“I wish to be Province myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, sublime thing in the world is to recompense and punish” (Dumas 213). In the novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, there are many examples of vengeance from the main character, Edmond Dantes. Dantes started out as a young sailor with an encouraging career, a beautiful fiancee, and a loving father. However, those who were envious of his promising young life came together to take Dantes apart, as Dantes was wrongfully convicted and thrown in prison. What he learned about the men who wronged him ignited a fire in his heart to get his revenge on those three people, known as Fernand, Danglars, Villefort. Edmond Dantes started out as a young man with great ambitions …show more content…
Jealous of Dantes’ love life, he helped to write and deliver the letter that got Dantes arrested so that he could marry Mercedes. In addition to this, he neglected Dantes’ father so that Mercedes would pay attention to him and only him. As Fernand became a successful smuggler and eventually but illegally got very rich, he betrayed a man named Ali Pasha in exchange for money. In turn, the Count made Ali his personal servant and exposed Fernand to the national newspaper, as the newspaper published a testimony against Fernand that read “It has come to our attention that a french officer had betrayed his benefactor, Ali Pasha, to the Turks. This officer was known at that time as Fernand Mondego, but he now calls himself the Count of Morcerf and is a member of the chamber” (Dantes 351). This marks the beginning of the end for Fernand, as the Count publicly exposes him, showing how he is a traitor and a murderer. In addition, the Count also explains how Fernand is a fraud and that he bought his title through illegal smuggling instead of earning his title. This heap of legal trouble causes Fernand to kill himself, essentially marking a successful plan of revenge from the Count. However, the Count did have some doubts about his motivations of revenge on Fernand, as he knew it …show more content…
Danglars was the ringleader in the arrest of Dantes, as he wrote the letter that got Dantes arrested and took his position of the captain of the Pharaon. As he later became a very rich and successful banker, the Count of Monte Cristo approached him as a potential client and proceeded to embarrass Danglars with his extreme wealth. Then, Dantes manipulated the radio to send a fake telegraph that predicted a revolution in Spain, causing Danglars to sell all of his bonds, only to later buy them back at a higher value after learning that the radio message was a false alarm, losing one million francs in the process. Later, the Count got Danglars kidnapped by his friend, the famous bandit, Luigi Vampa, and the Count planned to not pay the ransom and just let Danglars die, but the Count had a change of heart. The Count of Monte Cristo decided to let Danglars off the hook and allow him to live the rest of his life in peace, as he felt that he had done enough to his victims. The Count stated, “Do you repent? Then I forgive you” (Dumas 522) as he decided to spare the life of Danglars after robbing him of his family, money, and dignity. However, this shows a great shift in the motivations of the Count, as he went from manipulating all of those who convicted him to forgiving his last victim and
Montresor is a man who feels pride in himself and in his family, so when Fortunato—an acquaintance of Montresor— “venture[s] upon insult,” Montresor “vow[s] revenge” against him (1). Montresor hastily decides that he must kill Fortunato, even though his use of the word “venture” implies that Fortunato had not yet insulted him, but nearly did. Montresor’s impulsive need for revenge causes him to formulate a plan to murder his acquaintance. He keeps Fortunato intoxicated by “presenting him…[with] wine,” he “fetter[s] him to the granite,” and he “plaster[s] up… [a wall of] new masonry” to trap Fortunato in the catacombs (39, 71, 89). All of these acts are signs that the need for revenge has made Fortunato insane. A person who has any sense of morals would not commit crimes such as Montresor’s. His impetuous decision to exact revenge caused him to lose his
In this book, The Count of Monte Cristo, many readers find the use of honesty in the novel to be problematic. The Count of Monte Cristo or in other words Dantes, is dishonest by lying to everyone about who he is. Because he was in prison for such a long time, his looks changed and when he got out no one knew who he was.
	His dream soon becomes shattered by three of his enemies, Danglars, Fernand, and Caderousse. As these three people plot against Edmond, he is about to become married to the beautiful Mercedes. On his wedding day, his betrothal feast was interrupted when the police came barging through the door and arrested Edmond Dantes. Dantes was accused of giving a letter to the usurper while the Pharaon stopped on the Isle of Elba and returning a letter from the usurper to the Bonapartist party in Paris. After his arrest, Edmond was interrogated and questioned by the public prosecutor, Monsieur de Villefort. During the interrogation Villefort promised Edmond freedom, but that was before Monsieur de Villefort read the letter from the usurper addressed to Monsieur Noirtier, Villefort’s father. Edmond Dantes was sent to prison.
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.
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of illustrating his own version of Christian justice and emphasizes the need for a personal understanding of divine wisdom and contrapasso, the idea of the perfect punishment for the crime. Dante acts as both author and narrator, completing a physical and spiritual journey into the underworld with Virgil as his guide and mentor. The journey from darkness into light is an allegory full of symbolism, much like that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which shows a philosopher’s journey towards truth. Therefore, Dante would also agree with the maxim, “Wise men learn by others’ harms; fools scarcely by their own,” because on the road to gaining knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, characters who learn valuable lessons from the misfortunes of others strengthen their own paradigms. Nonetheless, the only true way to gain knowledge is to experience it first hand. Dante’s character finds truth by way of his own personal quest.
