Hot Insane Take: Ode to Baron Danglars, the Accidental Feminist!

LOL, hear me out, peeps! We hate Danglars for The Conspiracy and stealing the life, family, marriage and promising future of young Edmond Dantes. He's also a weasel and money grubber, and after Edmond was sent to D'if, he was the only one gleefully rubbing his hands. After Napoleon's return, Danglars skedaddled off to Spain, forming an alliance with Fernand and doing some war profiteering.

But, after looking at Danglars' full arc, he has one saving grace. He's an Accidental Feminist! Unlike Dantes, who carried major (and unjustified) permanent resentment towards Mercedes and kept grumbling about her "unfaithfulness" and "infidelity" even til the end, Danglars put no such requirements on his womenfolk. He was practical and calculating, not madly head over heels in love. Danglars had no illusions about love or an all-encompassing romantic bubble to pop.

1. Danglars first marriage was one of practicality. He fled France for Spain, and  became a humble clerk in a Spanish bank. Eventually he married the boss' daughter and made a fortune with savvy gambling in stocks. His wife died, well before 1829.
2. Danglars, now a widower, married a widow, Hermine née Salvieux/Servieres/Servieux. She was once married to the Marquis de Nargonne and her hubby died broke. It's likely that she had to go back to her family and gets paired up with Danglars.  The negotiations were as follows: Danglars brings money, and she brings in a pedigree. Her family name is WAY higher than his. Together, the couple has money and social prestige. He didn't care about a V-card, since both of them had been married before.
3. They don't get very busy. They have ONE child, Eugenie. Danglars has zero interest in producing additional children. If he had any (male) friends, they'd be badgering him to keep trying and have a son. But Danglars was fine with just Eugenie, as his sole heiress.
4. As Eugenie grew up, her governess would note that her IQ was off the charts. Danglars paid for the best education available for her, education worthy of a son. Her natural interests in art, poetry, music, languages were nurtured, and with the education she got, she became prodigious and knowledgeable in all these fields.  Danglars even paid to have her music teacher, Mlle Louise D'Armilly stay with them, practically as a household fixture.
5. Danglars arranged a marriage of Eugenie to Albert de Morcerf. Since Danglars and Fernand go way back to the ship's purser/fisherman days in Marseilles, it made sense, since both had good fortune since. Danglars as a rich banker, and Fernand, a decorated General and Peer of France. The two families united would be rich and politically powerful. And it was his duty as a father anyway (for those times)... finding his offspring a suitable mate.
6. As the Danglars marriage got boring and stale, both he and Hermine had affairs on the side. Unlike other men of his times, he wasn't angry. Didn't beat her, or divorce her and kick her to the curb, penniless. He just accepted that "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" and they went on, a marriage in-name only. They lived in separate wings of the house and indulged their own interests and carried on their affairs (financial, and romantic). Stunningly, in a society loaded with double-standards in sexual fidelity, he practiced (either actively or inactively) Equality of the Sexes.
7. He gave his wife and daughter generous allowances, and didn't question how they spent it. He allocated 25% of his income to his wife, and knew she was using it to gamble on stocks, and with her successes, wanted "in". He listened to her and got tips and they both benefited. Even though it was crazy to demand that she recompense him for his losses on the Spanish bonds, it was all a because of, uhhh, Equality. Eugenie, as we know, saved up her allowance to flee.
8. As Danglars rapidly started going broke, he knew that Hermine had a secret stash somewhere, but did not demand that she turn it over. It would have been his right as the husband, but he didn't go there. 
9. While other girls her age were usually frivolous, or obedient to a male figure, Eugenie had a fierce independent streak. In addition to being quite the artist, composer and singer, she also had a good head for finances and hard negotiation skills. She was 100% aware of what was going on in the household, knew how to scheme and played her cards well. And where did these skills come from? A chip off the ol' block... Daddy Danglars! Who knows, maybe Danglars was even proud of her! Compared to that Morcerf boy, all bluster, idiocy and superficial machismo, Eugenie had BRAINS.
   
10. He desperately needed a Eugenie + Andrea marriage to bail him out of the financial hole. If she married into the "rich Cavalcanti family", his spooked investors would come back. He negotiated with her, his 17 year old daughter, as an equal partner. He admitted that he wasn't expecting her to pop out grandchildren. And he hinted that he just needed the signature, but it's implied that the marriage itself didn't really have to happen. In exchange, he agreed to "freedom of her person", which means to me that she could come and go as she wished, doing whatever, no questions asked.
11. After Eugenie and Louise fled, he had zero interest in going after them, to say, find another marriage for Eugenie. He kept his end of the deal- her "freedom of person". He even created cover stories to tell others to explain her disappearance from Paris!
12. In his vitriol-loaded parting letter to Hermine, he STILL did not demand any of her money. Debray had said that she also had a dowry and jewelry, but Danglars did not claim any of that, leaving those assets to her. This left her a wealthy woman, free to travel, indulge herself, pick up a boy toy... anything she wished. 

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Baron Danglars is a good guy. He's not. Some say he didn't care about anything but money. That's right. And that was a good thing for his womenfolk. He was too distracted with money to assert the Patriarchy and use his legal right to dominate them and control their every move. So tell me, how is that a bad thing for Hermine and Eugenie?

Danglars > Hellcliff!

Danglars > Athos!