This page is for tropes that have appeared in The Count of Monte Cristo (the novel, not the many adaptations).
For the rest:
- Taking the Veil: Mercédès opts for this in the end.
- Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: Edmond tracks how long he's been imprisoned with a series of tallies.
- That Man Is Dead: When Mercédès addresses the Count as "Edmond", he tells her that he no longer knows anyone with that name.
- Those Two Guys: Morrel, Albert, Franz, Debray, Beauchamp and Chateau-Renaud all end up in this role at one time or another with one of the others, with the last one having the least characterization or bearing on the plot.
- Time Skip: The period of several years between Dantès' escape from prison and his introduction into French society. We know from later narration that many things happened in it; Dantès Took a Level in Badass both physically and intellectually, he travelled to the East (and bought Haydee), gave an emerald to the Pope, saved Ali from execution, and generally became the Renaissance Man we see after the Time Skip. Yet these events, while important, would only slow down the plot if they were shown- so we get this trope.
- Interestingly, the narrative treats the character in the different time periods as different people; before the Time Skip the narration calls him Dantès or Edmond, after it it calls him The Count.
- To a lesser degree, sometimes important events take place that happen weeks apart in two chapters.
- Took a Level in Badass: Edmond Dantès becomes The Count of Monte Cristo and spends several years preparing to get revenge on his enemies. At one point, the narration asserts that Dantès' time spent languishing in a tiny cell has given him unusual strength.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Compare the kind-hearted, good-natured Edmond Dantès who is thrown into prison with the ruthless, manipulative Count who escapes to take his revenge. Justified, since being wrongfully imprisoned in a hellish island fortress for crimes you didn't commit due to the spite, jealousy, and manipulations of others who went on to prosper as a result of your misfortune is not the kind of thing that is usually good for the soul.
- Translation Convention: At different times, characters may be speaking French, Italian, Greek, and so on. Occasionally the narrator informs the reader that one of the characters can't understand what another character is saying.
- Tsundere: Eugénie Danglars is cold, aloof, and unfriendly to her family, her friends, her acquaintances, and her fiancé(s) and even telling her father that she loves no one and nothing except her studies of music and art. Yet the second she's alone with her vocal coach/friend/lover Louise d'Armilly, she's warm, playful, and affectionate, even calling Louise things like "my sweet" and gently teasing her for being unable to close an over-packed suitcase.
- Tuckerization: Dumas did this in a fairly transparent way, including his concierge in Italy as a character and including a scene where a character is praised for his collection of paintings by current artists. All of the artists mentioned were friends or acquaintances of Dumas and none are known today except for Delacroix.
- Undisclosed Funds: The amount of money Dantès finds at Monte Cristo is never stated. Although the Cardinal Spada wrote in his will that the treasure amounted to nearly 2 million Roman crowns when it was buried in the late 1400s, and it is later mentioned each of those Roman crowns would be worth around 80 francs at the time of the novel, a significant part of the treasure is made up of jewelry and precious stones, whose value might have wildly fluctuated. After many years of purchases and investments, the Count says he has about one hundred million francs at the end of the book.note
- Undying Loyalty: Jacopo, Haydee and Ali to the Count.
- Unfriendly Fire: One of the characters tells a story about a bandit lord named Cucumetto who shot a treacherous underling in the back during a skirmish with some soldiers.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Cucumetto, the bandit leader before Luigi Vampa. First he abducts and rapes the betrothed of a fellow bandit who had saved his life mere days beforehand (and shooting said bandit in the back at the first opportunity afterward). Then responds to Luigi and Teresa concealing him from soldiers by stalking and abducting the her too, which earns him a much-deserved (and suitibly karmic) shot to the back courtesy of Luigi.
- Unholy Matrimony: Villefort realizes that he and his wife are even better suited for each other than he thought, considering their horrible crimes. "The union of the tiger and the serpent", as he calls it.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: 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 and is attempting to kiss her, to be a 15-year-old male bandit named Beppo.
- Uriah Gambit: The bandit lord Cucumetto pulls one in Signor Pastrini's Nested Story, shooting a treacherous underling in the back during a skirmish with some soldiers.
- Benedetto hooks Caderousse into thinking the Count keeps large amounts of money in his house, then sends a letter to warn the Count of the break-in.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The Count of Monte Cristo is loosely based on the story of Pierre Picaud
. - Vicariously Ambitious: The motivation of the poisoner in the Inheritance Murder subplot. It's Héloïse de Villefort, Valentine's step-mother, who is not in the line of inheritance herself; she's attempting to ensure that the family's wealth will be inherited by her own son instead of her step-daughter.
- Villainous Breakdown: Villefort, who has a complete breakdown and goes insane at the end.
- Villainous Lineage: Benedetto is a bad guy because of the evil inclinations of his father, Villefort. He is naturally educated and well-spoken, despite receiving little schooling, simply because his father is an aristocrat. Interestingly, his half brother is also an inconsiderate, cruel and rude brat, but his half sister a decent and good-natured young woman (like her mother, the parent she doesn't share with either half-brother).
- Villain with Good Publicity: All of the Count's enemies have risen to high status in Parisian society and are well-respected with good reputations among their peers.
