The Count of Monte Cristo

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-12

Reading Check

1. Who lives on the island where Edmond delivered the package before returning to Marseilles?

2. What is the name of the fortress on the island where Edmond is imprisoned?

3. When Edmond despairs of regaining his freedom, how does he decide to end his own life?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do other people’s jealousy and fear lead to Edmond being imprisoned?

2. How does Villefort’s behavior during Napoleon’s return demonstrate that his relationship with Mlle de Saint-Méran is less important to him than his political ambitions?

3. In what ways does meeting Abbé Faria benefit Edmond?

Paired Resource

“Byron and Napoleon”

• This academic paper by Peter Cochran explains Byron’s near-obsession with Napoleon Bonaparte and contextualizes it within the sociopolitical climate of Byron’s time.
• This resource relates to the themes of The Byronic Hero and Rebirth and Reinvention.
• What was Byron’s attitude toward Napoleon, and how did it change over time? What drew the English Romantics to Napoleon’s story? In what sense is Napoleon a Byronic hero? In what sense is Edmond a Byronic hero? How is he being reborn through his association with Abbé Faria? What does his transformation have to do with the cultural changes taking place at this time in European society? What other elements of Edmond’s story so far strike you as Romantic? What does Dumas seem to be using Napoleon’s story to represent in this novel?

Chapters 13-24

Reading Check

1. When Edmond boards the Genoese ship, for how long does he learn he has been imprisoned?

2. When Edmond impersonates a bank clerk to visit the Inspector of Prisons, what does he purchase from the Inspector?

3. What does Captain Maximilien Morrel do each year to commemorate the date on which Edmond saved M. Morrel?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Edmond, posing as an Italian priest, meets with Caderousse, what does Caderousse tell him about how Villefort, Danglars, and Fernand are doing?

2. When Edmond visits with M. Morrel in Chapter 18, how does Morrel demonstrate his generous spirit yet again?

3. What theory of revenge does Edmond share with Albert de Morcerf and Franz d’Epinay?

Paired Resource

“Revenge”

• The speaker of this Romantic-Era poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon is a woman celebrating the heartbreak of a man who once broke her heart.
• This resource relates to the theme of Vengeance.
• Who is the speaker of this poem, and what is the poem’s occasion? What message about revenge does this poem convey? How are the speaker’s sentiments similar to those that Edmond expresses? This poem is by Letitia Elizabeth Landon, a celebrity poet of the late Romantic era who has been called the “Female Byron.” What Romantic elements do you see in this poem? How are its dark sentiments Byronic?

Chapters 25-36

Reading Check

1. When Villefort comes to thank Edmond in Chapter 26, what does Edmond tell Villefort makes Edmond “one of those men who God has placed above kings and ministers” (211)?

2. Besides Monte Cristo, who is the only man whom Haydée says she has loved?

3. What signature was affixed to the letter of instructions that Andrea received from Lord Wilmore?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Edmond stage-manage an event that makes him seem like a hero to Mme. Villefort?

2. What common desire do Valentine and Eugénie talk about as they walk together in the Villeforts’ garden?

3. When Bertuccio sees Andrea and Mme. Danglars at Edmond’s dinner party at the house in Auteuil, what does he realize about their identities?

Paired Resource

“Women in the French Revolution: From the Salons to the Streets”

• This article by Erika Hope Spencer, hosted by the Library of Congress’s blog, details the varying impacts of the French revolutionary spirit on women of the day.
• This resource relates to the theme of Rebirth and Reinvention.
• How did the period of the Revolution disrupt gender role expectations? How did it disrupt ideas about enslavement and colonized peoples? Based on Dumas’s depiction of Monte Cristo, Haydée, Valentine, Eugénie, and other characters, what can you deduce about his attitude toward these role disruptions? What categories of people does Dumas seem to be including and excluding from the ideals of Rebirth and Reinvention?

Chapters 37-48

Reading Check

1. Why does Mme. Danglars feel that meeting Villefort at the Palace of Justice is appropriate?

2. Who is killed by the poisoned lemonade meant for Noirtier?

3. Who fatally stabs Caderousse?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What ultimatum does Danglars issue to Mme. Danglars after he loses 700,000 francs on Spanish bonds?

