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THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
Analysis & Commentary based on
the Consciousness Approach to Life

Articles

 

 

NOTE: The following instance of a consciousness approach to literature is based on a profound understanding of the subtle and hidden Character of Life. (To understand our comments below, we recommend you review this link.)

 

Edmund Dantes Good, Yet Unsuspecting, Naive Nature that Needed Inner Strength
Edmund Dantes was a shipmate. He was 19. His captain, who was ill, gave Dantes a letter to deliver to Napoleon on Elba and then died. To a shipmate, the captain's word is an order, especially when it is a dying wish.

It never struck Dantes that in France of that day to visit the Emperor in exile would warrant the anger of the government. He visited Napoleon on Elba, gave him the letter, received a letter for someone in France from him.

Nor did he take care to hide the possession of that letter. On landing in France, the owner of his ship elevated him to the captaincy, overlooking Danglars, who was much elder to him.

Dantes went immediately to see his father and fiance Mercedes. Soon their wedding was arranged. On the eve of the wedding, the police came to his reception and arrested him for possessing the letter. It never struck Dantes what his crime was.

Danglars was smarting under the wound of having been overlooked. Dantes was not aware of it nor was it possible for him to conceive that someone could be jealous of him.

Mercedes was the prettiest Catalan girl in Marseilles. She was 17 and an orphan. Her cousin Fernand was courting her for a long time, but she had given her love to Edmund.

Dantes knew of Fernand and his love for Mercedes, but it never entered his head that Fernand could be a rival to his personality. Dantes' neighbour was a tailor who was innately vicious.

Danglars and Fernand met under a tree outside a hotel and compared notes about Dantes. The tailor was an interested accomplice. Danglars knew of Dantes' visit to Napoleon and the letter from Napoleon to someone in France.

Fernand, bitterly disappointed in love, came up with the idea that Dantes could be arrested and imprisoned.

Danglars offered to write an anonymous letter by his left hand to the Magistrate and the venomous three together executed their pet project of treachery. The letter informed the government about Napoleon's letter in Dantes' possession.

Dantes was arrested and shut up in prison. Fernand carried a false news of Dantes's death to Mercedes and gently persuaded her to marry him. In prison, Dantes was resisting the warders and turned violent. He was then put in solitary confinement.

He tore his hair in despair. He did not know what he was accused of. It was a mystery to him how he, who had been on the eve of marrying the girl he deeply loved and who had received the promotion to captaincy, could land in jail.

His nature was open and unsuspecting. It was noble. To live in this world of human affairs, one should be worldly-wise.

It is not enough to be GOOD, magnanimous and unsuspecting. An unsuspecting nature is one of generosity. But it has an element

When we are making a progress beyond the level of our present endowment we attract that which is necessary to complete that progress, which is very often the opposite of that which we are or possess. E.g. Mercedes [in Count of Monte Cristo] marries a treacherous, unscrupulous man incapable of the psychological feelings she is trying to evolve in herself. (MSS)

We can take an individual, such as the character of the Count in the Count of Monte Cristo, and evaluate the person in terms of strength at these three levels. (MSS:) He had physical strength due to his life as a sailor and enduring hardship in prison. He had vital strength negatively born of suffering and the urge for revenge, positively due to the enormous wealth he acquired and the social position it gave him, and he had mental strength derived from the wonderful education given by Abbe Faria.

The Character of Life vs the Character of the Divine
Life has a character of its own which simple-minded folk ignore. Meeting with misfortune, we exclaim, "I have not done any wrong, why the punishment?" To succeed in life, it is not enough one has not done any wrong. It is also necessary to be strong enough to handle the forces of life. Edmond Dantes had not wronged anyone. He was incapable of it. Still, he was jailed. When Dantes became a captain at 19 and won the love of the prettiest girl there, Life demanded he be strong to enjoy them. He did not have the capacity to suspect his friend and therefore could not defend himself against betrayal. This is the stamp of Life which I call character of life. You will be punished for no fault of yours if you are not resourceful, alert, awake and aware of all that might arise in the minds of your enemies. It is not enough to be GOOD. One must be fortified against life by strength as well as cunning. Dantes is a fine example of this.

What life has not, God has - benevolence. Life could not reward Dantes for his goodness, but when he was about to die, God gave him Faria, the priest, and through him knowledge, wealth and prosperity. God in him gave all this, not Life. (MSS)

Mercedes
Mercedes was the fiance of Edmund Dantes, the hero of The Count of Monte Cristo. She was an orphaned Catalan girl of Marseilles. Dantes was falsely imprisoned. Fernand, Mercedes' cousin, persisted in courting her who had given her heart to Dantes. After about a year, Fernand lied to her, saying that Dantes had died in prison.

