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Get every literary device explanation for The Count of Monte Cristo
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Frame Story
Explanation and Analysis—Bertuccio's Tale:
In Chapter 44, at the Count's bidding, Bertuccio begins a tale that unfolds into a full narrative of its own—a frame story, within the outer novel, in which a new narrator takes over. Bertuccio introduces this story as a flashback to his past years ago:
‘Where would Monsieur le Comte like me to begin?’ Bertuccio asked.
‘Wherever you wish,’ Monte Cristo replied, ‘because I know nothing.’
‘But I thought that Abbé Busoni had told Your Excellency …’
‘Yes, a few facts, perhaps, but that was seven or eight years ago and I have forgotten.’
‘So, not wishing to bore Your Excellency, I can safely …’
‘Come on, Monsieur Bertuccio, come: you will be my evening newspaper.’
‘It all goes back to 1815.’
‘Ah!’ Monte Cristo exclaimed. ‘A long time ago, 1815!’
In keeping with the serialized nature of The Count of Monte Cristo, some chapters—in more or less their entirety—are frame stories that slow the pace of the narrative while pulling the reader into entirely new worlds. In this case, this is the world of Bertuccio's own tragic past. It begins, as with many flashbacks in literature, with the introduction of an explicit leap backward in time: "It all goes back to 1815."
This particular flashback reveals more about the character of Villefort, with whom Bertuccio also has extensive experience, and his tendency to ignore his duty to justice in favor of protecting his own career. Through the inclusion of frame stories with perspective and time jumps like this, Dumas is able to tightly weave together the disparate strands of his sprawling tale and build years and years of connections between the characters before the reader's very eyes.
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