نقد و بررسی رمان The Three Musketeers نوشته‌ی Alexandre Dumas

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[h=3]Context[/h] The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires) was published in 1844 in a Parisian magazine entitled Siecle. The publication was serialized, meaning each subsequent issue of the magazine contained an additional section of the story. It caused a popular sensation: long lines anticipated each new issue of Siecle. The French public could not get enough of Dumas’s writing.

Alexander Dumas, who lived from 1802 to 1870, was raised by his mother. His father, a General during the Revolution and under Napoleon, died when Dumas was four. The family had fallen out of favor with Napoleon, so young Dumas and his mother were left without means, living in the provinces. Dumas received a limited education from a local priest, and at the age of twenty-one, traveled to Paris to make his fortune. His first play was produced in 1829; he began a successful career as a dramatist and writer, which culminated with The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. As he grew older, Dumas’s opulent lifestyle forced him to sink into greater and greater debt, and by the time of his death in 1870, he was at the mercy of his creditors.
What best explains the enormous popular success of The Three Musketeers, and the fact that it is still so well loved today? The Three Musketeers is a rare treasure--a work that is both "important" and fun. Even more remarkably, The Three Musketeers is "important" because it is fun. We study it because it represents an important development in historical and popular fiction. Parisians stood in line in 1844 because Dumas’s developments all come down to one essential point--his stories were more exciting and accessible than those of anyone who had gone before him. However, Dumas does draw on some familiar literary traditions to tell his magical stories.
Dumas’s brilliant concept was to combine the historical novel and the Romance into a single story. Historical fiction means, simply, fiction based on historical themes or events.
Dumas brought these two forms together in a way that revolutionized the historical novel. Before Dumas, the form was plagued by slow pace, labored historicity, and archaic prose. Dumas deliberately wrote in modern, conversational prose. He made his story more important than the history surrounding it. Dumas allows his characters to drive us through the history, providing the background as the story progresses. It is not that Dumas is not interested in creating a sense of period and place--indeed, he does so masterfully and seamlessly behind the narrative, while we scarcely know it's happening. Dumas wrote fast-reading adventure stories that evoked history without being bogged down by it.
Dumas’s innovations provide us with a wonderful escape into another time and place, but in his own time in France, they may have performed an even more important function. Following the chaos and violence of the French Revolution, 19th century France was a nation in turmoil. The people latched on to Dumas’s novels because the novels gave them a sense of their own common history, something that fostered their sense of national pride. The crowning achievement of The Three Musketeers, in this light, is not its picture perfect recreation of the history, manner, or mood of the period it purports to study. Rather, it is Dumas’s successful creation of an extraordinarily satisfying and comforting make-believe world which is based on 17th century France. The novel creates a Romance of history that is sweeping, entertaining, and grand, and takes out all the bits that might have made his public uncomfortable. And we still love it today.


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[h=3]Overall Summary[/h] The Three Musketeers is a marvelous journey and should be appreciated foremost for its engaging story. The techniques Dumas employed to such success in 1840-- particularly his mastery of the form of the Romance--still work today.

As we saw in the closing portions of the book, Dumas gives us a fully developed Romance within his historical framework. He starts with levity and confidence, and ends with moroseness and doubt. The ending, indeed, seems to question many of the books dearly held values. D'Artagnan becomes a lieutenant in the Musketeers, but his promotion comes from the Cardinal--the Cardinal whom he and his four friends had fought so valiantly against for the first half of the novel. In the epilogue, d'Artagnan befriends the Comte de Rochefort, a Cardinalist agent. Was all that earlier fighting really worth it, then? Or was there something futile in all the Musketeers' efforts? Both the possibility of futility and this return to the normal at the end of a great Quest, characterize the form of the Romance as much as do its lighter aspects. Dumas sees the form through.
With Dumas’s historical context in mind, the melancholy of the Romance becomes even more pronounced. It is almost as though Dumas presents this wonderful Romantic adventure, providing people with a chance to escape day to day toil and immerse themselves in better thoughts about their country, and then spurns it. He cannot bring himself to see the lie of Romanticism through to the end. Even bearing in mind that this turn to ambiguity is typical for the end of the Romance, it is hard not to interpret the ending of the novel as Dumas’s rejection of Romantic values.
There are two sequels to The Three Musketeers, which Dumas wrote to capitalize on the success of the novel. They are entitled Vingt ans apres, published in 10 volumes in 1845, and Dix ans plus tard, ou le vicomte de Bragelonne, published in 26 parts from 1848-1850. The latter opens in 1660, and tells of a matured, powerful d'Artagnan, captain of the Musketeers. It also contains the account of Porthos's heroic death. But despite these sequels, Dumas never fully recaptured his success of 1844. His estate and his health declined until, after a period of furious attempted productivity to recoup his debts, he died in 1870. The Romance left his life as well.
But The Three Musketeers is not merely a Romance; it is also a great historical novel, and Dumas’s interesting approach to history also contributes to the success of his book. While he keeps his characters away from being major players in national events, he is not afraid of brazenly attributing human motives to history. In Dumas’s version, France and England very nearly fight a war simply because the Duke of Buckingham loves Anne of Austria: John Fenton assassinates Buckingham because of personal reasons provided by Milady, and so on. Part of the entertainment of The Three Musketeers is that, in seeming to avoid the great events and focus on petty affairs, Dumas explains the great events more satisfyingly and entertainingly than any direct explanation of affairs of state could hope to do. History does not have a face-- d'Artagnan has a face, and a handsome one at that.
Dumas’s formula serves his story well. His incorporation of Romanticism into the historical novel lifted an entire genre of literature into public adulation, and gave the French people a story that reassured them about their country even as it brought them away from their country's troubles. Popular literature must be considered on two fronts: aesthetically and socially, as literature and as a popular artifact. The best popular literature, like the work of Alexandre Dumas, supercedes the latter category to come into our minds as a work of literature in its own right. It is not necessary to know about Dumas’s life, or about French history, or about the genre of Romance, to enjoy The Three Musketeers. The superlative entertainment of the novel speaks for itself--which is why it remains so important and so interesting to study it.

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[h=3]List of Characters[/h] D'Artagnan - The central character of the novel, d'Artagnan is a young, impoverished Gascon nobleman who comes to make his fortune in Paris. He is brave, noble, ambitious, crafty, and intelligent. Like any Romantic hero, he is driven by love and ruled by chivalry, but occasionally prone to fall into amoral behavior.

Athos - The most important of the Three Musketeers, Athos is something of a father figure to d'Artagnan. He is older than his comrades, although still a young man. Athos is distinguished in every way--intellect, appearance, bravery, swordsmanship--yet he is tortured by a deep melancholy, the source of which no one knows.

Aramis - A young Musketeer, one of the great Three. Aramis is a handsome young man, quiet and somewhat foppish. He constantly protests that he is only temporarily in the Musketeers, and that any day now he will return to the Church to pursue his true calling. Aramis has a mysterious mistress, Madame de Chevreuse, a high noblewoman, whose existence and identity he tries to keep from his friends.

Porthos - Porthos, the third of the Three Musketeers, is loud, brash, and self-important. He is extremely vain, and enjoys outfitting himself handsomely; but for all that, he is a valiant fighter and a courageous friend. His mistress is Madame Coquenard, the wife of a wealthy attorney.

Lady de Winter - A mysterious, beautiful, dangerous, and ultimately evil Cardinalist agent. D'Artagnan becomes obsessed with her, but eventually she and the Musketeers become fierce adversaries. Milady has a secret, and she kills anyone who finds it out--her left shoulder is branded with the Fleur-de-Lis, a mark put on the worst criminals.

Madame Bonacieux - Wife of Monsieur Bonacieux and lady-in-waiting for Queen Anne. Madame Bonacieux is loyal to the Queen through and through. D'Artagnan falls in love with her, and in doing so gets involved in the Queen's secret affairs.

Monsieur Bonacieux - D'Artagnan's landlord, and Madame Bonacieux's husband. He originally comes to d'Artagnan for help when Madame Bonacieux is kidnapped, but after a private audience with the Cardinal, turns on his wife and becomes a Cardinalist agent.

Monsieur de Treville - The head of the King's Musketeers. Monsieur de Treville is an honorable and distinguished gentleman, and close friend to the King. He treats all his Musketeers as his sons, and is an important figure of support for the young d'Artagnan. He is a rival of Cardinal Richelieu for favor and influence with the King.

King Louis XIII - King of France. Louis XIII is not much of a ruler, and is dominated by his advisors, most notably Cardinal Richelieu, the most powerful man in France. He is a petulant and petty person, and those around him who are most successful are those who have learned to manipulate his pettiness.

Cardinal Richelieu - The King's most influential advisor, Richelieu is the most powerful and important man in France. He is furiously self-absorbed, but also an extremely effective leader of the state. Richelieu works hard to maintain the reputation and power of the king, since this is the stock on which his own status is based.

Queen Anne - Queen of France. Anne is Spanish, and her loyalties are divided between her Spanish heritage, her position as Queen of France, and her love for George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. The King does not trust her, or particularly like her, and the Cardinal hates her. Anne leads an unhappy life in the court.

George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham - Favorite and Minister of War for King Charles I of England. Buckingham is the perfect English gentleman, handsome, witty, brave, wealthy, and powerful. He is desperately in love with Anne of Austria, who, more reservedly, returns his affections. Throughout the novel, Buckingham's only motivation is to see and please Anne.

Lord de Winter - Lady de Winter's brother-in-law. Lord de Winter is a foppish gentlemen, not given to intrigue or action, but he rises to the occasion when more is demanded of him toward the end of the novel.

Comte de Rochefort - The Cardinal's private spy, a dangerous man.

Comte de Wardes - A Cardinalist agent; Milady is in love with him.

Kitty - Milady's maid; she falls in love with d'Artagnan.

John Felton - A British Naval Officer, ward of Lord de Winter; a Protestant.

Planchet - D'Artagnan's manservant. A very intelligent, reliable, somewhat brave man.

Grimaud - Athos' manservant. Athos has trained him to communicate in hand-signals, to minimize speech.

Mousqueton - Porthos's manservant. Like his master, he enjoys the finer things in life.

Bazin - Aramis's manservant. He wants nothing so much as for his master to enter the Church.

Madame de Coquenard - Porthos's mistress, the wife of a wealthy attorney. She dotes on Porthos, living for his affection. Porthos keeps her identity secret from his friends, telling them his mistress is a Duchess.

Madame de Chevreuse - Aramis's secret mistress, and a close personal friend of the Queen. Madame de Chevreuse is banished from Paris because the King, goaded by the Cardinal, suspects her of aiding the Queen in her personal and political intrigues.


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[h=3]Chapters 1-3
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] The Three Musketeers begins with a young Gascon, d'Artagnan, leaving his home in the provinces of France to make his fortune in Paris. His father gives him, as parting gifts, an old yellow horse and a letter of introduction to Monsieur de Treville, head of the King's Musketeers, the elite group of soldiers who make up the King and Queen's personal bodyguard. D'Artagnan's father advises him to be guided by his courage and his wits, to take no flack from anyone but the Cardinal and the King, and to remember that with bravery and determination he can achieve anything. D'Artagnan's mother gives him the recipe for an herbal salve that will heal any wound he sustains in battle very quickly, and with that the young man leaves home to make his fortune.

