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Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Chapter 5 – The Betrothal
Explanation and Analysis—Dantès's Betrothal:
In Chapter 5, as Dumas begins to set the plot of his novel in motion, the reader comes to the dawning realization that the world might be out to get Dantès. In keeping with the frequent use of storm and water imagery to intensify the narrative, Dumas raises the suspense of Dantès's betrothal dinner by using a storm simile to focus on Fernand's obvious hostility towards Dantès and foreshadow the coming plot against the young captain. While Dantès himself remains quite oblivious to the threat, the reader cannot help but see it unfold before them in a heap of dramatic irony:
Fernand was shuffling on his chair, starting at the slightest noise and, from time to time, wiping large beads of sweat from his forehead, which seemed to have fallen there like the first drops of rain before a storm.
‘By heaven, neighbour,’ said Dantès, ‘[...] It’s true, Mercédès is not yet my wife, but [...] in an hour and a half, she will be!’
There was a gasp of surprise from everyone, except Old Dantès, who exhibited his fine set of teeth in a broad laugh. Mercédès smiled [...]. Fernand made a convulsive lunge towards the handle of his dagger.
Dumas foreshadows the precariousness of Dantès's situation with the simile linking the drops of sweat on Fernand's brow to the first drop of rain in a storm—just as the first moments of rain anticipate a downpour, Fernand's demeanor anticipates a great ordeal for Dantès. Danglers, meanwhile, relies on Fernand's frenetic behavior and evident jealousy over Dantès's coming wedding as a cover so that he can set in motion the true plot against Dantès. The reader is left to wonder at the storm of conspiracies converging around Dantès while the man himself is too besotted to notice much of anything at all.
The potent imagery of stormy weather becomes a frequent motif throughout The Count of Monte Cristo, which Dumas invokes in order to connect the events of the novel to the larger, uncontrollable, and unpredictable workings of the world at large—storms, since ancient times, are manifestations of divine wrath and willpower, as gods seemingly call them down from the heavens onto unsuspecting mortals below.
Related Themes:
Chapter 7 – The Interrogation
Explanation and Analysis—Villefort's "Goodness":
In Chapter 7, Dantès faces the first horrors of his wrongful imprisonment as he discusses his interrogation with Villefort, in an exchange that includes both verbal and dramatic irony:
‘Monsieur, your interrogation has brought up the most serious charges against you, so I am no longer able, as I had first hoped, to set you free immediately. Before I can take that step, I must consult the examining magistrates. Meanwhile, you have seen how I have treated you.’
‘Oh, yes, Monsieur,’ Dantès exclaimed, ‘and I thank you, because you have been more of a friend to me than a judge.’
‘Well, I must keep you prisoner a little while longer, but for as short a time as I can. The main charge against you is the existence of this letter, and you see …’
Villefort went over to the fireplace, threw the letter into the fire and waited until it was reduced to ashes. ‘ … and you see, I have destroyed it.’
‘Monsieur!’ Dantès exclaimed. ‘You are more than justice, you are goodness itself!’
Dantès has no reason to suspect the cruelty of Villefort's machinations against him, and yet the reader has every reason to doubt this supposed act of benevolence, benefitting from the perspective of Dumas's omniscient narrator and privy to Villefort's personal political allegiances and anxieties after the dinner scene portrayed in Chapter 6. The extent of Dantès's gratitude to Villefort—whom he calls "goodness itself"—further builds the dramatic irony of this scene.
Dantès's many interactions with the law and the danger of a corrupt judicial system form the core of the Count of Monte Cristo. The interactions between Villefort and Dantès in Chapter 7, which lead directly to Dantès's imprisonment so that Villefort may ensure the security of his own career, form the foundation of Dantès's eventual quest for justice as the Count.
Related Themes:
Chapter 38 – The Rendez-Vous
Explanation and Analysis—The Count of What Now?:
In Chapter 38, the Count continues to make waves in French society after his sudden appearance on the scene with his mysterious—and apparently bottomless—fortune. In this passage, Franz discusses these questions with Albert and generates a great deal of dramatic irony for the reader:
‘Precisely, there you have it! What country does the count come from? What is his language? What are his means of support? Where does his huge fortune come from? What was the first half of this mysterious and unknown life, that it has cast over the second half such a dark and misanthropic shadow? That, if I were you, is what I should want to know.’
The mysterious identity of the Count is a central source of dramatic irony in The Count of Monte Cristo, because the reader is well aware of the Count's background and true identity. The interactions between the other characters of the novel as they struggle to figure out—with increasing exasperation—who exactly the Count is and what exactly he wants are some of the most entertaining moments in the novel. Moments such as this are also the central source of the satisfaction of the Count's revenge narrative: he is operating with almost all the information for much of the novel, and his conspirators, enemies, and former lovers all struggle (and largely fail) to keep up with his machinations.
