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The Count of Monte Cristo
Concept/Vocabulary Analysis
Literary Text: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Penguin 2001).
Summary
Edmond Dantes, a young man falsely accused of being a Bonapartist agent, is
wrongfully imprisoned in the Chateau d’If, an island prison set off the coast of
Marseilles. He suffers fourteen years of his life there. By good fortune he meets
Abbe Faria, a man attempting to tunnel out of the prison, and they go to work
together. During their years spent tunneling, Dantes also learns with the aid of his
new friend languages, mathematics, history, and chemistry. His friend helps him
realize who was at fault for his imprisonment and for what reasons they committed
the vile act. He also learns about a wonderful treasure on the island of Monte Cristo
that will make him rich. Before they are able to finish the tunnel, Abbe Faria suffers
an extremely bad paralytic fit and dies. Dantes ties himself in the sack in place of the
corpse and escapes the Chateau d’If. Recovering the treasure of Monte Cristo,
Dantes, unable to forgive, begins his deadly work of revenge.
Central Question
What is the price of revenge?
Edmond Dantes is given a chance to make a new life for himself after he escapes
prison and finds the treasure of Monte Cristo. He is reminded multiple times by
Abbe Faria that a man can do a great amount of good toward his friends and
neighbors with riches of that sort, but he uses those riches to pay back those who
had previously wronged him. Dantes might have been truly happy had he listened
to Abbe Faria, but instead he takes his revenge on those that had done him wrong to
the point where he realizes that he is only inches away from losing his soul. In the
end, he has nothing that he originally worked toward.
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Themes
Love, Romance, and Jealousy
Edmond loves Mercedes, a beautiful young woman of Catalan descent. Fernand
Mondego, Mercedes’ cousin, also loves her, but her love is Edmond’s and none
other’s, which makes him jealous. Mondego is willing to go to any extreme to win
the love of Mercedes, a fact that causes the downfall of Dantes. Mondego can’t
simply kill Dantes, because should he die Mercedes would likewise kill herself.
Throwing Dantes in jail keeps her from doing so, but also separates them adequately
for Mondego to marry her. Danglars, a shipmate of Dantes, is jealous his promotion
to captain and wishes for that honor, so he and Mondego prepare the means of
Dantes’ imprisonment. Upon Dantes’ sentence they both gain what they had
wanted, but nothing lasts forever. After fourteen years in the Chateau d’If, Dantes
returns, but he does not want to win back the girl he loved. He only desires
vengeance. After exacting his revenge, he saves two lovers, the son of his former
employer and the illegitimate daughter of de Villefort, and gives them riches and the
opportunity to be happy. In the end Dantes sails off into the sunset with a new love,
Haydee, the daughter of the Albanian leader, who was betrayed by Mondego.
Politics and Law
The novel’s setting revolves around the plastic politics of early
18th century France. Napoleon and King Louis XVIII
repeatedly struggled for power of the country, and loyal
sentiments were mixed. Part of the book’s important turning
points occurs when Monsieur de
Villefort, the Deputy Procureur du
Roi, finds out that his own father,
Monsieur Noirtier, is a traitor in
league with Napoleon. He causes
Edmond’s imprisonment as a
means to keep his father’s deeds and his own reputation
safe.
One gets a sense throughout the book that, although law
and politics have a heavy hand, what is right or wrong
often depends on who’s in charge. Those working for
Napoleon are traitors to their country, but once Napoleon is in power again in Paris,
those who fought against him are traitors, and so forth. Black and white lines
become fuzzy and even those who are seen as good often perform illegal acts.
Morality
The line between right and wrong again grows gray. Edmond Dantes was
wrongfully thrown in prison. He had no idea of the letter’s content, after all. But
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still he was committing a traitorous act in delivering it. Does ignorance relieve
culpability? Was it right or wrong to
pay back the men who had ruined
Edmond’s life? They took his happiness
away from him, can he not do so to
them? In a letter written by Dantes to
Maximilian Morrel he states, “Tell the
angel who is going to watch over you,
Morrel, to pray for a man who, like
Satan, believed for one moment he was
the equal of God.” Dantes, in the throes
of his rage, came close to losing his soul,
but in the end he commits a few deeds that will indeed help his fellow men.
Students can discuss the circumstances of Dantes’ actions and whether or not they
think he crossed moral boundaries. What is morally proper and can the boundaries
be crossed in certain circumstances?
Setting
The book borrows its setting mainly from Marseilles, Paris, and Rome. It is in the
harbor of Marseilles that the story begins, and from whence the majority of the
characters appear. The Chateau d’If was a real prison located about a mile off the
coast of Marseilles, and it would be interesting to study about. Also, the Isle of Elba
is a real island located off of the coast of Italy, and Napoleon was indeed banished
there and resided for about three hundred days.
The story begins on February 24, 1815, and Alexandre Dumas held fast to important
dates and places. When it was published, readers would have lived through many of
the same events and would be quite critical of discrepancies.
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Point of View/Narrative Voice
The book is written from the point of view of a narrator, an all‐seeing, all‐knowing
narrator. The reader is allowed to understand not only the feelings of many
important characters, but their innermost reasons for acting the way they do. Along
with the importance of the setting, the ideas that a man could be charged wrongfully
for treason, or that a man could become famous quite unexpectedly were not
completely unbelievable. Using current events and a believable protagonist, the
novel would have been even more seductive than it is today. Alexandre Dumas
knew what he was doing.
Affective Issues Related to the Work
Revenge
Everyone has been wronged or betrayed in some way at some point in their life. A
true test of character is how they act after the fact. Are they able to forgive? Do they
seek to “pay back” the offender? If you sought and enacted revenge, how did you
feel afterwards?