At his first stop, in the town of Meung, the hot-headed d'Artagnan gets into a fight with a distinguished-looking gentlemen who ridicules him because of his mount. D'Artagnan is beaten unconscious by a group of the gentleman's lackeys. When he comes to, he sees the gentleman talking to a beautiful, fair woman in a carriage whom he calls "Milady," just as the two of them are riding off. He prepares himself to leave the town, but finds that the gentleman has stolen his letter of introduction to M. de Treville.
Disheartened by the loss of the letter, but nonetheless full of Gascon spirit, d'Artagnan rides on to Paris and finds the home of M. de Treville. Here, he is cowed by the profusion of Musketeers who spend their days lolling about de Treville's house and courtyard, telling stories of amorous and military conquests, and mocking the Cardinal (to d'Artagnan's shock). D'Artagnan is received into M. de Treville's private chamber. However, before the two can speak, de Treville calls in two of his musketeers, Aramis and Porthos. Aramis is a slight, somewhat foppish young man whom d'Artagnan had just overheard describing his intentions to eventually leave the Musketeers and enter the Church. Porthos is a loud, proud, Saint Bernard-like fellow who d'Artagnan had just witnessed showing off his new sash.
M. de Treville upbraids these two men, and their companion, the absent Athos, for a recent skirmish with the Cardinal's guards in which they were defeated and arrested, calling them cowards. The men defend themselves, noting that they did in fact kill a couple of the guards. Then, Athos--a handsome, highly distinguished man, the oldest of the three friends--makes a dramatic entrance, clearly overwhelmed by the pain of his wound. M. de Treville is mollified by all of this, and his attitude turns from scolding to fatherly. But before he can praise the men Athos collapses from his wounds, and the whole household erupts into a fervor, looking for a doctor.
After Athos has been tended to and everything has cleared up, d'Artagnan and M. de Treville resume their interview. D'Artagnan explains the story of how he lost the letter, which, on top of a shared Gascon heritage, sparks the great man's interest in the young d'Artagnan. However, de Treville suspects that d'Artagnan might be an agent of the Cardinal, so he tests him by praising the Cardinal, guessing that any agent would have been trained to joke about the idiocy of the "Red Duke." D'Artagnan surprises de Treville by eagerly agreeing, and saying how shocked he was at the Musketeers' insults to one of France's most powerful men. However, before the interview can continue, d'Artagnan spots the Man from Meung, and goes tearing out of the house to challenge him.




[h=4]Commentary[/h] The most dominating fixture of this first portion of The Three Musketeers is our hero himself, the young d'Artagnan. Dumas emphasizes a certain "Gascon hot-headedness" that the hero seems to possess. D'Artagnan is proud--he comes from a noble background, but he is a provincial, and is thus uncultured in the ways of the Court and politics. He is also very, very poor. Dumas paints, initially, a somewhat comic portrayal of the young man as a proud, insecure swaggerer who seems prone to interpret every look as an insult, and every insult as an invitation to a duel. This is what gets him into a fight with the fellow in Meung. We will see, as the story progresses, other very important character features emerge from d'Artagnan, but for this first portion and a bit afterwards, his penchant for feeling his honor insulted dominates the scene.

Why does Dumas choose a provincial, a Gascon, as the center of his story of political intrigue and adventure in Paris? For a nation reeling from the turmoil of the French Revolution, a character from far away from Paris--the seat of the political upheaval--was least likely to become associated in his readers' minds with revolutionary ideas and factions, and therefore best able to convey a sense of unified national character. Further, Dumas himself moved to Paris from the provinces to seek his fortune. Finally, d'Artagnan's aura of freshness and idealism is in many ways dependent on his role as an outsider; he has not been corrupted by city life, and is alien to its cynicism. D'Artagnan is a Romantic hero in a historical context.
In this first section of his story, Dumas wastes no time setting up what is going to be the fundamental political rivalry of The Three Musketeers, the one that will drive the story. This rivalry is between King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, nominally the King's most trusted advisor. As Dumas presents things, this is the situation: France is divided between Royalists, who support the King, and Cardinalists, who support Richelieu. Richelieu is the more powerful of the two men--he is far more intelligent, and his network of influence is greater. The King's primary pull is the fact that he is the King-- he represents the monarchy and, therefore, the history and values of France. What Dumas presents here is a clear division between these two factions, and a clear statement that the Musketeers represent a stronghold of Royalist sentiment. Every conflict in the story is couched in these terms- from d'Artagnan's very first encounter of the book, with the Man from Meung--a Cardinalist agent.
In terms of historical accuracy, Dumas presentation of his setting is more or less reliable. The historical tradition does indeed remember Louis XIII as a somewhat insipid ruler, and Richelieu was the dominant figure of the age. And there did exist a split within the government; the King had his followers, and the Cardinal his. The two men were not in open conflict--indeed, the King bowed to the Cardinal in most things--but their followers often were, particularly the King's Musketeers and the Cardinal's Guards, just as Dumas indicates.

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[h=3]Chapters 4-6
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] D'Artagnan goes tearing after the Man from Meung, but he doesn't get far before he crashes into Athos, who has just been released from the doctor's ministrations. Athos gets quite cross with d'Artagnan, and once again the young Gascon's temper gets the better of him. The two schedule a duel for noon that day to settle the issue. In even more of a rush, d'Artagnan runs dead into Porthos. This time, d'Artagnan gets in trouble by mocking Porthos's new sash, for he happens to see that it is only gilded on one side. Porthos is angered, and the two set a duel for one o'clock that day.

D'Artagnan cannot find his target anywhere on the street, but he does see Aramis, the third musketeer from M. de Treville's chamber, down the street, engaged in conversation with two other Musketeers. D'Artagnan approaches them, but again gets into a fight by tactlessly picking up a handkerchief from the ground that Aramis had been trying to hide, thus exposing Aramis as being the lover of the lady to whom the handkerchief belongs. Aramis upbraids d'Artagnan for his rudeness, and the two set a duel for two o'clock that day.
D'Artagnan is overwhelmed, but has to be amused by his own silliness, particularly in mocking Porthos for his clothing. He reasons that, at any rate, dying in a duel with a Musketeer is a good way to go, for he feels he is certain to die--even if he can defeat one of them, he feels certain that he cannot take the three of them consecutively. Nervous, but full of spirit and bravado, he goes to his first engagement with Athos.
Athos and d'Artagnan arrive around the same time, and exchange gentlemanly courtesies. Just then, Aramis and Porthos arrive--they are to act as Athos's seconds. The three men are all a little embarrassed to have scheduled duels with the same young man, particularly as Porthos and Aramis have both done so for reasons they'd rather not share. D'Artagnan comports himself honorably, apologizing to Porthos and Aramis since it seems unlikely that they will actually get to duel him, and then preparing to fight.
Just as he and Athos are about to cross swords, however, a troop of the Cardinal's guards rounds the corner. Dueling is against the law, and they declare their intention to arrest the Musketeers. Mindful of de Treville's speech earlier, the three musketeers swear they won't allow it, and prepare to fight. In a flash decision, d'Artagnan joins the ranks of the Musketeers against the Cardinal's guards. The fights starts, and d'Artagnan is the hero of the day: he defeats the leader of the Cardinal's guard troop, and rescues the wounded Athos from his own assailant.
Louis XIII, upon hearing of this embarrassing defeat for the Cardinal, asks de Treville to introduce him to the four men, with particular interest in d'Artagnan, whose valor seems all the more remarkable for his youth. However, when the four Musketeers arrive to meet the King, they find that he has gone hunting, so they all head to play tennis together (the three musketeers have now taken a great liking to d'Artagnan). At the tennis court, d'Artagnan gets in yet another fight, this time with one of the Cardinal's greatest guards, and is again marvelously victorious. Despite some scandal surrounding the duel, d'Artagnan and the musketeers are cleared of any blame. When they finally meet with the King the next day, he commends them for their loyalty, d'Artagnan in particular, and gives the young Gascon a large sum of money to show his gratitude.




[h=4]Commentary[/h] As a writer of popular literature, Dumas’s first task was to entertain his audience with a sense of danger and excitement, and this section of the novel meets that expectation in spades. Dumas does here what he does best, setting up tense dramatic situations and hooking us into those situations by an investment in his characters. He writes in a racing prose that matches the sword fighting. The great duels of this section, and the pay-off in which our young, impetuous hero comes out on top, are just what Dumas’s readers are looking for, and it is his skill in the delivery of this sort of engaging action that made him so hugely popular.

We see some development of d'Artagnan's character along with the action. At several points during the section, other characters observe a certain shrewdness on his part, particularly M. de Treville and Athos. So we now have a hero who is both clever and bold. Finally, although it is never explicitly stated by Dumas, d'Artagnan is clearly a very gifted swordsman--he defeats two of the Cardinal's best men in two consecutive duels. Dumas’s failure to point out d'Artagnan's prowess explicitly is not surprising--in a modern-day action movie, the audience does not need to be told that the hero is a better shot than the villains. The situation is similar here--it is implied in d'Artagnan's character that he is smarter, stronger, and braver. He's the center of Dumas’s popular, Romantic universe, and Dumas is not shooting for shaded portrayals of multi-faceted characters so much as larger-than-life heroes (see the discussion of characters in the section on Romance).
Dumas’s narrative is extremely biased; he is on d'Artagnan's side, and there is no doubt about whom our sympathies should lie with. What values come along with this bias? First of all, our hero is now a Royalist. More importantly for now, Dumas’s narrative wholly condones d'Artagnan's rash, violent behavior. This is all part of Dumas’s larger effort with The Three Musketeers--constant reference is made to the lost values of valor, chivalry, honor, and bravery. If we remember our discussion from the Introduction or the Commentary to Chapters 1-3, we can see that this immersion in "lost values" represents more than simple escapism. To a French audience in 1844, this particular story of valor represented a comforting recollection of their nation's history and the virtues of its past.
Another important function of this section is to better acquaint us with the characters of the three musketeers themselves. The characters of these three soldiers, joined behind d'Artagnan's eventual leadership, form an extremely well balanced, engaging whole. Dumas’s crafts them with this in mind. Porthos's bluster and size is balanced by Aramis's restraint and primness; Aramis's sententiousness is balanced by Athos's quiet wisdom; Athos's coldness is balanced by Porthos's emotional effusiveness, etc. Each musketeer complements the others. This lends a psychological credibility to their friendship and, perhaps more importantly, makes them very entertaining characters.
This also allows Dumas to offer something for everyone. Every reader can choose a favorite Musketeer: Porthos because he's funny and engaging, Aramis because of his wittiness and manners, or Athos because of his gentlemanly distinction. Dumas’s characterizations are broad but skilled, and although his literary agenda has little to do with psychological depth, this does little to rob his characters of interest. Everything about his prose, characters, and fictional world has dash and character. The thrills are visceral, not cerebral, and this is what keeps us coming back for more.

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[h=3]Chapters 7-10
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] The four friends decide that the money the King gave d'Artagnan should be spent on a dinner for all of them, and on getting d'Artagnan a servant. Porthos finds the servant, a man from Picardy (another province) named Planchet, and the friends enjoy a fine meal. A lengthy description of the servants and houses of the three musketeers ensues. Athos lives in a finely appointed apartment with his servant Grimaud, whom he has trained to be totally silent. Porthos lives in a house with a magnificent exterior with his servant Mousequeton, but no one has ever been inside his home. Aramis lives in a simple but elegant apartment with his servant Bazin, a religious man whose only wish is for his master to enter the Church.

