The Count of Monte Cristo

Mercédès’s Sorrows

Mercédès’s Sorrows Mercédès counters Monte Cristo’s accusations by sharing her own decade of suffering. She describes how she spent ten years dreaming the same nightmare each night—imagining Edmond’s failed escape attempts, his hiding in a corpse’s winding sheet, his being thrown alive from Château d’If and his screams revealing his murder to the jailers. She weeps and prays for him while believing him dead, buried at the foot of some gloomy tower or cast into a pit. She insists that despite her guilt in marrying Fernand, she too has suffered immeasurably, though Monte Cristo demands to know if she knows what it is to have one’s father starve to death in one’s absence.

Monte Cristo Relents

Monte Cristo Relents When Mercédès cries that she has seen the man she loved about to murder her son, Monte Cristo is overcome. He cannot restrain a sob—the lion is daunted, the avenger is conquered. She asks what he asks of her, and when she says “your son’s life,” he relents completely. “Well, he shall live!” These words draw a cry of gratitude from Mercédès, and tears spring to Monte Cristo’s eyes—tears he considers more precious than the richest pearls of Guzerat and Ophir.

A Sacrificial Promise

A Sacrificial Promise Despite granting Albert’s reprieve, Monte Cristo reveals a devastating consequence: the duel will still occur, but instead of Albert’s blood staining the ground, his own will flow. He explains that with one word she has crushed his honor, his dignity, and the strength that made him superior to other men—that strength was his life. He cannot survive being publicly outraged before friends and enemies alike, having a boy glory in his forgiveness as if it were a victory. He must die rather than live diminished.