The Weakness of Women in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

“All for one, and one for all," the motto of the King's Musketeers in the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, is a slogan that the four main male characters follow in their everyday lives. However, whenever a woman is concerned, each male character attempts to place the woman’s honor above his own, due to the thought that a woman needs more protection than a man does. Privately, each character shares the opinion that women are the weaker gender of the human race. Although not the most prevalent theme in the novel, this theme subtly appears throughout the dialogue of the male characters, in many points throughout the story.

When Monsieur Bonacieux asks d’Artagnan to help him find his wife, Madame Bonacieux, d’Artagnan asks for the assistance of his friends, Porthos, Athos, and Aramis. While concocting a plan to help return Madame Bonacieux to her husband, Aramis states “Woman was created for our destruction, and it is from her we inherit all our miseries.” Through this quote, Aramis says that in order to protect the weaker gender, the males have to fight the battles for them, and thus the miseries, such as new enemies or a battle with the guards, of these conflicts fall within their responsibility. This quote also prophesied what will happen to d’Artagnan, as during this quest he fights with the guards who were holding Madame Bonacieux captive,. “The victim resisted as much as a woman could resist four men.” When d’Artagnan rescues her from them, the cardinal placed a bounty on his head as a result of this action.

During this quest, Monsieur Bonacieux is arrested after he comes to d’Artagnan for help and is taken to the Cardinal for an interrogation. His fear takes over and it causes him to state: “She must have spoken; she m...

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...mpacted the royal family as well.

King Louis knows that Queen Anne of Austria is not loyal to him in either love or in her power as Queen of France. He blames this lack of loyalty on the Queen’s weakness as a woman, as he felt that her weakness caused her to be more loyal to her Spanish roots and family, and to her lover, the Duke of Buckingham. In order to ensure that the King’s jealousy was justified, he sent the chancellor to the Queen’s chamber to retrieve a letter, using force as needed, since the King felt that the weakness of the queen will cause her to give up the letter for fear of the force that would be used if the chancellor had reached into her bosom and retrieved the letter himself . This missive which was thought to disclose the secret exchange of words between lovers, but instead was a plan to attack the cardinal, not him or their supposed love.