The lions' den

The lions' den is the prisoners' own name for the Saint-Bernard division of La Force prison in Paris, a high-security wing reserved for the most dangerous and desperate inmates. The term appears in the novel as the setting for Andrea Cavalcanti's imprisonment after his arrest for the murder of Caderousse, and it carries both a literal and a deeply ironic weight. The prisoners themselves coined the expression, probably because the captives possess teeth that frequently gnaw the bars, and sometimes the keepers also. The division is a prison within a prison, with walls double the thickness of the rest, gratings that are every day carefully examined by jailers of herculean proportions, and a paved courtyard enclosed by enormous walls over which the sun glances only obliquely. Within this yard, pale, careworn, and haggard men pace to and fro from morning till night, like so many shadows, waiting for justice to strike.

The Name and Its Significance

The name "lions' den" is not merely descriptive; it is a piece of the prisoners' own argot, a defiant and self-aware label that acknowledges the savagery of the environment. The novel uses this setting to stage a crucial scene in which Andrea Cavalcanti, the false prince who has been exposed as the galley-slave Benedetto, is held. The lions' den becomes the physical space where the mask of his aristocratic identity is finally stripped away, and where he must confront the reality of his criminal past. The term also resonates with the novel's broader themes of predation and survival, as the prison is a place where the strong prey on the weak, and where the law of the jungle often supersedes the law of the state.

Andrea Cavalcanti in the Lions' Den

When Andrea is first brought to the lions' den, he is a figure of contempt and curiosity among the other prisoners. He is described as a young man with his hands in his pockets, his clothes torn but of fine cloth, and his boots polished with a corner of an embroidered handkerchief. He tries to maintain the airs of a gentleman, asking a keeper to lend him twenty francs so he can buy a dressing-gown, and declaring that he has relations who possess more millions than the keeper has deniers. The other inmates mock him, calling him "the prince" and remarking on his fine appearance. The keeper, annoyed by Andrea's importunity, allows the tension to rise, hoping to see the aristocratic prisoner humbled by the mob. The prisoners begin to close in, proposing to subject Andrea to "la savate" — a cruel operation that consists of cuffing a comrade with an iron-heeled shoe — or "l'anguille," a beating with a handkerchief filled with sand and pebbles. Andrea, however, saves himself by making a Masonic sign that Caderousse had taught him, a wink and a smack of the lips that immediately identifies him as one of them. The mob withdraws, and the keeper is stupefied.

Thematic Resonance

The lions' den serves as a powerful symbol of the novel's moral universe. It is a place where the civilized veneer of society is stripped away, and the raw, predatory nature of humanity is exposed. The term itself, with its biblical and classical overtones, evokes the idea of a trial by ordeal, where the innocent are thrown to the beasts. In the novel, the lions' den is the final destination for those who have been judged and found wanting by the Count of Monte Cristo's implacable justice. It is also a place of transformation, where Andrea, stripped of his false identity, must rely on the skills and knowledge of his criminal past to survive. The expression thus encapsulates the novel's central tension between the appearance of civilization and the reality of savagery, and between the law of society and the law of the jungle.