The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas

Edmond Dantès and his aliases

• Edmond Dantès (born 1796): A sailor with good prospects, engaged to Mercédès. After his transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo, he reveals his true name to his enemies as each revenge is completed. During the course of the novel, he falls in love with Haydée.
• The Count of Monte Cristo: The identity Dantès assumes when he emerges from prison and acquires his vast fortune. As a result, the Count of Monte Cristo is usually associated with a coldness and bitterness that comes from an existence based solely on revenge. This character thinks of Lord Wilmore as a rival.
• Chief Clerk of the banking firm Thomson & French, an Englishman.
• Lord Wilmore: An Englishman, and the persona in which Dantès performs random acts of generosity.
• Sinbad the Sailor: The persona that Dantès assumes when he saves the Morrel family and while conducting business with smugglers and brigands.
• Abbé Busoni: The persona of an Italian priest with religious authority.
• Monsieur Zaccone: Dantès, in the guise of the Abbé Busoni, and again as Lord Wilmore, tells an investigator that this is the Count of Monte Cristo's true name.
• Number 34: The name given to him by the new governor of Château d'If. Finding it too tedious to learn Dantès's real name, he was called by the number of his cell.
• The Maltese Sailor: The name he was known by after his rescue by smugglers from the island of Tiboulen.

Allies of Dantès

• Abbé Faria: Italian priest and sage. Imprisoned in the Château d'If. Edmond's dearest friend and his mentor and teacher while in prison. On his deathbed, reveals to Edmond the secret treasure hidden on Monte Cristo. Partially based on the historical Abbé Faria.
• Giovanni Bertuccio: The Count of Monte Cristo's steward and very loyal servant. The Count first meets him in his role as Abbé Busoni, the confessor to Bertuccio, whose past is tied with M. de Villefort. Bertuccio's sister-in-law Assunta was the adoptive mother of Benedetto.
• Luigi Vampa: Celebrated Italian bandit and fugitive.
• Peppino: Formerly a shepherd, becomes a member of Vampa's gang. The Count arranges for his public execution in Rome to be commuted, causing him to be loyal to the Count.
• Ali: Monte Cristo's mute Nubian slave.
• Baptistin: Monte Cristo's valet-de-chambre.
• Jacopo: A poor smuggler who helps Dantès survive after he escapes prison. When Jacopo proves his selfless loyalty, Dantès rewards him with his own ship and crew. (Jacopo Manfredi is a separate character, the "bankrupt of Trieste", whose financial failure contributes to the depletion of Danglars's fortune.)
• Haydée (sometimes spelled as Haidee): Monte Cristo's young, beautiful slave. She is the daughter of Ali Tebelen. Buying her, enslaved because her father was killed, is part of Dantès' plan to get revenge on Fernand. At the end, she and Monte Cristo become lovers.

Morcerf family

• Mercédès Mondego (née Herrera): A Catalan girl, Edmond Dantès's fiancée at the beginning of the story. She later marries Fernand and they have a son named Albert. She is consumed with guilt over Edmond's disappearance and is able to recognize him when she meets him again. In the end, she returns to Marseilles, living in the house that belonged to father Dantès, given to her by Monte Cristo himself, praying for Albert, who left France for Africa as a soldier to start a new and more honorable life. She is portrayed as a compassionate, kind and caring woman who prefers to think of her beloved ones more than of herself.
• Fernand Mondego: Count de Morcerf (former Catalan fisherman in the Spanish village near Marseilles), Dantès's rival and cousin of Mercédès, for whom he swore undying love and the person he eventually marries. Fernand helps frame Edmond (by sending the accusation letter) in an ultimate desperate attempt to not lose Mercédès forever. He later achieves the high rank of general in the French army and becomes a peer of France in the Chambre des Pairs, keeping secret his betrayal of the Pasha Alì Tebelen and the selling into slavery of both his daughter Haydée and her mother Vasiliki. With the money earned he buys the title of "Count de Morcerf" to bring wealth and a more pleasant life for himself and his family. Through the book he shows a deep affection and care for his wife and son. He meets his tragic end in the last chapters, by committing suicide, in the despair of having lost Mercédès and Albert, disowned by them when they discover his hidden crimes.
• Albert de Morcerf: Son of Mercédès and Fernand. He is described as a very kind-hearted, joyful and carefree young man, and fond of Monte Cristo, whom he sees as a friend. After acknowledging the truth of his father's war crimes and the false accusation towards the sailor Edmond Dantès, he decides to leave his home with Mercédès and start a new life as a soldier under the name of "Herrera" (his mother's maiden name), leaving for Africa in search of fortune and to bring new honor to his family name.

