These chapters bring to an end the horrible injustices of Milady Lady de Winter. As in most nineteenth-century novels, justice triumphs and evil is destroyed. But not before Dumas introduces one last mystery. In Chapter 64, he creates a wonderful sense of suspense when he has everyone who is quizzed by Athos quail before him, afraid to tell him where a certain person lives. As we discover later, Athos is looking for an executioner, and most simple and superstitious people fear such a man—even though he is only doing his job. It is poetic justice that Milady loses her life at the hands of an “official” executioner—especially since he suffered so terribly as a result of her evil conniving.
Moviemakers often revel in filming this final scene, where the climax of raging emotions and passions parallel the raging storm outside, suggesting the furious storms within the protagonists.
When the various men gather to denounce Milady’s numerous and infamous sins, the list is truly impressive—a list that chills most people, but note that Milady feels that she is being treated unfairly. Even though she herself has just killed Constance Bonacieux, a young, innocent woman, Milady pleads that she herself is “too young” to die. Milady’s death fits the crimes that she committed: her head, the source of all her conniving, is severed from her body and both pieces are thrown into the river. With her death, justice has been done, and the novel can now draw rapidly to an end.