She married Fernand. The fisherman Fernand rose to become a Cabinet Minister in Paris. They had a son, Albert. After 14 years, Dantes escaped from prison, acquired wealth and culture, and came back to France. He looked for her.

Finding out that she had married his very rival who had heinously betrayed him, Dantes was in extreme despair. In Paris he was the foremost citizen. Inadvertently, Albert challenged Dantes to a duel.

That brought Mercedes to Dantes to plead for the life of her son. He agreed. Fernand later came to Dantes and found out that the "Count" was none other than Dantes of his village. Fernand's old betrayals came to light and he killed himself.

Mercedes, who has by now learned of her husband's seamy side, left her place without taking any of Fernand's wealth and went to live in Dantes' childhood house in Marseilles.

She was brave, bold, idealistic and pure to give up that wealth and status in favour of her loyalty to Dantes. Though she was pure, she was a disappointment to Dantes.

He would have expected her to pine for him all her life and live a lonely life cherishing his loving memory. She had persevered for a year but not longer. Her pretty face and loneliness made her vulnerable and she accepted the security of marriage with her cousin who loved her.

In her situation, it was not only understandable and pardonable, but noble and magnificent to give up her husband's wealth. Look at Mercedes from Dantes' point of view. His heart was totally after her.

He was engaged to marry her. On the eve of his marriage with her, he was treacherously betrayed and sent to prison. He starved and tried to kill himself. One year later she forgot him, and married Fernand.

Just then Faria entered Dantes' life, solved the riddle of his imprisonment, gave him knowledge of the highest level and added great wealth.

Dantes lived for Mercedes, he lived in her. She left him, accepting the false information of his death. His love for her brought him betrayal, prison and suicide. She gave him up and he got mental freedom, knowledge and wealth.

Till the end, the one thing he wanted was her. She was the source of great misfortune for him. All the good in life came to him after she moved away. Mercedes was a good girl. She was human.

His strength and goodness was almost divine. The one thing he longed for was Mercedes who was his utter ruin. It is unbelievable and baffling. A Princess of Greece whom he had discovered enslaved by an enemy was bought and raised by him like a daughter.

Before the duel, he wrote his will in her favour. She tore it up and said she loved him as a man. Mercedes moving away from him brought to him, a ship's mate, a born Queen with a golden heart of devotion. He longed for Mercedes and our sympathies are with her.

Mother says Dumas had life knowledge. It is subtle knowledge of life at its deeper foundations. Man is utterly attracted to that which will utterly ruin him. (MSS)
 

Danglars

I have been repeatedly writing about Edmond Dantes and The Count of Monte Cristo. One becomes a great writer and his works come to stay because he has life knowledge. Man likes to think that life is moral, vindictive, wicked, evil. Maybe to his perception it is so, because life has all these capacities.

To perceptive, sensitive souls, Life tries to reveal God at each step. When life returns evil to good, one is furious. He does not SEE that life is teaching him that in the eyes of God, good as well as evil are equal. Mother says you can reach God either through heaven or hell. The choice is yours. If for any reason you like hell, life is a hell to you. Mother offers the sunlit path to us.

Danglars was a storekeeper on Dantes' ship. He was jealous by nature, stole, carried tales, collected every possible information about everyone so that it could be used against them in time if necessary. He expected to be made captain based on seniority, not on capacity. The owner naturally made Edmond captain.

Danglars was burning with rage. To one who has no talents, everyone who is talented is an enemy. Danglars knew of Dantes' meeting Napoleon and his letter. He suggested to Fernand, the other rival of Dantes, that Dantes could be arrested and Fernand could marry Mercedes, a scheme dear to Fernand. With his left hand, Danglars wrote a letter to the magistrate anonymously.

Experts say all left-handed writing is the same in appearance. Edmond was arrested. Danglars moved to Spain. There he had occasion to cheat a banker and come by a huge sum of money. He came back to Paris, married a rich widow, became a banker of renown. When Dantes came to Paris as the Count, he banked with Danglars, planning his revenge on his old colleague, Danglars.

Dantes went to a telegraph post, bribed the man there, sent a false telegram to Danglars with news that would cause some railway stocks to rise. Believing the false news, Danglars invested in the company and lost his all. Dantes propped up an ex-convict as a Prince and Danglars -- again falling a prey to Dantes -- arranged the marriage of his daughter to that fake Prince. The bubble burst and the Prince exposed Danglars' wife in the court saying he was her illegitimate son whom she had believed killed by her lover.

