Justified In The Count On Monte Cristo

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – The Golden Rule. When we are little, they tell us to follow the golden rule, but what happens when someone is wronged does it then become ok to take revenge? In the count on Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, Edmond Dante’s is wronged in many ways, and then because of these wrong doings decides to take revenge. Because he is wronged in the beginning his revenge could be considered justified; it is only because of the extent to which he took his revenge, did he do anything wrong.
After being imprisoned, Edmond Dante’s creates a plan to get back or seek revenge on those that put him in jail. Dante’s had a right to seek revenge on the wrongdoers because he was wronged in the first place. He did succeed in taking his revenge. Edmond wanted revenge on Fernand because if Fernand had not been jealous of Dante and Mercedes, he would have not lied and gotten Dante sent to jail. Because Dante’s was imprisoned, he was unable to marry Mercedes and his life was changed forever. A “brain study shows why revenge is sweet” article explains why those who take revenge may not be at fault as much as others may think. The study shows why behavior known as altruistic punishment where people

reprimand those who have wronged them. “A part of the brain that is active and involves enjoyment or satisfaction I active when taking revenge.” This could explain why the count took revenge in the first place.
Even though some may say the killings the count partook in were just, the actions were not. The extent to which the count took revenge on a few individuals was far greater than was morally right. Doctor D’Avrigny recognized the misfortune of the counts revenge stating, “Poor Barrios’ was poisoned with brucine” (pg.321). he said this after Barrios was poisoned, a result of the counts revenge. Because the count tried to “play god” in a sense by taking lives, that had not tried taking his own, it can be said that his revenge went too far.
Another reason as to why the counts revenge was unjust comes from “revenge is sour” by George Orwell.

This article talks about revenge and the lack of resolution it brings. “There is often a need of some concrete incident before one can discover the real state of ones feelings” (Orwell). The count knows his feelings and acted because of them however his revenge revealed a lot about his character and that perhaps he was more vengeful then he should have been. Another idea Orwell discussed was that often times “punishing an enemy brings no satisfaction” (Orwell). The count not only punished hiss enemies, but he also punished their families. In killing off his enemies, those who depended in those characters were also punished by the

loss.
The count did to others much worse than they had done to him. He was not murdered therefore he had no right to murder others. The counts want for revenge was justified however, because he killed people his actions were not justified. He was not killed, so why did he kill?