Classic Remarks: The Musketeers

Classic Remarks is a meme hosted here at Pages Unbound that poses questions each Friday about classic literature and asks participants to engage in ongoing discussions surrounding not only themes in the novels but also questions about canon formation, the “timelessness” of literature, and modes of interpretation.  Feel free to comment even if you are not officially participating!  This week’s prompt is:

Which of Dumas’s Musketeer’s is your favorite and why?

For this question, it’s easy enough to use the process of elimination.  I never liked Aramis because he’s a womanizer and full of secrets.  I am neutral about Porthos.  He’s strong and big, and, um, not that bright if I remember.  D’Artagnan drives me crazy with his need to pick fights with everyone under the sun.  (Thankfully he grows out of that in the sequels, where he reminisces about how dumb he was.)  That leaves Athos.

As the oldest of the Musketeers, Athos is also the most mature, although he is also a product of his environment and runs around getting into duels for honor or doing things for his monarch for honor, even if those things are shady.  At least he has some sort of morals going on, however.  I respect him for that, even if he spends a lot of his time drinking and being gloomy.  You can’t really ask a Musketeer to make sense or use logic, aside from the logic of honor.  At least Athos is consistent in that and attempts to leave up to his ideals because he believes in them, not out of pride or apparent boredom.

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