Transformation Of Monte Cristo In The Pursuit Of Revenge Essay Examples

“The Count of Monte Cristo” is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, the classics of the French literature which was written during 1844-1845. The novel brings to its reader a combination of various strong emotions (anger, hatred, anger, joy, sadness) that simply cannot be kept inside. This Alexander Dumas’ work is distinguished among others by its seriousness and depth. The main motive of the novel is the revenge, and the basic idea is that it does not bring any pleasure or happiness.
The main character of the novel is Monte Cristo, also known as Edmond Dantès. The story of the real prototype of Monte Cristo was taken by the author from the archives of the Paris police. The shoemaker Pierre Picaud, who became a victim of a brutal cheating scheme, was imprisoned in the Fenestrelle Fort. There he was taking care of another prisoner, an Italian prelate, who bequeathed him a huge fortune. Once free, Picaud took merciless revenge on his enemies, but he was eventually killed by a single one of those enemies who managed to escape. The name Monte Cristo was inspired by the name of a small island near the island of Elba. Thus the author highlighted the importance of the image of Napoleon which seemed to be casually passing in the novel, and whose gleam lit Monte Cristo as well.
Young Edmond Dantès (the main character of Dumas’ novel) is captain’s assistant on the Marseilles vessel “Pharaoh” and a happy groom of lovely Mercédès. He was maligned and betrayed by those who envied him, and became a prisoner of the Château d’If where he was forced to spend seventeen years. There he meets Abbé Faria, who bequeaths him his great wealth and with his own death contributes to his escape. After that Edmond Dantès “dies” and instead of him appears Monte Cristo who “returns” in more than twenty years with an idea of revenge. At that time he is insanely rich, powerful, and he creates a brilliant myth about himself and becomes a mystery of Parisian upper class. Monte Cristo develops a thorough revenge scenario. His own life is subject to this scenario, where he exists in various theatrical, masquerade modifications − Abbé Busoni, Sinbad the Sailor, Lord Wilmore. By the end of the novel, when all his offenders − Caderousse, Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort – are pitilessly punished, Monte Cristo does not feel the anticipated satisfaction, and neither does the reader, except for maybe the youngest ones, for whose ingenuous admiration the image of the main character was actually designed. In this aspect Monte Cristo differs from the main characters of “The Three Musketeers”, a book for all ages and generations, with its nostalgic longing for the eternal, indestructible brotherhood.
Monte Cristo is transformed to such extent that he can act without being recognized even among those people who knew him before. The structuring motif of this character is the motif of inner transformation. It is possible to speak only about very slight, implicit “transmission” of the decent, gallant and altruistic Dantès through the image of a cold and scheming avenger Monte Cristo. The count of Monte Cristo could be typologically combined with such characters as Odysseus or biblical Joseph who were encountered by their relatives and friends in many years and were not recognized by them. Unlike Penelope, Mercédès did not wait for her lover, believing in his death; and the old father, unlike the old Jacob did not survive parting with his beloved son. But Odysseus and Joseph did not change with the time, they just got older. Dumas’ hero does not simply grow up, he is reborn. It is not just that the naivety and trustfulness of Edmond Dantès is transformed into the demonism and romantic mystery in the image of Monte Cristo, but the way of main character’s existence is also changed: Edmond Dantès lives a normal natural life, while the count of Monte Cristo manages other people’s lives, without having his own one. Instead of being the “character” in the story he turns into its “author”.
Thus, the noble avenger Monte Cristo who is a perfect embodiment of the romantic hero for whom money and power do not bring joy takes on too much for a normal person. But he ceases to be a normal person, consciously turning into a mythological character, giving himself the right to manage the court of law over people. But we see that all those actions did not bring him pleasure or satisfaction. Although he took a complete revenge on his enemies and on people who betrayed him, he did not become happy.