Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Three Musketeers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship and Loyalty
Honor
Class and Power
The Secrets of the Past
Seduction and Romance
Summary
Analysis
D’Artagnan continues his nightly visits to Milady and continues to fall in love with her. One night, while d’Artagnan is leaving, Milady’s maid, Kitty, grabs him and takes him into another room. Kitty tells d’Artagnan that Milady doesn’t love him; she is interested in Comte de Wardes instead. When d’Artagnan asks for proof, Kitty shows him a note she is supposed to bring to Comte de Wardes. The note angers d’Artagnan and he asks Kitty to help him get revenge.
Kitty tells d’Artagnan that she doesn’t want to help him because she doesn’t think Milady will ever love d’Artagnan. Additionally, she admits to being in love with d’Artagnan herself and therefore doesn’t want to help him go to bed with Milady. Seeing an opportunity, d’Artagnan kisses Kitty and tells her that he loves her. Right afterward, Milady calls for Kitty. Rather than leave, d’Artagnan hides in Kitty’s closet. Kitty is unhappy with this, but there is nothing she can do.
Here, d’Artagnan’s character takes a dark turn. Although he’s acted more or less heroically so far, his actions here are far from honorable. He is manipulating Kitty’s emotions to get what he wants; even worse, Kitty suspects the truth, but goes along with him anyway because she feels she has no other choice.
Themes
Milady enters the room next to Kitty’s and d’Artagnan hears her say that she thinks she has him wrapped around her finger. She feels that d’Artagnan made the cardinal dislike her (because of the incident with the diamond tags) and she admits to being angry with him because he didn’t kill Lord de Winter when he had the chance. When d’Artagnan hears this, he realizes that Milady is terrifying and does not love him at all. Before Milady leaves, she tells Kitty to make sure that Comte de Wardes responds when she delivers Milady’s latest letter.
Here, Milady reveals that she knows exactly who d’Artagnan is and what he’s done. Additionally, d’Artagnan realizes that he correctly analyzed Milady’s reaction to his duel with Lord de Winter. However, the reason why Milady wants Lord de Winter dead is still unclear. Regardless, Milady is clearly not the softspoken and timid woman who she sometimes pretends to be.
Themes
When he knows that Milady is gone, d’Artagnan steps out of the closet and kisses Kitty again. Although d’Artagnan does like Kitty, he is much more interested in getting revenge on Milady. D’Artagnan asks Kitty for the letter that Milady wrote for Comte de Wardes, and she gives it to him. D’Artagnan reads it and then writes a reply where he pretends to be Comte de Wardes. He then gives the note to Kitty and tells her to deliver it to Milady. Kitty agrees to do as d’Artagnan asks, although she is not happy about it. As payment, d’Artagnan promises to spend more time than usual with Kitty the following day.
D'Artagnan convinces himself that the ends justify the means and that therefore his treatment of Kitty is acceptable. Furthermore, he plans to use Kitty to lie to Milady, putting both his life and Kitty’s in danger. This is an example of D’Artagnan’s sense of what is honorable clashing with what’s moral.
Themes
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