By now, you have read (or are going to read) the first 70+ pages of “The Count of Monte Cristo”.
As I said in class you could probably pass this quiz without reading, if you have seen the movie… but, readers, beware… If you fall behind in the beginning the plot only thickens towards the end.
Some helpful hints and insights while reading. The Count of Monte Cristo isn’t full of symbols like Jane Eyre. Alexander Dumas only has a few. One of the first symbols come into the book in the first chapters. It is the symbol of the: sea. For 100 family points, post your ideas, at the bottom of this posting, for what you think the sea symbolism could be.
Alexander Dumas also writes with the symbolism of the number 3. It is a little too early, yet to figure how what it means, but be looking for items, phrases and people that come in threes. If you start to discover them. Post your answers for family points. I will give 100 points for the FIRST time a correct answer is posted.
Helpful quiz freebies: Know names. Know the name of Edmond’s ship, his father’s name, etc. If you learn the names now… it will help you further into the book. Next, learn how people are connected…who is related… who is conspiring… who is in love. And, last, but not least look over the blog post on Napoleon… it might help answer questions number 2.
Sea Symbolism:
The symbolism of the sea could mean freedom and opportunity. It was an opportunity as Edmond almost had his chance to be a master of his own ship. It’s a freedom as Edmondo describes the ocean from the inside of the prison.
3:
“I love my father, I respect Monsieur Morrel, and I adore Mercedes.”
“the little cabinet of the Tuileries is the favorite cabinet of Napolean, Louis XVIII, and Louis-Philippe.”
“We have our eyes at once on the past, the present, and the future.”
the number 3 is seen multiple times in terms of time such as three days.
Sea Symbolism:
In the Count of Monte Cristo the sea symbolizes rebirth, because when Edmond submerges from the water he had a new drive and a new identity. He has a new “rebirth” in who he is, and established a new life for himself.
SEA SYMBOLISM:
The cemetery at Chateau D’if is the sea. Dumas uses it as one of his strongest literary symbols because it acts as foreshadowing in Dantes’s life. Before he goes to prison, Dantes is a sailor on a ship and is near the sea, but not yet in it. It serves to tell the reader of Dantes’s impending sinking into a mass of vengeful intent. His entry as a false corpse into the sea physically represents his emotional entering his sea of determined revenge now that he is in freedom.