In The Count of Monte Cristo Dantès is an extremely successful young man with a great fortune ahead of him. Dantès however, clearly knowing he is blind due to love, cares nothing of the happenings around him. He is unaware of the fact that the people all around him have something against him. Dantès therefore, ends up inviting his enemy to his wedding, thus causing himself to be at harm at a place at which he knows he will be at unawares because of the “love that blinds him”. Therefore, Dantès is a tragic hero because it is his fault that he wasn’t aware that the people all around him were plotting against him.
Dante feels hell is a necessary, painful first step in any man’s spiritual journey, and the path to the blessed after-life awaits anyone who seeks to find it, and through a screen of perseverance, one will find the face of God. Nonetheless, Dante aspires to heaven in an optimistic process, to find salvation in God, despite the merciless torture chamber he has to travel through. As Dante attempts to find God in his life, those sentenced to punishment in hell hinder him from the true path, as the city of hell in Inferno represents the negative consequences of sinful actions and desires. Though the punishments invariably fit the crimes of the sinners and retributive justice reigns, the palpable emphasis of fear and pity that Dante imbues on the transgressors illustrates his human tendency to feel sympathy towards one who is suffering. For example, when Dante approaches the gat...
In modern times, phrases such as “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” are commonly used. Also, the mere word revenge holds negative connotations as it is seen as immature and unnecessary. The theme of revenge uses archetypes to develop ideas without having to reiterate their meaning. According to the creator of the term, Carl Jung, “archetypes are defined as being a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.” (Dictionary) The Count of Monte Cristo, one of the novels that pioneer this theme, tells the story of a man’s quest for revenge on those who betrayed him. This man spends 14 years of his life imprisoned because of his betrayers, but he manages to escape to avenge his suffering. In the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas uses the archetypes of the byronic hero, the betrayer and the old sage to demonstrate that one’s suffering doesn’t give them the right to seek revenge on those who have failed them.
While getting inspiration for Monte Cristo, he heard a story about a man, which inspired the plot for his novel. Picaud, the man whom inspired the story, gained vengeance in a much more gruesome way than Dantes does. Picaud takes vengeance whereas Dantes is avenged. Justice is achieved because good is stronger than evil, not because of the Count’s power (Stowe 125). Perhaps this is Dumas’s opinion on vengeance. If it is well earned, then it will fall into the man’s hands rightfully (Maurois). Dumas’s inspiration for the novel also came from his personal life. His father was heavily mistreated, and as he watched helplessly for his whole childhood, it became important to him to avenge his father. Although people in his own life may not have wronged him as they did his father, he believes in revenge, and sought revenge through his literature (Maurois). Through the character of Edmond Dantes, Dumas portrayed his own desire to justify his father’s oppressors. In Maurois’s article, he speaks about this, saying, “He must have been sorely tempted to find compensation in fiction for the iniquities of the real world.” Perhaps he was afraid to vocalize his opinion publicly, so he decided on a more subtle route, which was to create a story that everyone could identify with. Writing Monte Cristo must have been closure for Dumas at the expense of his father. He sought vengeance in the form of literature
"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.
“The problem of innocent suffering does not trouble Monte Cristo, even though his revenge wreaks devastation on whole families. ”(Aubrey 2) Even though he is sent to prison wrongfully, he should not be able to ruin so many lives for his act of revenge. Also, over the course of the book, he confuses his desire for revenge and claims various times that his revenge is for justice. “Revenge” is mostly about “acting out” (typically through violence) markedly negative emotions.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a frightening and entertaining short story about the severe consequences that result from persistent mockery and an unforgiving heart. Poe’s excellent use of Gothicism within the story sets the perfect tone for a dark and sinister plot of murder to unfold. “The Cask of Amontillado” simply overflows with various themes and other literary elements that result from Poe’s Gothic style of writing. Of these various themes, one that tends to dominant the story as a whole is the theme of revenge, which Poe supports with his sophisticated use of direct and indirect factors, irony, and symbolism.
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?
Throughout his journey, Dante comes across many familiar names and faces. Some of them recognize Dante, and try to share their stories. Dante shows remorse for some of these souls, but understands that their punishments are well deserved. He realizes that feeling sorry for them is useless because it is their own...
The Roman poet, Juvenal, once said that, "Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind." Most people would agree with Juvenal that revenge is an abhorrent human need that can only satisfy narrow-minded people. Even though, we know revenge will generally not bring us much satisfaction, we still constantly lust for taking revenge on someone. It is because revenge is such a natural part of human nature that writers so often use it as their theme. Revenge can easily be an awe-inspiring theme for a novel because it is something that all people can relate to, whether they know it or not. The suspense from it will make most people sit on the edge of their seats.