Life continues normally for awhile. The friends spend all their time together, and eventually end up having to scrounge together free meals when their money runs out. Then, one day, d'Artagnan arrives home to find a stranger in his house, begging him for help. The man explains that he has come to d'Artagnan because his wife has been kidnapped, and he fears that it is part of some political plot involving the Queen. He explains that his wife is one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, and that her kidnapping might have something to do with her knowledge of the Queen's affair with the Duke of Buckingham. As it turns out, the little man is Monsieur Bonacieux, d'Artagnan's landlord, so d'Artagnan is all too happy to help him in return for rent. When D'Artagnan asks for a description of Madame Bonacieux's captor, it sounds as though she has been kidnapped by D'Artagnan's own nemesis, the Man from Meung. Just at this point in the conversation, D'Artagnan spots that very man, and goes racing after him.
Once again, D'Artagnan loses sight of his quarry. He returns to his apartment, and summons his three friends to discuss the news he's heard. He tells them all of Madame Bonacieux's fate, and asks what they believe they should do. Involvement is risky, because it means taking the Queen's part in what is surely a Cardinalist action against her, since the Cardinal and the Queen are great enemies. The four men decide, however, that they should aid Madame Bonacieux and therefore the Queen, for this means foiling the Cardinal, and as Royalists the Cardinal is their primary enemy.
Just then, Monsieur Bonacieux returns, and implores d'Artagnan to rescue him from a group of the Cardinal's guards who've come to arrest him. To everyone's surprise, d'Artagnan instead allows the guards to arrest the draper--with their new plans, the Musketeers cannot afford to be arrested, whereas Monsieur Bonacieux's arrest is fairly inconsequential. Athos and Aramis quickly understand this, although Porthos is bewildered.
The police set up a "mousetrap" in Bonacieux's apartment, where they capture anyone coming to visit and question them about Madame Bonacieux and her husband. D'Artagnan listens to all of the interrogations from his room, through the floor. Finally, Madame Bonacieux herself returns to the house. The guards are trying to gag and restrain her when d'Artagnan bursts in, fights them off, and rescues her. He takes her to Athos's house, where she will be safe, and explains the situation with her husband. She in turn explains to d'Artagnan that she was in fact kidnapped by the Cardinal's forces, but that she escaped and now has very important services to render to the Queen. She says that she must return to the Louvre, where the Queen is; D'Artagnan escorts Madame Bonacieux back to the palace.
Over the course of the afternoon's events, d'Artagnan has fallen quite in love with Madame Bonacieux, and he makes sure that he will see her again before leaving her. He goes to M. de Treville's to get an alibi for his actions that evening, aware that he is now in direct conflict with the Cardinal. He changes de Treville's clock, so the great man will think that d'Artagnan was with him at the exact moment when he was fighting off the guards, and his alibi will be airtight.




[h=4]Commentary[/h] The balance that we discussed in the Commentary to the previous section is developed to perfection here with Dumas’s lengthy exposition of the characters, lifestyles, and servants of the three musketeers in chapter 7. The balance of the trio only becomes stronger the more one learns about each of its members, in this chapter and throughout the book.

The world of The Three Musketeers is not meant to be realistic. It is a Romantic world--not a world of ambiguity, but one of absolutes. Serving the King and Queen is good; serving the Cardinal is bad. What is interesting about this moral code are the ways in which it defies intuitive morality in many cases. Remember the Romantic juxtaposition of immorality and chivalry (see the section on Romance). There is clearly a disconnect between the moral universe of The Three Musketeers, and what would seem to make immediate moral sense--why is serving the king automatically good, for instance, when the cardinal is a shrewder and better ruler? The compromises that the characters make in the name of justice and honor might seem odd to us, and probably seemed odd to Dumas’s readership as well. It is with this sense of difference, between our time and his characters' time, between our values and their values, that Dumas so vividly creates the environment of his characters, and defines the escapist nature of his writing.
Dumas is clearly not interested in an investigation of the actual moral and social climate of Paris during the rule of Louis XIII. In the service of his historical Romanticism, he is interested in an idealization, a glorified dramatization. The glamour of aristocracy, and certain aspects of the history--Buckingham and the Queen's purported affair, for instance--interest him, but we can now see how finely tuned Dumas’s writing is to the people he was writing for, primarily Parisians in 1844. The erasure of ambiguity is a very common aspect of popular entertainment in all its forms. However, we should look to what Dumas replaces the ambiguity of real life with--an idealized, beautified value system that is comforting. Dumas’s characters' loyalty to one another and to their code of ethics makes for good entertainment, and is furthermore a comforting idea when the value system of one's own society is in flux, as France's was following the political upheaval of the Revolution. Caught between monarchy and republicanism, Dumas takes the best elements of a glorified past, places unassailable values beneath it, and creates a story that is engaging and simple, and that filled a gap in the social climate of his time.
A wonderful example of the limitless loyalty Dumas’s characters feel for one another--and probably the most famous line from all Dumas’s writing--occurs in this section. After d'Artagnan explains his situation with Monsieur Bonacieux to his friends, and they realize how deep the trouble is, they take the oath that defines their relationship in the novel: "All for one, and one for all."
This section introduces us to Love in this world, and it fits the bill of Romantic love perfectly. The speed with which d'Artagnan falls in love with Madame Bonacieux, and the consuming power with which he feels that love, belie the fact that he barely knows her--but in the world Dumas presents, his instant passion is treated as credible and normal. Dumas embraces a view of love typical of Romantic narratives, but already archaic by 1844 standards. That he presents that view with sincerity and warmth, and without a trace of irony, marks the extent of his commitment to imbuing his novel with Romantic values.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 11-15
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] D'Artagnan wanders along the streets of Paris, lost in thoughts of love for Madame Bonacieux. He decides to visit Aramis, and is surprised to find a young woman knocking on his friend's door. He is further shocked when he sees that the young woman's knocks are not answered by Aramis, but by another woman. The two women exchange handkerchiefs, and Aramis's visitor leaves. D'Artagnan's final shock comes when he sees that the visitor is Madame Bonacieux.

D'Artagnan follows Madame Bonacieux and asks what she was doing. After getting over some shock, Bonacieux seems charmed by the fact that d'Artagnan wants to protect her, and allows him to escort her to the next house on her secret mission. She then makes him promise not to follow her anymore, and he very reluctantly agrees.
D'Artagnan returns home to another surprise: Athos has been arrested, because the police thought he was d'Artagnan. D'Artagnan heads immediately to the Louvre to talk to M. de Treville about this. Along the way, he again spots Bonacieux, this time being escorted by Aramis. Angry that she lied to him and that his friend is betraying him, he confronts the couple, to find out that the man is not Aramis, but the Duke of Buckingham himself, off to a secret tryst with the Queen. D'Artagnan guards their passage into the Louvre, and goes to make sense of the day's events.
At the Louvre, the Duke of Buckingham and the Queen have a very emotional meeting. The duke knew that it was a Cardinalist trap that brought him to France, not the Queen's summons, but he still had to see her. He professes his undying love, but she is cautious; she clearly loves him, but feels duty-bound to be distant. Buckingham says that he will wage war on France, killing thousands, just to have an excuse to be near her. Eventually, he gets her to give him a token of her esteem: a diamond brooch that Louis XIII had given her for her birthday. With that, he is gone with a flourish, leaving the Queen in a state of confused emotion.
Meanwhile, Monsieur Bonacieux has been held in the Bastille, and he is horrified. After being interrogated by two minor magistrates, he is brought into the presence of Cardinal Richelieu himself. Cowed by the great man, Monsieur Bonacieux tells the Cardinal all about his wife's activities, and promises to keep an eye on her in the future. The Cardinal has convinced the little landlord to spy on his own wife for him.
The next day, M. de Treville finds out about Athos's arrest, and immediately goes to the King to get him released. However, the Cardinal arrives before de Treville, and gets a chance to convince the King of the merit of his side of the story. Monsieur de Treville, however, is able to convince the King that it is ridiculous to arrest one of the musketeers without cause. When the Cardinal questions M. de Treville about d'Artagnan, de Treville is able to respond honestly that d'Artagnan was at his house at the time of the arrest--d'Artagnan had reset the clocks when he visited de Treville the night before, to assure that his alibi would be secure. The Cardinal then backs off, and allows the King to free Athos. M. de Treville leaves, happy but suspicious about the Cardinal's sudden change.
M. de Treville has good reason to be suspicious. The moment he leaves their company, the Cardinal turns to the King and informs him of the Duke of Buckingham's visit to the Queen.




[h=4]Commentary[/h] True to form, Dumas has developed an intricately complicated plot. The factions include the Cardinalists and the Royalists, with the Queen on her own, both the King and Cardinal against her.

The plot that d'Artagnan has stumbled into by involving himself with Madame Bonacieux is this: the Queen and the Duke of Buckingham are suspected of a romantic involvement, so the Cardinal has lured the Duke of Buckingham to Paris with a fake summons from the Queen. Buckingham learns that his summons is fake, but stays on to see the Queen because he loves her so much. France and England are enemies, or at least competitors, at this point in their history, and so the Duke of Buckingham is both a political enemy to the Cardinal for France and for his own personal motives. If the Duke were found in Paris, the Queen would be discredited in the King's eyes, and the Cardinal would attain greater influence. That is why Madame Bonacieux was arrested: she is one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, and the Cardinal hoped to get information from her about Buckingham. Buckingham is hiding somewhere in Paris, and Madame Bonacieux knows where, but she refuses to tell the Cardinal anything, and then escapes. This is when she returns to her home, and d'Artagnan rescues her.
What the Cardinal finds out from Monsieur Bonacieux, however, is all he needs, and he is able to piece together the full story. The house that d'Artagnan escorts Madame Bonacieux to is where the Duke of Buckingham is staying. The woman in Aramis's house is Madame de Chevreuse a good friend of the Queen who was banished from Paris by the King. She is in Paris temporarily to help the Queen in her plans to see Buckingham. Why she is in Aramis's house is yet to be seen. The handkerchiefs function as passwords between the stations, and Madame Bonacieux is a messenger. She picks up the Duke, takes him to the Queen, and takes him away again.
A complaint that is sometimes laid against Dumas’s writing--both in The Three Musketeers and in his work as a whole--is that his plots are overwrought, indulgent, and excessive. He spends a massive amount of time in exposition, and his character explanations occasionally are devoted to "telling" rather than "showing" (the description of the Duke of Buckingham is a good example). The simple explanation for all of this is that The Three Musketeers was written to be published, not as a single book, but in a number of magazine installments.
Generally, any plot can be broken down into three main parts. The first part is devoted to the introduction of characters and the development of the fundamental issues of the plot. The second part is devoted to the development of the intricacies of the plot. The third part is devoted to the denouement and aftermath of the plot.
In The Three Musketeers, Dumas takes this three act structure and expands it. This is a common aspect of any Romance--the story always seems to extend, rather than developing and ending. Of course, in Dumas’s case, this extension was perfectly suited to the demands of serial publication. A serial publication is designed to be cut up, not into three major parts, but into dozens of tiny parts (originally 8, as a matter of fact), with each section published separately. So the prevalence of sub-plots and side-stories is great, as these smaller things can satisfy the dramatic needs of a single installment. Additionally, one should remember that, from a business perspective, the longer the novel-in-installment is, the better. Dumas reached the height of his fame with The Three Musketeers, but he was an extremely highly regarded name in Paris (primarily as a playwright) before its publication. The installments sold extremely well, and sales improved as the story continued and Dumas’s fame widened. He got paid more the more installments he had; his magazine sold more the more installments he had, etc. It is possible to place too much weight on this latter consideration, but one should be aware of it.

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[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 16-20
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] The Cardinal tells the King of the Duke of Buckingham's visit to the Queen. The King is incensed, and the Cardinal skillfully pretends to be defending the Queen's honor, rather than trying to destroy it. He does not mention the Queen's gift to Buckingham of the diamond brooch. Instead, he emphasizes the fact that the Queen seems to be involved in a political conspiracy with Buckingham that also includes Spain and Austria. The King is furious, and suspects the Queen personally as well as politically.

