129 pages 4 hours read

Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1844

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Symbols & Motifs

Death and Resurrection

Edmond undergoes more than one symbolic death before he reinvents himself as Monte Cristo. He experiences a kind of social death when he is imprisoned in the Chateau d’If and nearly dies when he takes Faria’s place and is thrown into the sea, experiencing another near-drowning before the Genoese smugglers rescue him. Faria also appears to die once before his actual death when he experiences the seizure he treats with his red liquid.

As a “man who [has] come back from the next world” (178), Monte Cristo is depicted sometimes as a frightening revenant and sometimes as a Christ-like figure. To the objects of his vengeance, he is a kind of ghost, and more than one character notes the extreme coldness of his hands. Others, such as the members of the Morrel family, see him as a savior and protector.

Other characters who undergo death-like experiences and then return to life include the newborn Benedetto, dug up by Bertuccio after being buried alive; Villefort, whom Bertuccio believes he has killed and who narrowly survives; Noirtier, whose stroke has given him the appearance of a “frozen corpse” while he retains his intelligence and will; Valentine, for whom a funeral is actually held after Monte Cristo drugs her in order to rescue her from her stepmother; and Maximilien, who swallows what he believes to be a fatal poison before being reunited with Valentine.