Previous
Personification
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 53 – Robert Le Diable
Explanation and Analysis—Opera Performativity:
Though primarily an adventure novel, Dumas nonetheless takes more than a few opportunities throughout The Count of Monte Cristo to skewer the elite Parisian set amongst whom the Count must both socialize and conspire as he seeks his revenge. In Chapter 53, Dumas gives a scathing, satirical account of Parisian society converging on the opera:
That evening, Lucien Debray had the minister’s box at his disposal and had offered it to the Comte de Morcerf who, on Mercédès’ refusal, had sent it to Danglars with a message that he would probably go and visit the baroness and her daughter in the course of the evening, if those ladies would like to accept the box that he offered them. Those ladies were sure not to refuse. No one likes a free box as much as a millionaire.
Dumas traces and mocks idiosyncratic rituals of the elite, concluding with a bit of hyperbole when he observes the apparent paradox that millionaires, more so than any other class, appreciate an opportunity to watch the opera for free. Later on in the same sequence, he again levels his satirical gaze on the theater scene to reveal how going to the opera is not really about the opera at all:
The curtain went up, as usual, on an almost empty house. It is fashionable among Parisians to arrive at the theatre when the show has begun, with the result that the first act is spent, by those members of the audience who have arrived, not in watching or listening to the play, but in watching the entry of those spectators who are arriving, so that nothing can be heard except the sound of doors banging and voices in conversation.
The Count of Monte Cristo is generally an account of one man's invention of an identity in order to get revenge on those who have wronged him. Even as the Count himself hides behind his new mask, Dumas takes the opportunity to also unmask the vanity and banality of the very elite into which the Count hopes to assimilate. Moments like these keep the novel from sinking into a grandiose, self-important tone and show that Dumas is perfectly willing to have a bit of fun at European high society's expense.
