Alexandre Dumas, author of The Count of Monte Cristo, was greatly influenced by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He used Shakespeare's way of using poison to incorporate a person's love and perseverance to be with their true love. Alexandre Dumas was born on July 24, 1802 and began writing books and plays in 1822. He was inspired by William Shakespeare, Lord George Gordon Byron and Sir Walter Scott. William Shakespeare was his greatest inspiration. Shakespeare's work influenced Dumas's book, The Count of Monte Cristo. The use of poison, perseverance, and hatred in The Count of Monte Cristo were all influenced by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas uses poison and medicine to help simulate the true and forbidden love between two characters in his film. book, Maximilien and Valentine. This idea was influenced by the writings of William Shakespeare in the play Romeo and Juliet, in the play Juliet is poisoned and Romeo finds her dead on the floor, so he commits suicide. He commits suicide because he knows this is the end and he will never be able to show his pure love to anyone other than the girl who is now dead. The substance given to Juliet wears off and she wakes up to find her true love, Romeo, lying on the ground, dead and hopeless. Alexandre Dumas uses this method of poison and medicine to capture the reader's attention on the forbidden love that Maximillian and Valentine share in the middle of the story. Valentine receives poison, like Juliet, and Maximillien wants to commit suicide because his true love no longer lives, as in Romeo and Juliet. The Count tells Maximillian that he will not commit suicide and that he will live with him for a month and I...... middle of paper ......th Romeo and Juliet and The Count of Monte Cristo are very good popular books; they can learn a lot about the past as well as themes like hatred, perseverance and forbidden love. Every theme in these books is related in the same way and even some characters can be related in the same way. William Shakespeare influenced Alexandre Dumas on many of the themes and emotions that appeared in his book, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Alexandre Dumas did an excellent job of using these themes and making them his own. Works CitedDumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Christ; 1844Shakespeare, William: Romeo and Juliet; 1591-1595http://www.online-literature.com/dumas/http://shakespeare.mit.edu/Tragedy/romeoandjuliet/romeoandjuliet.htmlhttp://www.shmoop.com/count-of-monte-cristo/ perseverance-theme.htmlhttp://www.shmoop.com/romeo-and-juliet/hate-theme.html