I have 'Count of Monte Cristo' Withdrawal

I finished Alexandra Dumas' classic last night, despite my previous insistence that I wasn't going to read it. Reading The Black Count by Tom Reiss changed my mind, and I'm glad it did, because The Count of Monte Cristo is great. I wish I hadn't read an abridged version, but I didn't notice until after I checked it out of the library.

I didn't want this book to end.

But it does, in a really romantic way, like Romeo and Juliet if, instead of committing suicide, each realized the other was still alive and they got to be together. The young couple in question is Maximilian Morrel, whom the Count thinks of as a son, and Valentine Villefort, the daughter of the judge who threw the Count in prison when he was but the sailor Edmond Dantes. Edmond also has a beloved:

"Alone in the world?" repeated a voice behind the Count. "Why?"

Monte Cristo turned round.

Haydee was standing there pale and motionless, looking at the Count in mortal dread.

"To-morrow you will be free, my daughter," answered the Count. "You will then assume your proper place in society; I do not wish my fate to overcloud yours. Daughter of a prince! I bestow on you the wealth and the name of your father!"

Haydee turned pale, and, in a voice choking with emotion, she said: "Then you are leaving me, my lord?"

"Haydee! Haydee! You are young and beautiful. Forget even my name and be happy."

"So be it!" said Haydee. "Your orders shall be obeyed, my lord. I shall even forget your name and be happy!" and stepping back she sought to retire.

The Count shuddered as he caught the tones of her voice which penetrated to the inmost recesses of his heart. His eyes encountered the maiden's, and he could not bear their brilliancy.

"My God!" cried he. "Is it possible that my suspicions are correct? Haydee, would you be happy never to leave me again?"

"I am young," she replied. "I love the life you made so sweet to me, and I should regret to die!"

"Does that mean to say that if I were to leave you...?"

"I should die? Yes, my lord."

"Do you love me then?"

"Oh, Valentine, he asks me whether I love him! Valentine, tell him whether you love Maximilian!"

The Count felt his heart swelling within him; he opened his arms, and Haydee threw herself into them with a cry. 

"Oh, yes, I love you!" she said. "I love you as one loves a father, a brother, a husband! I love you as I love my life, for you are the noblest, the best, and the greatest of all created beings!" 

Haydee is the daughter of a prince of the Ottoman Empire; her parents were Christians from Greece. Her father, like the Count himself, was betrayed by the Catalan fisherman Fernand Mondego, later known as the Count de Morcerf. Haydee's father was murdered, her mother died of grief, and Haydee was sold into the slave market at the age of four. The Count rescued/purchased her (for the purpose of taking the young noble out of the slave market) when Haydee was eleven, and was a foster father to her since then - she's about 18 - roughly the same age as Valentine - at this point in the story. It's a bit odd that she has romantic feelings for a guy who's been her dad for seven years, but then, the extremely sheltered Haydee hasn't had much chance to meet many other men. 

Of course, I saw the movie before I read the book, and I have to come to the conclusion that book and movie are different animals, enjoyable in slightly different ways. In the movie, rather than Maximilian as a foster son, the Count has Albert de Morcerf as a bio son, and after Albert's stepdad Fernand is dead, the Count and Mercedes live happily ever after. (The 2002 movie, with the screenplay by Jay Wolpert, ends with Dagmara Dominczyk as Mercedes standing with the Count looking out at the ocean, resting her hand on her belly; I presume that Albert is getting a little brother or sister.) 

There's really no reason in the book why Mercedes and the Count can't be together in the book - Fernand's death is in both versions. He dies by duel in the movie, by suicide in the book. The widowed Mercedes, Dumas makes a point of telling us, is not only still beautiful but quite possibly more beautiful at 40-ish than at 19. She's just sad, that's all. Still, the Count leaves her behind in the book, to wait for Albert to possibly come back from a military deployment, unless he gets killed. 

We don't know - the ending doesn't tell us a) if Albert gets killed or lives, b) if Haydee and the Count get married, and if they ever have any children, c) if Maximilian and Valentine ever see the Count and Haydee again, or d) what the Count is going to do in Italy. I really wish this book hadn't ended. 

