Alexander Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo"

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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...

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