Conclusion

The Man in the Iron Mask is an adventure rooted in the classic plot device of double personality, in which heroes who move between action, humor, and love, test their courage, their bravery, honestly ... In short, a story of Alexander Dumas's hand where heroes and villains, betrayal and truth, good and evil, come face to face.

 

Vocabulary

cabinet .- castenere m chest

chestnut-tree .- cystel f, cysten f

constrain .-  wv/t2 néadian

nægledsinc .- n (-es/-) studded vessel

néahdǽl .- m (-es/-as) neighborhood, a neighboring part

lácgeofa .- m (-n/-n) generous giver

racentéah .-  f (-téage/-téaga) chain, fetter

palente .- f (-an/-an) palace [Late L palantium]

yfelsacend.-  m (-es/-) blasphemer

ealdhettende .-  m pl old foes

elþéodisc .- adj foreign, strange

eorðbyrgen .-  f (-ne/-na) grave

The queen

In compliance with the marital agreement signed in 1611, was married on October 18, 1615 in Burgos with Louis XIII of France (1601-1643), son of Henry IV (1553-1610) and Marie de Medici (1575-1642). The link held in Spain, was not present Louis XIII, who was represented, in Burgos, by the Duke of Uceda. That same day, Isabel de Borbón, sister of Louis XIII married in Bordeaux with the prince Felipe, brother of Anne, the future King Philip IV of Spain. Both princesses were quickly "exchanged" (the one to France and the other to Spain) in the Isle of Pheasants, located on the banks of the river Bidasoa, near Hendaye. The marriage of Anne of Austria and Louis XIII was held in Bordeaux on November 21, 1615

Luis XIV

Louis XIV is considered the biggest in French history. Louis XIV placed a Bourbon on the Spanish throne, until then the main enemy of France, ending centuries of rivalry with that European country dating back to the time of Charles I. The Bourbons were maintained on the Spanish throne for the rest of the thirteenth century but from 1808 were overthrown and restored several times. Their wars and extravagant palaces bankrupted the State (although it is true that France was recovered in a few years), which led him to raise taxes on the peasants and the nobility and clergy had exemption from taxes.

The failure of the plan

After the queen leaves the room, the plan seems to go in the right direction, until it reaches Cristina (engaged to Raul, the son of Athos, who was "killed" by Luis in the war) yelling at the king that he was a murder.  We mention that she was in the palace bound by Luis and against her will. So  Philip listen  and try to  apologize for the problem.  When d'Artagnan realizes that the person on the throne was not Luis, but Philip. He sends a call to all to stop the plan. Musketeers Atos, Portos and Aramis,discover    the plan. The army tries to catch the 3 Musketeers without success, only was caught.
Luis ordered to return to lock up his brother and put the same mask, and as Athos, Porthos and Aramis orders are sought and executed for having made all his plan and for having betrayed the king.

The mean topic

Friendship, is give all if your friend needs you. It is also the community of interests and tastes (more than idiosyncratic differences), the ability to enjoy together and take the plunge together, to suffer without separating. One for all and all for one.

Literary style of the work

Historical novel in which historical events are recounted with truthfulness. Highlight magnificent qualities and flaws of the characters, to create and maintain the dramatic tension in his work. The D'Artagnan fraternal alliance with the other musketeers is created by the author because even if they existed and were musketeers, all belong to different

About some characters

·         Aramis: first musketeer, he is a young man who says that he will be only for a while with the musketeers. He is quiet and presumptuous.

·         Porthos: third musketeer, he is brave, wild and wants to be himself.

·         Athos: the most important of the three, he is intelligent, strong, a little old and excellent fighter.

·         The King Louis XIV: he is a king who doesn’t know how to guide a country.

D´Artagnan: he is the youngest musketeer of the four, he is brave, intelligent and he is in love with the queen. He is the father of the twins.

The dance of the masks in the palace

One day Aramis found out that the King will give a dance with masks in the palace. This was the perfect chance to carry out their plan and change the twins with the objective to restore Phillip to the throne of France.
During the dance the musketeers (Athos, Porthos and Aramis) took with them some replicas of the Iron Mask, in order to persuade the king to cause hallucinations and in this way, take him to a private place like his dormitory. When the king was taking a rest in his dormitory, the musketeers entered to his room through the secret corridors and they did the change. After this the king returned to the dance, but now the character is not Louis, it was his brother Phillip, the person who was returning to the throne at the dance.

Few minutes later the Queen entered to the room, and she saw that the king that was sitting on the throne it wasn´t Louis it was Phillip, the Queen immediately recognized him and she told him, that she was very happy to see him again, and she explained him that she thought that he was dead

About the story of the three musketeers

D'Artagnan, he was sent to France to make his fortune, giving him a horse and a letter to Monsieur de Treville, the captain of the musketeers, and some healing herbs. But the card was stolen. When he came to Paris, he met M. De Treville. De Treville before talking with D'Artagnan, called Porthos, Aramis and Athos, the king's musketeers. They were not very grateful to met D'Artagnan so they fought with him, but they were arrested for dueling against the law.

