History Literature / TheCountOfMonteCristo

* RelativeError: Mercédès is mistaken for her son's mistress. The fact that [[MommasBoy Albert]] just can't shut up about how perfect his mother is really doesn't help matters. The Count probably [[InvokedTrope made that mistake on purpose]] -- he didn't want to reveal to Albert that he knew Mercédès. Debray doesn't have the same excuse.

* ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals: Downplayed. It doesn't actually rain during the funeral of Valentine's grandparents, but the weather is noted to be "overcast, and so quite appropriate for the dismal ceremony".

** Benedetto manages to make a name for himself in French society under a false identity, but nobody except the Count and one of his servants knows that he's actually the illegitimate son of [[spoiler:Gérard de Villefort and Hermine Danglars]]. This takes a new dimension when he ends up engaged to [[spoiler:his own half sister.]]

* FalseReassurance: Monte Cristo persuades Caderousse to write a letter denouncing Benedetto as an impostor; Caderousse expresses concern about what the consequences will be for himself when the truth comes out, and Monte Cristo assures him that he won't have anything to worry about. By this, he means that Benedetto is already planning to kill Caderousse anyway, and Monte Cristo has accurately predicted that Caderousse is not going to live to see the outcome of the denunciation.

* RevengeIsSweet: Edmond Dantès feels this way when he commits revenge on one of the antagonists. [[spoiler:At least until a mechaniation of his indirectly kills a 9-year-old child, to the point he chooses a lesser revenge on his final target.]]

* RevengeIsSweet: Edmond Dantes feels this way when he commits revenge on one of the antagonists. [[spoiler:At least until a mechaniation of his indirectly kills a 9-year-old child, to the point he chooses a lesser revenge on his final target.]]

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Villefort has the opportunity to release Dantes (whom he knows is innocent) or incarcerate him to save his own reputation. He chooses the latter.

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: In the original book, Caderousse, Danglars and Mondego are the ones who actively frame Dantes for treason. Villefort only "joins" the plot afterwards when he interrogates and jails Dantes for his own political gain. He doesn't interact with the rest of the conspirators until much later in the story. In some adaptations that remove Caderousse, Villefort replaces him as an active conspirator in the plot to frame Dantes.
* AdaptedOut: Caderousse is omitted from many adaptations. His secondary role in the plot (drunkenly encouraging Mondego and Danglars to carry out the plot, then doing nothing to save Dantes from arrest even though he knows the truth) and his implied motive (his jealous of Dantes's prosperity, which he shares with Danglars) arguably make him redundant in a CompressedAdaptation.

* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: The book ends with the Count in a relationship with his slave/adoptive daughter Haydée (to be fair, she's a slave InNameOnly, and she was the one doing all the work to get him to notice her). As this still smacks of WifeHusbandry to modern audiences, most adaptations will have him end up back with Mercedes instead of Mercedes joining a convent, and Haydée sometimes ends up with Franz d'Epinay, who otherwise disappears from the book long before the end.

** At the Morcerfs' ball, Albert remarks that Baron Danglars can afford to to be dismissive of his title because he would still be a millionaire even if he were not a baron, while Albert would be nobody if he were not Viscount Morcerf. [[spoiler:By the end of the novel, Danglars has lost his fortune, while Albert has deliberately renounced his father's noble title and set out to make something of himself on his own account.]]

* ButHeSoundsHandsome: While attempting to uncover the Count's history and identity, Villefort meets with two men who he's told have known the Count for years: an Italian priest, who says that the Count is an old friend and a great philanthropic, and an English lord, who says that the Count is an unmitigated scoundrel and his sworn enemy. Both men are actually the Count himself in disguise.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Pay attention to what the Count says to people as he's usually talking about something that will happen much later in the novel.

* UnsettlingGenderReveal: In Rome, Albert is lured into Vampa's trap by a pretty young woman, who is revealed, after Albert has spent some time flirting with her, to be a 15-year-old male bandit named Beppo.

* UnsettlingGenderReveal: Beppo, the bait that lured Albert into Vampa's trap.

** His machinations against Villefort led to the death of [[spoiler:Villefort's young son Edouard]], prompting even the Count to reflect that he has [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone gone too far.]] It almost leads to [[spoiler:Valentine's death]] too, until the Count learns in time that she is the woman with whom Maximilien Morrell is madly in love.

* It'sPersonal: The ur-example of this trope in fiction.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: ''And how.''

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Edmond Dantès is gone for years, and Mercédès is told he is dead and marries his enemy and raises a son during that time. Dantès in't happy about it but eventually forgives her, specifically saying that the eighteen months she waited before moving on was all a lover could ask for.

* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: Dantès does this type of reveal to each of his enemies. It backfires in Villefort's cae ince Villefort has other thing to worry about, namely [[spoiler:his wife's suicide, her murder of their son, his utter social annihilation once it's revealed he's Benedetto's father, and he goes mad shortly after]].

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Edmond Dantès is gone for years, and Mercédès is told he is dead and marries his enemy and raises a son during that time. Dantès forgives her, specifically saying that the eighteen months she waited before moving on was all a lover could ask for.

** Destroying Morcerf leaves Mercédès and Albert disgraced and destitute. She is set to spend the rest of her life in a convent, while he joins the army as a DeathSeeker. Earlier the Count was willing to kill Albert in a duel as part of his revenge against Morcerf, until Mercédès intervened.

* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: How [[spoiler:Morcerf and Villefort]] are taken down (in both cases, the judge asks for definitive proof and is told to look at the accused, who looks guilty as hell before running away). The former shoots himself, the latter goes mad.

* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: Dantès does this type of reveal to each of his enemies.

** [[spoiler:Mme Villefort]] is repeatedly shown to be stalling for time or generally being unhelpful.

* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: Dantès includes the innocent children of his enemies in his plan for revenge. [[spoiler:Most of them survive, and some of them end up better off, but that's more through luck than from any sentiment on the Count's part.]]

* RagsToRiches: Dantès goes from humble sailor and convict to one of the richest men in the world, thanks to him finding the treasure of Spada. Fernand and Danglars respectively start out as a fisherman and a clerk and become two of the richest and most prominent men in France.

* SexSlave: This is the Count's cover story for Haydee's presence. It also helps him to justify why a man of his standing isn't courting women.