Edmond Dantés

Edmond Dantès
The Count of Monte Cristo character
Illustration of Edmond Dantès from The Count of Monte Cristo.
Created by	Alexandre Dumas
Information
Aliases	The Count of Monte Cristo Sinbad the Sailor Abbé Busoni Lord Wilmore
Gender	Male
Occupation	Merchant sailor (formerly)
Significant other(s)	Mercédès Mondego (ex-fiancée) Haydée Tebelin
Nationality	French

Edmond Dantès (pronounced: [ɛd.mɔ̃ dɑ̃.tɛs]) is a title character and the protagonist of Alexandre Dumas, père's 1844 adventure novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Within the story's narrative, Dantès is an intelligent, honest, and loving man who turns bitter and vengeful after he is framed for a crime he did not commit. When Dantès finds himself free and enormously wealthy, he takes it upon himself to reward those who have helped him in his plight and punish those responsible for his years of suffering. He is known by the aliases The Count of Monte Cristo (French: le Comte de Monte-Cristo), Sinbad the Sailor (Sinbad le Marin), Abbé Busoni, and Lord Wilmore.

When the reader is first introduced to Edmond Dantès, he arrives in Marseille as first mate aboard the merchant ship Le Pharaon (The Pharaoh). At only 19 years old, the young Dantès seems destined for success. Although the trip was successful, the former Captain, Leclère, has fallen ill and died. Dantès relays these events to his patron, M. Morrel, who tells Dantès that he will try to have him named captain. Dantès rushes off to see his father and then his beloved, the young Catalan woman Mercédès, and the two agree to be married immediately.

The marriage never occurs, however. On the very night of their nuptial feast, Dantès is arrested as a suspected Bonapartist, a helper to Napoléon, and taken to see the public prosecutor, Gérard de Villefort. Edmond had been anonymously and falsely denounced by Danglars, Edmond's shipmate over whom he was promoted, and Fernand Mondego, a rival suitor for Mercédès' hand. Prosecutor De Villefort concludes that Edmond is innocent, and assures him that he will be released. He then asks for a piece of evidence cited in a letter denouncing Edmond to the authorities. The letter claims that on Edmond's last voyage, he made a stopover at the island of Elba, and received a letter from the deposed Emperor Napoléon. Edmond hands over the letter, which he received in the name of Captain Leclère, and of which the contents are unknown to Edmond. De Villefort throws the letter on the fire for the letter is addressed to his father. Once again he promises Edmond's speedy release. De Villefort has renounced his father, a staunch Bonapartist, and destroyed the letter to protect himself, not Edmond; to further protect his name, de Villefort sentences Edmond to imprisonment in the dreaded Chateau d'If, an island fortress from which no prisoner had ever escaped, and to which the most dangerous political prisoners are sent.