Lady de Winter (from 'The Three Musketeers' by Alexandre Dumas)

Lady de Winter                                                   Written by Soo  Y. Kim

   Lady de Winter is an antagonist against D’Artagnan and his three friends, Porthos, Athos, Aramis in the novel of The Three Musketeers. The protagonists and Lady de Winter, the antagonist are all French and living in France. The Cardinal in France always tries to find fault with the King of France and he wants his power to be above the King. Lady de Winter has a flower tattoo on her shoulder as the mark of criminal. She kills her English husband with poison and she has a history of many crimes she has committed.

   Maybe her husband treats her badly, after he finds something intolerable in her character. She is very capricious and unpredictable. She comes from bad family and has no good education background. Instead she is so beautiful that she attracts men and makes love with any man. She betrays men when there are of no use to her. She is a beauty of vanity. She is a hopeless and helpless creature. She is cold blooded with no warm heart.

   When D’Artagnan meets her, at a glance, he falls in love with her. She gives him a ring as a token of her love for him. It is her disguise and plot to kill D’Artagnan as her prey and in the long run he finds that she is going to use him.

   The Queen of France had love affairs with the Duke of Buckingham in England. When she bids farewell to him, she gives him a beautiful diamond ribbon which her husband gave her. The Cardinal finds the Queen’s secret through Constance who is Queen’s servant. The Cardinal fell in love with the Queen long ago, but she betrayed the Cardinal. The Cardinal waits for a chance for revenge on the Queen. At last he finds the Queens’s secret and cordially suggests the King to hold a ball asking the Queen to wear the twelve diamonds ribbon. He dispatches Lady de Winter to the Duke of Buckingham to bring the diamond ribbon

   Lady de Winter meets the Duke of Buckingham at the ball in England. She takes two diamonds from the twelve diamonds ribbon from the Duke of Buckingham’s waist, when dancing together arm in arm. D’Artangnan revealed the whole story to the Duke of Buckingham. He replaced two lost diamonds on the ribbon and gives the ribbon to D’Artagnan. He rushed with it to the palace of France and gives the twelve diamonds ribbon to the Queen. The Queen wears twelve diamonds ribbon on her waist at ball party. The Queen decrees D’Artagnan captain of musketeers.

   When D’Artagnan goes to the convent to see Constance, she is poisoned to death by Lady de Winter. Lady de Winter is jealous of Constance, because D’Artagnan loves Constance. Constance took her last breath in D’Artagnan’s arms. D’Artagnan achieves his goal to become a musketeer and his dream comes true. Lady de Winter is under arrest and goes to the prison and is executed. Her life is so complicated and involved in many murders..

   If she had a beautiful mind as well as physical beauty, her life would have had a happy ending. She livesa miserable life and is a bad seed. A reward is waiting for her in accordance with her deeds. She never tried to be a good person. Like a beast, there is no remorse at all. She lived a tragic life. She thinks only about revenge. She killed her husband and Constance. She sent assassins to kill D’Artagnan and his three friends, Athos, Porthos and Aramis on the road to the Duke of Buckingham in England.

   Lady de Winter is a devil doomed to die.(March 11, 2017)

* 19 세기 프랑스의 소설가 알렉산더 듀마의 소설 삼총사에서 악역으로 나오는 여인 Lady de Winter 에 대한 나의 소감문)