| Bonacieux | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Job: | Cloth Merchant |
| Family: | Constance Bonacieux (wife) |
| First seen in: | Friends and Enemies |
| Final appearance: | A Marriage of Inconvenience |
| Main actor: | Bohdan Poraj |
Jacques-Michel Bonacieux was a cloth merchant married to Constance.
Biography[]
Bonacieux was intrigued one day to find his wife attending to the wounds of a stranger, D'Artagnan. While he was discussing his reputation in the city, Bonacieux was interrupted by the arrival of two Musketeers who required the stranger's help and escorted him from the house.[1]
While visiting the Musketeer courtyard to provide cloth for the soldiers' clothing, Bonacieux directly insisted that he could believe D'Artagnan would be arrested as he found him the criminal type. Returning from business one night, Bonacieux was enraged to find D'Artagnan had visited his house, but he was stopped by the Musketeers from taking any action. Later, the Musketeers explained the reason for D'Artagnan's behaviour and he accepted their apology.[2]
Milady de Winter claimed to known of Bonacieux's money problems, and said so to his wife.[3]
Personality[]
As a cloth merchant, Bonacieux shows a timid character, who is displeased with Constance for bringing a stranger into their home, but is respectful enough to help him.[1]
Nevertheless, he does show his pomposity, and treats Constance unkindly sometimes, almost as if she was beneath him. He did nothing for anyone but himself and expected her to do as he said simply because she was his wife.[1]
In his marriage with Constance, Bonacieux often displayed self-centered behavior that sometimes bordered on abusive and possessive. He often paid no heed to her desires and tended to treat her more like a maid rather than his wife, making her work around the house while he focused on his business. Despite hating Constance's growing affections for D'Artagnan, Bonacieux's self-centeredness left him unable to realize that it was his lack of kindness and regard for her that fueled her love for D'Artagnan. When he found out Constance was in love with D'Artagnan, he threatened to have him killed unless she called off the affair. When he believed she had left him for D'Artagnan, Bonacieux claimed to have tried to commit suicide to guilt-trip Constance into staying with him. When Constance made the decision to leave him for D'Artagnan, he slapped her and threatened to drag her back home unless she returned as he demanded.
Constance remarked that he was a man who felt he deserved better in life and deserved a better partner than her. As he lay dying from a crossbow bolt, Bonacieux blamed D'Artagnan for his death and cursed both him and Constance, hoping they'd never find happiness. This showed that Bonacieux was ultimately a selfish man who was too miserly to be grateful for what he had.