He demands that the Queen be searched. Humiliatingly, the Queen's quarters and person are searched for incriminating letters, which are found, and indeed reveal her involvement in a political conspiracy against the Cardinal, but say nothing of her personal affairs. The King is mollified--a plot against the Cardinal is nothing unusual or that objectionable--and at the Cardinal's suggestion decides that he will have a great ball to try to make up for his insult to the Queen. The Cardinal also suggests that the King ask the Queen to wear the diamond brooch she gave Buckingham to the ball (the king, of course, has no idea that the Queen has given the brooch away). Meanwhile, the Cardinal has commissioned Milady, an agent of his, to steal a piece of the brooch from Buckingham at a ball in Britain, and she has successfully done so.
The King attempts to confront the Queen subtly about the diamond brooch, suspecting something, but ends up simply revealing to her that the Cardinal knows she gave it to Buckingham. The Queen despairs, thinking that there is no way she can get the brooch back before the ball. Then Madame Bonacieux arrives in her quarters and, overhearing the Queen's woes, offers to arrange for the pickup of the brooch from Buckingham in England. The Queen writes a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, explaining her need for the brooch back. Madame Bonacieux goes home to her husband, who is back from his interrogation by the Cardinal, and tries to convince him to go to England to give the letter to the Duke. However, with his new Cardinalist loyalties, Monsieur Bonacieux refuses, and the two have a fight. Monsieur Bonacieux leaves to tell the Cardinal of his wife's actions; just then d'Artagnan knocks on Madame Bonacieux's door.
Having overheard, he implores Madame Bonacieux to take him into her confidence and allow him to go to England for her, professing his love as a guarantee of his reliability. After much goading, she yields and explains the mission to him. D'Artagnan is joyous at the opportunity to serve both the Queen and his beloved Madame Bonacieux, and she herself is clearly starting to fall in love with the young Gascon.
D'Artagnan rushes off to M. de Treville and, without revealing any secrets, explains the situation to the great man. Treville agrees to get d'Artagnan his leave from the guards, and gives Porthos, Aramis, and Athos a leave from the Musketeers on the pretext of allowing Athos a vacation to rest his wounds. D'Artagnan then goes and gathers his friends, and they leave Paris together.
The journey to Britain is difficult, but d'Artagnan eventually arrives. Porthos is waylaid at a duel in a pub, Aramis is shot in the arm in an ambush and has to rest and recuperate, and Athos is caught in another ambush further along the way. Forced to leave his three friends, D'Artagnan travels on to Britain, is forced to duel and nearly kill a Cardinalist agent, the Comte de Wardes, to leave France, and is able to get the letter from the Queen to Buckingham just in time.




[h=4]Commentary[/h] As we've mentioned, Dumas has chosen a story with historical reference, but not one that relies on famous or important historical events. He spares himself from having to force historical situations awkwardly into fiction, and is free to create his own situations. Still, he has taken one of his liberties with the fundamental cause of our heroes' journey to England: the idea that there was an affair between Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is probably false. There is a distinct possibility that, in a court visit in 1625, Buckingham did sleep with the Queen. But the affair almost certainly did not continue--there are no letters, nor accounts of attempted communication between the two of them after that. George Villiers seems to have been very willing to use *** to his advantage, at any rate, which casts a suspicious light on his "romance" with the Queen.

Forgetting about the validity of Dumas’s history, it is still interesting to question the motivations of his plot. What, exactly, are d'Artagnan, Porthos, and Aramis fighting, killing, and willing to die for? Why protect the honor of a queen who acts dishonorably, betraying her marriage vow? The musketeers are not fighting for secret battle plans, they are fighting to get back a brooch from a British nobleman with whom the Queen is in love, so that the King doesn't discover the situation. Furthermore, why isn't it better for the King, whom the Musketeers purportedly represent, to know that his wife is having an affair?
Of course, the answer to these dilemmas lies in the Romantic values that propel the narrative of The Three Musketeers. The musketeers and d'Artagnan are heroes of ideals, and the ideal that they are pursuing at the moment is female virtue. They are in service to the King, and therefore the Queen, and are therefore present to defend their honorable Queen from any slander to her name. The fact that it's a Cardinalist conspiracy out to slander her makes their struggle all the better. We can add additional ideals to this: d'Artagnan is fighting for love--anything he is bidden to do by Madame Bonacieux, he will do. And his three friends are fighting in the name of chivalric friendship. They swore "all for one and one for all," and that means something: it means they will happily die for d'Artagnan.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 21-25
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] D'Artagnan finds the Duke of Buckingham and gives him the Queen's letter. As the Duke is giving the brooch to d'Artagnan, he sees that a piece of it is missing--the piece that Milady, whom he knows as Lady de Winter, cut off the brooch at a ball. The Duke calls a total blockade on all ships leaving English ports, to prevent Lady de Winter from reaching the Cardinal with her portion of the brooch. This blockade represents an act of war against France. The Duke has the brooch repaired, and d'Artagnan races back to France.

D'Artagnan arrives in Paris the night before the ball. He meets with Madame Bonacieux, who takes the brooch from him. The Queen wears the brooch to the ball the following night. The Cardinal can't tell, however, whether the brooch is whole or missing the piece that Milady cut from it--and did manage to get to him, despite Buckingham's blockade. He approaches the Queen and, in front of the King, offers her the missing piece of her brooch. The Queen feigns surprise at the odd gift--the brooch is clearly whole, as Buckingham's jeweler did an excellent job. Later, the Queen summons d'Artagnan to her chambers, secretly allows him to kiss her hand, and gives him a beautiful ring as a token of her gratitude.
At home, d'Artagnan finds a letter waiting for him, inviting him to meet Madame Bonacieux for a tryst the following night. D'Artagnan then visits M. de Treville, who has figured out that d'Artagnan was involved in the odd events between the King, Queen, and Cardinal at the ball, although he doesn't really know how. He begs d'Artagnan to be cautious. He then spots the ring, and d'Artagnan tells him how he "met" the Queen. Treville is impressed, but sees this as even more reason to be careful; in fact, Treville feels d'Artagnan should sell the ring. D'Artagnan refuses, but promises to be cautious. He then goes and meets up with Planchet, and the two head out of the city to the tryst.
At the appointed spot, d'Artagnan sends Planchet off, and waits for Madame Bonacieux alone. After waiting for an hour, he starts to grow anxious, and looks inside the house where they are appointed to meet. There has clearly been a struggle, and she is not there. Mad with worry, d'Artagnan finds out from a local peasant that a group of men, including one smaller than the rest who identified Madame Bonacieux, came and kidnapped d'Artagnan's love.
D'Artagnan heads back to Paris, and tells M. de Treville of his troubles. Treville is convinced that it's a Cardinalist conspiracy, and recommends that d'Artagnan leave Paris to go check on his friends, while Treville will try to find out what he can. Treville's advice is good: when d'Artagnan returns home, Planchet informs him that the head of the Cardinal's guards came around looking for him, under the pretence that the Cardinal wanted to speak to him. After one last check at his friends' homes, during which he picks up a letter from Aramis's house that seems to be from a lady, D'Artagnan and Planchet leave Paris. Before he leaves, d'Artagnan runs into Monsieur Bonacieux, and figures out that he must be the little man who identified Madame Bonacieux to her captors.
D'Artagnan first reaches the inn where he left Porthos to his duel. Porthos is alive, but wounded. D'Artagnan is able to find out some information from the innkeeper: first, Porthos was wounded by a Cardinalist agent looking for d'Artagnan, and second, Porthos's mistress is in fact a middle-aged banker's wife, not a Duchess, as he is wont to claim. The innkeeper knows this because Porthos had to ask her for money to pay for his bill at the inn, which she refused him, thinking that he was cheating on her.
Armed with this information, d'Artagnan goes to check on his friend. He lets his friend get away with his grand lies--Porthos claims to have hurt his knee, after defeating his opponent in the duel, and that his "Duchess" mistress must be away on some grand adventure, as he has had trouble reaching her. Content that Porthos is safe, d'Artagnan travels on to check on Aramis.
[h=4]Commentary[/h] This section concludes the first part of Dumas’s unusual narrative structure. The novel can be divided into two major quests: first, the "Get the Brooch" Quest, and secondly the "Rescue Madame Bonacieux, Capture Milady" Quest. The novel is divided into two parts by Dumas himself, which correspond to these two plot lines.

This is, however, an imperfect organization. The first half first introduces d'Artagnan and the musketeers. They have some small adventures against the Cardinal's guards, and then d'Artagnan gets embroiled in the larger intrigue of the Queen and the brooch. But this section ends after d'Artagnan's meeting with the Queen in chapter 24, and there are 37 chapters in part I. Thirteen chapters go by without any real plot advancement. The Bonacieux plot line is forestalled until the second part, essentially; the rest of part I works as an epilogue to the main event. It's a strangely long epilogue, though, half as long as the story itself. Again, the meandering Romantic narrative of Dumas’s work, and its publication in serial installments, explains the unusual shape of the story.
Dumas’s relationship to history changes a bit in this section as well. To this point, Dumas has kept his characters tangential to history, and explicitly kept them away from major events. That changes dramatically in this section, when d'Artagnan's visit to Buckingham with the Queen's letter prompts the Duke to declare the naval blockade, which eventually leads to armed conflict between France and England. The main characters of the story remain immersed in background events. But in an engaging and pleasing way, Dumas has linked his story and characters to a major event in history, the fighting between France and England that really did break out over a naval blockade at this time.
Dumas has walked a very thin line. His heroes are still heroes of ideas and ideals, rather than of great events, but his story now has the sweep of major history behind it. He has explained one small chapter of real French history in a completely fictional way, ignoring the famous people and giving us a story behind the history, a story that defines the history but isn't limited by it. /PARAGRAPH This part of the novel has emphasized the all-important nature of loyalty and love in the Romantic universe of the novel. In The Three Musketeers, honor is more important than life, and that includes the honor of a friend, or the honor of the Queen, King, etc. Friendship, or loyalty, is also more important than one's life. In the moral view of the novel, there is only one circumstance in which it is permissible to be remiss in one's honor-bound duties to friend or country, and that is in the case of love.
When d'Artagnan goes to call on Aramis to come on the journey to England, Aramis at first hesitates because he is unsure of his mistress's affections, and is waiting for a letter or word from her. Under any other circumstances, both d'Artagnan and the narrative itself would have chided Aramis for not helping his friend immediately. But since love is involved, his behavior is perfectly acceptable. Also, in this section, when Treville suggests that d'Artagnan go help his friends, and d'Artagnan explains he must delay leaving for a tryst, Treville is worried because he feels d'Artagnan may be being uncautious. But he does not chide the young Gascon for being disloyal to his friends. Given that Treville knows that all three of his men may be dead, and may have died on a mission that they went on for d'Artagnan's sake, his response might seem rather extraordinary. The explanation, of course, is love's place at the top of the hierarchy of this world's values.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 26-30
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] D'Artagnan arrives at the inn where he left the wounded Aramis, and discovers him and two churchmen discussing Aramis's religious thesis: Aramis has again decided to join the Church. D'Artagnan figures out the root of Aramis's conversion, however--Aramis believes that his mysterious mistress, the author of the letter d'Artagnan picked up, has abandoned him. D'Artagnan produces the letter and, upon reading it, Aramis's whole attitude changes--he no longer wants to renounce the world; in fact, he seems more enthusiastic about living life than ever. By now, D'Artagnan has figured out that Madame de Chevreuse, the mysterious woman who met Madame Bonacieux in Aramis's apartment at the beginning of the story, is in fact Aramis's mistress. Aramis needs more time to recuperate from his wound, so d'Artagnan leaves him to go in search of Athos.

