1) Dantès hadn’t paid off his debt to Caderousse (despite having the funds), he lies to Caderousse about the source of the money on the table, and he possesses contraband coffee; are these moral blemishes on his character or the excusable actions of a man in a dire financial situation?

2) Having deprived himself mightily in order to subsist on a measly 60 francs for three months, old Dantès shows a remarkable capacity for suffering in silence. Does young Dantès seem like his father in this regard or does the physical reunion between father and son serve to highlight a difference in their characters?

3) “We are never quits towards those who have done us a favor,” Dantès states to Caderousse, adding that gratitude will always be owed. Does this sentiment reveal him as pragmatic or overly cynical?

4) Dantès thinks Caderousse is two-faced; Caderousse grumbles that Dantès is arrogant. Is one right and the other wrong or does each have a case?

Final sentence of chapter:

“Certain that he was in Les Catalans, they sat under the budding leaves of the plane-trees and sycamores, in the branches of which a happy band of birds was serenading one of the first fine days of spring.”

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