“‘I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish,’” declares Monte Cristo to Valentine Villefort (Dumas 664).
Revenge. That is all Monte Cristo has thought about since he escaped from the Chteau D’If, a prison for political enemies. Revenge also remains as the underlying theme in Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas, born July 24, 1802, wrote The Count of Monte Cristo from 1844 to 1845, the period in which the novel takes place. To countless people, this novel contains the genres of adventure, Romantic, and moralistic tale. Alexandre Dumas uses elements of fiction to exemplify the foremost theme and show the novel contains the genre of moralistic tale. Dumas uses plot to show how and why Edmond Dantés, the protagonist of the novel, exacts his revenge and also to show how revenge works. Dumas also develops the theme of revenge through the dialogue between each of the characters. Through conflict of man versus man, Dumas conveys the rising action, climax, and falling action to illustrate the theme of revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo.
Dumas utilizes the element of plot through the rising action to illustrate the origins of Edmond Dantés revenge on his various enemies in The Count of Monte Cristo. After the captain of Dantés ship dies, Dantés is named the new captain upon arriving back in Marseilles (Dumas 4 and 9).
The Term Paper on The Count Of Monte Cristo Analysis
Introduction The Count of Monte Cristo was written by Alexandre Dumas. It was first published in 1844. More recently, it was published by Bantam Dell in 1956 in New York, New York. The book I read was translated by Lowell Bair. The story takes place in the 1800s in France, Italy and on the Island of Monte Cristo. The setting is during the period in France when Napoleon Bonaparte returns to power ...
His superior, Monsieur Morrel notifies Edmond of his increase in rank to captain on his ship, The Pharaon (Dumas 7).
Hearing this news, Baron Danglars “turn[s] very red” in jealous anger (Dumas 9).
Danglars, envious of Dantés, believes he himself deserves the rank. Baron Danglars, however, is not the only person that dislikes Edmond. Caderousse, Dantés’ neighbor, envies Edmond’s prosperity (Dumas 20).
Fernand Mondego envies Dantés beautiful fiancé, Mercédés. One night, all of these jealous men gather and discuss how they can bring down Edmond Dantés (Dumas 37).
As the first step to betrayal, they decide to falsely accuse Dantés of treason by telling the public prosecutor of a letter in Dantés possession that supports a Bonapartist uprising (Dumas 37).
This information causes Dantés’ arrest. Dantés tells the public prosecutor, Gérard de Villefort, why the charges are false and that the letter was intended for “Monsieur Noirtier, Rue Coq-Héron, Paris” (Dumas 78 and 81).
Realizing the letter, intended for his father, M. Noirtier, could ruin the family by siding with the Bonapartists; Villefort tells Edmond he will destroy the letter to erase all of the evidence (Dumas 83).
Instead of freedom, Dantés finds himself blindfolded and shipped to Chteau D’If, a prison for political enemies (Dumas 93).
Dantés pleads for days, then months, and then years for his release. After numerous years of imprisonment, Dantés hears a “hollow sound in the wall” (Dumas 153).
Curious, Dantés makes contact with the noisemaker, Abbé Faria (Dumas 160).
Both their first human contact in years, the two prisoners quickly form a bond despite their age difference. Throughout the course of their imprisonment, Faria teaches Edmond about multiple subjects including mathematics, philosophy, history, and several languages (Dumas 195).
Faria plays the vital role in the rising action by assisting Dantés in concluding who plotted his imprisonment. Dumas employs plot in rising action and climax to discuss not only the reasons behind Dantés revenge, but of his realizations for it.
Through the exploitation of dialogue, Alexandre Dumas exemplifies the climax of the novel by explaining the reasons why Edmond Dantés seeks revenge. Most of this exploitation occurs during Edmond’s conversation with Abbé Faria while imprisoned in Chteau D’If. Through their conversation, Edmond discovers who plotted his imprisonment. After realizing Danglars had written the letter to betray Edmond, Dantés exclaims, “‘[t]hen it is Danglars beyond a doubt” (Dumas 189).
The Essay on Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell
The Ninth Circle of Hell or the Cocytus is the place for the traitors. This place is composed of glass-like frozen water which is known as the frozen Pool of Cocytus which is unimaginably cold wherein no warmth could stay. It symbolizes the coldness and emptiness of the souls damned in this lowest pit of hell. Cocytus is divided into four Regions characterized according to the order of level of ...
Dantés finally realizes Danglars is jealous of him becoming the next captain of The Pharaon. In this same conversation, Dantés realizes Fernand Mondego has played a part in the conspiracy as well. Mondego was “‘…a young man who loved [Mercédès]’”, Dantés fiancé, and would stop at nothing to marry her, even if it means ruining his friend (Dumas 189).