Danglars fled Paris with whatever money he could get and went to Rome. Dantes arranged with bandits that Danglars be kidnapped. He was starved and charged 1000 francs for each piece of bread and 10,000 francs for a bottle of wine. At last, Dantes revealed to Danglars all that he had done. He released Danglars with 50,000 francs.

Alexander Dumas knew every secret of life and reveals LIFE to us through Dantes. Here a moral aspect of life is portrayed. We Indians will call it karma. To see beyond morality and karma is philosophy. To live that is yoga. Fernand and Danglars rose very high, just as Dantes did. This is one secret of life. It is the first half traced by this novel. Yoga traces the second half. When Dantes reaches heaven, the others too reach heaven. Life has no evil. (MSS)

 

In Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo the hero, a good man, is falsely accused of things he has not done, and lands in prison. There he meets a wise man who says there is gold buried somewhere. The young man tunnels his way to freedom, finds the treasure, and becomes fabulously wealthy. With his wealth and power he not only brings down the jealous few men who falsely accused him, but connects them to an entire level of corrupt officials in French society, whom he unmasks before the nation.

When we learn to calmly accept and learn from the positive and negative circumstances of life, we reach a new level of personal growth that can help us toward unlimited happiness and success. Also, if we observe life from a distance we can see how negative circumstances often have the effect of bringing about a positive good for people.

 

The Count of  Monte Cristo
 by Alexander Dumas

-- An Analysis --

by Mother's Service Society

 

A.     General
 

            1.       Captain Le Clerc develops brain fever while arranging to deliver the letter to Napoleon and dies soon after.  It indicates the dangerous intensity connected with the mission which results in Dante's imprisonment.  Dantes is overjoyed at the good fortune issuing from Le Clerc's death -- his joy is premature and unwise and later frustrated.

            2.       Napoleon was a giant and an enemy of the state imprisoned on Elba. The moment Dantes lends himself to aid the Emperor he lands in prison, as Napoleon was. When he emerges, he too like the Emperor is a man whose power and stature are larger than life.

            3.       On board Dantes quarrels with Danglers and proposes they stop at the isle of Monte Cristo to settle their differences, but  Danglers  refuses.  It forebodes the importance of this isle in their later life and the greater quarrel to ensue. 

            4.       Morrel's main concern on the arrival of his ship is for his cargo, only secondarily for the dead Le Clerc. Years later when the same ship is sunk, his concern is for the crew rather than the ship, though its loss means his certain ruin.  His years of crises have brought out his goodness, while Caderousse's years of suffering brought out his evil.  (A man who is more concerned  with  his  cargo than with his crew is one who will lose cargo.  Fourteen years later when Morrel comes to think of the crew first and cargo only after, immediately his fortune is restored to him.)

            5.       Danglars, Caderousse and Fernand are overtly and explicitly jealous of Dantes and resentful of his happiness and prosperity.  This atmosphere around him, unwilling to support his joy, brings him misery instead.  Dantes clearly feels Caderousse's hostility behind his dissimulating friendship.

            6.       Although Caderousse tries to dissuade Danglars and Fernand from their plot against Dantes, in fact he is the one who brings them together and feels an intense jealousy because Dantes is rising in life. His inner feeling is as evil as theirs, though his outer action is apparently positive. Caderousse loses his first wife and he ends up marrying a devil as Villefort does.

            7.       Mercedes was a Catalan and an orphan.  By custom the Catalans did not intermarry with the population of Marseille.  Fernand calls it a sacred law.  Being an orphan, Mercedes' need for physical companionship and security is far greater than normal.  That need attracts Fernand despite her mental purity to Edmund.  Fernand reminds Mercedes that his love of her had Mercedes' mothers' sanction.  They are cousins. Mercedes' mother died a year ago when she was sixteen, leaving a small inheritance of a hut. 

            8.       Mercedes and Edmund disapproved of being called Madame and Captain Dantes by their evil wishers, since to be called by a title before it is attained is an evil omen. 

            9.       Villefort has not just sacrificed Dantes to protect his father, Noirtier. He could have simply burned the letter and cautioned Dantes to silence for that.  He has sacrificed Dantes to his ambition for the king's attention. 

