison and finds his treasure, he sees it as a
sign that God has opened for him the door of revenge. He ultimately realizes
that his vengeance is destroying the innocent as well as the guilty.
2. Transformation
In The Count of Monte Cristo, the transformed becomes the transformer.
Edmond, irrevocably changed during his time in prison by forces outside of his
 control, learns to transform the world around him. Everything from his clothing to
his personality to his name is changeable. Some of his transformations are comic
– witness his ability to shift from one "character" to another effortlessly.
3. Manipulation
In The Count of Monte Cristo Edmond must feel this bad kind of
"manipulated" when he realizes why he is in prison; the same goes for the
disgraced Fernand, Danglars, and Villefort after Edmond is through with them.
But there is a positive side to manipulation, too. The kind of manipulation the
Count practices requires a tremendous amount of creativity and cleverness.
It also require a huge amount of knowledge.
F. Symbols

Politics
The Count of Monte Cristo is a historical novel, with key plot elements
drawn from real politic events. The characters’ political beliefs tell the reader
about their true identities. Aristocratic royalists, such as Morcerf and Villefort, are
unsympathetic, while the sympathetic characters, like Nortier and Maximilian,
have connections to Bonapartists and democracy.
The Sea
When Dantès escapes from prison, he plunges into the ocean,
experiencing a second baptism and a renewed dedication of his soul to God. He
has suffered a metaphorical death while in prison: the death of his innocent,
loving self. Dantès emerges as a bitter and hateful man, bent on carrying out
revenge on his enemies. He is washed in the waters that lead him to freedom,
and his rebirth as a man transformed is complete. The sea continues to figure
prominently in the novel even after this symbolic baptism. Considering himself a
citizen of no land, Dantès spends much of his time on the ocean, traveling the
world in his yacht. The sea seems to beckon constantly to Dantès, a skilled
sailor, offering him perpetual escape and solitude.
The Red Silk Purse
First used by Monsieur Morrel in his attempt to save the life of Dantès’s
father, Dantès later used the red silk purse when he is saving Morrel’s life. The
red purse becomes the physical symbol of the connection between good deed
 and reward. Morrel recognized the purse and deduced the connection between
the good deed performed on his behalf and the good deed he once performed
himself. Morrel concludes that Dantès must be his savior, surmising that he is
working from beyond the grave. Morrel’s daughter, Julie, then emphasizes the
symbolic power of the purse by keeping it constantly on display as a relic of her
father’s miraculous salvation

The Elixir
Dantès’s potent potion seemed to have the power both to kill and to bring
to life, a power that Dantès comes to believe in too strongly. His overestimation
of the elixir’s power reflects his overestimation of his own power, his delusion that
he is almost godlike, and his assertion that he has the right and capacity to act as
the agent of Providence. It is significant that, when faced with Edward’s corpse,
Dantès thinks first to use his elixir to bring the boy to life. Of course, the elixir is
not powerful enough to bring the dead to life, just as Dantès himself is not
capable of accomplishing divine feats. The power to grant life—like the power to
carry out ultimate retribution and justice—lies solely in God’s province. It is when
Dantès acknowledges the limits of his elixir that he realizes his own limitations as
a human being.
Suicide
Many characters in The Count of Monte Cristo—Dantès, Monsieur Morrel,
Maximilian Morrel, Haydée, FernandMondego, Madame d’Villefort, and Albert de
Morcerf—contemplate or even carry out suicide during the course of the novel.
Dumas presents the act of suicide as an honorable and reasonable response to
any devastating situation. As in much Romantic literature, suicide in The Count of
Monte Cristo is most closely linked with failed romantic relationships.
Names
The constant changing of characters’ names in The Count of Monte
Cristo signifies deeper changes within the characters themselves. Like the God
of the Old Testament, Dantès assumes a host of different names, each
associated with a different role in his schemes as the agent of Providence. He
calls himself Abbé Busoni when standing in judgment, Lord Wilmore when
engaging in acts of excessive generosity, and Monte Cristo when assuming the
role of avenging angel. That Dantès possesses so many identities suggests that
he lacks a true center.