When the king met D´Artagnan he called him musketeer, and gave him a bag of money. With the money he installed himself in a mansion. While all of this was happening the Cardenal Richeliu minister of the king, was spying the queen trying to discover her lover. When the queen knew this, she asked D´Artagnan for help and protection.

After all of this the king named Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D´Artagnan musketeers of the king, naming D´Artagnan as a Generarl Superior to protect France.

More about the author and his works

There is a big list of novels from Dumas, also we can mention the novel of Violet, Porthos Son, The templar knights. And some works with his name, are only traductions like Ivanhoe, from Walter Scott. His body was in his natal village Villers-Cotterets, until November 30 of 2002, when the president Jacques Chirac ordered to move his body to the graveyard of Paris.

He will be remembered as a great writer whose books had been translated in more than one hundred languages.

About the character D'Artagnan

Is a fictional character, as the french military exploits of Charles de Batz-Castelmore, D'Artagnan, in whom the character was based, were not as many or as grand as Dumas presents in his work, and did not live in the era of Cardinal Richelieu, but in that of Cardinal Mazarin.
The character of D'Artagnan is the hero of the novels, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (Volumes I, II and III), better known trilogy whose title may be the first. These type serialized novels, especially The Three Musketeers have won since its publication a great success among readers of all ages and from all countries, for its mix of history and fiction. D'Artagnan is the one who guides us through the France of Louis XIII and the intrigues of the court, under the watchful eye of Cardinal Richelieu.

About the legend

According to Voltaire, the "Man in the Iron Mask" was a young boy, tall, handsome, and with good behavior. Who was not denied to anything he asked in the Bastille and other prisons. He had the best dinner and the officer rarely met with him. He also liked to wear good dresses and laces. He used to play the guitar, and he was fed by a deaf-mute. He couldn´t had contact with the personal of the prison and he had to wear the mask all the time.

The story told by the film

The action takes place in France in the second half of the seventeenth century. France is in chaos, the starving citizens of the capital, Paris, require food to the king, who lives in his opulent palace away from the desperate requests of his subjects. The problem is that the King Louis (Leonardo DiCaprio) distributes the food to the army, so the peasant revolts are constant, but the musketeers, wich are the king's personal guard, broke them by the use of the force.Aramis (Jeremy Irons), a former Musketeer of the past king, proposed with his friends Athos (John Malkovich) and Porthos (Gerard Depardieu), a conspiracy to replace the king. Everyone thinks that it´s  crazy but Aramis knows the way. D'Artagnan (Gabriel Byrne) decides not to listen to Aramis and remains true and loyal to the King Louis and promises to protect him with his life.

One day, Athos, Porthos and Aramis infiltrate in the Bastille, with the plan to rescue a prisoner avoiding the guards. The prisoner was wearing a mask of solid iron that was covering all his face. After removing the mask, the prisoner said to the three musketeers that he used to be called Phillipe and he lived in the fields until the day that he was taken to prison. He spent 6 years inside prison without knowing the reasons and wearing the mask, he didn’t know where did he was born, or the true story of his past. 

Aramis told to Phillipe the whole truth, he told him that the queen mother Anne gave birth to two boys and they were twins. The king of France did not want that the two brothers  fight for the throne because that would divide France in two, so he decided to get rid of one of the twins, Phillip. The king ordered to take him to a house under extreme security, Queen Anne was told that one of the boys  died at the moment of the birth. When Louis ascended to the throne, he ordered to transfer  his brother Phillip to the prison, so that no one  know of his existence, and he also ordered to put him an iron mask. This is what Aramis told him. The whole truth about his past and its origin, and he confesses that he was the one who arrested him and put  the iron mask.  And asks him for  forgiveness. He told him that he would not be in peace, until Phillip will berestored to the throne.

About the film

The Man in the Iron Mask is a movie that was filmed in 1998 and was directed and written by Randall Wallace. The actors who participated in the film of this movie were, Leonardo DiCaprio playing two very important characters in this story, King Louis XIV and his twin brother Phillip, better known as the man in the iron mask. Other important actors and highly recognized for their careers were Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, and the french Gerard Depardieu they played the role of the 4 musketeers, also we can see the participation of Anne Parrillaud as the queen and mother of Louis and Phillip.

More about the story

The story about the man in the iron mask, talks about the life of a character who was imprisoned in the Bastille, for unknown reasons and he was sentenced to wear an iron mask, there are many stories and legends about this legendary character, even the epitome of the movie where the protagonist Leonardo DiCaprio plays two characters, King Louis XIV and the alleged twin brother Phillip, who was the one wearing the mask of iron. The story goes that the twins were the product of the union that had the queen and the musketeer D´Artagnan