The Three Musketeers: Metaphors 6 key examples

The duke tells the queen not to scoff at his memories of the few nights they have shared because they are all he has to sustain himself. He compares each memory to a diamond, and the collection of memories to "the treasure in my heart." This metaphor is comical because he is trying to get the queen to understand his love by comparing it to something she surely understands: riches. The duke also comes across as a bit ridiculous for claiming that he has "only memories." He is in fact very wealthy and has what many people would kill for: land and a title.

Still, the main joke is that, later in the chapter, the duke convinces the queen to give him a token of her love. What she gives him is a set of real diamond jewelry that was originally a gift from the king. As it turns out, the duke would have been better off sticking with his imaginary diamonds. The cardinal gets wind of the queen's gift to the duke. Jealous of her affections, he encourages the king to throw a ball and ask his wife to wear the diamonds. The duke and queen must then scramble to cover up the fact that she just gave the diamonds away. With the help of d'Artagnan and the musketeers, the queen and the duke successfully hide their affair this time around. But the duke makes dangerous enemies of the cardinal and Milady in the process.

The king is caught between Monsieur de Tréville, who wants Athos released, and the cardinal, who does not. Monsieur de Tréville gives the king many reasons why it would be more just to release him, including the fact that Athos is not only innocent but has in fact put his life on the line for the king. When the king continues to resist his pleas, Monsieur de Tréville begins expressing regret that the king is an unprincipled military leader who lets politics steer him toward mistreatment of his soldiers. Dumas tells the reader that this is a "rash" thing to say. It is out of line for Monsieur de Tréville to level such a serious accusation against the king, who is his boss and who supposedly derives his power from God. But, as Dumas goes on to explain, Monsieur de Tréville wants to provoke the king. The metaphor he uses for the king's reaction is an "explosion." While "explosive" anger usually has negative and dangerous connotations, Monsieur de Tréville also knows that fire makes light. His hope is that by riling up the king's "explosive" anger, he will help him see the "light" of things: no matter what the cardinal says, Athos has been wrongfully imprisoned.

Scottish people are known for their national pride, in part because the unique cultural region of Scotland was colonized and absorbed by England in the centuries leading up to Dumas's day. The long-running conflicts over Scotland's national standing are the subject of Walter Scott's Waverley novels, some of the most famous historical novels that Dumas used as a model for this book. Scotland and England were unified in 1707, about 80 years after d'Artagnan's conversation with the Duke of Buckingham. At that point, Scotland lost its independent government, but there was still a sense of national culture (as there still is today). Scott's novels aimed to capture a sense of this national culture, even though Scott supported the union between England and Scotland. In the 19th century, following the publication of the Waverley novels, Scotsmen had an international reputation for their persistent national pride.

By emphasizing that he is not like a Scotsman but rather one of the "Scotsmen of France," d'Artagnan draws a parallel for Dumas's readers between the way Scotland is represented in Walter Scott's novels and the way Dumas is representing Gascony in this book. Gascony was still an independent province when the events of the novel take place, but by the time Dumas was writing, it had been absorbed more completely into France. First it was combined with the province of Guyenne, and then, at the time of the French Revolution, the government of Guyenne and Gascony was dissolved. D'Artagnan, a proud Gascon, represents a cultural identity that Dumas was eager to preserve at a time when Gascony no longer had the independence it once did. Regardless of some of his shortcomings, d'Artagnan is innately honorable and charming in his naivety. Dumas emphasizes his Gascon identity and suggests that he represents an old-fashioned kind of person who is harder to come by in the modern world.

According to this passage, "duplicity is a mask" that people wear plainly on their faces. D'Artagnan can supposedly deduce from the wrinkles on Monsieur Bonacieux's face that he has betrayed someone. He can tell from his complexion that there has been "an infiltration of bile in the blood" that, combined with other signs, indicates that the man is up to something. In the 19th century, people believed in physiognomy, a pseudoscience that claimed it was possible to identify biological differences between good people and bad people, "criminals" and law-abiding citizens. The shape and look of someone's face, physiognomists argued, could tell you what kind of person they were. When Dumas writes that, "A criminal does not laugh in the same way as an honest man, a hypocrite does not shed the same tears as a man of faith," he is not only being poetic but also alluding to this flawed belief system.

While it sounds ridiculous today to say that someone's wrinkles can indicate whether or not they have betrayed someone they love, there are still many holdovers of physiognomy in today's discourse around crime. Physiognomy's popularity coincided with the popularization of crime fiction in the later 19th century. Swashbuckling novels such as The Three Musketeers fed into that genre, and the way crime writers described "criminals" and detectives using physiognomy as a reference point still informs the way we think about these categories of people. Later, popular television shows like Criminal Minds continued to reproduce certain images of what a "criminal" looks like, and those ideas in turn have seeped into legislation, law enforcement, and the justice system.

Dumas calls d'Artagnan "a man hunting an eagle." In this metaphor, Milady is the eagle. Kitty, meanwhile, is the "sparrow" d'Artagnan has thus far failed to notice. Eagles are large birds of prey that, while they do roost in communities, are largely considered lone travelers. They are highly territorial and can be dangerous. D'Artagnan, who has fallen in love with Milady and is trying to compete with Count de Wardes for her attention, is engaged in the difficult task of "hunting an eagle" who does not want to be caught. He is not doing very well so far, but he realizes that he might be able to engage some craftier tactics if he uses Kitty. He sees her as a non-threatening "sparrow." Unlike eagles, sparrows commonly spend time around humans and are very social birds. He thinks about how easy it will be for Kitty to flit back and forth among him, de Wardes, and Milady because no one will suspect her of anything.

This metaphor demonstrates how d'Artagnan's obsession with Milady is corrupting him. No one in the book has a problem describing Milady as various kinds of predators, but d'Artagnan is now dehumanizing Kitty also. Instead of being gentle when he realizes that she has feelings for him, he immediately begins thinking of her as someone he can manipulate. D'Artagnan later redeems himself somewhat by helping Kitty escape Milady. Here though, he comes perilously close to dishonoring himself.

The cardinal does not mean to protect Milady by physically covering her with his cloak. Instead, what Dumas means is that the cardinal imagines that he will have to use his position of power within the church and the government to protect her from the consequences of her past crimes. The red cloak, which he wears as part of his uniform, is a metaphor for that power.

But while the cardinal is ready to use his "red cloak" to protect his operative no matter what her past crimes are, there are other powerful people who are determined to see her punished. One is Lord de Winter, who currently has her in custody. The red cloak in particular foreshadows the appearance of another figure in a red cloak: the executioner. Milady drove the executioner's brother to crime, and he later died by suicide. When Athos invites the executioner to join him and his friends in their final pursuit of Milady, the executioner is all too ready to don his red cloak and join the hunt. It is this red-cloaked man who swings the sword to behead Milady in Chapter 66. The twin red cloaks suggest that the cardinal's power is outmatched by the determination and fellowship of the men determined to bring Milady to justice (or their version of it) for her past crimes.