How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Good!" Danglars exclaimed. "Everything is working out as I expected. I am now captain pro tem and, if only that idiot Caderousse can keep his mouth shut, captain for good. So, the only other eventuality is that the Law may release Dantès? Ah, well," he added, with a smile, "the Law is the Law, and I am happy to put myself in her hands." (5.147)
Danglars puts himself in a strange position, here. Even as he subverts the law, he places he surrenders his future to some larger concept of the "Law." We guess he's one for instant gratification.
Quote #2
"Ah, Monsieur de Villefort," said a pretty young thing, the daughter of the Comte de Salvieux and a friend of Mlle de Saint-Méran, "do please try to have a fine trial while we are in Marseille. I have never been to a court of assizes, and I am told it is most interesting."
"Most interesting, indeed, Mademoiselle, since it is a veritable drama and not an invented tragedy, real sorrows in place of ones that are merely feigned. The man that you see there, instead of returning home, once the curtain is lowered […] is taken into a prison, there to meet his executioner." (6.36-37)
Justice, and being a justice, isn't play acting – it's serious business, a matter of life and death.
Quote #3
"But, with such an outlook," Franz told the count, "which makes you judge and executioner in your own case, it would be hard for you to confine yourself to actions that would leave you forever immune to the power of the law. Hatred is blind and anger deaf: the one who pours himself a cup of vengeance is likely to drink a bitter draught."
"Yes, if he is clumsy and poor; no, if he is a millionaire and adroit." (35.44)
As we shall see, Villefort makes a valid point, and Monte Cristo shows that even he can be blinded by confidence and ambition.