MCM Essay, Research Paper
The Count of Monte Cristo
Theme:
The Count of Monte Cristo is a very powerful book.
So powerful in fact, that was controversial when it was
first released. The Catholic church in France condemned it
because of its powerful message it presented the reader.
This theme was one of revenge and vengeance. Monte Cristo
had two goals- to reward those who were kind to him and his
aging father, and to punish those responsible for his
imprisonment and suffering. For the latter, he plans slow
and painful punishment. To have spent fourteen years barely
subsisting in a dungeon demands cruel and prolonged
castigation.
Setting:
The Count of Monte Cristo is set within the
nineteenth century of France in large and populous cities.
This was a time of great disruption. There was confusion all
over the land in regards to who led France, King Louis or
Napoleon. The citizens of France became divided by the two
ruling parties. Royalists and the Bonapartist cut at each
others throats in order to declare that their ruler was
supreme. This situation has a profound effect on the events
of the story. Dantes’ enemies used the rivalry between the
two parties in order to convince the Royalists that Edmond
is a Bonapartist, therefore it is the basis for his arrest
and inevitable captivity in the Chateau D’If..
Basic Plot:
The Count of Monte Cristo is a story about a sailor,
Edmond Dantes, who was betrayed during the prime of his
life and career by the jealousy of his friends. His
shipmate, Danglars, coveted his designation as the captain
of the mighty Pharon. Ferdinand Mondego wished to wed
Mercedes, who was affianced to Edmond.
Danglars and Ferdinand wrote a letter accusing
Edmond of carrying a letter from Elba to the Bonapartist
committee in Paris. Caderousse, a neighbor, learned of the
plot but kept silent. On his wedding day Edmond was arrested
and taken before a deputy named Villefort, a political
apostate, who, to protect himself, had Edmond secretly
imprisoned in the deepest dungeons of the Chateau D’If.
There Dantes’ incarceration was secured by the plotting of
his enemies outside the prison, particularly towards
Villefort, who wished to cover up his own father’s
connections with the Bonapartists. Dantes suffered for
fourteen grueling years. While in prison, he was determined
to escape and began digging a tunnel in hopes that it would
lead to freedom. During this exercise, he met an elderly
inmate named Abbe Faria whose attempt to dig his way to his
salvation had led him only to Edmond’s cell. The two meet
daily and an incredible relationship flourished. The old man
taught Edmond history, mathematics, and languages. In
Edmond’s fourteenth year, Faria became mortally ill. The
wise elder told Edmond where to find a massive buried
fortune. When Faria finally did die, his body was placed in
a burial sac. Edmond seized the opportunity of escaping and
replaced Faria’s corpse with himself. Jailers threw the sack
into the sea which allowed Dantes to escape. He is rescued
by a passing ship which gives him a position on the boat.
After paying homage for the noble act, Dantes recovered the
buried treasure and became extremely wealthy. He returned as
the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo and dazzled all of
Paris with his extreme wealth and social graces and also he
ingeniously managed to be introduced to the cream of French
society, among who he goes unrecognized. But, Monte Cristo,
in contrariety, recognized all of his enemies, which now are
all powerful and influential men. Therefore, he was slowly
plotting the ruin of the four men who had caused him to be
sent to the Chateau D’If.
Ferdinand had married Mercedes and was now the Count
de Morcef. Monte Cristo released information to the press
that proved that Morcef is a traitor, and Morcef is ruined
socially. Then Monte Cristo destroyed Morcef’s relationship
with his family, whom he adored. When they leave him, he was
so distraught that he committed suicide.
To revenge himself on Caderousse, Monte Cristo
easily trapped Caderousse because of his voracious greed.
Monte Cristo awakened this greed with the gift of a diamond.
Later, urged by his wife, Caderousse committed robbery and
murder. Now escaped from prison, Caderousse unsuccessfully
attempted to rob Monte Cristo. The Count watched as one of
Caderousse’s companions mortally wounding him. As the man
lay dying, Monte Cristo exposed his true name- Edmond
Dantes. To revenge himself on Danglars, who loves money more
than life it self, Monte Cristo ruins him financially. To
revenge himself on Villefront, Monte Cristo slowly reveals
to Villefront that he knows about a love affair that
Villefront had long ago with Madam Danglars. He also
revealed to him, by hints, that he knows about the
illegitimate child whom he fathered, a child whom Villefront
had believed to be buried alive. The child lived, however,
and was now engaged to Mademoiselle Danglars, who is really
his half-sister.
Ironically, Villefront’s wives proves to be more
villainous than her husband, for she poisons her parents and
her daughter so that her real son can have the full
inheritance. Villefront, however, discovers the plot and
Threatens to kill her if she doesn’t do it first, and so she
kills herself and her son.
The Count had rescued Valentine from a drug induced
coma and reunited her with her love, Maximilian, on the
island of Monte Cristo leaving the two young loves his
entire fortune. The Count sailed off into the sunset never
to be seen again.
Major Characters:
Edmond Dantes (alias the Count of Monte Cristo,
Sinbad the Sailor, Abbe Busoni, and Lord Wilmore)
Edmond Dantes is the dashing and idyllic champion of the
novel. He is a sailor who, at the prime of his life and
career, is betrayed by close friends because of their
jealousy. He is imprisoned for fourteen grueling years
during his imprisonment he meets another prisoner named Abbe
Faria, who teaches Dantes many languages, sciences, history
and other subjects, they become like father and son, and
when the Abbe was about to die, he revealed to Dantes the
hiding place of a long-secret buried treasure consisting of
untold wealth, diamond, gold coins, and other precious
jewelry. After his miraculous escape from the prison,
Dantes recovers buried treasure on the island of Monte
Cristo. The rest of his life is spent, at first, performing
acts of goodness and charity for the good people whom he has
known, then he devotes his life to brining about gods
retribution against the evil people who were responsible for
his imprisonment.
Monsieur De Villefort
Villefort is the type of person, as describe
early in the novel, which sacrifice anything to his
ambition, even his own father. Villefort, the prosecuting
attorney, is most responsible for the suffering of Dantes
because it was he who ordered that Edmond be sent to prison
which ignited his spark for revenge. Villefort is willing to
have an innocent man imprisoned for life. Thus, he becomes
the central enemy against whom the Count of Monte Cristo
affects revenge.
Fernand Mondego (alias the Count de Morcerf)
During the time in which Edmond was a
sailor, Fernand was a simple fisherman and sometime smuggler
who was in love with the same woman whom Edmond Dantes was
ingaged to. Because of his jealousy, Fernand mailed the
letter condemning Dantes, hoping that if Dantes was
arrested, he would then be able to marry Mercedes. Fernand
gained much wealth by smuggling and by betraying the great
Ali Pasha. When all of his treachery was exposed, he
discovers that his wife and son have deserted him, thus he
commits suicide.