At the inn where he and Athos were ambushed, d'Artagnan is harsh with the innkeeper, who was part of the attack. It becomes clear, however, that the innkeeper was a pawn in another Cardinalist plot to capture d'Artagnan. After d'Artagnan left, Athos fought off his attackers, and barricaded himself in the inn's basement with Grimaud, where he has remained since then. This is causing the innkeeper considerable consternation, as all his wine and food is stored there, and he can't get in. D'Artagnan coaxes Athos out. He and Grimaud emerge reelingly drunk; they have deliberately been trying to consume all the landlord's stock to punish him for the attack. This causes everyone except the landlord considerable amusement, and Athos and d'Artagnan take a regular room in the inn.
In his drunken stupor, Athos makes an extraordinary confession to d'Artagnan. He tells of a "friend" of his, a nobleman, who married a young woman of humble background under his rule, breaking the rules of social conduct for idealistic love. One day, his friend discovered that this woman was branded with the Fleur-de-Lis on her left shoulder, a symbol put on the most heinous of criminals. The young woman was a fraud; all she wanted was money and social power. In mad sadness, Athos's friend hung his wife. After hearing this horrible and extraordinary story, which is clearly about Athos himself (Athos lapses into the first person toward the end of it), d'Artagnan feigns sleep, unable to take any more from his friend that night.
The next day, Athos and d'Artagnan both agree to chalk up the previous night's conversation as drunken rambling on Athos's part, and not mention it anymore. They then head back to Paris, picking up their friends along the way. Upon returning to Paris, each of the four friends finds a letter from M. de Treville informing the musketeers that the campaign against Britain has begun, and that they must equip themselves. This causes considerable consternation, as they simply don't have enough money to outfit themselves appropriately. D'Artagnan is also immediately interested in knowing if there has been any news of Madame Bonacieux in his absence, which there has not.
The first of the friends to solve his equipment problem is Porthos. He is able to get back into his mistress's (the attorney's wife, Madame Coquenard) affections, and she supplies the funds. D'Artagnan happens to witness the beginning of this scene, but becomes extremely distracted when he spots the Woman from Meung. He feels that this woman is somehow affecting his life, and he is right--she is Milady, an agent of the Cardinal.
D'Artagnan becomes obsessed with Milady, her connection to the Man from Meung, and how it all relates to Madame Bonacieux's disappearance. He happens to run into her having an argument with a man on the street, and seizes the opportunity to intercede. A fight breaks out between d'Artagnan and the man, Lord de Winter, who turns out to be Milady's brother. The two men make an assignation to duel the following day.




[h=4]Commentary[/h] At the beginning of this section, the scene of Aramis and the two men of the Church strikes a new tone for the novel. In a book full of mocking caricatures--of the King, of Monsieur Bonacieux, even of aspects of the main characters--Dumas’s depiction of the churchmen is the least respectful presentation thus far. They are truly idiotic, comic characters, sententiously spouting incomprehensible Latin and talking nonsense. Throughout the book, the narrative is wholly supportive of Aramis's friends' constant efforts to keep him from joining the Church. Finally, the Cardinal, a powerful priest is a central antagonist in the novel. An anti-religious motif clearly seems to run through the book.

To explain this motif, we must look at history. France in 1844 was in a state of violent flux regarding its view of the Church. The established power structure of the Catholic Church, which had stood so long and so powerfully in France, had been overturned by the Revolution and the period of chaos following it. The Church was resented for its power and wealth, and savagely attacked.
This explains the presence of the Cardinal as the opposing force to our heroes' noble efforts. The vignette of the two Churchmen and Aramis also becomes clear--Dumas is teasing an establishment that had fallen out of favor, reflecting the French people's unease with the Church. Additionally, the sub-plot of Aramis and his obsession with entering the Church takes on fuller, more nuanced meaning. It is definitely best if Aramis remains a musketeer for the time being, fulfilling his oath to stand by his friends. However, his desire to enter the church and his quiet, somewhat monk-like character are very important parts of what makes Aramis such a dignified and special gentleman.
In the abstract, the notion of religion--of the wisdom and gentleness that is sometimes associated with religious men--seems to charm The Three Musketeers's portrayal of Aramis's ambitions. The events of the past half-century may have badly shaken the Church's power and standing in Dumas’s time, but Catholicism had been a driving force in France for hundreds of years. Like the monarchy, it was something people were accustomed to and, given their current national insecurity, wasn't without appeal. So, just as it is comforting and necessary that the heroes fight in the name of the King, but also key that they be distinct from the aristocracy, it is appealing to have Aramis exist as a character caught in a state of flux. He is not pledged to the power structures of the Church, but he is in tune with the nobler, "higher" characteristics of religion. This is a pattern that occurs throughout the novel: Dumas strips away what might be discomfiting about some aspect of French history, sifts out whatever part of it might have enduring value, and puts that appealing portion in his story. He cuts out the ambiguous bits, and leaves us with what we can whole-heartedly support or reject.
Structurally, this section works as the long epilogue to the first part of the novel. For all the form's idiosyncrasy, Dumas masterfully uses this final portion of part I. Dumas uses the individual visits d'Artagnan pays to each musketeer to build his characters expertly: d'Artagnan catches Porthos in a likable, charming, boastful lie, Aramis is threatening to join the Church, and Athos has slipped into one of his strange fits of melancholy. Athos has been a great mystery in the story up until now--Dumas emphasizes his inherent nobility, and the fact that a mysterious woe seems to be eating away at his spirit. In this section, we finally find a justification for this woe, with Athos's extraordinary story of his marriage to the branded woman. Athos is, as d'Artagnan suspected, a nobleman. And he is indeed haunted by an event from his past.
The story itself is interesting for many reasons. First, it demonstrates the importance of the Fleur-de-Lis, which will become key in part II. The Fleur-de-Lis was a brand of the highest shame; Athos's wife had been branded for stealing the Communion plate at church, a base and disgusting crime. Second, we get our first glimpse into the potential brutality of the Musketeers's world. We've had duels and some death, but Athos's murder of his former wife is altogether different. Upon discovering the Fleur-de-Lis on his wife, he strips her, ties her hands behind her back, and hangs her from a tree.
Shock here is quite justified--aren't women supposed to be accorded some special consideration under this chivalric code? Is it honorable to hang anyone to death while they're unconscious? D'Artagnan is shocked by the story, but he does not censure Athos for it. It seems, then, that there is a great harshness inherent in our heroes' honor--a certain level of dishonest treachery justifies a brutality that open confrontation never would. The treachery of Athos's wife deserves nothing but systematic murder. Amorality and chivalry, in this case, link together in highly unsettling ways.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 31-37
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] D'Artagnan meets Lord de Winter and three friends for their duel, with Porthos, Aramis and Athos as his seconds. The Englishmen force the Musketeers to reveal their true names--the Musketeers do so secretly, and Athos notes that he must now kill his opponent: he wants no one to know his true identity. The fight begins, and Athos kills his man. Aramis and Porthos defeat their opponents, and d'Artagnan disarms Lord de Winter, but spares him, declaring that he loves his sister. Lord de Winter is infinitely grateful, and promises to introduce d'Artagnan to Lady de Winter.

Athos is confused by d'Artagnan's behavior--he talks about being in love with Madame Bonacieux, and now he's obsessed with Lady de Winter. D'Artagnan tries to rationalize his interest by saying that he believes her to be a Cardinalist agent, but this excuse is only half true; something definitely draws him to this odd Englishwoman.
The next day, Lord de Winter introduces d'Artagnan to Lady de Winter. She is charming, but d'Artagnan is shocked by the faces she makes when she thinks no one is watching; her expression changes from that of a pleasant, beautiful hostess to a murderous animal, only to switch back the moment anyone addresses her. Confused, but more intrigued than ever, d'Artagnan starts calling on Milady every day. As d'Artagnan falls further in love with Milady, her maid, Kitty, begins to fall in love with d'Artagnan.
One day, Kitty takes d'Artagnan aside and confesses that she loves him. She also tells him that Milady does not love him, she loves the Comte de Wardes. D'Artagnan persuades Kitty to let him overhear Milady confessing her hatred of d'Artagnan, because if he had killed Lord de Winter, she would have inherited all the Lord's money. She says the only reason she hasn't "dealt with him" is that the Cardinal wants her to treat him carefully. She also mentions her involvement in the kidnapping of Madame Bonacieux.
All suspicions are now confirmed. Milady is a Cardinalist agent and a sinister villain. D'Artagnan is determined to have his revenge; he uses Kitty to intercept correspondences between Milady and the Comte. He sends her a false letter under the Comte's name, making an assignation to meet at her house. Kitty helps d'Artagnan because she loves him; for his part, d'Artagnan pretends to return her feelings, even having *** with her to make his act convincing.
D'Artagnan's plan is to compromise Milady, and then reveal his true identity to her, thus humiliating her and forcing her to tell him where Madame Bonacieux is. But when the hour of the tryst comes, d'Artagnan disguises himself as the Comte and goes to Milady's home, and finds himself seduced by her. The two have ***, and Milady--still believing d'Artagnan to be the Comte--gives d'Artagnan a ring, as a token of her affection.
In the sober light of the next morning, d'Artagnan realizes what a mess he's gotten himself into. He goes to Athos for advice. Athos tells him to stay away from Milady, and, oddly, recognizes the ring that she gave him as one he used to have. D'Artagnan writes Milady a letter as the Comte, saying that he must not see her anymore.
Broken-hearted Kitty faithfully delivers the letter, and Milady flies into a wild rage. She wants revenge on the Comte for spurning her, and so sends d'Artagnan a letter, inviting him to come visit her again. He goes, and she seduces him, exchanging *** for the promise that he will kill the Comte, whom she says has greatly insulted her. After a night of lovemaking, Milady presses d'Artagnan for details: how, specifically, does he plan to kill the Comte? D'Artagnan decides that enough is enough, and tells her that it was he she slept with as the Comte, and produces the ring to prove it. Milady is overcome with fury, and attacks d'Artagnan. In the scuffle, he tears her shirt, revealing that she has a Fleur-de-Lis branded on her left shoulder. Shocked and horrified, d'Artagnan escapes the dagger-wielding Milady, and runs out onto the street.




[h=4]Commentary[/h] This section concludes the first half of The Three Musketeers. Lady de Winter, after spending the first half of the novel operating in the background, has become the book's most important antagonist.

Milady is considered by some to be Dumas’s finest literary creation. Beneath her aggression and cunning, at this point in the novel she is still a richly mysterious character. Is she Athos's murdered wife? If so, how did she survive? She claims to be an Englishwoman, yet she speaks perfect French; where is she from? What did she do to earn that Fleur-de-Lis? What is her connection to Madame Bonacieux's kidnapping, and to the Cardinal's schemes in general?
To a very great extent, Dumas has spent this closing portion of part I posing all these questions, in order to devote part II to answering them. In fact, one of the most common criticisms leveled against The Three Musketeers is that Milady dominates part II in a way that tampers with the novel's structural balance.
Milady indeed is the driving force behind the rest of the work. The power she holds over d'Artagnan ensures her ability to spur the musketeers into action. With each new revelation about her past, d'Artagnan promises himself more sternly that he will have nothing to do with her; but in her presence he is powerless. Milady possesses extraordinary powers of persuasion.
For his part, d'Artagnan has undergone some interesting changes, particularly in this last section of the story. He appears to be a collection of the virtues that suit one best to live well and successfully in his era. He is brave and loyal to his friends, and, when necessary, capable of intrigue. But in this section, he shows a ruthless streak unprecedented in the novel. His treatment of Kitty is almost openly cruel, and even his ***ual deception of Milady is alarmingly devious. In part, of course, the extremity of his behavior is meant to indicate the extent of the effect Milady has had on him.
Still, this is a streak in d'Artagnan's character independent from his feelings for Milady: d'Artagnan is very, very ambitious. The moral universe of The Three Musketeers is an elegant one of high ideals, but those ideals live in close proximity to a kind of amoral sensuality which the novel seems to condone. Dumas’s characters are wholly devoted to their higher ideals, but they don't seem fettered by what one might consider "mundane morality." They're happy to die for each other or their King; in fact, they seem almost flippant about the thought; "death before dishonor" is their cheerful motto. But Porthos is happy to extort money from his Madame de Coquenard, Athos to drink the poor innkeeper nearly out of house and home, and d'Artagnan to break poor Kitty's heart. It seems that part of the charm of Dumas’s world is not only its high ideals, but also its lack of social constraints stemming from conventional morality. Romantic chivalry and Romantic amorality intermingle; in a way, his larger-than-life characters are above needing to worry about such things.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Part II Chapters 1-7
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] After his horrifying encounter with Milady, d'Artagnan flees to Athos's home, and tells him everything. With the evidence of the Fleur-de-Lis, both men think it likely that Milady is Athos's branded wife.

