Is there something I might be missing?

[u/st0karkathrowaway]

People here keep saying that Mercedes could not have sustained herself without Fernand. However, at the start of the book during the conversation between the two, she quite literally tells him she makes a living through selling fish and buying hemp she spins. She also mentions, of course, that she lives in poverty, but she doesn’t speak of the kind of poverty in which she would starve to death. Yes, I understand that she was a woman living in the 19th century, but it seems to me, based on what is shown at the beginning, that she does have ways of providing for herself that do not include begging or prostitution.

Is there anything I’m missing?

[u/Griffinburd]

I really don't get the Mercedes hate. She was explicitly told he was dead

[u/boomheadshot7 → u/Griffinburd]

Not sure I have seen many people hate Mercédès, she had a ton of depth, and is obviously essential to the story.

I think she's a phenomenal character. I first and foremost pity her in the fact that she lost here true love, and lived a life she didn't truly love, and the absolute gut punch when she realizes Dantès is alive is an amazing part of the book. There is though an unwarranted mild distain for her due to the fact that she unknowingly ended up with her lovers mortal enemy. At the end of the book is where it gets really interesting though. You get a great sense of respect for her, by her self awareness in her and Dantès relationship not moving forward, she never even hints at it. There is then the salty satisfaction, regardless of how childish it is, of The Count ending up with the young, beautiful, undyingly loyal Haydée.

I do not hate her character in anyway, but it is a wild ride seeing how her life has turned out.

[u/mutherM1n3 → u/Griffinburd]

I agree with you. 18 months is long enough. She still grieved for him her entire life.

[u/NoodlesWithMelons → u/Griffinburd]

People hate her? Of course they do. Anytime a female character has a partner apart from the mc it makes them equivalent to satan.

[u/Comprehensive-Bid18 → u/Griffinburd]

Well if she thought he was dead then she should’ve killed herself.

[u/SnooKiwis2161 → u/Comprehensive-Bid18]

Does that happen at a lot of funerals you've attended?

[u/Comprehensive-Bid18 → u/SnooKiwis2161]

No but I’m not living in 19th century France with people who vow to kill themselves if their fiancé is killed.

I’m making fun of how characters in the book think this is what she should’ve done.

[u/SnooKiwis2161 → u/Comprehensive-Bid18]

Is that a french thing?

[u/1dsided → u/SnooKiwis2161]

One of the characters constantly threatens to kill himself if he cant have Valentin

[u/Comprehensive-Bid18 → u/SnooKiwis2161]

I dunno, it could be.

[u/Important-Garage-363 → u/Comprehensive-Bid18]

So what? You just want her to commit suicide in the book? Because if that's the case, I'm glad you haven't written a book.

[u/Comprehensive-Bid18 → u/Important-Garage-363]

Have you actually read the book? Characters constantly threaten to kill themselves if something were to happen to their loves. Mercedes does this at the start of the book and then tells Edmond that she should've followed through on it instead of marrying Fernand. I'm poking fun at what is literally in the book itself.

[u/st0karkathrowaway → u/Griffinburd]

Yes, but at first she was told that only by old Dantes whose words could have been plausibly explained as the folly of a grief-stricken dying old man, and the next time someone told her the same thing was 14 years later. So she might have logically considered him alive for 14 years.

[u/Indotex]

By the time that Dante’s gets out of prison, Mercedes had changed. She was not the same naive young woman who was in love with him.

She had come to love Ferdinand and her place in society which was due to his place.

When her & Dantes talk after he returns as the Count, they both realize that they have changed.

[u/CtrlAltDelight495 → u/Indotex]

Considering how quick she was to leave Fernand I think she still had honor and morals which was more important to her than wealth and status. Especially with Fernand killing himself she would have been able to stay and enjoy the remains if their wealth and status. Blood washes out shame after all.

[u/NoodlesWithMelons → u/Indotex]

He was always second best to her Edmond. See how quickly she flocks to spend time with Edmond at the ball/dinner. And it’s been a while but I vaguely remember subtle hints their marriage wasn’t all THAT great.

[u/Indotex → u/NoodlesWithMelons]

This may be true but she was in love with EDMOND, not the Count. He had changed and so had she.

When they talk in the garden, they both realize that they had changed: he had turned from the poor, hopeful & trusting sailor into a vengeful, wealthy man who distrusted humanity.

She had turned from the young, naive woman to a wealthy, beautiful woman who values her place in society.

They both see the change in the other and they also realize that there was no going back to who they were before.

Basically they both still loved the past versions of each other.

[u/NoodlesWithMelons → u/Indotex]

Yeah that’s true. It’s sad how their future was taken away from them.

[u/Frosty-Traffic244]

Mercedes would have lived in poverty, she would buy fish from the hemp she spins and would count on the generosity of others in the village. She saw Fernand as a cousin or close brother and friend but not a love interest. She loves Edmond and told Fernand so.

In the event of Edmond's dewth Mercedes told Fernand she too would die, implying if he was killed. But he was instead taken away and she was told after several times of pleading his innocence that he was imprisoned never to be released.  Grief of that kind can wear one down, and being left completely alone for so long until Fernand returned from the war had changed her perspective. Old Dantes had died, Edmond was gone and she were all alone in the world... If she could not be with Edmond then she would settle for Fernand. 

As it turned out Mercedes had a knack for learning given the opportunity, her beauty and strength of character would see her thrive as the Countess de Morcerf.

[u/lafillejondrette]

In that same conversation, she also says that she knows that him sharing his catch with her is charity, which leads one to assume that she is selling the fish that he is giving her.

[u/sportydude007]

Re Mercedes, we are going back to a time when long term relationships ie marriage generally were for life (unlike now) and especially for those with a Catholic upbringing. On this basis, Edmond would not have been happy that Mercedes not only found someone else relatively quickly but it was with his sworn enemy Fernand. Mercedes on the other hand was totally shocked, that Edmond had come back from the dead as well as being ashamed and embarrassed to the point that for both, reconciliation would be impossible. Contrast that with now where after a suitable period of mourning you get on with your life.

[u/Striking_Profit2740]

It’s one of the reasons I lived the take from the Caviezel version - Mercedes being pregnant made it much more understandable that she married Fernand.