- Was It Really Worth It? When the Count reveals himself and his plot to Villefort, his enemy asks if his revenge was worth the death of his young son. Little Eduoard's death was certainly not intended by the Count, and he begins to think that his revenge wasn't worth it if it caused the Death of a Child.
- Wealthy Philanthropist: The count mostly uses his vast fortune to further his plans and reward those he holds dear to him, but occasionally uses it to help those in need.
- Wedding/Death Juxtaposition: Valentine's grandmother dies shortly after she comes to Paris, but ensures that Valentine's wedding to Franz d'Epinay will go through. Unfortunately for Valentine, she isn't in love with Franz at all, but she can't go against her grandmother's last wishes. Fortunately, Noirtier is able to get the marriage cancelled by revealing he's the one who killed Franz' father in a duel.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Count himself is an anti-heroic example, and realizes it by the end of the book. Having escaped prison after many years of undeserved confinement, he devotes himself obsessively to taking revenge on those enemies who framed him and ruined his life. For most of the book, Edmond is able to ignore the fact that the grand machinations of his vengeance are heaping danger and grief on numerous innocent bystanders as well as the guilty.
- Wham Line:
- "The sea is the cemetery of the Chateau d'If".
- "Edmond, you will not kill my son!" hits Edmond particularly hard, seeing as it's the first time anyone's seen through his disguise.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Benedetto, whose court sentence is never revealed after he exposes Villefort as his father.
- Franz also mostly disappears from the story after his ruined engagement, only briefly appearing at the cut-off duel between the Count and Albert.
- What Year Is This?: It's easy to lose track of time over fourteen years of imprisonment.
- What You Are in the Dark: Villefort has the opportunity to release Dantès (whom he knows is innocent) or incarcerate him to save his own reputation. He chooses the latter.
- Wicked Cultured:
- The bandit leader, Luigi Vampa, is a polite, nice guy who reads Caesar's Commentaries for fun. He's also a strong believer in punctuality, and if a ransom is not paid on time, he will calmly stab the kidnappee to death or shoot them in the head.
- Benedetto, a young career criminal who has no trouble posing as a cultured aristocrat.
- The Count himself has impeccable taste and if not an outright villain, is a ruthless Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- Wicked Stepmother: Madame Heloise de Villefort is the young wife of middle-aged prosecutor Villefort, with a spoiled eight-year-old son. She despises Valentine, Villefort's daughter by his previous marriage, because all of the property of her grandparents will revert to her rather than her step-brother. She eventually goes on a killing spree, poisoning Valentine's maternal grandparents and attempting to poison her husband's paralytic father (his servant is killed instead). To escape justice, she poisons herself, and just to spite her husband, kills her son as well.
- Wife Husbandry: Haydee falls in love with the Count, who she's been living with since she was twelve, and it's implied that they become a couple at the end. Conveniently ignored by adaptations. Not a straight example, anyway, since the Count isn't even interested in Haydee for most of the story; he just assumed that he was never going to fall in love again, so she has to make all the moves.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Most likely, Dantès's different personas are this kind of disguise (the Lord Wilmore disguise involves false British Teeth).
- Would Hurt a Child: Madame Heloise de Villefort goes on a killing spree, employing poison that very nearly kills her stepdaughter Valentine and does kill her beloved son. The former forces The Count to take unexpected action to protect a dear friend, and the latter causes him to consider that he may have pushed things a bit too far, as he had intentionally planted that idea with her in the first place.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The unnamed countess who, seeing the Count's strange demeanor and unnatural pallor, believes him to be a vampire. This is justified, however, because of the whole scene being a Tuckerisation: the countess in question is based on Lord Byron's mistress at the time, and Byron himself was one of the main originators of the vampire genre.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Dantès has to rewrite a rather major part of his plans when he learns that Maximilien is truly and deeply in love with Valentine. Before that, her death was just another step towards Villefort's planned Despair Event Horizon, forcing him to give her a substance that fakes death long enough that he can get her sent to safety. This, combined with the unintentional death of Edouard, makes him realize he's not as omnisciently good as he thinks he is, and he resolves to let Danglars live instead.
- The X of Y
- You Are Number 6: While Edmond Dantès is imprisoned in the Château d'If, a new governor is put in charge. He doesn't want to bother learning the names of the prisoners, so he refers to them by the numbers of their cells. Abbe Faria is prisoner number 27; Dantès is number 34.
- You Killed My Father: Haydee's father was betrayed by Fernand, which as good as left him with a death sentence.
- You Will Be Spared: Deconstructed. The count leaves Mercédès out of his plan to discredit her husband and son respectively. Mercédès goes to confront him, saying that killing Albert would be akin to killing her.
- Young Conqueror: Luigi Vampa, a celebrated bandit, is analogized to one of these, because he's achieved power and celebrity and is not yet 30. Vampa may be aware of the comparison, since he likes to read Julius Caesar for fun.
- Young Love Versus Old Hate: The once young and benevolent protagonist has turned to a bitter and vengeful old man, threatening to destroy not only the old men who once wronged him, but also the next generation of people who are just as untainted as he himself once was.
- Your Other Left: In the scene where Villefort visits King Louis, the king tells the prime minister to pick up a report "over there, on the left", then has to clarify that he means "my left".
