The writing style of Alexandre Dumas isn’t hard to
understand. But at times, Dumas uses excellent diction for his characters that
bring out their personality. For example Franz said during the execution in
Rome “Human justice is sadly lacking in consolation; it can only shed blood in
exchange for blood. But we mustn’t ask it to do more than it can.” (Dumas,
138). This also brings out a theme: The human justice system. Back then the
human justice system consisted of the same things we have now and it’s been 2
centuries. They had jail imprisonment, hard labor and execution for great
crimes like murder (“blood in exchange for blood). Does death really justify
the murder of someone who could’ve been innocent? The human justice system has
always seen it fit and if this hasn’t changed in 2 centuries, it probably won’t
in the future. Also this quote really has a deep meaning “ … it can only shed
blood in exchange for blood.”. A murder has split the blood of someone and now
his must be spilt too no matter how valuable that blood may be, they would be
executed. Blood in exchange for blood may sound like the same identical things
being traded when really it’s not. The author has buried something deeper.
Although the blood substance may be the same,
but it matters upon who’s blood was innocent and who’s was guilty.
The Count says
‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ whilst talking to Albert. They
were talking about whether the Count would duel someone if he needs to. He said
he would duel someone if he is insulted but he would be mindful of his actions
for he who kills should receive punishment of death in the same way (An eye for
an eye, and a tooth for a tooth).
On page 224,
there is a wonderful analogy. The Count spoke to Madame de Villefort
“Furthermore, not only do the Orientals use poison to make themselves a suit of
armor, but they also use it as a dagger. And they use it so skillfully that
human justice is left without a clue.” (Dumas, 224). The count was just earlier
speaking about making one’s body immune to poison by simply taking a small
starter amount and increasing by a steady rate every day. By the end, the user
can have a large amount and not be harmed even a bit. The Count is using this
as an analogy. This poison immunity is like making themselves a suit of armor,
but he also says they can use it offensively like a dagger. Those who are not
immune to the poison can die by 10mg(while the user can survive 30mg if he
should use it that long) and nobody would know what happened to the victim.
Reason being is that they can slip these poisons into food and wine without
changing taste and it would affect them a month from the day leaving the human
justice system to believe there is no justice needed. It would appear to be some
heart failure or some fatal disease to onlookers and nothing more. Such a
beautiful analogy with the armor and dagger. As a reader this leaves me
bewildered at how cool this analogy is! It was actually quite fun to unravel.
