Villefort In The Count Of Monte Cristo

The Ultimate Betrayer Would you like it if your boy or girlfriend was on their phone all the time laughing at the hilarious jokes their mom sent them? Or what if your sibling told your dad it was you who did not take out the trash even though it was their responsibility that day? Maybe you thought they were being disloyal to you. In The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, that's exactly what Renée de Saint-Méran and Edmond Dantes endure when dealing with Gérard de Villefort. Villefort is a cruel man who is unfaithful to his wife and who lies to an innocent young sailor and his friend. For these crimes, Villefort is deemed the ultimate betrayer. Villefort is disloyal to his lover Renée de Saint-Méran; he is having an affair with Baroness …show more content…
Whether he is trying to convince his wife that he is not cheating or aspiring to suppress his father's political stance, he always finds a way to cover up the truth. Villefort does not want anyone to know his father is a Bonapartist-a supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte- because he is a avid supporter of King Louis; he wants his loyalty to be unassailable. To expunge any evidence of his father's political preferences, he has to silence Dantes who has a letter concerning his father's political affairs. Unfortunately, Dantes is tricked into believing everything will be okay as long as he does not cause a noticeable uproar about the fact that he is being guiltlessly convicted. Villefort says to Dantes, "'If anyone asks you about it [the letter], deny it. Deny it firmly and you'll be saved" "'But Monsieur de Villefort promised--- ' 'I don't know what Monsieur de Villefort promised you,' said the gendarme. 'All I know is that we're going to the Chateau d'If..." (Dumas 29 and 32). Villefort excites Dantes' naive heart with hopes of being reinstated back into society, but as his days wear on, Dantes is transferred from a jail to a prison to a dungeon. Villefort misleads Dantes in order to keep him sane until he settles into a place where no one will listen to his shouts of agony at being treated unjustly. People, naturally, want to hear what they want to hear, and it is much easier for them to digest the expected than the unexpected. For example, "...Monsieur Morrel came to see Villefort and insist that Dantes be set free, and each time Villefort calmed him with promises and hope" (Dumas 39). After reading a little farther, the reader would have deduced that Villefort fabricates some excuses that keep Dantes imprisoned for fourteen years. Villefort mollifies Monsieur Morrel with false promises to keep him from getting too inquisitive, and finding about the real happenings. With Monsieur Morrel