Comparing The Count Of Monte Cristo And Viva La Vida

Both “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Viva la Vida” are centered around the worlds most ageless and strongest “drugs”. Power. As humans, once we taste power, all we can do is yearn for more. It is simple human nature. This desire for more power is strongly laced through Alexandre Dumas’, The Count of Monte Cristo and Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida.” Coldplay, an alternative pop/rock band, wrote “Viva La Vida” in 2008. Coldplay,wrote the song which describes a king who has an immense amount of power. The powerful king gains more power by conquering other kingdoms. Rather than being a great king that cared for his people, he only focused on the present; boasting about his accomplishments and making selfish decisions. Eventually, he abuses his power

In “The Count of Monte Cristo,” Villefort is carefully described as, “... ambitious. He would sacrifice anything to his ambition, even his own father.” (Dumas 36) This description from the king of France portrays that Monsieur Villefort is a man who will do anything for power. This comes back to hurt him in the end, when all the “sacrifice” for the ambition comes to the surface and he is exposed for all the wrong he had done in the name of power. The diction chosen by the king, “sacrifice anything” shows that Villefort is willing to gain his power by any means necessary, even by disowning his own father and lying about Edmund to further his power. In “Viva la Vida,” the song describes the way the king ruled as, “... Never an honest word, And that was when I ruled the world.” (Coldplay 21-22) This quote uses diction, saying the king was dishonest and never told the truth with the quote, “never an honest word.” This quote portrays that the king used lies and deception to gain more power and rule more and more. These lies, like most lies, came out in the end and he was stripped of the power he lied and did evil for. In conclusion, both Dumas’ and the songwriter use diction to show the lies and deception Villefort and the king from “Viva la Vida” use to quench their desire for power, however, the literary works always show where the

He was crushed by the weight, but was not yet aware of the consequences.” (Dumas 480) This was the moment when all of the evil things Villefort had done, including the attempted murder an infant came back to haunt him, and his evil thirst for power was exposed to all of Parisian society. This scene used personification, saying that the metaphorical “weight” of his ruined life fell on his head and was actually weighing him down, to portray the theme running deep in the book of punishing those who desire power. In the song “Viva la Vida,” the songwriter, in the voice of the king, says, “It was the wicked and wild wind, blew down the doors to let me in. Shattered windows and the sound of drums, people couldn't believe what I'd become.” (Coldplay 23-28) This stanza in the song, using personification, shows that the king had bad, or wicked, intentions while gaining his power. He got power hungry and started to become evil to satisfy his need for more power. Eventually, as the song says, people noticed his evil intentions and actions and he was punished and completely stripped of his power, forced to “sweep the streets [he]