u/Fancy_Investment7333

So as i was rereading tCoM i noticed some things that didn't make sense to me.

1. Why does the count invite Franz to the Montecristo's cave? What could possibly be its purpose?

2. Why does Albert seek a date at rome (she was 15 btw) when he was already supposed to marry Eugénie?

3. Why did villefort decide to marry Valentine to Franz when he already knew from very early in the book that Noirtier had killed the general Quesnel? Like the only guy he thought about was the one Noirtier had made an orphan.

4. In the first scene at paris Morrel talks about how he saved Château-Renaud's life and how he was in some kind of war and army. Then they always refer to him as the captain of Spahis, so what is he at the end?

In the chapter the hand of god, the is an interesting passage i want to ask some questions about

“And yet that villain, Benedetto, will escape!” “No one, I tell you, will escape; Benedetto will be punished.” “Then, you, too, will be punished, for you did not do your duty as a priest—you should have prevented Benedetto from killing me.” “I?” said the count, with a smile which petrified the dying man, “when you had just broken your knife against the coat of mail which protected my breast! Yet perhaps if I had found you humble and penitent, I might have prevented Benedetto from killing you; but I found you proud and blood-thirsty, and I left you in the hands of God.” “I do not believe there is a God,” howled Caderousse; “you do not believe it; you lie—you lie!” “Silence,” said the abbé; “you will force the last drop of blood from your veins. What! you do not believe in God when he is striking you dead? you will not believe in him, who requires but a prayer, a word, a tear, and he will forgive? God, who might have directed the assassin’s dagger so as to end your career in a moment, has given you this quarter of an hour for repentance. Reflect, then, wretched man, and repent.” “No,” said Caderousse, “no; I will not repent. There is no God; there is no Providence—all comes by chance.” “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.”

This kept me thinking a while the first time i read it. Does the count actually belive in god? Or does he just impersonate the abbe as a resourse? Because (i do not quite remember but barely) i think that the count had a conversation with Villefort about how he belived himself to be a being of providence, he belives to be god! Tho i think he did that to intimidate Villefort.

Aside from that, he does nothing of ehat an abbe should do, he just talks that way, and all this made me think from my first reading that Dantes does not belive in god at all, as Caderousse tells him he does not belive and the count's first instinct is to shut him up and never states him believing in god.

If you find or at least remember anything that disproves this tell me, as this would change the whole story for me and many more people.