            10.   The betrothal party for Edmund and Mercedes occurs the very same night as the betrothal party for Villefort and Renee. Edmund loses his bride to his enemy, Villefort loses his wife to an early death and ends up marrying a devil. Renee's mother, the Marquise, urges Villefort to prosecute and punish without mercy any Bonapartist.  Her instinctive response to Dante's arrest is negative, whereas her daughter regards the news as a bad omen for their marriage (which it is since she dies within ten years) and pleads for mercy.  The marquise is poisoned by Madame Villefort; Renee's daughter Valentine is spared.  Because Rene pleads mercy for Dantes without even knowing him, 20 years later Dantes saves Renee's daughter Valentine from poisoning by her stepmother.  

            11.   Caderousse's outer behaviour is one of goodwill and friendship for Dantes but conceals envy and ill-will.  Therefore, though Dantes outwardly helps him by giving the jewel, the result is Caderousse's downfall. 

            12.   Dantes invites Caderousse, Danglars and Fernand to his betrothal despite their ill-will.  He sits Danglers on his left.  Mercedes sits Fernand on hers.  Their ill will destroys the occasion. 

            13.   Edmund had smuggled a small chest of coffee and tobacco on the ship for his father.  A small illegal act on his part is sanction for legal action against him. 

            14.   Like Othello, Edmund achieves a peak of joy, which becomes unbearable and unsustainable and calls into play the other side of his nature.  In Othello's case it is the impure vital depths that rise in jealousy.  In Edmund the inner content is pure and good  (Eg: he first seeks his father, only then Mercedes), but the outer nature is naive and unsuspecting.  He lacks the wisdom and alertness to protect himself, his woman, his position from attack.  The years in prison impart that mental capacity which he lacked as a youth. 

            15.   Mercedes is beautiful, but not capable of true loyalty while Edmund is essentially loyal; therefore their marriage was broken.  Mercedes who betrayed her oath never to marry any man but Edmund, is married to Fernand who betrays his oath of loyalty to Napoleon (deserting to England during the 100 days) and Ali Pacha. 

            16.   Morrel and his son both undergo prolonged suffering before Dantes restores good fortune to them (Morrel 90 days till the pronotes expire and Maximillian 30 days during which he believes Valentine dead) -- this indicates their goodness was not an inherent natural possession, but something acquired.  Therefore life's response is not immediate. 

            17.   At the age of 20, Edmund who was good, honest and noble, lacked the knowledge of human nature, alertness, sagacity, and cunning necessary to marry a  beautiful woman and assume a captaincy, both coveted by others with less scruples than himself.  His arrest and imprisonment are a direct result of this weakness in his character.

            18.   Dantes is charged with conspiring for Napoleon's return.  In fact it is true that he did serve that purpose.  The letter he delivered to the Emperor helped Napoleon gain freedom from his island prison for a hundred days.  The price Dantes paid was years of imprisonment on an island  like Napoleon.

            19.   The death of Captain Le Clerc before he could deliver the letter to Napoleon reflected the weight of that mission.  Le Clerc was not strong enough to accomplish it, Dantes was.  Le Clerc paid with his life; Dantes retained his life but lost everything else -- his job, his love, his name.

            20.   Napoleon's letter to Noirtier never reached its destination.  It foreshadowed the failure of Napoleon's return.  For a few moments in his life a sailor named Dantes came face to face with Napoleon.  Dantes's later life -- the knowledge and wealth he attained -- were reminiscent of a gift from the Emperor who possessed both in great measure.

            21.   Dantes could not suppress his joy at Le Clerc's  death which made his promotion to Captain certain.  His joy brought Le Clerc's misfortune on Dantes in a different form. His premature joy evokes a hostile reaction that deprives him of even what he had.

            22.   Dantes, like Othello, was overwhelmed by the ecstatic good fortune that greeted his return to France -- captaincy at the age of twenty and marriage to a beautiful girl.  He too could not support that peak of joy and swiftly turned into an equal intensity of despair. 

            23.   There was a close parallel between Dantes and Villefort.  Both were at the beginning of a bright career.  Both met on their betrothal days.  What should have ended Villefort's career and marriage plans he used to fulfill his highest ambitions by simultaneously destroying Dantes' life and marriage.  The letter Dantes received from the hands of the Emperor brought Villefort into the presence and graces of King Louis XVIII.  One man's fortune was another's disaster. 

            24.   What brought about Dantes's fall?  The negative atmosphere around his life, the jealousy of Danglars  for his job and Fernand for his would-be wife (and perhaps Caderousse for his wealth).  Dantes's father nearly starved for want of money during Dantes last voyage. It was an omen of things to come, for his father did starve to death. Edmund failed to see the danger.

