[Abstract] This paper centers on the lovers conflicts among (3)
2013-07-24 01:05
导读：Dumas was also a generous man, granting money and gifts to virtually anyone who asked. Dumas self-indulgent lifestyle and excessive generosity eventually took a toll on his finance. By the time he suf
Dumas was also a generous man, granting money and gifts to virtually anyone who asked. Dumas’ self-indulgent lifestyle and excessive generosity eventually took a toll on his finance. 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.
2.3 The origin of the story of The Counte of Monte Cristo
Dumas’ liberal borrowing from outside sources occasionally brought him accusations of plagiarism. While he lifted many of his plotlines from the works of other authors and from historical events, he molded these stories in his own characteristic way, making them his own. The Count of Monte Cristo is an example of the appropriation process Dumas frequently employed. His inspiration for the novel was from an anecdote he read in Memoires historiques tires des archives de la police de Paris,[6]a collection of intriguing criminal cases recorded by Jacques Peuchet, a former police archivist. The anecdote relates that in 1807, a man named François Piçaud became engaged to a pretty and wealthy girl, inspiring the envy of his friends. One of these friends, Loupian, persuaded the others to join him in denouncing Piçaud as an English spy. Though innocent of the charge, Piçaud was arrested and kept in prison for seven years. While in prison, he befriended a rich Italian cleric who left Piçaud his vast fortune when he died. Piçaud returned to Paris in 1815 as a wealthy man. Using his wealth, as well as numerous disguises, he enacted a complex plan to avenge himself on his enemies, murdering several of them. Though this real-life story has all the essential plot elements of Dumas’ novel, it lacks the fantastical, epic proportions of a great melodrama. Dumas’ greatest gift was his ability to grant epic proportion to existing stories.[7]
3. Introduction of the lovers’ relationship
Edmond Dantes — The protagonist of the novel. This paper refers to Dantes by his given name until Chapter 30, after which he is generally referred to him as the count of Monte Cristo.
Mercédes — Dantes’ beautiful and good fiancée. Though Mercédes marries another man, Mondego Mondego while Dantes is in prison, she never stops loving Dantes. Mercédes is one of the few whom Dantes both punishes (for her disloyalty) and rewards (for her enduring love and underlying goodness).
Mondego — Dantes’ rival for Mercédes’ affections. Mondego helps in framing Dantes for treason and then marries Mercédes himself when Dantes 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 Dantes’ vengeance.
Haydée — The daughter of Ali Pacha, the vizier of the Greek state of Yanina. Haydée is sold into slavery after her father is betrayed by Mondego and murdered. Dantes purchases Haydée’s freedom and watches her grow into adulthood, eventually falling in love with her.
Gérard de Villefort — The blindly ambitious public prosecutor responsible for sentencing Dantes to life in prison, who is just going to marry Renee for his political reasons.
Renee – the daughter of M. de Saint Meran (Villefort’s senior). Renee likes Villefort , who pays more attention other than herself.
Altogether there are four couples of lovers. Their relationship can show as follows:
Dantes Mondego
Mercedes
Villefort Renee
means love
Love has run through The Count of Monte Cristo. Everything comes from it and ends with it.
4. The devastation of love （科教范文网http://fw.ΝsΕΑc.com编辑）
4.1 Love – the last straw of revenge
At the very beginning of The Count of Monte Cristo, we can easily find Dantes’ deep love for Mercedes. Only having a necessary talk with his boss and his father, Dantes immediately goes to meet Mercedes who expects Dantes no less impatiently than his father. However, it is Mondego who also declares that he loves Mercedes. “… Make me understand once for all that you are trifling with my happiness, that my life or death is nothing to you. Ah, to have dreamed for ten years of being your husband, Mercedes, and to lose that hope, this was the only stay of my existence!"[8]
But it is Mondego who stays with Mercedes all the time when Dantes is on his duty leaving Mercedes. Mondego always looks at Mercedes with “an air in which vexation and uneasiness were mingled. He questioned her with his eyes, but the firm and steady gaze of the young girl controlled his look.” Yes, he loves her so that he wants her to become his own belongings. Because she is “trifling with his happiness, that his life or death are immaterial to her” .Even Mondego “have dreamed for ten years of being her husband, and to lose that hope, with was the only stay of his existences.” What’s Mercedes response? “I love Edmond Dantes” the young girl calmly replied, “and none but Edmond shall ever be my husband.”
