Mahatma Gandhi once stated that “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” This quote goes hand in hand with the theme of Alexandre Dumas’ historical fiction novel The Three Musketeers. The story’s young hero, D’Artagnan, hopes to work his way up from being poor to being one of the King Louis XIII’s Musketeers. Throughout the story, the reader learns about the formation of enemies and alliances between the major characters. The Musketeers teach the reader that revenge leads towards harm to either you or others; this is proven through the actions of D’Artagnan, Milady, and the Cardinal.
Throughout the plot of The Three Musketeers, D’Artagnan has many attempts to take revenge on those who insult him. In the opening chapter of The Three Musketeers, a character known as the Man from Meung insults D’Artagnan and steals his important letter. When D’Artagnan overhears his leader, M. de Trévile, talking about this man he cried out "Oh, sir, if you know who this man is ,... tell me who he is, and whence he is. I will then release you from all your promises--even that of procuring my into the Musketeers; for before everything, I wish to avenge myself." (Dumas 33). This shows the reader that D’Artagnan is willing to do anything to show this man that nobody can mess with him and get away with it. …show more content…
While D’Artagnan is talking with M. de Treville, D’Artagnan is told that "The Cardinal, as it appears, pursues he and persecutes [the Queen] more than ever because of her history of the Saraband (Dumas 84). The Cardinal placed spies in the Queen’s workforce to catch her in the act of doing things that she should not be doing. The Cardinal goes out of his way throughout the plot of the story trying to show the Queen that he is better than the Duke of Buckingham.One more chunk.If there are any characters in The Three Musketeers without at least one rival, it is definitely not the