            25.   When Napoleon returns to power, Morrel tries to assert his power as a Bonapartist over Villefort in order to aid Dantes. But Villefort is more clever than Morrel and matches his social assertion with a social bluff.

            26.  From the moment of his arrest until his decision to starve to death in prison several years after his arrival, Dantes life was in a steep decline.  Suddenly when he was near his very last breath, virtually dead, the pendulum began its upward swing beginning with the sound of the Abbe's digging.  From then on the climb was steady -- the meeting with the Abbe, friendship, acquisition of knowledge, the hope of the treasure, his escape to the island, the wreck of the ship providing him wood to float on, the arrival of the smugglers' ship just before the discovery of his escape, his acceptance and survival with the smugglers, the smugglers' plan to land at Monte Cristo, the discovery of the treasure. 

            27.   Jacobo is the one who pulls the drowning Dantes out of the water, saving his life, and lends him some clothes. When Dantes is wounded by a customs officer's bullet while trading smuggled goods, Jacobo leaps to attend on him with greatest concern. Dantes tests him by offering to give half his prize money from the raid, but Jacobo refuses it. He is attracted to Dantes as a superior man and natural leader. When Dantes is apparently injured on Monte Cristo, Jacobo offers to relinquish his share in the smuggling venture to remain and care for him. Dantes is struck by the loyalty and affection of the smugglers for him. Later Jacobo becomes captain of Dantes boat.

            28.   When Dantes is wounded, he feels the joy of strength and says 'Pain, thou art not evil.' Pain has been the teacher that gave him knowledge, strength and wealth. Therefore, in trying to help others -Morrel and Maximillian, Dantes resorts to the only teacher he knows - pain.

            29.   The treasure belonged to Cardinal Spada who dies of poisoning. It serves Dantes and Haydee primarily as an instrument for vengeance.

            30.   After escaping from prison, Dantes in disguise as the Abbe Busoni meets Caderousse and tries to reward the outer action by presenting Caderousse with the diamond. It brings out the evil in Caderousse and his wife and he responds directly by murdering the jeweler. Caderousse ends up in prison and lives the rest of his life as a criminal. For trying to give Caderousse what he did not deserve, Caderousse tries to take his life when he stabs Abbe Busoni during his attempted robbery of the Count's house in Paris.

            31.   When Dantes escapes and returns 20 years later, Morrel loses the Pharaon which Dantes had sailed on and becomes bankrupt. This time he is able to express genuine concern for his crew rather than his cargo and his wealth comes back to him. He has acquired real goodness.

            32.   Mercedes's son Albert had an aristocratic Parisian friend, Franz, who stumbled on Monte Cristo's island while in search of adventure and was entertained by the Count in his grotto paradise.  Later one night in the Coliseum, Franz overheard the Count arranging with the outlaw Vampa for the release of a peasant who was sentenced for execution in Rome.  A day later Franz recognized the Count in a box at the opera and learned  that the Count was living on the same floor of the same hotel as he and Albert in Rome. Still later, Albert is kidnapped by Vampa. By what mechanism of life was Albert, Fernand's son, put in intimate contact with his father's bitter enemy? The link was always a smuggler or outlaw.  Franz's adventure on the Isle of Monte Cristo was after warnings that it was a smuggler's haven and with the intention of dining with the smugglers on the shore to share their roast goat.  He dined with the Count instead, who befriended smugglers and thieves.  The night he overhead the Count and Vampa at the Coliseum, it was after he and Albert had been expressly warned of the danger of Vampa by their hotel patron and they chose to ignore it.  Franz had been further warned of the Count's links by the patron's story of the Count's initial encounter with Vampa within hours befire Vampa became chief of the bandits. Meeting the Count and exchanging gifts with him propelled Vampa from mere shepherd to the top of the criminal profession!

            33.   The Countess G's prescient fear of the Count and warning to Franz  and Franz's own anxiety and discomfort with the Count did not prevent he and Albert from availing of the Count's hospitality.  Albert was finally committed to return the Count's kindness after the Count saved him from Vampa and got him released.  The Count had innumerable links with the underworld including his rescue by the smugglers after his escape from prison and the smuggler who employed as a steward. As an outcaste and escaped criminal, Dantes felt a natural affinity with criminals. The young men's thirst for adventure brought them into touch with that world and through it with the Count.

            34.   From Edmund's side his very deep and intense craving to avenge the evil done to him by Albert's father and the others was an all-powerful force that attracted the proper circumstances for their fulfillment.

