At the trial, Benedetto reveals that he is Villefort’s son and was rescued after Villefort buried him alive, having learned the truth from Bertuccio. Villefort admits his guilt and rushes home to prevent his wife’s suicide, but he is too late; she is dead and has poisoned her son Édouard as well. The Count confronts Villefort, revealing his true identity, which drives Villefort insane. Dantès tries but fails to resuscitate Édouard, causing him to question if his revenge has gone too far.
As a result of the Count’s financial manipulations, Danglars is left with a ruined reputation and 5,000,000 francs he has been holding in deposit for hospitals. The Count demands this sum to fulfill their credit agreement, and Danglars embezzles the hospital fund. He flees to Italy with the
Count’s receipt for the cash and 50,000 francs of his own, and he is reimbursed the 5,000,000 francs from the Count’s own bank account. While leaving Rome, he is kidnapped by Luigi Vampa. The bandits extort Danglars’ ill-gotten gains from him by forcing him to pay exorbitant prices for food and water. Dantès anonymously returns the money to the hospitals. Danglars finally repents of his crimes, and a softened Dantès forgives him and allows him to depart with his 50,000 francs.
Resolution and return to the Orient
Maximilien Morrel is driven to despair by Valentine’s apparent death and considers suicide. Dantès reveals his true identity and persuades Maximilien to delay his suicide for one month. One month later, on the island of Monte Cristo, he reunites Valentine with Maximilien and reveals the true sequence of events. Having found peace, Dantès leaves the couple part of his fortune on the island and departs for the East to begin a new life with Haydée, who has declared her love for him. The reader is left with a final line: “l’humaine sagesse était tout entière dans ces deux mots: attendre et espérer!” (“all human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘Wait and Hope'”).
Characters
Edmond Dantès and his aliases
Edmond Dantès (born 1796): A sailor with good prospects, engaged (1815) to Mercédès. After his transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo (1830s), he reveals his true name to his enemies as each revenge is completed. During the course of the novel, he falls in love with Haydée.
The Count of Monte Cristo: The identity Dantès assumes when he emerges from prison and acquires his vast fortune. As a result, the Count of Monte Cristo is usually associated with a coldness and bitterness that come from an existence based solely on revenge. This character thinks of Lord Wilmore as a rival.
Chief Clerk of the banking firm Thomson & French, an Englishman.
Lord Wilmore: An Englishman, and the persona in which Dantès performs random acts of generosity.
Sinbad the Sailor: The persona that Dantès assumes when he saves the Morrel family and while conducting business with smugglers and brigands.
Abbé Busoni: The persona of an Italian priest with religious authority.
Monsieur Zaccone: Dantès, in the guise of the Abbé Busoni, and again as Lord Wilmore, tells an investigator that this is the Count of Monte Cristo’s true name.
Number 34: The name given to him by the new governor of Château d’If. Finding it too tedious to learn Dantès’s real name, he was called by the number of his cell.
The Maltese Sailor: The name he was known by after his rescue by smugglers from the island of Tiboulen.
Allies of Dantès
Abbé Faria: Italian priest, sage and former secretary to Cardinal Spada, imprisoned (1815) in the Château d’If. Edmond’s dearest friend, and his mentor and teacher while in prison. On his deathbed, he reveals to Edmond the secret treasure hidden on Monte Cristo. Partially based on the historical Abbé Faria.
Giovanni Bertuccio: The Count of Monte Cristo’s steward and loyal servant. The Count first meets him in his role as Abbé Busoni, the confessor to Bertuccio, whose past is tied with M. de Villefort. Bertuccio’s sister-in-law Assunta was the adoptive mother of Benedetto.
Luigi Vampa: Celebrated Italian bandit and fugitive.
Peppino: Formerly a shepherd, becomes a member of Vampa’s gang. The Count arranges for his public execution in Rome to be commuted, causing him to be loyal to the Count.
Ali: Monte Cristo’s mute Nubian slave.
Baptistin: Monte Cristo’s valet-de-chambre.
Jacopo: A poor smuggler who helps Dantès survive after he escapes prison. When Jacopo proves his loyalty, Dantès rewards him with his own ship and crew. (Jacopo Manfredi is a separate character, the “bankrupt of Trieste”, whose financial failure contributes to the depletion of Danglars’s fortune.)
Haydée (or Haidee): Monte Cristo’s young, beautiful slave. She is the daughter of Ali Tebelen, sold into slavery by Morcerf after her father was killed. Buying her is part of Dantès’ plan to get revenge on Fernand. At the novel’s end, she and Monte Cristo leave together, presumably to eventually marry.