D'Artagnan gathers his three friends together, and returns home to find Kitty waiting for him. She is now horrified of Milady, and reminds d'Artagnan that he promised to protect her. Aramis agrees to see if his mysterious mistress can find a place for her. Before she leaves, Kitty tells d'Artagnan that she recognizes Monsieur Bonacieux as a frequent visitor to Milady's house, confirming Milady's involvement in Madame Bonacieux's kidnapping.
D'Artagnan and Athos pawn Milady's ring, buying equipment with the money. When d'Artagnan returns home, he finds two letters waiting for him. One is from Madame Bonacieux, asking him to meet her at a deserted bridge in Paris that evening. The other is from the Cardinal's staff, demanding d'Artagnan's presence before the Cardinal that night. D'Artagnan is determined to make both meetings, and the Musketeers insist on coming along to protect him.
D'Artagnan waits at the appointed spot on the bridge to meet Madame Bonacieux, who suddenly races by in a carriage, blowing him a kiss as she passes. D'Artagnan can't figure out whether this means she is safe or still the Cardinal's prisoner. Perplexed by the mystery, he and his friends move on to meet the Cardinal.
D'Artagnan's audience with the Cardinal is similarly baffling. The Cardinal indicates that he is aware of d'Artagnan's intrigues, but seems to be favorably inclined toward d'Artagnan nonetheless. He offers d'Artagnan an Officer's post in his guards. Shocked, d'Artagnan courteously declines the offer. The Cardinal warns d'Artagnan that by refusing his offer, he leaves himself vulnerable to attacks from which only the Cardinal can protect him. D'Artagnan insists on his decision, and the men part on tense but respectful terms.
The next day, d'Artagnan's company of guards leaves Paris for battle. The musketeers are not set to leave for a few days, so d'Artagnan is forced to be separate from his friends.
D'Artagnan arrives at La Rochelle, a town taken by the British and now besieged by the French. One night, as d'Artagnan wanders about alone, two men shoot at him. Badly shaken, he escapes, and reasons that Milady must have organized the attack as revenge.
The next day, d'Artagnan volunteers to lead a dangerous reconnaissance mission. The two men who attacked him volunteer for the mission as well, and attempt to kill him outside the walls of the city. D'Artagnan kills one and captures the other, obtaining a letter from Milady that confirms his suspicions: she sent the assassins, and Madame Bonacieux is safe somewhere in France.
Milady then sends d'Artagnan poisoned wine disguised as a gift from his friends. The Musketeers arrive just in time to prevent d'Artagnan from drinking it. They now realize the gravity of the situation--Milady will not rest until she has her revenge. The Musketeers decide that they must rescue Madame Bonacieux after the siege.
Shortly thereafter, the musketeers--without d'Artagnan who, as a guard, has less freedom while on duty--run into the Cardinal himself while dining at an inn. He enlists them as his personal bodyguards, and they follow him to a secret meeting. While they are waiting downstairs, Athos realizes he can hear the Cardinal speaking through the pipes of the stove. He hears Milady's voice as well. The Cardinal instructs Milady to go to Britain with a message for Buckingham--he must either desist in his war against France, or the Cardinal will expose his affairs with the Queen. If the Duke does not comply, the Cardinal outlines how Milady should arrange his assassination. Milady entreats the Cardinal to avenge her on d'Artagnan by throwing him in the Bastille, and finding out where Madame Bonacieux is. The Cardinal reluctantly agrees, and leaves Milady to perform his orders.



[h=4]Commentary[/h] The beginning of this section provides a brief historical overview of the Siege of La Rochelle, which was a real military event. Historically, the siege was a triumph for Cardinal Richelieu. It enabled the Catholic government of France to crush the pro-British, Protestant Huguenots, and in the process to revoke the Edict of Nantes, a document granting rights and protections to Protestants in France.

As in the case of the naval blockade in part I, Dumas provides his own version of this historical occurrence. He keeps his main characters away from the center of major historical events, but he nevertheless provides an alternate Romantic explanation for the causes of the siege. Dumas’s thesis is that this battle was caused by the Cardinal's secret love for the Queen; he hates her because she spurned him, but he loves her nonetheless, and hopes to humiliate Buckingham. For his part, of course, Buckingham's motive for fighting the war is to get closer to the Queen. Of course, this love-triangle explanation has no historical validity, but it is far better suited to Dumas’s Romantic universe than the real history would have been. Dumas consistently privileges his story above the demands of historical accuracy, often translating history into Romance in order to more perfectly create his universe.
Another important feature of this section is that it provides the second extended scene with Cardinal Richelieu, who has lurked behind the scenes for much of the novel. One of the great achievements of The Three Musketeers is the sense it creates of the Cardinal's omnipresence throughout the story, without actually showing us much of the Cardinal himself. The Cardinal has agents everywhere, but he himself is rarely seen. When Dumas does show the Cardinal, then, he is a striking, rare, dramatic figure--in deliberate contrast to the King, who is both a fop and a fool.
The most striking aspect of d'Artagnan's conversation with the Cardinal is that, unlike many of his agents, the Cardinal does not seem really evil. He is conniving, certainly, a brilliant and ruthless manipulator, but though he may be willing to use villains such as Milady to achieve his ends, he is hardly a villain himself. The Cardinal is an adversary in the chivalric sense--d'Artagnan can spend all his efforts, and risk his life, trying to thwart the Cardinal's plans, but when the two meet, he is a figure of legitimate respect.
As The Three Musketeers shows, Dumas is skillful at building character over a long period of time, Athos and d'Artagnan being very obvious examples of characters who develop slowly. The Cardinal is an example of Dumas’s skill in creating memorable characters with a few deft strokes. After two brief scenes with the Cardinal--the interview with Monsieur Bonacieux and the interview with d'Artagnan--a very vivid picture of the man has been painted. Dumas often allows himself the luxury of time, but it would be a mistake to characterize him as a writer incapable of economy.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 8-13
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] Before the Cardinal returns from his meeting with Milady, Athos goes on ahead, ostensibly to scout the way back. The Cardinal returns, and he and the other two Musketeers ride off toward the army camp.

Athos, meanwhile, has been hiding in the woods. He returns to the Inn where Milady is staying, and confronts her. She is shocked to see him, believing him to be dead. Athos declares his murderous hate for her, and warns her that, although he does not care about Buckingham, if anything happens to d'Artagnan he will kill her. To assure d'Artagnan's safety, Athos steals the written order of absolution that Milady got the Cardinal to give her--a message declaring that whatever the bearer of it has done has been done in the Cardinal's name. Athos leaves.
Athos returns to the camp with Aramis and Porthos. They immediately call d'Artagnan to see them, and go to eat breakfast at an Inn where they can talk quietly. The inn, however, is impossibly noisy, filled with soldiers. Athos makes a bet with a number of them that if he and his three friends can hold the Saint Gervais Fort by themselves for a full hour, the other soldiers must buy them a lavish dinner. Everyone agree to such a gutsy bet with great interest.
The friends have their breakfast packed up, and head out to the Fort. Athos explains that this deed will both bring them glory and provide them with a private place to plan what they must do, for anywhere else the Cardinal's agents would hear them. At the Fort, the men set up their breakfast, and raise a napkin to indicate that His Majesty's troops have occupied the fort. Athos then tells d'Artagnan and the others of his private meeting with Milady. They brainstorm on how best to keep themselves and Buckingham safe from Milady and the Cardinal. They decide to send two letters, both composed by Aramis. One will be addressed to Lord de Winter, warning him of Milady's plans on his life and criminal history, and urging him to imprison her when she gets to Britain. The other letter will be sent to Aramis's mysterious mistress (Madame de Chevreuse, the Queen's close friend) to warn the Queen of the plot against Buckingham. To get the money for these expeditions, the men decide to sell d'Artagnan's ring from the Queen.
During all of this deliberation, the four friends manage to fend off two attacking parties of Rochellese rebels, and stay in the fort a full hour-and-a-half. They return to great cheers, and are the celebrated heroes of the camp, so much so that news of their achievements comes to the Cardinal's ears. Convinced once again that he must have them on his side, the Cardinal congratulates Monsieur de Treville on his soldiers' bravery, and authorizes him to make d'Artagnan a Musketeer. Treville does so, and d'Artagnan finally joins their ranks.
The friends send the letter to Aramis's mistress with Bazin, and the letter to Lord de Winter with Planchet. D'Artagnan, who has a soft spot for Buckingham, also asks Planchet to give de Winter a verbal warning about Buckingham's assassination. Within a fortnight, both servants return with grateful replies, confirming the success of their missions.
In England, Milady arrives and is promptly taken into custody. She is taken to a country mansion, where Lord de Winter reveals that he is behind this; he is following the musketeers' advice. He introduces her to John Felton, the soldier who is to be her jailer, a seemingly impenetrably cold man. Milady has two weeks to escape, before Lord de Winter banishes her to an island far away. She starts to plan.



[h=4]Commentary[/h] Milady and the musketeers begin this section in a deadlock. The Cardinal is the most powerful man in France, but neither side can use him to much advantage; the musketeers because they are his enemies, and Milady because she fears his discovery of the brand on her shoulder. Dumas constructs this deadlock in such a way as to keep his story from revolving to closely around real historical people and events; the Cardinal is a brilliant behind-the-scenes character, but the main drama must be played out between Dumas’s own characters.

Athos's confrontation with Milady brings the conflict to a fever pitch. In a telling moment, Athos refers to the Fleur-de-Lis on her shoulder as a "Mark of Cain." In the folk history of France, physical malformations were regarded as a token of divine displeasure, and were often punished with death; Dumas, it seems, is drawing a comparison between Milady's branding and a physical malformation. Milady is a truly inhuman character, and the Fleur-de-Lis can be seen as an emblem of her accursed nature. It marks her as a creature of sin and evil; it is a divine sign from which she cannot escape, an external manifestation of the perverted and dangerous nature of her character.
The ambiguous conflict between Romantic chivalry and amorality rears up again during Athos's confrontation with his former wife. Despite his own past willingness to kill his wife brutally--purportedly to avenge his honor when he discovered the Fleur-de-Lis--he curses her bitterly when she claims to seek vengeance on d'Artagnan for her own wronged honor. Despite its chivalric overtones, the tenor of the novel never judges d'Artagnan for manipulating Milady and Kitty both ***ually and otherwise, or Athos himself for hanging his wife. But Milady is treated as an unspeakably evil creature, arguably for acting on the very same instincts that drive the novel's heroes themselves.
The musketeers' redeeming quality remains their loyalty to one another; they are still faithful to their famous oath. When Athos pledges them all to risk their lives at the Saint Gervais fort, the others agree to go unquestioningly, only asking for some explanation from Athos when they are well on their way to the fort, and then only to satisfy their curiosity. The novel's occasional moral ambiguity does not seem to indicate an abandonment on the musketeers' part of the values that sustain them; rather, it seems to stem from the musketeers' status as heroes in a Romance. Because they are heroes, they are not subject to the same moral constraints as everyone else; as long as they act to save the day in the end, they can be forgiven some slips. As long as they uphold the larger ideals of the novel, they can be permitted to run rampant through the smaller ones.
The unpopularity of the Catholic Church in Dumas’s time influences his story quite frequently, a trend of which this section is a good example. When the Musketeers are defending the fort, Porthos wonders aloud what's really so bad about the Protestants, and why they deserve to die, noting that their only crime appears to be "singing the Psalms in French instead of in Latin." When Aramis, the true religious scholar of the group, is asked for a second opinion, he agrees with Porthos. One can almost see a sense of apology in this, or rather, a deliberate attempt on Dumas part to imbue his heroes with the enlightenment of his times. In the same way, an American author, writing historical fiction about a ranch in Alabama in the 1820's, might give his young hero modern views on racial equality. Dumas clearly feels the need to address the history of the Church, and this vignette allows him to show us clearly where his heroes stand. They will fight for the King--they are soldiers, and they do what they are told. But as always--and despite their occasionally questionable behavior--they represent a higher set of ideals.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 14-20
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] The Cardinal waits impatiently for news from Milady, while the siege continues. It seems certain that the Rochellese will eventually give in; their only hope is the Duke of Buckingham. Everyone is caught in limbo, waiting for some development.