Unrequited love
At the beginning of the novel, Fernand Montego
suffers unbearably as he is unable to win the love of
the beautiful Mercedes. He is forced to watch and
even befriend the man she wishes to marry. Students
can also relate to this situation because, at one time or
another in their lives, they will be interested in
someone that is not interested in them. It is a hard
thing, but eventually life will go on. Unless, of course, they take the person who
receives their love’s love and throw them in prison. I hope they learn from this
literary work that extreme measures never pan out in that way.
Vocabulary Issues
Much of the vocabulary remains from the original French publication. Certain
words lose their meaning when taken from French and were therefore left in the
book. Titles, especially, would need to be explained to students so that they
understand the subtleties of politics throughout the book. The unabridged copy is
written at a fifteen to eighteen year‐old reading level. The novel would be great for
high school students, but probably too much to chew for the middle school
classroom.
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Background Knowledge
It would be good and helpful for students to study the intricacies of the Napoleonic
war. King Louis is also a character in the novel and obtains power, loses it, and
gains it again during the course of the story. If students understand who Napoleon
was and how much influence and power he held they would better understand why
Edmond Dantes’ apparent crime was so weighty. Knowing where the Isle of Elba is
and how far away the Chateau d’If is located from Marseilles will help students
visualize the story and follow the flow of events with greater interest.
Implications for Student Diversity
Racial Distinction/Intermarriage
Both Edmond’s fiancé and his betrayer, Fernand Mondego, are of Catalan descent.
The Catalans, of Spanish heritage, settled a colony on the coast in Marseilles. This
can make for a good chance for students to discuss cultural differences. Fernand
once says to Mercedes that they aren’t supposed to marry outside of those with
Catalan heritage. She disagrees with him, saying that nobody does it, but it’s not
forbidden. Because he was thrown in prison, Edmond never does marry Mercedes,
but in the end he runs off with an Albanian girl. Race distinction doesn’t play an
important part in the novel, but since everyone is fairly well‐versed in multiple
languages, cultures are easily intermingled.
SES Differences
Much more noticeable than it was for race is the enormous gap
between the upper class and the working class. Edmond was
happy working hard for his living on a merchant ship. He was
to become captain, he was to marry a beautiful girl that he
loved, and money wasn’t necessarily that important to him.
From one day to the next Edmond goes from having nothing
to having everything. Nearly the same thing seems to happen
with Fernand Mondego—a fisherman in the beginning, a count later when Edmond
escapes the Chateau d’If. In history, a man is born into wealth, or he stays poor in
the same way his parents have been poor, but in Dumas’ time it was very possible to
achieve prestige – much like Fernand in battle. King Louis ran an oligarchy, a
government where those with money ruled everything, but less emphasis was
placed on heritage and title. Edmond Dantes, naming himself a Count, was quickly
accepted into Parisian society because he was rich. A few questions the students
can study are: What responsibilities does a Count have? How does one attain the
title? Alexandre Dumas borrowed large sums of money and built his own . . . what
price would you pay for a life of luxury?
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Gender Issues
There weren’t many gender issues that I noticed in the book. It definitely doesn’t
promote feminism in any way. In Dumas’ novel, it’s a man’s world. The women are
fairly submissive and willing to let men run the world. The only power women
really have is that over their own lives. Mercedes is able to control Fernand
Mondego by threatening suicide should he harm Edmond, but she has no other way
of gaining or using power.
Research Issues/Project Ideas
Connections
Have the students keep track of the various relationships and connections that exist
between everyone. For example, at the end Dantes saves and unites Maximilian
Morrel, the son of his former employer, and Valentine, the illegitimate daughter of
de Villefort (the man who condemned him to the Chateau d’If) and Danglar’s wife
(the wife of his original betrayer). It’s very interesting to see how involved the
characters are with each other and just how much time and effort Alexandre Dumas
must have put into the work.
Be careful, it’s all there already on the Internet.
Alternate Ending
The movie version of The Count of Monte Cristo is similar up to and through the
ending. In the movie, Fernand Mondego is given the role of both Mondego and
Danglars, but the main idea remains. At the end,
however, the movie branches away and Edmond wins
back his former love and life, also winning the audience
and making more money. For time constraints, many
characters were left out. Though rated PG‐13, if there’s
a way you can get it edited or approved, it would be
great for classroom discussion to be able to watch the
movie after reading the book and discuss differences
between them, whether they added to or took away
from Dumas’ themes and purposes.
It would be fun and insightful to allow the students to
create their own “alternate ending.” An example is that
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if I were to create an alternate ending, my Edmond Dantes would finish exacting his
revenge and find that he has nothing to live for. Through his hatred he will have
pushed away everyone and gained nothing from the downfall of his enemies. He
would have sailed away, similarly, but with no one to care for him and nowhere to
go, a vagabond, a curse on humanity.
Enrichment Resources
The movie, The Count of Monte Cristo
‐ The movie will shed insight on the setting and help students picture the
world of Alexandre Dumas.
Detailed maps of Europe
‐ Likewise will help the places become real, since most of them are actual
places.
A dictionary to look up unknown French terms
‐ Unless students speak French, they will struggle to catch the meaning in
many situations that aren’t translated to English.
The unabridged version of the book
‐ Before I read the “high school” edition, I was studying the unabridged
version and it is full of clearer explanations of characters and why they act in
ways they do. I loved the unabridged version and the way it foreshadowed
other events in the book, but I was very disappointed when my favorite
quotes and phrases were lost in the abridged version.
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