Previous
Situational Irony
Chapter 60
Explanation and Analysis:
The novel's style, while fast-paced and exciting, is also highly literary and playfully self-conscious. For example, in Chapter 60, Dumas draws attention to the fact that his job as a narrator is to tell a compelling, suspenseful story:
But since he did not think of issuing these orders till two o’clock in the afternoon, more than five hours after Buckingham’s death, two ships had already set sail. One of them was the sloop that Felton had chartered for Milady. When she left, she already believed she knew what had happened, and her belief soon became a certainty when she saw a black flag flying from the mast of a warship.
As for the other ship, we will later see who was aboard it and how it left.
Dumas teases the reader with the information that two ships manage to sneak out of the harbor after Buckingham's death, but he declines to say who is aboard the second ship. At the same time, he makes it clear that he knows who the second passenger is: "we will see later who was aboard and how it left," he states, drawing attention to the fact that he is making narrative decisions to affect how the reader experiences the story. It is not until Chapter 63, just before the climax of the novel, that Dumas reveals Lord de Winter to be the second passenger. By holding back this information, Dumas keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. By emphasizing the fact that he is holding the information back, he plays with the power dynamic between author or narrator and reader.
Dumas's use of figurative language and literary devices is a further manifestation of his playfully self-conscious style. He suggests in the preface that the book is a historical account based on found manuscripts. But even the claim that he is writing up a history on the archives is a trope in fiction and romance, especially in the 19th century. His very insistence that the book is historical lets readers familiar with the trope know that they are about to read a wild romance in which the author has taken great liberty with historical events. Dumas uses ample allusions to other literary works, demonstrating an awareness that his readers are readers who may like to think of themselves as well-read but who are nevertheless picking up his book to be entertained, not educated. His vivid imagery, similes, and metaphors, and his liberal use of irony and foreshadowing all contribute to the sense that this is a well-crafted narrative that Dumas is presenting to his audience.
Related Themes:
