The Three Musketeers (Themes)

Themes

The Quest

The book begins with a quest: young d'Artagnan sets out for Paris to seek his fortune. Like many heroes of quests, he is of noble birth but humble circumstance and must rely on his own wits and talent to rise to the level of his destiny. He yearns to be a Musketeer but must first prove himself worthy of the position. Aided by his father's friend, de Treville, he becomes a guard, and because of his curiosity, initiative, and pride, he is drawn into the center of a web of intrigue that eventually allows him to prove his worth and gain success as a Musketeer.

The book also contains another quest: the Musketeers join forces to protect the honor of the Queen, to help her conceal her affair with Buckingham, and to help her to arrange meetings with him. This may seem like a relatively trivial matter to most modern readers when compared to the urgencies of the political situation of the time, but according to the code of chivalry and honor that the Musketeers be-lieve in, fostering true love is of the highest importance.

Love

All of the Musketeers view love as an exalted state and revere chivalry and honor. For example, their main mission in the book is to help Queen Anne in her affair with the Duke of Buckingham because they recognize that she and Buckingham share true love. D'Artagnan falls in love with Madame Bonacieux and gets into any number of dangerous situations when he tries to protect her from their mutual enemies. Athos, who once loved a woman, was forever scarred when she turned out to be a thief and liar who betrayed him.

Amorality

Despite their interest in true love, the characters are curiously amoral. If a woman is married, this is no obstacle to true love; they will happily have an affair with her if she's attractive enough. Although they defend each other to the death, they cheerfully kill any and all enemies and never give the dead another thought. And although they value honor and integrity, this does not extend to their enemies; d'Artagnan would defend Madame Bonacieux with his life, but he deceives Milady into making love with him in order to get revenge on her and lies to her maid Kitty, telling her he loves her to get information and help in his campaign against Milady.