Many people have seen Dumas's "The Three Musketeers", but "The Three Musketeers" is only one of his trilogy. The other two installments of the D'Artagnan Trilogy are Twenty Years Later and The Viscount of Brajeronne, in which a mysterious figure "The Man in the Iron Mask" is mentioned in the Viscount of Bragellona. The man in the iron mask was covered with an iron mask, as if trying to hide some unknown secret. Later, Aramis and Bordeaux supported the Iron Mask to the throne, so that everyone finally learned that he was the brother of Louis XIV, who was removed from the royal family and imprisoned here because of the royal power struggle.
The Man in the Iron Mask appears not only in dumas's works, but also in Voltaire's The Age of Louis XIV. Their mysterious figure in reality originated from the French Revolution in 1789, when the people of Paris entered the Bastille and found a line at the entrance of the prison " Prisoner number 64389000, Man in the Iron Mask" at the entrance of the prison. Of course, they had never seen this man in the iron mask in prison, but because of the true record, the people were curious about it, because the Bastille prison was mainly used to hold political prisoners.
In any case, the image and background of the Iron Mask man in reality are unknown, because there is no other real historical record except for that line. However, from dumas and Voltaire's different descriptions of the Man in the Iron Mask, as well as the works and pursuits of his life, we can probably see the social and historical form of France from the late 17th century to the middle of the 18th century and the changes and development of the French people's thinking. In the context of the French Revolution, people of different faiths had different attitudes towards the royal family.
First of all, we need to know about several major events that took place during this time, in 1789, the vigorous French Revolution began, and on July 14, the people of Paris captured the Bastille prison, which marked the initial results of the French Revolution. Shortly after this incident, King Louis XVI had to implement a constitutional monarchy in order to retain his royal power. This system is estimated to be familiar to everyone, it is the system of government implemented in Britain, Louis XVI should have borrowed from the experience of the British coup d'état of 1688.
However, in 1793, Louis XVI was executed by a Republican referendum. After the death of Louis XVI, the throne of France was contested by Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Philippe I. Louis Philippe finally led the people to launch the July Revolution and established the July Dynasty. At this point, France stood on the steps of a constitutional monarchy.
Did you think this Louis Philippe was somewhat familiar? In Dumas's Viscount of Brajeronne, the brother of Louis XIV with an iron mask on his face is called Philippe, and in fact he is indeed a distant relative of Louis XIV. If you know anything about Dumas, you will be surprised to find that he also participated in the July Revolution. But dumas's failure to write the ending as "The Man in the Iron Mask" succeeded in ascending to the throne, either because of his tragic conception or because he did not favor Philippe in power. After all, although Dumas rebelled against the Bourbon dynasty, he did not support a constitutional monarchy, but a true republic. It was only because there was no conflict of interest between constitutional monarchy and republicanism that he did not object.
For another literary hero, Voltaire, he also wrote about the Man in the Iron Mask, but did not state the true identity of the Man in the Iron Mask. Voltaire, whose original name was François-Marie-Aruère, was born in 1694, a year before Dumas, and lived during the staggered reign of Louis XIV and Louis XVI. He is known as the "King of French Thought" and advocates freedom and equality. Voltaire's "The Age of Louis XIV" is the best embodiment of his life's ideas, because he did not oppose the Bourbon dynasty, but admired the rule of Louis XIV, which is the biggest difference between him and Dumas.
The reason why he advocated the equality and freedom of the people was because during the reign of Louis XVI, he was accustomed to the extravagance of the aristocratic life of the court, believing that it was caused by the failure of Louis XVI's reign, and did not feel that there was a problem with his regime itself, and his ideas were easy to understand, after all, he had experienced the strength of Louis XIV during his lifetime. Dumas was already in the last days of the Bourbon dynasty from birth, so he questioned the fundamentals of the dynasty.
In fact, the thinking of the two of them reflected the ideas of different factions at that time, which was more similar to the Westerners and Reformers in the late Qing Dynasty. As for the "Man in the Iron Mask", he may be just a symbol, a symbol, which has different connotations in the eyes of different people, such as Dumas, who is a moderate ruler who inherits the past and the future; and for a person like Voltaire who did not even witness the arrival of the July Revolution, it may be just an anecdote in the novel.