Related Themes:
Chapter 62 – Ghosts
Explanation and Analysis—The Ghost of Murders Past:
In Chapter 62, the Count leads his dinner guests toward disaster as he begins to manipulate the deceit of his former acquaintances against them. In a moment of particular dramatic irony, Bertuccio comes face to face with Villefort—whom Bertuccio thought he had murdered.
Without replying, Bertuccio pointed to Villefort, with a gesture like Macbeth pointing to Banquo. ‘Oh! … Oh!’ he murmured at length. ‘Do you see him?’
‘Whom? What?’
‘Him.’
‘Him! The crown prosecutor, Monsieur de Villefort? Of course I can see him.’
‘You mean, I didn’t kill him?’
‘Come, come! I think you are losing your wits, my good Bertuccio,’ said the count.
At first, Bertuccio thinks Villefort must be a ghost—and Dumas takes this opportunity to allude to Macbeth's shock at seeing the ghost of Banquo in Shakespeare's Macbeth. The Count, of course, plays dumb regarding the whole thing and feigns bemusement that Bertuccio would think Villefort was dead. The Count begins to set his plot in motion: by bringing a group of conspirators with conflicting ambitions and deadly intentions together, the Count can stoke the tensions and intrigues of the group for his own benefit.
Chapter 63 – Dinner
Explanation and Analysis—Dinner for Traitors:
The entirety of Chapter 63 is full of dramatic irony, which Dumas gleefully manipulates to maximize the suspense of the dinner party. This is set up at the very first moment of the guests' arrival:
It was clear that all the guests experienced the same feeling as they went into the dining-room. They were wondering what strange force had brought them together in this house; and yet, puzzled and even, in some cases, nervous though they were, they would not have wished to be anywhere else. Recent connections, the count’s unusual and isolated situation, and his unknown, almost fabulous fortune, should have required the men to be cautious and have deterred the women from entering a house where there was no one of their own sex to receive them.
By illustrating that all the guests appear to have thrown caution to the wind, Dumas prepares the reader to be ready for any amount of drama that he might throw their way. Whereas the guests themselves are drawn to the party by the allure of the mysterious count, only the reader knows the Count's true identity and his ruthless intention to seek his revenge—as the guests remain bewildered, the suspense only grows for the reader.
Dumas relies heavily on dramatic irony in The Count of Monte Cristo, since the reader knows—or at least suspects—the identity and motivations of even the most duplicitous characters before the characters themselves are entirely aware.
Chapter 71 – Bread and Salt
Explanation and Analysis—From Malta, With Love:
In Chapter 71, the Count and Mercédès discuss their pasts as they walk around the Morcerf property. In a moment laden with dramatic irony, the Count shares a fabricated tale of a lost love and uses a simile to underscore his loss:
It is not my fault, Madame. In Malta I loved a girl and was going to marry her, when the war came and swept me away from her like a whirlwind. I thought that she loved me enough to wait for me, even to remain faithful to my tomb. When I came back, she was married.
Once again, Dumas uses weather in a literary device to illustrate the force of human struggle: the Count's fictional lover was "swept away" like a "whirlwind." The simile holds true to the emotion behind the Count's falsified backstory—he was, in fact, swept away from Mercédès when he was imprisoned—but does not reveal the Count's identity. For the reader, this moment carries particular suspense. It would appear that Mercédès and the Count both know exactly who the other is, and the Count is not especially careful in sharing a backstory with a one-to-one correlation to his real relationship to Mercédès, but neither character has let anything on. For now, they stick to their assumed identities and carry on the charade.
Dumas uses questions of identity as a propulsive narrative device in The Count of Monte Cristo, drawing out the ambiguity of each character's true identity for as long as possible. By letting the reader stay just a bit more informed than the characters in the story, Dumas can mine the effects of dramatic irony and heighten the reader's feeling of suspense as these long-lost lovers almost reunite. After all, The Count of Monte Cristo is also a love story—and the Count's relationship with Mercédès is a central source of motivation for his rampage of revenge.
Related Themes:
Chapter 99 – The Law
Explanation and Analysis—Coping Mechanisms:
In Chapter 99, Villefort and the Baroness Danglers discuss their lives and the fate of Benedetto, their son conceived out of wedlock. At one point, Villefort reflects on the ways in which he copes with his own corruption and criminality—a passage rife with dramatic irony, as the Baroness misunderstands Villefort's intentions while the reader suspects them:
But in the end, since I myself failed and was found wanting—more profoundly perhaps than other men; well, since that time I have shaken out their clothes to discover a blemish, and I have always found it; I will say more: I have found it with joy, this evidence of human weakness and perversity.
The Baroness assumes that Villefort is referring to his treatment of Benedetto as one of his great failures, given that Villefort tried to have him killed. She does not know anything about Villefort's other major crime, to keep Dantès imprisoned all those years ago. This is a classic case of miscommunication, of a sort that Dumas employs frequently in the Count of Monte Cristo to stoke dramatic irony and engage the reader—who knows enough to understand that Villefort is referring to "discovering a blemish" in Dantès and manipulating that fact in order to keep him in exile. While the Count holds all the cards for most of the novel, the reader is never far behind.