Morcerf family
Mercédès Mondego (née Herrera): A Catalan girl engaged (1815) to Edmond Dantès. She later marries Fernand, and they have a son, Albert. She is consumed with guilt over Edmond’s disappearance and is able to recognize him when (1830s) they meet again. In the end, she returns to Marseilles, living in a house provided by the Count, praying for Albert. She is portrayed as a compassionate, kind and caring woman who thinks of her loved ones more than herself.
Fernand Mondego, Count de Morcerf: cousin of Mercédès; Edmond’s rival for her affection. Initially (1815) a Catalan fisherman in a Spanish village near Marseilles, Fernand helps Danglars ruin Edmond by sending the denunciation in a desperate but successful attempt to separate him from Mercédès. He marries her, achieves the rank of general in the French army, and purchases a peerage in the Chambre des Pairs, keeping secret his betrayal of the Pasha Alì Tebelen and the selling into slavery of both his daughter Haydée and her mother Vasiliki. He shows a deep affection and care for his wife and son. He (1830s) meets his end by suicide, in the despair of having lost Mercédès and Albert, who disown him when they discover his hidden crimes.
Albert de Morcerf: Son of Mercédès and Fernand. He is (1830s) described as a kind-hearted, joyful and carefree young man, and fond of Monte Cristo, whom he sees as a friend. After acknowledging the truth of his father’s war crimes and the false accusation towards the sailor Edmond Dantès, Albert leaves his home with Mercédès. He starts a new life as a soldier under the name “Herrera” (his mother’s maiden name) and travels to Africa in search of fortune and honor.
Danglars family
Baron Danglars: Dantès’s jealous junior officer (1815) and mastermind behind his imprisonment, writing the letter of denunciation which Fernand mails. He is later (1830s) a wealthy banker, but goes bankrupt and is left with only 50,000 francs, after stealing 5,000,000 francs.
Madame Hermine Danglars (formerly Baroness Hermine de Nargonne née de Servieux): Once a widow, she had an affair with Gérard de Villefort, a married man. They had an illegitimate son, Benedetto.
Eugénie Danglars: Daughter of Baron Danglars and Hermine Danglars. She (1830s) is free-spirited and aspires to become an independent artist.
Villefort family
Gérard de Villefort: The royal prosecutor who (1815) imprisons Dantès to protect his career. He goes insane (1830s) after his crimes are exposed.
Renée de Villefort (née de Saint-Méran): Gérard de Villefort’s first wife, mother of Valentine.
The Marquis and Marquise de Saint-Méran: Renée’s parents.
Valentine de Villefort: The daughter of Gérard de Villefort and his first wife, Renée. She is (1830s) 19 years old with chestnut hair, dark blue eyes, and “long white hands”. Though she is engaged to Baron Franz d’Épinay, she is in love with Maximilien Morrel.
Monsieur Noirtier de Villefort: The father of Gérard de Villefort and grandfather of Valentine, Édouard, and, unknowingly, Benedetto. A committed anti-royalist, it is his plot to restore Napoleon in which (1815) Dantès becomes entangled. He is (1830s) paralyzed and only able to communicate with his eyes, but retains his mental faculties and acts as protector to Valentine.
Héloïse de Villefort: The murderous second wife of Gérard de Villefort, mother of Édouard.
Édouard (or Edward) de Villefort: The only legitimate son of de Villefort.
Benedetto: The illegitimate son of de Villefort and Baroness Hermine Danglars (Hermine de Nargonne), raised by Bertuccio and his sister-in-law, Assunta, in Rogliano. While he and his loutish friends are torturing and trying to rob Assunta, they accidentally kill her. He runs away and later becomes “Andrea Cavalcanti” in Paris.
Morrel family
Pierre Morrel: Dantès’s employer, owner of Morrel & Son. He attempts (1815) to obtain Dantès’s freedom, but is unsuccessful. Later, on the verge of bankruptcy (1830s), he and his family are saved from ruin by the Count.
Maximilien Morrel: Son of Pierre Morrel, an army captain who becomes a friend of Dantès. In love (1830s) with Valentine de Villefort.
Julie Herbault: Daughter of Pierre Morrel, wife of Emmanuel Herbault.
Emmanuel Herbault: An employee of Morrel & Son, who marries Julie Morrel and succeeds to the business.
Other characters
Gaspard Caderousse: A tailor in Marseilles, he was (1815) a neighbor and friend of Dantès who knew of Danglars and Fernand’s plot but did not speak up out of cowardice. Having become an innkeeper (1830s), he is rewarded by “Abbé Busoni” with a valuable diamond for explaining the denunciation plot. He then turns to crime, spends time in prison, and ends up murdered by Andrea Cavalcanti.
Madeleine Caderousse, née Radelle: Wife of Caderousse, who egged him on to murder a Jewish jeweler. Caderousse then killed her to gain ownership of the money.
Louis Dantès: Edmond Dantès’s father, who
