The Count of Monte Cristo Characters

Edmond Dantès is a man of many faces and many disguises. He gives Halloween a run for its money. And, yet, who is this guy really? Somewhere along the way, we almost forget who the Count...

You wouldn't to get in a fistfight with Fernand Mondego. He's a big dude, and a passionate one. As a young man he longs for Mercédès; his passion for her is so great that he vows to kill...

As a young woman, Mercédès is kind of one-dimensional character. She's beautiful, exotic, and faithful. She has a kind heart. She's happy for Edmond when he returns and she cries for him...

Albert is the son of Fernand and Mercédès. When you first met him, you probably hated him, yeah? When he's in Rome, he doesn't do as the Romans do; he acts like an arrogant little brat, m...

Danglars, SupercargoDanglars's motive is pretty darn boring: he's jealous of a younger, more attractive, more talented co-worker. He's sort of like Dwight on The Office, minus the glasses and nerdi...

Madame Danglars is an enterprising, independent woman. She's landed herself a rich husband. Using certain "government connections," she's found a way to become independently wealthy, too. All posit...

Eugénie Danglars isn't like the other girls. Dumas makes it clear as day:As for her upbringing, if there was anything to be said against it, it was that, like some traits of her physiognomy, i...

Young VillefortYoung Villefort is the closest thing we get to a foil for Edmond. He's young, he's lucky in love, and his job prospects are good. Oh, and in case the parallels weren't clear enough,...

Monte Cristo may be baddest of the bad and the coolest of the cool, but Monsieur Noirtier sure does give him a run for his money. Diehard revolutionary, expert duelist, advisor to Napoleon, loyal g...

Valentine is kind and beautiful and devoted. Her father loves her, her grandfather loves her, and so does pretty much every other man around. Here's the Dumas's description of the crowd at her (fak...

OK, try this on for size. Suppose that we divide Gérard de Villefort's life in two parts: before Edmond Dantès and after Edmond Dantès. With us so far? OK. So, back before Edmond cam...

Poor little Edward gets the short end of the stick. His father doesn't love him. His mother does love him, but she can only express it by poisoning other people. He's so strange and creepy that he,...

Rebirth's a big deal in The Count of Monte Cristo. Edmond Dantès becomes the Count of Monte Cristo, Danglars the supercargo becomes Danglars the ultra-rich banker, etc. Benedetto is unique, th...

Bertuccio is the Count's right-hand man. When Monte Cristo wants something done, he goes to Bertuccio, because he knows Bertuccio will carry out his orders to a tee. He buys everything from boats t...

Like his fellow convict Benedetto (a.k.a. Andrea Cavalcanti), Caderousse certainly knows how to waste a golden opportunity. Caderousse was never perfect – he was a drunk, and a coward, and le...

Abbé Faria is quite possibly the greatest mentor ever. How else do you explain the transformation of the young, innocent Edmond Dantès into the ultimate playboy, the beautiful brilliant,...

Like any good son, Edmond loves his father. Like any good father, the elder Dantès loves his son. It says a lot that, upon his arrival in Marseille, Edmond visits his father before he visits M...

The first act of Haydée's life is sad – she sees her own father get gunned down right before her eyes and is sold into slavery – but it's the second act that's more worthy of analy...

If the Romans – that is, the nineteenth-century Romans, not the toga-wearing ones – had tabloids, Luigi Vampa would definitely make it onto their covers. Think of the headlines: LOCAL S...

More than anything else, Peppino is a plot device. A bandit in Luigi Vampa's gang, he's caught, convicted, and sentenced to death. In order to save his life, Vampa calls in the Count for help. This...

Monsieur Morrel is a good father, an honest businessman, and young Edmond Dantès's greatest advocate. When Edmond is arrested, who's the first one to see what's up? M. Morrel. Who's the one th...

Young Max is often referred to as "Maximilian Morrel, captain of spahis." Taken literally, it means that he's a captain of a cavalry unit in the French colonial army. What it boils down to, though,...

The only daughter of M. Pierre Morrel, she is chosen by Edmond to help save her father. Dantès, in the guise of an agent from Thomas and French, tells her that she'll one day receive a letter...

As a young man, Emmanuel is one of the last clerks to continue working for M. Morrel. Whether he does this out of faith in his boss or in order to woo his daughter Julie is debatable, but, in any c...

As both house servant to the Morrel family and cashier for the firm of Morrel and Son, Coclès is one of the last outsiders left remaining when the chips are down. Even after the death of the o...

The mute servant is an adventure story classic (Zorro had one), and the Count of Monte Cristo's no exception. Ali is mute because he had his tongue cut out by the Bey of Tunis, his previous employe...

Baptistin is the Count's valet de chambre – but you can call him a butler if you'd like. He's well-behaved and well-compensated. He's responsible for instructing the other servants and genera...

As with Mercédès, there's not much to Renée de Saint-Méran. She's kind and caring; she's feminine; she appeals to Villefort's good side. After she dies, she represents the good...

More than anything else, Napoleon functions as a plot device. The intrigue surrounding his return from Elba provides the perfect pretext for Edmond's imprisonment. His brief rise to power – t...

Brother of Louis XVII – who lost his head (no, literally) – during the French Revolution, Louis XVIII is studious and detached, totally unconcerned with the running of his country. The...

Simple, naïve, oblivious: call him what you will, but Jacopo is a true friend to Edmond. He saves him from the roiling surf, tends to him when he's wounded in a fight; in short, he's always go...

Think of la Carconte as the anti-Noirtier. Stricken by chronic illness, Caderousse's wife becomes bitter and cruel. Not content with Abbé Busoni's gift, she urges her husband to kill the merch...

Although Franz d'Epinay is the only character in the book who gets to go on a really intense hashish-induced trip, he's arguably the most reserved one as well. In Rome, he's the reasonable counterp...

One of Madame Danglars's many flings, his position as government Finance Minister allows him to feed his mistress insider info on the stock market. As such, he's largely responsible for helping Mme...

Beauchamp is a good journalist and a good friend. When a correspondent writes from Yanina implicating Albert's father in the betrayal of Ali Tebelin, Beauchamp takes it upon himself to do his profe...

Château-Renaud represents the "aristocracy of the sword" which de Villefort mentions at the very beginning of the book. Saved by Maximilian Morrel during a military campaign in Africa, he is r...

Louise d'Armilly is Eugénie Danglars's music teacher, best friend and, quite probably, lover. She is the more feminine of the two women – indeed, when the two escape following Eugén...