            35.   Albert's search for an illicit secret love affair led him into Vampa's trap -- sex and crime are so closely linked. 

            36.   The Countess' instinctive repulsion to the Count who she feels is a Vampire is actually an unconscious attraction.  In Paris she unknowingly supports the Count's entry in the horse race which wins the cup and is intrigued when she finds the cup waiting for her at her home.

 

B.     Edmund & Mercedes

            1.       Mercedes is a good girl socially. She acts out with a sense of honesty, propriety and goodwill. She seeks to be honest and fair with her cousin Fernand, she is caring and concerned about Edmund's father, she is affectionate with Edmund and longs and suffers for him as well as herself when he is imprisoned. After hearing the report of his fall into the sea, she dreams of his death every night for years and later has herself painted as the Catalan girl in front of a dark hillside.

            2.       Why then does such a good, loyal girl end marrying a traitor like Fernand who is capable of any betrayal? The principle is that when we live on the surface we attract to ourselves that which is similar to our own nature. Thus, a socially good Mercedes is attracted to Edmund who is psychologically good. But her social goodness cannot fulfill his psychological need. Both he and she need to evolve beyond their present attainments and neither can be the source of that evolution for the other. Mercedes must outgrow the social goodness of being a beautiful, happy loyal girl to become a psychological person. That requires separation from that which would fulfill her socially. A deeper principle is that when we are making a progress beyond the level of our present endowment we attract that which is necessary to complete that progress, which is very often the opposite of that which we are or possess. Mercedes marries a treacherous, unscrupulous man incapable of the psychological feelings she is trying to evolve. She develops and expresses them in her relationship with her son. Her progress is from social goodness to psychological depth through a process of estrangement, a marriage of form that lacks inner substance, the discovery of Fernand's betrayal and her renunciation of the title, wealth, property and security he had given her in favor of real psychological right or goodness. The strength she confesses to Edmund that she lacked at the time of his imprisonment she acquired through her life and is now able to exercise to leave Fernand. Had she possessed that inner goodness and strength at the outset, she would not have needed to undergo that separation from Edmund.

            3.       On his part, Edmund also needed to make a psychological progress from surface attachment to deeper emotions. He is separated from all that he loves and cherishes, but later forges a relationship with a real psychological personality, Heidi, a woman capable of mature, deep emotions of loyalty and devotion. Edmund is forced to give up the social forms of recognition, wife, career and become a true psychological individual. When he makes that progress, he meets and is loved by another psychological individual.
 

  C.     Vampa

            1.       Cucumetto , the bandit chief, had raped Rita, the lover of his gang member, Carlina. Carlina then killed Rita to save her the humiliation of further molestation by the gang.  Rita's father came and learning the facts killed himself.  A few days later Cucumetto shot Carlina in the back anticipating Carlina's plan for revenge.  Once when Cucumetto was escaping from the soldiers he was hidden by the shepherd boy Luigi Vampa and his girlfriend Teresa.  Luigi refused to turn him in despite the offer of a big reward. 

            2.       Luigi and Teresa are invited to their master's, Comte de San Felice, masquerade ball.  For want of a fourth appropriate lady dancing partner, Teresa is invited to fill in and a noblemen extends an amorous proposition to her.  Overcome with jealousy, that night Luigi steals the Countess' precious gown and jewels for Teresa.  When he gives the dress to Teresa, the Count happens to arrive asking for directions.  Luigi walks off to show him the way and they exchange gifts of friendship.  On his return Luigi sees Teresa being carried off by Cucumetto and he kills Cucumetto with a bullet in the back just as Cucumetto had killed Carlina.  Luigi decides to become an outlaw and is chosen as chief. 

            3.       Carlina had learned that resorting to force as a way of life also exposes what is dear to him to the same force.  He and his love die for it, since he is not strong enough for revenge.  His revenge is fulfilled by Vampa when Cucumetto tries to repeat the act against Teresa.  Vampa's initial encounter with the Count has two immediate results. He loses Teresa only to recover her by homicide and he becomes chief of the bandits.  Again the Count is linked to bandits.  Sometime later Vampa and ten of his gang try to capture the Count not recognizing him, but the Count captures Luigi and his men, then lets them go in a show of friendship.  The Count is the only one who has defeated the outlaw Vampa. Where does his power come from?  It comes from being an outlaw himself of greater energy and purpose; though like Luigi essentially not evil in nature. 

