#aledandre dumas

[izzythehutt]

Do you think that the character of Edmund Dantes (Count of Monte Cristo) inspired/influenced the characterisation of Sirius Black?

That’s a really interesting question. I’ve never thought about it or made that connection, but as Count of Monte Cristo is the great jailbreak novel of the 19th century, I wouldn’t be surprised if it in at least a broad way inspired JKR.

As far as the character goes, I can’t see much similarity, since Dantes...actually succeeds in his revenge, and that’s the whole point of the novel? Whereas revenge on Peter and everyone else who screwed him over is ultimately a rather secondary motivation for Sirius when he breaks out of Azkaban. I haven’t read COMC in about twenty years (I was in middle school and I didn’t finish it, I did go through a Dumas phase where I was obsessed with the Musketeer books), but also doesn’t it generally have a rather triumphal ending? Or at least satisfying. For as much as people view Sirius as a “badass” in fandom, in the books he basically gets zero moments one could construe that way. Even the reveal in POA is tinged with sorrow and questionable sanity.

Honestly, the character I have always thought was an influence on Sirius’s characterization was Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. The brooding, moody aristocrat who ends up inheriting the family pile he hates by semi-ironic circumstance. All of that is generally applicable to the byronic mold, of course, but there’s something about his biting sarcasm and thinly-veiled self-loathing that feels very Bronte.