The Count of Our Lives

Alexandre Dumas’ Classic, Historical Soap Opera—

Character Chaos Made Easy

Hero or Villain?

Edmond Dantes• -In love with Mercedes is falsely accused

and imprisoned• -Lost his love, his father, his career, his

dignity, his faith, and his will to live and be happy.

• -With newly discovered treasure, through well developed plans, he set out to destroy those who he

• felt destroyed him.-Not only did he succeed, but the compassion and love that he felt he lost was also rekindled.

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He longed for one thing:

• With his many disguises,• his wicked intellect, his faithful

servants, and “unlimited” funds at his fingertips, Edmond Dantes sought and obtained justice.

• OR DID HE?

Evil Doer #1 Baron DanglarsHis Heinous Crimes

• Was jealous of Edmond becoming captain of The Pharoan

• Begrudged Dantes for a previous argument and a challenge to a duel in which Danglars declined

• Concocted the plan of portraying Dantes as a conspirator/ Bonapartist who is a supporter of Napolean becoming the ruler of France

Edmond’s Revenge Disguised as the Count of Monte

Cristo, he infiltrates Edmond’s world.

The Count becomes Danglars’ financial customer and loans substantial amounts of money to the Count, in which he eventually can no longer afford.

With the Count’s new “wealthy” suitor for his daughter Eugenie’s hand in marriage, he denounces his 1st agreement to marry her to Albert, and is humiliated when the suitor is a fraud and his daughter runs away to escape marrying

Due to “Speculating” with his wife’s financial “advice,” (that was purposefully incorrect) Danglars loses a substantial amount, the Count’s unlimited account took most of what was remaining, and he skips town to avoid paying the hospitals.

After leaving town, he is kidnapped and only allowed to eat if he pays for it. Out of the 5 million francs he had absconded, he was stripped to only 55,000. When he was desperate enough to give away his last penny for a morsel of food, he was given the one thing the count never gave the others: forgiveness, leaving him shaken, forever changing, and white-headed.

Evil Doer #2 Fernand MondegoHis Heinous Crimes

• Coveted Edmond’s fiancee

• Despised Edmond for having Mercedes’ heart

• Agreed to conspire with Danglars to get Edmond to disappear

• Mailed the letter which condemned Edmond to the Chateau d’ If

• Went away to serve in the military and became Count de Morcerf

• Was a traitor to his own country

• Was a traitor to his own benefactor Ali Pasha

• Finally convinced Mercedes to marry him and they had a son named Albert

What people will do to obtain what they will never truly have

Edmond’s Revenge• Finds himself in the same city

as Fernand’s son Albert and happens to aid d’ Epinay in retrieving Franz’s dear friend after being kidnapped.

• As a sign of gratitude, Albert takes him into his home as a valued guest and introduces the Count into society

• The Count has his secret weapon and heart’s desire, Haydee, brought into the public eye to denounce Fernand for the treacherous villain that he was for killing her father and causing her to be sold into slavery and luckily saved by her beloved Count.

• After losing all of his honor, dignity, and family; Fernand takes his own life by shooting himself.

• Albert discovers the Count’s involvement and wants revenge by challenging him to a duel, in which the Count accepts.

• Mercedes finds out and intervenes begging Count to spare Albert and telling Albert the truth about the Count.

Evil Doer #3 Monsieur de Villefort

• His Heinous Crimes• In order to secure an ideal place

for him in politics and society, Villefort distanced himself from his Bonapartist father, Nortiere.

• In doing so, he purposely condemned Dantes to a life of imprisonment.

• He refused to acknowledge Morrel’s or Mercedes’ pleas for information regarding Edmond.

• In order to keep his affair with Madame Danglars a secret, he attempted to bury his “sin” alive, but the baby was saved by Bertuccio who was actually there to kill him out of vengeance.

Edmond’s Revenge• Disguised as the Count, he

implemented a plan to endear himself to Madame Villefort by his servant saving her son.

• He introduces the uses of poison to Madame Villefor who in order to ensure her beloved Eduoard’s future, she murders 4 people, one of which was accidental.

• He brings to light the truth behind Villefort and Madame Danglars’ affair, resulting in a baby boy that was meant to be killed but never died.

• Although he saves Valentine from death, he reveals Madame Villefort as the killer.

• Villefort condemns his own wife to execution, but in order to keep his name “free of scandal” (how ironic), he implies she use her own weapon on herself.

• He discovers his son is Benedetto and pulls his hair, scratches his face, admits the truth to his paternity, and flees the courtroom only to find his wife has not only killed herself but his own son as well for “a good mother never leaves her son.”

• Villefort is left stark raving mad

Did These Deserve To Be Punished ?

• Edouard

• Madame Villefort

• Mercedes

• Albert de Morcerf

• Madame Danglars

• Caderousse

• Barrois

• Madame Caderousse

ABBE BUSONISINBAD THE SAILOR

LORD WILMORETHE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

EDMOND DANTES

THESE ARE THE COUNTS OF OUR LIVES