            4.       The Count cements their relationship when he arranges for the release of Pepino, an innocent shepherd boy who helped feed Vampa's gang and was sentenced to death for complicity with the bandits. 

            5.       In return Vampa becomes an unconscious aid to the Count's scheme for revenge when Vampa kidnaps Albert and gives the Count the opportunity to save Albert's life by asking Vampa to release him, which he does.  The Count's life is in harmony with those of other underworld characters.

 

 D.     Caderousse: 
 

            1.       He felt and expressed strong jealousy of Dantes when he returns to port and is likely to be made Captain.

            2.       He was not a conscious participant in Danglar's plot against Edmund.  He was drunk while the scheming took place, but protested against the very suggestion of implementing it.  When he realized Danglars has acted, he is restrained by Danglar's warning that he too may be arrested along with  Dantes.

            3.       While Dantes was at sea, Caderousse demanded the return of his loan to Edmund from Edmund's father who by complying deprived himself of sufficient money and nearly starved to death. 

            4.       After Dantes's imprisonment, his father did die of voluntary starvation of which Caderousse was an innocent by-stander.  Later Caderousse's business failed, he bought the Port de Gard tavern and became bankrupt.  After the death of his first wife, he remarried and his second wife got marsh fever which made her a half crippled, constantly suffering termagant. 

            5.       At this moment when Caderousse had fallen to the very depths and had nothing more to lose, Edmund returned disguised as the Abbe Busoni and gave him the 50,000 franc jewel in return for the information about the others which Caderousse rendered with honesty.

            6.       Instead of becoming a turning point in Caderousse's life leading to recovery and happiness as it did for Morrel's family, the jewel evoked their greed, and led to the jeweler's murder, his wife's death and Caderousse's conviction for life imprisonment.  Later he meets Benedetto and escapes. 

            7.       Why did Dantes' gift have such a different affect on Caderousse and Morrel? Because Morrel was essentially positive, Caderousse essentially negative.

 

 E.     Morrel:  
 

            1.       Like Caderousse, M. Morrel suffered a long downward spiral of fortune after Edmund's imprisonment.  He made innumerable attempts to discover Edmund's fate and get him released, but to no avail.  When Edmund's father was short of funds, Morrel left a purse of gold on his mantle. 

            2.       Edmund returned fourteen years later when Morrel was on the verge of bankruptcy.  By purchasing Morrel's pro-notes from his creditors, Edmund saved him from the humiliation of dishonouring his debts.  The very moment that they met, news came that Morrel's last ship, the Pharaon   - Edmund's own -- had sunk, and that Morrel was broke.  Edmund gave him three month's extension, then canceled the notes, gave a 100,000 franc diamond to Morrel's daughter as dowry and replaced the lost Pharaon with its cargo.

            3.       Morrel's goodness is amply demonstrated not only by his concern for Edmund' father, but at his great joy on learning the crew of the Pharaon had been save at the very moment  he  believe he was totally ruined.

            4.       Until his death Morrel constantly sought to discover the identity of his benefactor and came to suspect it was none other than Edmund.  So great was his desire to discover and offer gratitude, that sure knowledge of that it was Edmund came as an inspiration the moment before his death.  

 

 F.     Bertuccio:                   
 

            1.       He was a Corsican smuggler whose brother, an officer in Bonaparte's army, was murdered by Royalists after the second restoration.  When Bertuccio applied to Villefort for legal action against the murders, he was roughly rebuffed. Bertuccio swore revenge against Villefort. Three months later Bertuccio tracked Villefort to his country  house at Auteuil where Villefort had gone for a rendezvous with Hermione de Nargonne (now Madame Danglars after her first husband had died a few months earlier) who was about to give birth to their illegitimate child.  When the child was born, Villefort thought it still-born or smothered it (?) and buried it in the garden.  Bertuccio stabbed him, dug up the box and escaped only to discover he was carrying a nearly dead infant.

            2.       Bertuccio's sister-in-law (brother's widow) raised the child, Benedetto, with deep affection, but when the evil boy was in his late teens he and a few friends attacked the woman who burned to death and they stole all Bertuccio's money and disappeared.  Unknowingly she was raising the means of avenging her husband's death.

            3.       Bertuccio, a lucky smuggler, was one day nearly caught and narrowly escaped to the Pont De Gard tavern run by Caderousse and concealed himself in a closet under the stairway just in time to witness to arrival of Caderousse and the jeweler who offered to buy the F50,000 diamond given Caderousse by the Abbe (Edmund).  Bertuccio overheard Caderousse's story and the theft which resulted in the death of Caderousse's wife and the jeweler while Caderousse escaped.  Bertuccio was arrested by the customs officers who overheard the shot nearby, was imprisoned for murder and released when the Abbe came to confirm his story, then on the Abbe's recommendation joined up with the Count.

