THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (CHAPS 79-80)

CHAP 79 THE LEMONADE

still in a good mood, Maximilien walks to the Villefort home, where he is scheduled to meet with Valentine (who is now free of her engagement to Franz) and Noirtier. Valentine interprets for her grandfather and says that, either when she reaches the age of eighteen or if her father consents, she and Noirtier will move out of the house and Noirtier will serve as her protector. In these new lodgings, with Valentine’s independent means from Noirtier and her maternal grandparents, she will receive Morrel as her official suitor, and if their relationship progresses, they can marry. Morrel is overwhelmed at this news and he thanks Noirtier deeply and profusely.
Morrel believes he is one step closer to marrying Valentine. Morrel is frustrated that events do not move more quickly, but he is also motivated by conflicting desires. On the one hand, he loves and is devoted to Valentine because of her firmness of moral resolve; he does not want them to elope. On the other, he feels his love quite passionately, and worries that something might happen in the coming days that will make their marriage impossible – that other people might interfere with their happiness somehow.
 
 
Barrois, who is overheated from the summer’s day, has a drink of the lemonade found in a jug in Noirtier’s room. Suddenly, without warning, he falls over of a stroke, similar to that experienced by the Saint-Merans. The same doctor who warned Villefort of poisoning before happens to be in the house, tending to Edouard, and so he comes down to care for Barrois, but it is too late—he cannot be saved, and he dies of his seizure. The doctor confirms that the lemonade is poisoned by pouring it onto another chemical tincture, causing it to change color. At this incontrovertible proof, Villefort collapses into a chair, for there is “death in his house.”
This is an instance of vengeance that has been misplaced. The poisoner in the home, of course, did not intend to harm the servant Barrois, but instead to kill off Noirtier, who stands in the way of Valentine’s marriage and her relationship to the other characters in the Villefort home. Although the reader might suspect that Mme de Villefort is the culprit, since she has much to gain from all these poisonings, Villefort himself remains baffled by the events in his home.

CHAP 80  THE ACCUSATION'

In this brief chapter, the doctor continues in his reasoning with Villefort, saying that it must be the case that someone in the house has poisoned the Saint-Merans and Barrois, trying, in the latter case, to poison and finally kill Noirtier. The doctor says that the only logical killer is Valentine—that she apparently did not wish to be married, and was disinherited for a time by Noirtier, and so must have been protecting whatever money would be coming her way from both parties. But while Villefort is momentarily swayed by this, he concludes that Valentine cannot be responsible for these murders, for she is too pure a spirit. The doctor leaves, saying he cannot work in that house anymore, as it is a house of death.
A powerful instance of dramatic irony. While the reader may have guessed that Mme de Villefort is the culprit, the doctor seems to understand Valentine as the only logical answer. It is not clear why Valentine, who till this point has exhibited not a single negative emotion, could be a more plausible killer than Mme de Villefort, who seems devoted to her son’s happiness above all else (including Valentine’s wellbeing), but this is only to say that both the doctor and Villefort are blind to the events that are unfolding right in front of their eyes.
Active Themes
Justice, Revenge, and God’s Will Theme Icon Love, Devotion, and Redemption Theme Icon Debt and Gratitude Theme Icon
 
The servants, too, begin to leave, and Villefort wonders what will become of the family. He notes that Valentine is desperately sad at what has taken place, thus confirming that she was not in fact responsible for the death. But at the very close of the chapter, Villefort sees a “thin smile” curl across his wife’s lips, and he begins to wonder if it is perhaps Heloise who has been orchestrating the poisonings that are ruining his household and threatening its inhabitants.