Danglars family

• Baron Danglars: Dantès's jealous junior officer and mastermind behind his imprisonment, later a wealthy banker. He goes bankrupt and is left with only 50,000 francs after stealing 5,000,000 francs.
• Madame Hermine Danglars (formerly Baroness Hermine de Nargonne née de Servieux): Once a widow, she had an affair with Gérard de Villefort, a married man. They had an illegitimate son, Benedetto.
• Eugénie Danglars: Daughter of Baron Danglars and Hermine Danglars. She is free-spirited and aspires to become an independent artist.

Villefort family

• Gérard de Villefort: The royal prosecutor who imprisons Dantès, later becoming acquaintances as Dantès exacts his revenge. He goes insane after his crimes are exposed.
• Renée de Villefort, Renée de Saint-Méran: Gérard de Villefort's first wife, mother of Valentine.
• The Marquis and Marquise de Saint-Méran: Renée's parents.
• Valentine de Villefort: The daughter of Gérard de Villefort and his first wife, Renée. In love with Maximilien Morrel. Engaged to Baron Franz d'Épinay. She is 19 years old with chestnut hair, dark blue eyes, and "long white hands".
• Monsieur Noirtier de Villefort: The father of Gérard de Villefort and grandfather of Valentine, Édouard (and, without knowing it, Benedetto). A committed anti-royalist. He is paralyzed and only able to communicate with his eyes, but retains his mental faculties and acts as protector to Valentine.
• Héloïse de Villefort: The murderous second wife of Gérard de Villefort, mother of Édouard.
• Édouard de Villefort (Edward): The only legitimate son of Villefort.
• Benedetto: The illegitimate son of de Villefort and Baroness Hermine Danglars (Hermine de Nargonne), raised by Bertuccio and his sister-in-law, Assunta, in Rogliano. Becomes "Andrea Cavalcanti" in Paris.

Morrel family

• Pierre Morrel: Dantès's employer, owner of Morrel & Son.
• Maximilien Morrel: Son of Pierre Morrel, an army captain who becomes a friend of Dantès. In love with Valentine de Villefort.
• Julie Herbault: Daughter of Pierre Morrel, wife of Emmanuel Herbault.
• Emmanuel Herbault: An employee of Morrel & Son, who marries Julie Morrel and succeeds to the business.

Other characters

• Gaspard Caderousse: Originally a tailor and later the owner of an inn, he was a neighbor and friend of Dantès who fails to protect him at the beginning of the story. The Count first rewards Caderousse with a valuable diamond. Caderousse then turns to serious crimes of murder, spends time in prison, and ends up being murdered by Andrea Cavalcanti.
• Madeleine Caderousse, née Radelle: Wife of Caderousse, who, according to the court, is responsible for the murder of a Jewish jeweler. She also dies in the incident.
• Louis Dantès: Edmond Dantès's father, who dies from starvation during his son's imprisonment.
• Baron Franz d'Épinay: A friend of Albert de Morcerf, first fiancé of Valentine de Villefort. Originally, Dumas wrote part of the story, including the events in Rome and the return of Albert de Morcerf and Franz d'Épinay to Paris, in the first person from Franz d'Épinay's point of view.[4]
• Lucien Debray: Secretary to the Minister of the Interior, a friend of Albert de Morcerf, and a lover of Madame Danglars, whom he provides with inside investment information, which she then passes on to her husband.
• Beauchamp: Journalist and Chief Editor of l'Impartial, and friend of Albert de Morcerf.
• Raoul, Baron de Château-Renaud: Member of a noble family and friend of Albert de Morcerf.
• Louise d'Armilly: Eugénie Danglars's music instructor and her intimate friend.
• Monsieur de Boville: Originally an inspector of prisons, later a detective in the Paris force, and still later the Receiver-General of the charities.
• Barrois: Old, trusted servant of Monsieur de Noirtier.
• Monsieur d'Avrigny: Family doctor treating the Villefort family.
• Major (also Marquis) Bartolomeo Cavalcanti: Old man who plays the role of Prince Andrea Cavalcanti's father.
• Ali Tebelen (Ali Tepelini in some versions): An Albanian nationalist leader, Pasha of Yanina, whom Fernand Mondego betrays, leading to Ali Pasha's murder at the hands of the Turks and the seizure of his kingdom. His wife Vasiliki and daughter Haydée are sold into slavery by Fernand.
• Countess Teresa Guiccioli: Her name is not actually stated in the novel. She is referred to as "Countess G—".