The Cardinal, to speed up La Rochelle's submission, orders fliers to be thrown over the walls of the town, designed to incite the population into revolt against a leadership that is making them starve. A rebellion against the city's leaders starts brewing, but at that point word comes from Buckingham that he will be there with a full fleet of ships in a week, along with forces from Spain and Austria. This news gives the people of La Rochelle the strength to go on, and defeats the Cardinal's efforts.
The waiting continues, and the Cardinal takes to riding along the beach to be alone with his thoughts. One day, he comes across the musketeers in the dunes, reading a letter. He tries to sneak up on them, but Grimaud spots him and calls the Musketeers to attention. The Cardinal and Athos then have a conversation about the letter, which starts out courteously enough but ends with Athos having the nerve to insult the Cardinal with a reminder of his past affairs with women, and all but refusing to show him the letter. Angry, yet all the more convinced that he must have the musketeers working for him, the Cardinal stalks off.
The musketeers then return to the letter, which is from Madame de Chevreuse to Aramis. Madame de Chevreuse has found out, through the Queen, where Madame Bonacieux is being kept--she is safe in a Carmelite Convent in Bethune, a small town. D'Artagnan is overjoyed at this news, and the Musketeers decide that, after the siege, they will go the Convent to retrieve her.
In England, Milady frantically plots her escape. All seems lost for her, especially after Lord de Winter shows her the order for her banishment, to be enacted in three days. Milady finds the weakness she needs to escape; however, John Felton, Lord de Winter's right hand man, is a Protestant. Milady poses as a Protestant herself, and slowly wears down the inexperienced young man's defenses with her beauty and mock religious fervor. She feigns illness to gain his sympathy, then begs him to allow her to commit suicide, playing the role of a martyr.
Her coup comes on her fifth night of captivity. Felton has become quite sympathetic to her, and she tells him the "true" story of de Winter's hate for her. She says that she was captured and raped, repeatedly, by the Duke of Buckingham himself in an attempt to make her his mistress. When, on the grounds of her religious convictions, she still refused to join him, Buckingham had her branded with the Fleur-de-Lis to assure that no one would ever believe her story. She then married Lord de Winter's brother, and told him of Buckingham's crimes. However, Buckingham killed her husband before he could avenge her, and no one else knew the story. So she fled to France, but she was forced to return to England, at which point Lord de Winter, having been influenced by Buckingham, captured her.
Felton is now totally in Milady's control. The crowning touch occurs when Lord de Winter bursts in suspiciously on their emotional scene. To prove herself to Felton, Milady grabs a knife, and stabs herself (being careful not to do too much damage), securing Felton's belief in her loyalty to Protestantism and conviction to preserve her honor. He has now fallen completely in love with her.



[h=4]Commentary[/h] The better part of this section is taken up by Milady's remarkable, scientific seduction of John Felton, the Puritan naval officer. What is so extraordinary about this seduction, which takes a full fifty pages of meticulous work on Milady's part, is how credible Dumas makes the seduction seem, given what an unlikely situation he presents. As the narrative notes, Milady seduces a man who is not worldly at all, who leads a monkish life. Not only does she succeed in seducing Felton, however--she succeeds in turning him against Lord de Winter, a man whom he had been loyal to for over ten years, who had saved his life, in less than a week.

And Dumas makes all of this quite believable. The Three Musketeers is not a novel that is concerned with great psychological depth. The characterizations have a clean simplicity to them befitting work where plot takes precedence over thematic complexity. Dumas is too busy telling his story to slow things down with introspection.
But when that story itself becomes psychological, as in the seduction of John Felton, Dumas displays extraordinary skill in imbuing Milady with manipulative skills that make Felton's extraordinary turn seem possible. Milady's exhaustiveness is her best trait--she tries everything she can think of to get Felton's attention, until she finally hits upon the winning approach, religion. /PARAGRAPH The meticulous pacing with which Dumas handles Milady's imprisonment is affected by the serial format for which he wrote. Dumas provides five chapters for this event, which, dramatically speaking, only has one turn of events: Milady seduces Felton. This section of the novel is sometimes criticized for slowing down the story's pace, and tipping the balance of the story too much in Milady's favor; the book departs from its heroes for a long, long time. In novel form, this criticism does seem sensible. But The Three Musketeers is not a modern novel, it is a magazine serial, and it is composed for the demands of its form.
Dumas puts an interesting twist on his use of the "tryst" in this section. Throughout the novel, the tryst has been a narrative symbol of the chivalry of his characters and their moral world--d'Artagnan's trysts (although odd) with Madame Bonacieux are the central example. Trysting is how a gentleman pays court to a lady in the world of The Three Musketeers. These associations become somewhat confused when d'Artagnan misuses his opportunity to tryst with Milady, posing as the Comte de la Fere. In this section, we see a total perversion of the tryst--Milady and Felton agree to meet in her room at a certain time; to Felton's mind, this is a romantic tryst, while Milady views the situation totally differently. This transition from the tryst between true lovers such as d'Artagnan and Bonacieux, to the manipulative charade between Felton and Milady, is just another example of the change in direction the novel is beginning to take. The ideals with which the novel began, and the social institutions that went with these ideals, such as the tryst, are continually called into question and misused. The tryst is the latest victim of Dumas’s "elegant age" to fall prey to some form of distortion or questionable use.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 21-26
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] Lord de Winter sends Felton away, suspecting that Milady has won him over. However, the day before Milady is to be banished, Felton returns to rescue her. He breaks her out of her prison, and they escape. Felton explains that his plan is to kill Buckingham, and then go to France with Milady. Milady is delighted at the success of her manipulation.

Felton and Milady land their ship at Portsmouth, where Buckingham is preparing the British navy to set out for La Rochelle. Felton goes to the Duke's headquarters, and gains admittance by claiming to have an urgent message from Lord de Winter. Felton first tries to convince Buckingham to sign Milady's release; when Buckingham refuses, Felton stabs him, fatally. Before Buckingham dies, a messenger arrives with a letter from the Queen, begging Buckingham to call off his war against France, which the Queen knows he is waging out of love for her. The messenger also has a verbal message from the Queen for Buckingham: she still loves him. The Duke dies a happy man.
At La Rochelle, the Musketeers are extremely anxious to go and get Madame Bonacieux, as they now know that she is being kept at the same convent that Milady is supposed to go to if she returns from England. Sensing their distress, Monsieur de Treville gives them five days of leave to do what they need.
Immediately, the four friends set off to get Madame Bonacieux. Along the way, they have another chance encounter with the Man from Meung, who again escapes from d'Artagnan. He drops a note, however, on which is scrawled the name of a town: Armentieres.
Meanwhile, Milady has beaten the musketeers to the convent. She befriends Madame Bonacieux, under the guise of being a good friend of d'Artagnan's who is also being persecuted by the Cardinal. The innocent Madame Bonacieux trusts Milady wholly, and goes so far as to show Milady a letter from Madame de Chevreuse notifying her that d'Artagnan is coming to get her. Milady considers all of this terrific luck, for now she can use Bonacieux to get to d'Artagnan.
The Man from Meung then comes to visit Milady. He is the Comte de Rochefort, the Cardinal's personal spy. Milady arranges with him to have a carriage come for her and Madame Bonacieux as soon as possible, to take them to Armentieres, which she writes on a note for him. Milady then tells Bonacieux that Cardinalist agents are coming to get her, and the only way she can escape them is to come with her when she escapes the convent shortly. Bonacieux, trusting as ever, prepares to leave with Milady.
Rochefort's carriage arrives, and the two women prepare to leave. Just then, d'Artagnan and the Musketeers come riding up, but Milady tells Bonacieux that the Cardinalist agents have come to get her. Bonacieux trusts Milady enough not to look out the window for herself. Milady tries to hurry Madame Bonacieux into her carriage, but the young woman is too frightened to move. Disgusted, Milady poisons a glass of wine, gives it to Madame Bonacieux to "give her strength," and escapes alone.
D'Artagnan bursts in just as Milady's poison is starting to take effect. Bonacieux explains that her "good friend" Lady de Winter has just left. The men realize what has happened, and are horrified as Madame Bonacieux dies in d'Artagnan's arms. Just then, Lord de Winter himself arrives from England, in pursuit of Milady. Athos reveals his identity as Milady's first husband to de Winter, and his friends, and the men agree to rest briefly, then head out after the murderess.



[h=4]Commentary[/h] For most of his novel, Dumas has taken care to keep his fictional characters out of the direct path of major historical development; this section is the main exception. Dumas takes it upon himself to involve Milady intimately with the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham, and seems quite serious about the historicity of his version: the chapter in which Felton kills Buckingham is entitled "What Happened at Portsmouth on 25 August 1628." Dumas is again translating history into Romance, and rewriting the details; one might almost take The Three Musketeers as an extremely entertaining speculation on the stories behind history, which can never really be known.

Historically, George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, was in fact assassinated by a naval lieutenant named John Felton, whose motives seem to have been both personal and political. But Milady is a completely fictional creation of Dumas; she did not exist to effect the assassination. Dumas’s unique formula is again evident: he makes an important historical event, the assassination of Buckingham, pivotal to his story. His facts about the assassination are all accurate. He then creates a story surrounding this event, based on this historical event, but having little to do with history itself.
Madame Bonacieux's death comes at an alarming time for d'Artagnan and his friends. Throughout the novel, one of d'Artagnan's major drives has been his love for Madame Bonacieux and his desire to get her back. The unhappy ending of her death seems out of place in the sort of story that Dumas started out writing, the light-hearted adventure. With Madame Bonacieux's death, the darkening of The Three Musketeers is nearly complete. When Athos sees the poisoned wine and guesses what has happened, he says "God wouldn't allow that; it's too vile!"
How vile has Dumas’s world become, then? What has happened to the confidence and cockiness that suffused his world at the story's start? Dumas’s swashbuckling adventure does not end happily; love does not prevail. What happened? Dumas is beginning to develop the more melancholy aspects of the Romance, which are common to the genre. Romance often lends itself to maudlin tragedy; Buckingham's death, in fact, is almost archetypically Romantic: fatally wounded, all he wants is news of Anne and, upon hearing that she loves him, he dies happily.
But Dumas is subjecting his readership to interesting ambiguities by raising the question of how far the chivalric code will take our heroes in their quest for bloody revenge. D'Artagnan is not interested in melancholy, or, in some ways, in Romance itself: he is not content to mourn Madame Bonacieux passively. He will overcome his sadness by achieving justice through revenge.

​

 

[*زهره*]

[h=3]Chapters 27-Epilogue
[/h] [h=4]Summary[/h] Athos sends the four servants out to Armentieres to scout Milady's exact location, while he and the rest of their party, now including Lord de Winter, attend Madame Bonacieux's funeral. Athos then embarks on a brief journey of his own--he seeks out a mysterious stranger who lives by himself, and convinces him to join their party, although the narrative does not tell us why, or what Athos says to the man.

