Study Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. Dumas often
writes of Edmond Dantès’s time in prison as if it were a death.
What do you think is the significance of this choice of language?
2. Describe how
The
Count of Monte Cristo reflects the nineteenth-century Romantics’
obsession with the exotic.
3. Monte Cristo’s
last words to Maximilian are “Wait and hope.” What is the significance
of this statement? How does it connect to the larger narrative of
the novel?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. In what sense is Abbé Faria
Dantès’s second father? Do you think that by calling him a “second
father” Dumas is referring to the poisonous knowledge that Faria
gives Dantès in deducing the events behind his imprisonment?
2. How do Julie Morrel and Emmanuel
Herbaut redeem humanity in Monte Cristo’s eyes?
3. Compare Valentine de Villefort
and Eugénie Danglars. In what ways do these characters act as foils
for one another?
4. Edmond Dantès assumes a number
of aliases during the course of the novel, and many other characters
have a variety of different names as well. What do you consider
to be the significance of names in The Count of Monte Cristo?
What do you think is the significance of each of Edmond Dantès’s assumed
names?
5. Compare Madame Danglars and
Mercédès. In what ways do these characters act as foils for each
other?
6. What is the effect of Haydée’s
love for Monte Cristo?