            4.       Benedetto became a criminal, joined the same prison as Caderousse and later escaped.  Caderousse too later escaped and found Benedetto at Auteuil playing the role of Andrea Cavalcanti  which the Count has established for him. 

            5.       Interpretation: 

            a)       Villefort punished Edmund as a Bonapartist.  He is nearly assassinated and his affair with Hermione and infanticide are discovered when he allows the murder of another Bonapartist to go free, thus evoking Bertuccio's revenge.

            b)       Bertuccio, suffering from a similar offense by Villefort, is a willing and suitable instrument for Edmund's revenge.  Villefort's vulnerability arises from his own violation of law and morals by his affair and attempted infanticide. 

 

 G.     Life Events
 

            1.       Napoleon's letter which Dantes was carrying was for Villefort's father, Noirtier, making it imperative for Villefort to somehow conceal the fact and resulting in Edmund's imprisonment. 

            2.       Just as Edmund is about to die of self-imposed starvation, he hears the sound of Abbe Faria's excavations and therefore decides to live.  Knowledge, freedom and wealth follow.

            3.       Dantes is rescued from the sea after his escape from prison by the sudden wreck of a fishing boat and the passing of a smugglers' ship.

            4.       Disguised as a representative of a Roman banker, Dantes meets Morrel on the very day Morrel's last ship, Pharaon, is lost and Morrel is ruined. (Dantes's desire to repay Morrel's help, brings him just at the most opportune moment.)

            5.       Bertuccio swears revenge against Villefort, the same man Dantes seeks, and discovers Villefort's secret affair and infanticide

            6.       Bertuccio, trying to escape the customs agent, witnesses the murder of the jeweler and Caderousse's wife's death.  The storm outside conspires to aid Caderousse in his plot.

            7.       The Count meets Bertuccio and learns Villefort's secret through Bertuccio's chance encounter with Caderousse and Bertuccio,s arrest.

            8.       The child Bertuccio saved, Benedetto, killed Bertuccio's sister-in-law as Benedetto's father, Villefort, had condoned the murder of Bertuccio's brother.

            9.       Bertuccio meets Caderousse in prison.

            10.   Benedetto also meets Caderousse in prison and later again in Paris.

            11.   Franz arrives by chance at Monte Cristo isle and meets the Count -- or is it by the Count's contrivance?

            12.   Albert and Franz reside on the same floor of the same hotel in Rome as the Count - again  perhaps the Count's contrivance?

            13.   Franz overhears the Count's discussion with Vampa in the coliseum.

            14.   Vampa's meeting with the Count the first time coincides with Cuccumetto's kidnapping of Teresa and Vampa's turning bandit.

            15.   Vampa's kidnapping of Albert and Albert's release by the Count may have been contrived by the Count, but if so it is Albert who responds to the lure.

            16.   The flight of  Madame Danglar's carriage with Madame Villefort and Edmund inside which Ali halted -- the Count's contrivance surely since he returned the same horses to Madame Danglars just hours before and he had Ali waiting for them to pass by. 

            17.   In the early part of his life, Edmund is subject to the whims of life -- his captain's death, Danglar's plot, Villefort's betrayal, Abbe's excavation.    As the Count he learns to drive life and make it respond to his wishes -- Bertuccio,  Albert, Franz, Benedetto all aid his plots.

            18.   Maximillian overhears the doctor inform Villefort that his mother-in-law died of poisoning,  (a poison given to Villefort's wife by the Count).

            19.   Madame Villefort, Villefort's second wife, poisoned Marquis Madame de Saint Meran, the parents of Villefort's first wife, with poison that Madame Villefort obtained from the Count.  The St. Meran's were present at Villefort's betrothal to Renee St Meran at the time when Edmund was arrested.  The parents instinctively urged a severe punishment for the unknown suspect, while the daughter who died after bearing Valentine, pleaded for mercy.  Even at her death, Madam St. Meran sided with Villefort, urged Valentine's immediate marriage to Franz which opposes Valentine's and Maximillian's hopes.

            20.   The news of Marquis de St. Meran's death came at the Mercerf's ball at the moment that Edmund and Mercedes are talking privately for the first time.  Their meeting signals the beginning of calamity in Villefort's house.

 

        

 

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