All 50 Uses of
despair
in
The Count of Monte Cristo
- "It drives me to despair," said Fernand.†
Chpt 3-4
- A despairing cry escaped the pale lips of Mercedes; the old man sank into a chair.†
Chpt 5-6
- At last, about ten o'clock, and just as Dantes began to despair, steps were heard in the corridor, a key turned in the lock, the bolts creaked, the massy oaken door flew open, and a flood of light from two torches pervaded the apartment.†
Chpt 7-8
- He did not even see the ocean, that terrible barrier against freedom, which the prisoners look upon with utter despair.†
Chpt 7-8
- He had learned that Dantes had been taken to prison, and he had gone to all his friends, and the influential persons of the city; but the report was already in circulation that Dantes was arrested as a Bonapartist agent; and as the most sanguine looked upon any attempt of Napoleon to remount the throne as impossible, he met with nothing but refusal, and had returned home in despair, declaring that the matter was serious and that nothing more could be done.†
Chpt 9-10
- The minister of police, giving way to an impulse of despair, was about to throw himself at the feet of Louis XVIII.†
Chpt 11-12
- In fact, the minister, who, in the plenitude of his power, had been unable to unearth Napoleon's secret, might in despair at his own downfall interrogate Dantes and so lay bare the motives of Villefort's plot.†
Chpt 11-12
- Father, you know very well that the general was not a man to drown himself in despair, and people do not bathe in the Seine in the month of January.†
Chpt 11-12
- It was the last yearning for life contending with the resolution of despair; then his dungeon seemed less sombre, his prospects less desperate.†
Chpt 15-16
- After having deprived me of my liberty, after having deprived me of death, after having recalled me to existence, my God, have pity on me, and do not let me die in despair!†
Chpt 15-16
- "Who talks of God and despair at the same time?" said a voice that seemed to come from beneath the earth, and, deadened by the distance, sounded hollow and sepulchral in the young man's ears.†
Chpt 15-16
- He would be condemned to die, but he was about to die of grief and despair when this miraculous noise recalled him to life.†
Chpt 15-16
- "Well, then," resumed Faria with a bitter smile, "let me answer your question in full, by acknowledging that I am the poor mad prisoner of the Chateau d'If, for many years permitted to amuse the different visitors with what is said to be my insanity; and, in all probability, I should be promoted to the honor of making sport for the children, if such innocent beings could be found in an abode devoted like this to suffering and despair."†
Chpt 15-16
- This idea was one of vengeance to me, and I tasted it slowly in the night of my dungeon and the despair of my captivity.†
Chpt 17-18
- To have you as long as possible near me, to hear your eloquent speech,—which embellishes my mind, strengthens my soul, and makes my whole frame capable of great and terrible things, if I should ever be free,—so fills my whole existence, that the despair to which I was just on the point of yielding when I knew you, has no longer any hold over me; and this—this is my fortune—not chimerical, but actual.†
Chpt 19-20
- Dantes recoiled from the idea of so infamous a death, and passed suddenly from despair to an ardent desire for life and liberty.†
Chpt 19-20
- "Well," said he, "I will swim on until I am worn out, or the cramp seizes me, and then I shall sink;" and he struck out with the energy of despair.†
Chpt 22-23
- One day, when, contrary to his custom, he had admitted Mercedes, and the poor girl, in spite of her own grief and despair, endeavored to console him, he said to her,—'Be assured, my dear daughter, he is dead; and instead of expecting him, it is he who is awaiting us; I am quite happy, for I am the oldest, and of course shall see him first.'†
Chpt 27-28
- But availing himself of the doctor's order, the old man would not take any sustenance; at length (after nine days of despair and fasting), the old man died, cursing those who had caused his misery, and saying to Mercedes, 'If you ever see my Edmond again, tell him I die blessing him.'†
Chpt 27-28
- Tell me, therefore, who are these men who killed the son with despair, and the father with famine?†
Chpt 27-28
- Mercedes was at first in the deepest despair at the blow which deprived her of Edmond.†
Chpt 27-28
- In the midst of her despair, a new affliction overtook her.†
Chpt 27-28
- Three months passed and still she wept—no news of Edmond, no news of Fernand, no companionship save that of an old man who was dying with despair.†
Chpt 27-28
- "Oh, sir," said Caderousse, putting out one hand timidly, and with the other wiping away the perspiration which bedewed his brow,—"Oh, sir, do not make a jest of the happiness or despair of a man."†