Planchet then returns--the servants have found Milady, and the others are keeping an eye on her at the inn in Armentieres. With this news, Athos instructs everyone to get ready to ride, and goes to get the final member of their party. He returns with the mysterious stranger, a man in a red cloak, whom no one recognizes. The men set off after Milady.
The Musketeers, Lord de Winter, and the mysterious stranger find Milady as she is just about to cross over a river out of France. She is alone, and they capture her. They then try her. D'Artagnan brings his charges against Milady: the murder of Madame Bonacieux, attempting to murder him with the assassins and the poisoned wine, and inciting him to murder the Comte de la Fere. Lord de Winter brings his charges: the murder of his brother, and the murder of the Duke of Buckingham. At this the musketeers are shocked, for they had not heard of the Duke's assassination. Finally, Athos brings his charges, but just as he mentions the Fleur-de-Lis, Milady challenges them to find the court that branded her.
At this, the mysterious stranger steps forward. Milady recognizes him, in horror, as the Headsman of Lille. He completes Milady's story--she was a nun, and she seduced a young priest, the headsman's brother. They stole the Communion plate, and the priest was captured--but Milady escaped. The priest was branded; the Headsman himself had to brand his own brother. But the Headsman then hunted Milady down and branded her as well. After that, she escaped with the priest and entered Athos's territory, at which point Athos's story begins. The Headsman's accusation is this: Milady's robbery of the Communion plate, and the death of his brother, for the young priest went mad and hung himself after Milady abandoned him for Athos.
With the charges brought, Porthos and Aramis, acting as judges, sentence Milady to death for her crimes. The Headsman drags her outside, to do his duty. Milady tries frantically to stave off the inevitable--bribing the servants, reminding d'Artagnan of their love, claiming that the men have no right to kill her. Nothing works. The Headsman takes her across the river, ties her hands and feet, and cuts off Milady's head. He then takes her head and body and drops them into the river, to "God's justice."
The Musketeers now must return to duty at La Rochelle. Before they return, however, they run into Rochefort again, who arrests d'Artagnan in the Cardinal's name. D'Artagnan consents to the arrest, although his friends stay with him to protect him, and wait for him outside the Cardinal's quarters. For the second time, d'Artagnan is left alone with the great man. The Cardinal starts to tell d'Artagnan the crimes he's been accused of, but d'Artagnan cuts the Cardinal off, noting that the woman who brought these charges against him was a criminal herself, and is now dead. D'Artagnan then relates the entire story, from Milady's early history to her death, to the Cardinal. D'Artagnan then produces the Cardinal's letter of absolution, which Athos stole from Milady, which frees him from accountability for Milady's murder. For a moment, d'Artagnan's life hangs in the balance. The Cardinal could easily override the pardon, and have d'Artagnan executed. Instead, he gives d'Artagnan a promotion to lieutenant in the Musketeers with the name blank, and tells the young man to count himself as one of the Cardinal's friends.
D'Artagnan tries to convince his three friends to take the promotion instead of him, since the name is blank. All three, however, insist that d'Artagnan is the most suited to it. Athos is too weary of the world, Porthos is marrying his rich attorney's wife, for the aged attorney has just died, and Aramis is joining the Church. Unhappy to be losing all his friends, d'Artagnan accepts the blessing of the promotion.
A brief epilogue then tells us of the aftermath of our story. With Buckingham's death, the Rochellese surrendered after about a year of siege. D'Artagnan went on to become a distinguished lieutenant in the Musketeers; he and Rochefort even became friendly, after dueling three times. Athos remained a Musketeer under d'Artagnan's leadership for a few years, then retired to a small property in the provinces. Porthos disappeared into the lap of luxury with his new wife, and Aramis, true to his word, joined the priesthood.
[h=4]Commentary[/h] Despite its lighthearted opening, The Three Musketeers does not really end happily. In fact, by the end, the tone of the novel has changed entirely. The levity of the opening chapters--the humor of d'Artagnan's brashness and original duels with the Cardinal's guards, the flippancy with which the heroes faced danger--has been replaced with a kind of uneasy calm, as though Milady's twisted life and brutal death have lifted a veil of innocence from the musketeers' world.

Even aside from the unsettling consideration of Milady's execution, Dumas leaves his story on what seems to be a deliberately negative note. The last lines of the novel proper are between Athos and d'Artagnan. D'Artagnan is upset, feeling he is losing all his friends, and keeping "bitter memories." Athos's response is that d'Artagnan's memories will be replaced by happy ones, so he needn't worry.
At the heart of the matter is the dissolution of the musketeers. The epilogue informs us that, immediately after the novel's finish, Porthos and Aramis leave the service, and d'Artagnan is promoted over Athos. They are no longer four friends, all for one and one for all. They are clearly no longer inseparable. This touch seems to be, almost, an upsetting strike of realism. In one sense, however, this sort of ending is characteristic of Romance. Dumas tells us a great story of wonderful chivalry and daring deeds. But the story is only a moment in time; even in his Romantic world, this sort of thing cannot be maintained. It can only last for so long. A similar moment in Romance comes with the tragic ending to the Arthur legends; Camelot, Arthur's court, is a union of noble and good men, based on high ideals and a common Quest. It cannot last.
The trajectory by which amoral behavior has increasingly been associated with chivalry--not as an opposite, but as a consequence--culminates in Milady's execution. Despite her murderous, deceitful, and wicked life, the scene of the execution is so brutal and so upsetting--10 men sentencing a lone, unguarded woman to death-- that Dumas must have expected his readers to be jarred, and to question the values that lead to the execution. It's entirely possible that Dumas’s immediate concern was simply to shock and titillate. But the execution effectively brings larger questions about the work and Romanticism into consideration: when must chivalry be stopped? At what point does the moral pursuit of honor above all things itself become amoral? And, most importantly: if chivalry is so good, why can it so easily be used to motivate amoral behavior? Without offering answers, Dumas masterfully draws the significance of the questions, keeping his story riveting while using it as a model for the clash between morality and Romanticism.

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[h=3]What is a Romance?[/h] In terms of literary reference, the term "Romance" is a hard one to pin down. The genre is not specific to a given time or place; it is rather a theme throughout the history of literature. A classic example is Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, the legend of King Arthur. Most of the works that scholars would describe as Romances were based on folk tales and written down from the 12th through 14th centuries, mostly in France. However, the term can comfortably be applied to works from more recent eras.

Broadly speaking, the elements of a Romance can be considered: Quest, the centrality of love as a plot and character motivation, a mixture of immorality with an allegiance to chivalric values, a narrative packed with events, stock characters, and religion. Each of these elements is employed to great effect in The Three Musketeers.
Quest: the story is centered on some quest or goal, some action. It is an adventure, toward a certain end, which culminates in the success of the mission.

Love: in Romance, love is not viewed skeptically; rather, it is taken as a powerful and true force which drives people to do anything, and motivates their actions.

Immorality: the characters in a Romance, heroes as well as villains, often behave in ways which are bare-facedly amoral and wrong. One of the great characteristics of the Romance is this immorality oddly juxtaposed with allegiance to chivalric virtue.

Chivalry: the heroes in any Romance are guided by the ideals of Chivalry, a moral code that has its origins in medieval knighthood. Many Romances are legends about knights; the King Arthur is in many ways the archetypal Romance. Chivalry entails defending one's honor at all costs, to the death if necessary. It also entails treating women's honor similarly--a chivalric man must protect the body and honor of a woman with his life.

Narrative Eventfulness: the Romance, following its heroes' pursuit of their Quest, is packed with events and exciting, dramatic encounters. In fact, a Romance is often so crowded with events that, judged by modern standards, it can seem monotonous in its continual action. Dumas certainly uses the Romance's eventfulness, but he avoids the pitfall of boring eventfulness with effective pacing and composition.

The Romance's eventfulness affects the construction of the story as a whole. In many cases, the plot of a Romance doesn't begin, develop, and climax, but instead just sort of continues, going on and on. This characteristic is entirely evident in Dumas’s work--shielded by the fact of his magazine installment publication format, The Three Musketeers, although well paced and entertaining, doesn't have the same recognizable story "beats" that a modern adventure novel has.
Stock Characters: the traditional Romance relies on common and recognizable, rather than individual, characters. Dumas uses stock characters at times--the greedy innkeeper, the aging, discontented wife, etc. However, although there are certainly recognizable characteristics in some of his central players, Dumas’s main characters are vivid, original, and compellingly enough drawn to achieve great individuality.

Religion: religious themes are an intimate part of the archetypal Romance. The Arthur legends, for instance, draw on a great deal of fable and mysticism, but Christianity is also a strong presence, particularly in the central story of the Holy Grail. Dumas does not involve more mystical religious elements into his story, but rather, in a clever spin on the standard Romantic usage, makes religion an integral part of his story on two fronts. First it uses the Cardinal's presence as the primary antagonist of part I, and the presence of his heroes at the siege of La Rochelle throughout part II, a siege that was part of the Cardinal's Catholic war against the Protestants.


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[h=3]Historicity[/h] As a historical novel, The Three Musketeers organizes its story around some of the major characters and events of 17th century French history. Cardinal Richelieu, Anne of Austria, and other important characters really lived and acted at least roughly the way they do in the novel. In fact, the historical basis of Dumas’s story extends all the way to his initial idea for the novel--even to the Musketeers and d'Artagnan themselves.

The Three Musketeers is inspired by a 17th century work entitled Memoires de d'Artagnan by Gatien de Cortilz de Sandras, which Dumas and Maquet stumbled across in their research. This work essentially became an outline for part I of The Three Musketeers. At the time, Dumas did not believe that the Cortilz novel was historical, but thought he was simply plagiarizing and developing a previous writer's work. But Dumas claimed in his original introduction to The Three Musketeers that he thought the work was historical, not wanting to seem plagiaristic himself. Ironically, the Memoires are, in fact, historically based.
D'Artagnan, the hero of The Three Musketeers, was really Charles de Batz-Castelmore, and hailed from Gascony, just as Dumas writes. He took the name of Sieur of Artagnan from a property his mother's family owned. He left Gascony not in 1625, as in the novel, but in 1640. He had a distinguished career not under Louis XIII and Richelieu, but their successors Mazarin and Louis XIV, and he rose through the ranks to great distinction until he died in service in 1673 at the Siege of Maestricht.
Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are also based on real Musketeers. Porthos was Isaac de Portau, a member of the Captain des Essarts's company of the King's Guards until 1643, and then a Musketeer with d'Artagnan (Charles Castelmore, that is). Aramis was Henry d'Aramitz, related to Monsieur de Treville, and Musketeer from 1640 on--we know little of him beyond that. Athos was Armand de Sillegue, Seigner d'Athos et d'Autevielle, also related to Treville. He was a King's Musketeer who died in Paris in 1643, but little is known beyond that--there is some indication on his death certificate that he died as a result of a duel.
The major historical figures in the novel are all more or less accurate, in terms of the basic facts presented. Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, Cardinal Richelieu, and Monsieur de Treville are all presented without grave historical inaccuracies. And there were, indeed, King's Musketeers under Louis XIII--they existed as a sort of training ground for the elite of the French army, and served as the King's personal escort in peacetime. Treville and the Cardinal were great adversaries, as Dumas portrays them--in fact, Treville was involved in a 1642 plot to assassinate the Cardinal, and Louis XIII was forced to banish his friend. And Richelieu did have his own, similarly elite, company of Guards, which did have a great rivalry with the Musketeers, as Dumas describes.
In general, then, we see that Dumas’s novel is at least based in history, although he takes great departures. The one great exception to this is Lady de Winter. Courtilz's "Milady" is an entirely private individual, one of the Queen's exiled ladies-in-waiting, with whom his d'Artagnan does indeed have an unscrupulous affair. But she has nothing to do with the Cardinal; certain faux-memoirs that Dumas used provided the detail of a lady "Clarick" who is associated with the theft of the diamond brooch from Buckingham that Dumas relates. Dumas fuses these elements, then, and creates an entirely fictitious character with his Milady. It is interesting that this fictitious character is allowed to so totally dominate part II of the novel, and this certainly says something about Dumas’s loyalty to historicity. Milady became a fascinating character, and Dumas was far more concerned with creating interesting fiction, and tying that into history, than in remaining blindly loyal to history.

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