count

Megan Kuhle

December 18^th, 2003

H. English p.4

The Count of Monte Cristo

“Joy sometimes has a strange effect: it can oppress us almost as much as sorrow” (p. 15) were the words of Edmond Dantès, a nineteen-year-old sailor and fiancé a week before his wedding. During this time, though, three jealous adversaries: Caderousse, Villefort, and Danglars had been plotting his arrest and exile. Thus begins the dangerous, compelling, and revenge-filled journey of Dantès’ life accounted for in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. As Dantès escapes from prison and returns home full of vengeance and disguised as the count of Monte Cristo, he learns valuable lessons on the subjects of joy, sorrow, and revenge.

When Edmond Dantès was first deported to Chateau d’If, one of the largest prisons in Marseilles, he had absolutely no idea of what he was getting into to or why. He had been arrested on the day of the betrothal to Mercédès for a treason crime he had no part in. From the moment he found out who it was who had gone through with this devious scheme, he was planning revenge. These men who he thought were his friends: Caderousse, Villefort, and Danglars, had betrayed him and deprived him of continuing his happy life. While in jail, Dantès makes friends with the jailor in the next cell over, who has been there for many years. He is a priest named Abbé Faria, who has been imprisoned there for many years and has also been planning an escape route. Abbé Faria knows of a treasure on the island of Monte Cristo that he wants Dantès to have if he ever escapes the prison. Unfortunately, Abbé Faria is very old and weak, and eventually dies after the fourteen years Dantès has known him. Dantès, however, saw the bright side of this tragedy, when he plans to replace Abbé’s dead body that has been laid in a sack for burial with his own. That night he sneaks into Abbé’s prison cell while the guards are away and carefully places the dead body into his own bed. His only possession he takes with him is his knife and clothes. After a couple hours Dantès soon realizes they are not going to bury him, but throw him into the sea. As they do, Dantès cries out of anxiety, but is ultimately ready for the trials, tribulations, but also rewards that lie ahead.

After Dantès is able to cut himself loose, he swims to this mysterious island Abbé had told him about, Monte Cristo. He soon finds the enormous amount of treasure, as promised. Disguised under the name Abbé Busoni, an Italian priest, he travels back to Marseilles to begin following through with his rewarding and also punishing plans. When he meets up with Caderousse, he learns news about his father’s death, Mercédès, and to his dismay, how his enemies Danglars and Villefort are now both rich and powerful. Beginning his rewarding intentions, he pays Caderousse a valuable diamond, and saves his longtime friend Monsieur Morrel from financial ruin. As he continues to live in France, he changes his title to the Count of Monte Cristo, and subtly wedges his way into the lives of his prior oppressors. The first revenge-filled part of Dantès plan was punishing Monsieur Mondego by revealing a deep secret of his: that he made his fortune by betraying his old slave Ali Pacha and then selling his wife and child into slavery. As Dantès continues with his half-rewarding, half-punishing deeds to his acquaintances, he manages to make many friends and a well-liked reputation along the way. He is known for his great accomplishments that include saving many lives using medicine and common sense, organizing engaging dinner parties, and also helping individuals gain knowledge and insight into his beliefs. As these deeds continue, however, Dantès will soon learn something more significant than anything he could ever teach.

The next two punishments Dantès imposes on his enemies were the ones that Dantès learned the most from and was inspired most by. The man Dantès probably wants to suffer the most is Danglars, who was a banker on the ship he sailed on. It was well known that Danglars was jealous of Dantès, for obvious reasons: his fiancée, personality, and job promotions. Dantès’ revenge on Danglars, however, was probably the subtlest of all of them. As Danglars got older, his greed obsession took over more and more of his life, coming to a point where he did not even care about his wife’s affair with another man, just as long as he was gaining wealth from it. The count finds punishing Danglars quite easy, as he begins to open false credit accounts causing him to lose vast amounts of money, manipulating his wife, and hiring bandits to kidnap him. Only after Danglars is kidnapped, left penniless, and begging Dantès for his life does Dantès reveal his true identity to Danglars. Dantès’ last unpunished oppressor was Villefort, who was now the Deputy Public Prosecutor in Marseilles. This punishment will be a little trickier for Dantès to pull off, because Villefort’s daughter’s fiancé is one of Dantès best friend, Maximilien. As Dantès spends more time with his family a series of misfortunes develop, as a murderer begins poisoning and killing off members of the family one by one. The murderer is found out, and in fact is a murderess, Madame Villefort, who wants the family inheritance to go to no one but her son. Dantès contemplates on whether he should tell Villefort or not because of the consequences it would bring forth to Mme Villefort. Because Villefort was the public prosecutor, it was his duty to take his wife to trial. He knows the sentence would be death, so he makes a deal with his wife that he will not kill her and embarrass the family name, but insists that she must kill herself using the poison she used against her victims. After Villefort thinks about what he has just done, however, he realizes that this was wrong, and that he and his wife should just run away. He soon finds out that it is too late, and goes into a state of complete agony and madness when he sees his son dead also. Only then does Dantès realize this time he has gone too far in his actions.

Dantès’ saying when he was younger: “Joy sometimes has a strange effect: it can oppress us almost as much as sorrow”, holds true somewhat to his later life. He was living one of the most joyful lives in Paris and was very pleased about his irrational actions up until Villefort’s punishment. Once Dantès realized he had gone too far, it was too late too help Villefort at all. Even though his joy did not oppress the sorrow, they still came one after the other. He ended up living a wonderful life: marrying, retaining his job, and blessing many acquaintances, but continued to live with the knowledge that sometimes one’s actions can hurt more than help.