The Count of Monte Cristo: Honor

Rachael Kerr
AP English 11
September 10, 2009
The Count of Monte Cristo Suicide (Notes)
In the times that the Count of Monte Cristo takes place, suicide was considered an honorable action. By taking your own life, it showed that you had a sense of self pride; the idea is that if you are willing to take you own life, you know that what you did was seriously wrong. A perfect example of this is Monsieur Morrel. Quite a few terrible things happened to him while Dantes was gone, and all of them were out of his control; Morrel ran a shipping company in which several of his ship had sunken. Although he could not afford it, Morrel paid every living sailor on each ship their wages as if nothing had happened. Finally, Morrel cannot afford another ship after his last one sunk and he paid the sailors, so he plans to kill himself and leave the business to his family. While he planned to do this in secret, Maximilian (his son) entered the room and questioned: “‘Father…why have you a brace of pistols under your coat?’”(183). After being caught by his son, Morrel explains that “[b]lood washes out dishonor” (184) and “[he] should be looked upon as a man who has broken his word and failed in his engagements” (185). And he believes, by killing himself, it not only shows his honor, it leaves honor behind for his family; as he tells his son; “When I am dead, you will raise your head and say ‘I am the son of him who killed himself because for the first time in his life, he was unable to keep his word’”(185). In the end, he does not kill himself because Dantes as Sinbad the Sailor rewards Morrel with a sum of money large enough to get him back on his feet. However, suicide was not always an idea implied to ones’ self in The Count of Monte Cristo. In fact, in the case of Madame Villefort suicide is forced upon her by her husband. After finding out what Madame Villefort had been murdering the people in his household, Monsieur Villefort becomes enraged, threatening her with death. He informs her that justice will be done and that “[he] should send the executioner to any other woman were she the Queen herself, but to [Madame Villefort] [he is] merciful! To [her] [he says]: ‘Madame, have you not put aside a few drops of the most potent, the swiftest, and deadliest poison?” (561). Villefort gives his wife the option of killing herself with the poison she used to kill everyone else, thereby bestowing some sort of honor about her. In the end she follows through, but not without taking her child Edward with her. When it comes to honor, some people will strike or act out against other to either protect their own or a loved one’s’ honor. A perfect example would be Albert de Morcerf; he challenges Danglars to a duel to protect his father’s honor: “Albert was resolved to kill the unknown person who had struck this blow his father” (457). This striving to protect his father’s honor made Albert delve into a blind rage. In fact, while he believed that Danglars was the one to disrespect his father, it was actually Dantes as the Count of Monte Cristo who told Danglars all the things he used to disrespect Albert’s father. While this protection of honor was not suicide, it was most certain that it would end in death; either Albert or Danglars would be killed. The dual was considered an honorable practice because it involved facing that which compromised your honor; if you won, your honor was restored, if you lost, you were dead. In the end, Albert does not go through with the dual and realizes what kind of a person his father really is, one that does not deserve honor and to have his honor defended.