2. When disinheriting Valentine does not dissuade Franz from marrying her, what does Noirtier finally reveal to Franz?

3. How did Morcerf betray the promise he made to Ali Pasha on Ali Pasha’s deathbed?

Paired Resource

“God’s Judgment on a Wicked Bishop”

• This Romantic-era poem by Robert Southey depicts a mass murder and God’s horrific vengeance against the killer.
• This resource relates to the themes of Vengeance and The Byronic Hero.
• What happens in this poem? Why does the Bishop feel justified in committing murder? Who sends the rats against him? Why is God “right” in effecting the Bishop’s death, while the Bishop—God’s representative on earth—is wrong to cause death? Does this suggest that “revenge” and “justice” can be the same thing? What would Edmond say? Which role has Edmond cast himself in—one like the bishop’s, or one like God’s? Is the reader of The Count of Monte Cristo meant to agree with Edmond’s perspective?

Chapters 49-60

Reading Check

1. When Albert arrives for the duel, what does he do instead of fighting Edmond?

2. Where does Mercédès say she plans to live out her days after she leaves her home?

3. What does Andrea plan to disguise himself as when he flees Paris to evade the police?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Mercédès begs Edmond not to kill her son, what does he agree to do instead, and what does she tell him his words prove to her?

2. How does Eugénie finally escape from her family home?

3. After swearing the witnesses to silence regarding Valentine’s death, what does Villefort promise them?

Paired Resource

“The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire”

• This brief overview of Polidori’s work from The Public Domain Review explains how both The Vampyre and its central figure are inspired by Byron.
• This resource relates to the themes of The Byronic Hero and Rebirth and Reinvention.
• Where does Edmond refer to Polidori’s text? What imagery in this section of The Count of Monte Cristo portrays Edmond as vampire-like? How do this depiction and the allusion to Polidori’s book relate to Edmond’s status as a Byronic Hero and to the text’s concern with Rebirth and Reinvention?

“Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel – The Famous Painting of Lucifer”

• This exploration of Cabanel’s famous Romantic-Era painting analyzes elements of the painting and its relationship to Milton’s depiction of Lucifer as a tragic hero. (Note that this page contains images of Romantic art depicting the naked human form.)
• This resource relates to the themes of Vengeance and The Byronic Hero.
• What might the information in this article lead you to guess about the figure of Satan in the French Revolution? The allusion to Byron’s character of Manfred in The Count of Monte Cristo explicitly links Edmond to Faust. Who was Faust, and what does he have to do with the Devil? How does this relate to the allusion to The Vampyre that Edmond makes in the same sentence? If Edmond is being linked to the Devil and to vampires, how do you suspect Dumas intends the readers of his own time to interpret this?

Chapters 61-73

Reading Check

1. Who is the prosecutor for Benedetto’s trial?

2. When Edmond leaves Mercédès in Marseilles, what does he ask her to say to him instead of “adieu”?

3. When Edmond visits the Chateau d’If, what meaningful gift does the guide give him?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What leads Edmond to reveal his true identity to Maximilien?

2. What intentions does Albert express to his mother before he leaves Paris?

3. What horrifying discovery does Villefort make when he rushes home after learning he is Benedetto’s father?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

• This Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography tells the story of Alexandre Dumas’s father, the real-life person who inspired Dumas to write The Count of Monte Cristo.
• Shared themes include Vengeance, The Byronic Hero, and Rebirth and Reinvention.
• Shared topics include the French Revolution, Napoleonic France, adventure, and political persecution.
• The Black Count on SuperSummary

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

• In Hugo’s classic tale, peasant Jean Valjean serves 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, then struggles to reinvent himself after his release while being hounded by the relentless Inspector Javert.
• Shared themes include Vengeance, The Byronic Hero, and Rebirth and Reinvention.
• Shared topics include French Romanticism, French politics and history, persecution, assumed identities, self-sacrifice, and the redemptive power of love.
• Les Misérables on SuperSummary