The Count of Monte Cristo, a captivating novel written by Alexander Dumas, tells the story of a young French sailor, Edmond Dantès, in 1815 who spends fourteen years in prison through the acts of his jealous and conspiring enemies. He eventually escapes with hatred and a vengeance that calculatingly dictates the kind of man he develops into. In this novel the Count of Monte Cristo, in secret Dantès, seeks nearly unrelenting revenge when he returns to Marseilles looking for his enemies. Acting under the self proclamation of divine providence, Dantès spends the first ten years of freedom, a prisoner of no emotion other then vengeful hatred.
During Dantès’ time in the prison Château d’If, he becomes good friends with his neighboring prisoner, Abbé Faria, a priest who helps Dantès figure out who put him in prison and why. When Abbé dies from a disease he obtains from his past relatives, Dantès considers killing himself because he cannot bare the loneliness. Right before he makes the final decision to commit suicide, he cries out to himself “I want to live, to fight in to the end...
As everyone is thinking that Dantes is dead from prison, he really escaped and changed his name to The Count of Monte Cristo. Changing his name was a way to disguise him from being Dantes. After being locked up for so long, no one knew who he was. This disguise kept him from not having to go back to prison, and also helped with getting revenge on those who sent him to prison for no reason. In this novel, since Dantes was not able to be recognized, he used this dishonesty to back at Danglars, Mercedes, Benedetto, and Caderousse.
This quote symbols all feelings of sympathy and kindness have left Datnes heart as he now get revenge on all those who betrayed him. Dantes wants to be the instrument that hands out the punishment to his enemies.
At the outset of Dante’s “Inferno,” he is introduced as a man lost in a sinful forest of his own creation. He is, by all accounts, beyond saving. Even Beatrice, in conversation with Virgil, states that, “[Dante] is, I fear, already so astray / that I have come to help him much too late” (ii.65-66). It is only through the compassion and the divine pity of Beatrice, and the more active role taken on by Virgil—who is also shown to have “felt compassion for [Dante’s] pain", that Dante is provided an opportunity to regain a pious sense of self, and in doing so increase his odds of salvation (ii.50). This basic human conception of pity and empathy dominates a great deal of Dante’s interactions in the underworld. He begins his descent consistently overwhelmed, at first weeping in response to the “sighs and lamentations and loud cries […] echoing across the starless air” (iii.22-23).
Ruud, Jay. Critical Companion to Dante: a Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On
While he lies on the ground gasping for breath, Caderousse tells the Abbe Busoni that he does not believe in God. Only moments later, Edmond Dantes reveals himself to him, and he spends his dying breath asking the Lord to forgive him. Edmond Dantes, looking at his corpse, whispers “one”. This was the first evident moment in Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo where Edmond Dantes achieves any justification on his enemies for the wrongs they have done to him. After twenty years of meticulous planning, Dantes carries out his plan of ultimate revenge on his enemies in order to achieve the justice he believes he deserves. In his novel, Dumas shows that to obtain true justice—whether personal or societal—one must understand the limits of
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
It is believed by many that it is human nature to deem themselves to be a tantamount to God. Such is the case when one decides to take revenge against those who wrong him. Though vengeance seems like the perfect way to achieve justice, a sense of equity, in actuality it is merely an unsatisfactory hypocritical action. This is the definitive realization of the protagonist, Edmond Dantès in Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo”. The protagonist comes to understand that after a lifetime of searching for justice, he really only yearns justice from himself. Akin to many of Alexandre Dumas’ other masterpieces, “The Count of Monte Cristo” is a dramatic tale of mystery and intrigue that paints a dazzling, dueling, exuberant vision of the Napoleonic era in France. In this thrilling adventure, Edmond Dantès is toiling with the endeavor of attaining ultimate revenge, after being punished by his enemies and thrown into a secret dungeon in the Chateau d’If. He reluctantly learns that his long intolerable years in captivity, miraculous escape and carefully wrought revenge are all merely vital parts in his journey of awakening to the notion that there is no such thing as happiness or unhappiness, there is merely the comparison between the two. Ultimately, the irony that Dumas is presenting through this novel suggests that the inability to attain happiness through the hypocrisy that is revenge is because one is really avenging their own self. This becomes evident through his dramatic transformations from a naïve, young sailor, to a cold, cynical mastermind of vengeance, and finally to a remorseful, humble man who is simply content.
Edmond Dantes easily changed his name to the Count of Monte Cristo, but at times he also changed his personality for this new title. As soon as Edmond Dantes was reborn as the Count of Monte Cristo, he gained his wealth and power and soon invested some money into servants to pamper him from head to foot everyday. One day while Albert de Morcerf is over, he remarks to the Count, “what I admire is your way of being served without a question... [ it is ] as though your servants guessed what you desired by your manner of sounding the gong, and as though everything were ready and waiting upon your desire“ (Dumas, 426). This shows that, the Count is a new and completely different person since when he was old Edmond Dantes he had no servants to pamper him every waking moment of his life because, he was also, one of lower class. Also, when Maxamillian Morrel comes to the Count in help for ill-fated Valentine, the Count rather tries to ignore the subject rather than help, like old Edmond would do. Once hearing that Valentine had been poison, the Count states, “What is it to me?
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
Dante's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice, wrath and unworthiness. He is lead by Virgil, who is a representation of intellect. Through Dante's experiences he will purge his sins.
In conclusion, we can see that Dante presents the reader with a potentially life-altering chance to participate in his journey through Hell. Not only are we allowed to follow Dante's own soul-searching journey, we ourselves are pressed to examine the state of our own souls in relation to the souls in Inferno. It is not just a story to entertain us; it is a display of human decision and the perpetual impact of those decisions.
Dante experiences a vision, at the age of 35, after experiencing traumatic events in his hometown of Florence. The events that are occurring in Florence at the time are associated with papal corruption and cause Dante to be forced into exile. Following the vision, which confirms to Dante that he has strayed from the right path in life, Dante begins his travel through the three realms, which contain the possible consequences following a person’s death. Dante’s journey begins on Good Friday, when he is escorted to the gates of Hell, moves to Purgatory and ends in Heaven. However, an escort accompanies him for duration of his journey. Virgil, who Dante has long admired, escorts Dante through Hell and...
"The Count of Monte Cristo" is a book which contains few characters but many identities. Edmond Dantes if not the main character, than one of the main characters kind of has a reality dysfunctional problem. In the book, Edmond Dantes creates various identities to fulfill his missions(fantasies). One of the few characters that Edmond Dantes transformed into was Sinbad the Sailor.
Alexandre Dumas’s novels and in particular The Three Musketeers are so great for his ability to mix fact with fiction. As a historical novel, The Three Musketeers bases its story around some major characters and events of 17th century, French history. Cardinal Richelieu, Anne of Austria, and other important characters really lived and acted the way they do in the novel. In fact, the historical basis of Dumas's story extends all the way to his initial idea for the novel, even to the Musketeers and d’Artagnan themselves.(history 1)
	Edmond Dantes imprisonment made a huge impact on his life. He spent 14 years in the dark and quiet Chateau d’If. During those 14 years he met a priest, Abbe Faria, which they met each other through a secret tunnel in which they both have created while in prison. An amazing transformation takes place in Edmond Dantes as he learns about his enemies and a large hidden treasure that contains a large sum of money. Abbe Faria is a very smart man, while in prison he taught Dantes many useful knowledge including the whereabouts of a large treasure located on the Isle of Monte Cristo.