Details of the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo", which are not clear in childhood, but open up new meanings when you grow up

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

When teenagers read Dumas, they usually only follow the "adventure" part. But as soon as an adult picks up a seemingly familiar text for a long time, discoveries begin. Some of the things mentioned by the author, according to Russian law, teenagers should not see in books at all … Although they do not see. Rather, it is adults who have been spoiled by a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience.

Magic sorbet

In one of the episodes, the Count of Monte Cristo, getting acquainted with the young Baron d'Epinay, whom he needs in order to become his own in the high society of Paris, introduces the Baron to the "magic sherbet". When d'Epinay asked what it was, the count tells a story about a mountain elder and assassins, thanks to which the baron guesses that he sees hashish (in Russia it belongs to the prohibited substances).

The baron instantly falls in love with a drug, but this is not, according to the plot, any insidiousness. Monte Cristo himself actively uses it. In addition, to sleep, he makes pills of hashish and opium, another narcotic substance. In general, the count is an inveterate drug addict. So is the creator of the book!

In the prefaces to books, this is usually not said, but Alexander Dumas the father was a big fan of hashish in life. He was a member of the so-called hashish club. Its members gathered in one salon, dressed there in Arab burnous, drank wonderful coffee and … used the substance that gave the name to their club. It is interesting that Balzac and Hugo attended the same club, but, unlike its other members, only for the sake of conversations and coffee - and they politely but firmly refused the "main dish".

Masquerade

In general, there is a constant masquerade in the novel. As soon as a person changes his costume, they either stop recognizing him (for example, the count in a suit that is outdated for twenty years is perceived by others as a different person than he is, but in a fashionable tailcoat) or, finally, they recognize him. It is not surprising that someone is constantly changing clothes - and the writer describes this in great detail. Here are two of the most interesting clothing episodes.

Edmond Dantes dresses the body of his neighbor abbot in his suit, and wraps himself naked in his shroud. He does not just portray a dead man - at this moment Dantes, as we know him, dies along with his entire past life. Later, we see a new Edmond focused on revenge and only her, wrapped in a shroud, Dantes is thrown into the sea. He gets out and swims ashore. There, a former sailor discovers a Phrygian cap - exactly like the one on the Marianne, the annually chosen symbol of France. Dantes puts it on immediately. This scene has a double meaning. Such caps were worn as part of the uniform by sailors, and Dantes was worn by a sailor. He seems to be recovering in his status, after many years of being deprived of any decent status in society.

On the other hand, the Phrygian cap was a symbol of the French Revolution. The very embodied revolution or freedom was portrayed in this particular headdress. So it is not surprising that the cap marks the release of Dantes after a long prison sentence with a bright marker.

The second interesting episode related to dressing up is the escape of Eugenie Danglars, the daughter of one of Dantes' enemies. She gets herself a passport in a man's name, cuts off her hair and changes into a man's suit. The only one who sees the transformation is Louise, her friend. Louise declares that Eugénie is charming in this form and looks like a kidnapper (meaning - a popular romantic motive for stealing her beloved). Eugénie replies that this is so, she kidnaps Louise.

As if to heighten the ambiguity of their dialogue, in the next episode they are shown sleeping in the same bed in a hotel. Everything is described innocently enough that Dumas did not stop publishing, but the hints seem clear enough. Especially when you consider that in the days of Dumas, orientation was closely linked with gender representation, that is, in lesbian couples, one often dressed as a man, and in gay couples one of the men often wore women's dresses. Perhaps, of course, Dumas himself did not understand what the scenes with Eugénie and Louise look like, but traditionally this couple is usually interpreted as lovers. Among adults, of course.

Villefort is not that scoundrel

Prosecutor Villefort remains in the memory of readers very often as one of the scoundrels. He put Dantes behind bars, knowing that he was innocent. But if you reread the text carefully, you can see that Villefort was by nature just an honest man. However, the compromising letter that Dantes was carrying could seriously harm his father, Monsieur Noirtier. An elderly relative could not only die in prison - even before the trial did not live up to the excitement. Villefort had to make a difficult choice: the life and honor of his father, or the life and honor of a stranger to him. Moreover, the young man was threatened with social death, and not real. Is it any wonder Villefort chose to save his father? Of course, the arrest of his father would have hit Villefort himself.

Monte Cristo himself is actually a slave owner

In France, slavery was abolished during the French Revolution, but the two companions of Monte Cristo cannot be called anything other than slaves. He bought them, they are completely dependent on him and do not dare to show independence. We are talking about a dumb Nubian (that is, a Sudanese), a black lackey Ali, and Princess Gaida, the daughter of the treacherously murdered Albanian Pasha Ali-Tebelin. Their slavish, slave position under the graph is described more than once, and it does not seem that Dumas considers such an attitude of Dantes to people a negative trait.

Monte Cristo uses state-of-the-art technology

At that time, newspapers were analogous to modern social networks and television. They were read by everyone, young and old. The freshness of the news was provided by cutting edge technology - the electrically telegraph. Both are actively used by Monte Cristo to ruin Danglars and force the slave trader and traitor Morser to commit suicide. In fact, getting into the telegram transmission system of newspapers at that time was like resorting to the services of a hacker - with the help of the telegraph, Monte Cristo launches fake news that literally crashed the stock exchange.

Monte Cristo is similar to Raskolnikov

Teenage readers mostly skip his discourses on morality and revenge, and they are highlighted in the text, like Raskolnik's reflections on the right to kill. At the end of the book, Monte Cristo, just like Raskolnikov, repents of what he has done and leaves for voluntary confinement on his island. True, he takes Haide and a bunch of servants with him, so his island can hardly be considered a real analogue of a prison.

In the plot of Monte Cristo, Dumas, as in many other cases, used the political realities of France's past. He did the same in the books about the musketeers, referring to the history of one of the most famous love triangles. What Really Happened Between Richelieu, Buckingham and the Queen: When Love Makes Politics.