1) In Chapter 4 (“The Plot”), Danglars uses wine to weaken Caderousse’s resistance to the scheme against Dantès; here, La Carconte serves wine to the jeweler, and a rain of blood eventually ensues. Given other allusions in the story to Christianity, does the “red” in Caderousse’s name suggest some sort of transubstantiation?

2) What do you think pushes Caderousse from disgust at his wife’s scheming to the apparent murder of the jeweler? Is the count’s treasure cursed?

3) What enables Caderousse to confess without scapegoating his wife and Bertuccio to avoid seeking vengeance on Benedetto while the count can think of nothing but revenge?

4) Just as the geography of the narrative seems to bend to the count’s will, so does the cast of characters; does the casual re-introduction of the Greek woman from Rome, Haydée, as the count’s apparent mistress contribute to a sense that the count has mesmerized the narrator? Or is Dumas simply trying to move the story along by bringing characters together swiftly?

Final sentence of chapter:

“In another hour every light in the house was extinguished, and it might have been thought that all its inmates slept.”

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