1) Is The Count of Monte Cristo reminding anyone of A Tale of Two Cities? (Dickens, a Francophile, met Dumas and would’ve read TCoMC before writing AToTC.) Beyond the plot-driven structure (owing to serial publication), the backdrop of French political turmoil, and the focus on the lower classes is a fourth similarity that strikes me here: the doubling of characters (a major plot driver in AToTC and a manifestation of the 19th-century fascination with doppelgängers). /complit nerd-out

In TCoMC, the two pairs of young soon-to-be-newlyweds whose love is characterized as heavenly/paradisal are an example of doubling. Are Villefort and Renée foils for or mirrors of Dantès and Mercédès, respectively?

2) What does Villefort’s comparison of a trial to a duel suggest about French society of the time?

3) Can Villefort escape the stain of his father’s erstwhile support of Napoléon or is he destined to be looked down upon by pure royalists such as the marquise de Saint-Méran?

4) How do you reconcile Villefort’s rabid desire to prosecute Bonapartists with his sensitivity to Renée’s queasiness about this zeal?

Final sentence of chapter:

“Renée replied to that look with her sweetest smile, and Villefort went out with heaven in his heart.”

previous chapter discussion