Chpt 27-28
- I know what happiness and what despair are, and I never make a jest of such feelings.†
Chpt 27-28
- As to M. de Boville, he was in such a state of despair, that it was evident all the faculties of his mind, absorbed in the thought which occupied him at the moment, did not allow either his memory or his imagination to stray to the past.†
Chpt 27-28
- "Oh, sir," exclaimed M. de Boville, "your fears are unfortunately but too well founded, and you see before you a man in despair.†
Chpt 27-28
- A man has carried off your mistress, a man has seduced your wife, a man has dishonored your daughter; he has rendered the whole life of one who had the right to expect from heaven that portion of happiness God his promised to every one of his creatures, an existence of misery and infamy; and you think you are avenged because you send a ball through the head, or pass a sword through the breast, of that man who has planted madness in your brain, and despair in your heart.†
Chpt 35-36
- Come, two or three more such adventures, and I do not despair of seeing you a member of the Academy.†
Chpt 35-36
- "Oh, do not do that, excellency; I have always served you faithfully," cried Bertuccio, in despair.†
Chpt 43-44
- When he learned my resolution, I shall never forget the reproachful look which he cast on me, and the tears of utter despair which chased each other down his lifeless cheeks.†
Chpt 57-58
- "Well," continued Valentine, "the reason of my proposing it was that I might escape this hateful marriage, which drives me to despair."†
Chpt 57-58
- Monte Cristo seemed in despair.†
Chpt 63-64 *
- The result, then, of six more such months as this would be to reduce the third-rate house to despair.†
Chpt 65-66
- "I know not; I merely suppose so, as I might suppose anything else," replied Villefort with a look so fixed, it indicated that his powerful mind was on the verge of despair and madness.†
Chpt 67-68
- If they did not speak of me, I am sure they thought about me, and I am in despair.†
Chpt 67-68
- " 'Never despair of anything,' says the proverb."†
Chpt 67-68
- The countess dashed the grapes into the nearest thicket, with a gesture of despair.†
Chpt 71-72
- She was thinking of the despair of Maximilian, when he should be informed that Madame de Saint-Meran, instead of being an ally, was unconsciously acting as his enemy.†
Chpt 71-72
- Oh, selfish man,—he sees me in despair, and pretends he cannot understand me!†
Chpt 73-74
- "Again you drive me to despair, Maximilian," said Valentine, "again you plunge the dagger into the wound!†
Chpt 73-74
- You have told me how you talk to him and how he answers you; I shall very soon learn that language by signs, Valentine, and I promise you solemnly, that instead of despair, it is happiness that awaits us.†
Chpt 73-74
- " "What do you propose to me, d'Avrigny?" said Villefort in despair; "so soon as another is admitted into our secret, an inquest will become necessary; and an inquest in my house—impossible!†
Chpt 73-74
- Noirtier acknowledged by a look of extreme kindness and benevolence the thanks which Morrel lavished on him for his timely intervention on behalf of Valentine and himself—an intervention which had saved them from despair.†
Chpt 79-80
- Noirtier, burning with impatience and terror, was in despair at his utter inability to help his old domestic, whom he regarded more in the light of a friend than a servant.†
Chpt 79-80
- "Ah," murmured Caderousse, "what a strange priest you are; you drive the dying to despair, instead of consoling them."†
Chpt 83-84
- "— "There is a providence; there is a God," said Monte Cristo, "of whom you are a striking proof, as you lie in utter despair, denying him, while I stand before you, rich, happy, safe and entreating that God in whom you endeavor not to believe, while in your heart you still believe in him."†
Chpt 83-84
- Each word fell like a dagger on Morcerf, and deprived him of a portion of his energy; as she uttered the last, he hid his mutilated hand hastily in his bosom, and fell back on his seat, overwhelmed by wretchedness and despair.†
Chpt 85-86
- The stranger cast one look around her, to be certain that they were quite alone; then bending as if she would have knelt, and joining her hands, she said with an accent of despair, "Edmond, you will not kill my son?"†
Chpt 89-90
- Oh, Mercedes, I have uttered your name with the sigh of melancholy, with the groan of sorrow, with the last effort of despair; I have uttered it when frozen with cold, crouched on the straw in my dungeon; I have uttered it, consumed with heat, rolling on the stone floor of my prison.†
Chpt 89-90
Definition:
-
(despair as in: she felt despair) hopelessness; or distress (such as extreme worry or sadness from feeling powerless to change a bad situation)