Next, Dantés finds out Caderousse plotted against him, although he was incredibly intoxicated and did not remember much of the conversation. Then, Dantés and the abbé discuss how Gérard de Villefort is involved in the whole scheme. The abbé realizes it when he hears Villefort burned the only evidence and that the evidence was the only piece linking Villefort to the crime because his father, Noirtier, was the one expected to receive the incriminating letter (Dumas 192).
After finding all of this out, Dantés knows the motives each man had used to contribute to his imprisonment and he:
…could not have been more completely transfixed with horror that at the sound of words so wholly unexpected, revealing as they did the fiendish perfidy which had consigned him to wear out his days in the dark cell of a prison, that was to him as a living grave (Dumas 193).
Through the conversation between the abbé and Dantés, Dumas reveals the climax of the story in the plot, which leads to the falling action.
Dumas also uses the element of plot to illustrate how Edmond Dantés carries out his revenge on his various enemies during the falling action in The Count of Monte Cristo. After Dantés escapes from Chteau D’If, he travels to the Isle of Monte Cristo to find the treasure left to him by Abbé Faria. Now extremely wealthy, Dantés assumes a new identity as the Count of Monte Cristo. Monte Cristo begins the first step of falling action targeting Fernand Mondego, now the Count de Morcerf, for revenge. First, Monte Cristo reveals Morcerf’s darkest secret: Morcerf earned his fortune by betraying his former patron, Ali Pacha, and selling his family into slavery (Dumas 1040).
The Essay on The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo is a romantic novel set in the nineteenth century. The characters are set in conventional forms Alexandre Dumas borrowed from society. Courageous, avaricious, kind, loyal, selfish, or treacherous each personality embodies a common stereotype. M. Morrel, a merchant and ship owner, represent the good hearted benefactor. M. Danglars, employee of M. Morrel, symbolizes the ...
Pacha’s daughter Haydée testifies in front of the senate, ruining Morcerf’s family name forever. With disastrous revelation, Morcerf commits suicide. Satisfied with the outcome, Dantés plots the downfall of Gérard de Villefort, who suffers a similar fate in the falling action. Once again utilizing the court, Monte Cristo reveals Villefort had tried to bury his own child alive (Dumas 1085).
Cristo also exploits Villefort’s wife into poisoning her family one at a time. With his family destroyed and thinking he will have to go to prison for his crimes, Villefort goes insane. After Villefort’s suffering, Monte Cristo executes further revenge, now on Baron Danglars. As a banker, Danglars is impressed when Monte Cristo opens an unlimited bank account. Actually fake, the account’s investments cost Danglars a vast amount of money (Dumas 622).
Then, Monte Cristo convinces Danglars’ wife of the danger of staying in a relationship with Danglars and helps his daughter, Eugénie run away from home, costing him a tremendous quantity of money to find her. Finally, when Danglars plans to escape without paying his creditors, Monte Cristo hires Luigi Vampa, an Italian bandit, to kidnap him and force him to pay Vampa the remaining money he has in order to live (Dumas 1120).
With three of the four men in ruins, Monte Cristo executes additional revenge on Caderousse in the falling action. Originally, Monte Cristo uses Caderousse to find out information about the other conspirators (Dumas 311).
During these conversations, Monte Cristo starts to feel sorry for Caderousse and gives him a gem worth nearly 50,000 francs. Later in utter betrayal, Caderousse comes back and tries to steal from Monte Cristo. When caught, he leaps out a window only to be stabbed by Bendetto, the child Villefort tried to bury alive. Near death, Monte Cristo criticizes Caderousse for his wickedness and tells him to believe in God. Caderousse refuses to proclaim his faith until Monte Cristo reveals his true identity: Edmond Dantés. In amazement, Caderousse accepts God and dies (Dumas 1131).
Dumas applies plot to develop the theme of revenge during the falling action.
To portray the conflict of man versus man in the central theme of revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas uses the element of plot and the parts of it including the rising action, climax, and falling action. Although this novel has some moralistic value, it also displays what some consider being the true nature of man. Some critics, including Lorenzo Carcaterra go as far as saying “Edmond Dantés is a part of us all” (Dumas XV).
The Term Paper on The Count of Monte Cristo 8
... ourselves (pg 1321)." In their reactions to Monte Cristo's plan, we see that Danglars and Villefort are involved in their own downfalls, which ... major characters, namely Villefort and Caderousse. The context of the speech is, admittedly, very forced: we know that Monte Cristo and Abb'e Busoni ... between good deed and reward. Dumas shows us that he gets this purse by Caderousse who had it and exchanged ...
Works Cited
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo. New York: Randon House, Inc., 2002.