I like both endings, though. They're both good in their own ways. I like the movie ending a tiny bit better, because it has a nice symmetry if the young, happy couple from the beginning of the story gets to become the older, wiser, sadder but ultimately fulfilled couple at the end. 

Haydee's dramatic "I'll die if you leave me" reminds me of this, my current song crush.

(Make allowances for an Irish chick - it'll probably be whiskey AND his name on my last breath.)

Pagan Imagery in "If I Die Young"

“If I Die Young” was recently a #1 hit for The Band Perry. The ballad tells the story of a young woman whose life has been cut short. She asks to be put to rest in a river at dawn. Whether consciously or not, when singer Kimberly Perry wrote the lyrics, she incorporated many images that have been associated with burial customs since ancient times. Many of them have a Pagan significance.



“If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses”

The ancient Romans held the rose to be a symbol of Venus; its petals reminded them of a woman’s genitals. Venus the Rose-Goddess was Christianized as Saint Rosalia (pictured below), the patron saint of Palermo. Like many European Pagans who associated the goddess of love with death, the Romans also considered roses a symbol of death. This association was not considered negative; rather, death was seen as a return to the goddess, the source of life. Being taken back by the goddess could lead to rebirth.

Anthony van Dyck, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In North Africa, rosewater was used for purification. Roses could protect against evil and because of this were commonly placed in the graves of women. When Christianity arose in the Roman Empire, roses and their thorns became symbols of the blood and suffering of Jesus.

In modern flower color lore, red roses symbolize love and respect, white roses symbolize reverence and humility, and light pink roses are the roses of sympathy.

“Sink me in the river at dawn”

In Greek mythology, there were five rivers of the Underworld, each of which the dead crossed. The first was Acheron, the river of woe. The last was Styx, which comes from the Greek word for “hateful” and represents the horror of death. However, the river could also be seen as a positive symbol for washing away sadness. In Hinduism, the Ganges river is sacred. The river itself is a goddess, said to flow from heaven and wash away sins. It has long been a tradition to place the cremated remains of the dead in the Ganges.

“Lord make me a rainbow, I’ll shine down on my mother”

The rainbow is a bridge between earth and afterlife in many mythologies. In Norse mythology, the rainbow bridge is called Bifrost and is imagined as “trembling.” Many peoples conceptualized the bridge to heaven as razor-thin, admitting only the good souls. The “pot of gold” at its end is a folkloric descendant of the cauldron where the mother-goddess (Macha in Irish mythology) kept the souls of the dead.

“And I’ll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom”

White is a symbol of purity, the reason why “virgin” brides wear white wedding dresses. The Welsh once buried children with white roses to symbolize purity. In rural Virginia, the custom was to bury children in white clothes; adults were dressed in black.

“So put on your best, boys, and I’ll wear my pearls”

Another symbol for the entrance to heaven (“the pearly gates”). Pearls were also sacred to Aphrodite, ancient Greece’s equivalent of the Roman love goddess Venus. Pearls have also been used to represent purity and virginity. They represent the moon because they look like little moons. The phases of the moon, as it seems to “die” and reappear, are a symbol of life, death and rebirth. An archaic practice was to wear pearls only at night; the sun was thought to damage them, while the moon would energize them.

“The ballad of a dove”

This is likely a reference to the gospel song “Wings of a Dove" written by Bob Ferguson and popularized by Ferlin Husky in 1960. In the Christian Bible, the dove represents the Holy Spirit. To the ancient Greeks, the dove was a symbol of Aphrodite, particularly in her role as the collector of souls at death.

Resources

Danielle. (n.d.) “Pearls…Symbolism and Meaning.” http://serapii-kisu.net/essence/symbolism/pearls.php

Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. “Charon and the River Styx.” http://www.deathreference.com/Ce-Da/Charon-and-the-River-Styx.html

Rose Magazine. (n.d.) “Rose Folklore.“ http://www.rosemagazine.com/articles07/rose_color_folklore/

Scott, Dawn. (n.d.) “Old Time Burial Customs.” http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaschs2/burial_customs.htm

Walker, Barbara J. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.

Tye, Timothy. (n.d.) “Along the Banks of the Ganges River.” http://www.asiaexplorers.com/india/ganges_river.htm