The Count of Monte Cristo Essay

Nathaniel Burns-Sarno

Advanced Placement English/ Mr. George

July 15, 2009

The Count of Monte Cristo Essay

Edmond’s Retribution: Wrongful or Righteous?

Retribution is defined as “a requital according to merits or deserts, especially for evil”(Dictionary.com). It is, in a sense, the act of setting things right. At least, that is how it always seems to those who are practicing an act of retribution. The truth of the matter is that even when retribution is served for noble reasons, it is still a selfish act. When one seeks vengeance for an act done against them, they do so not because of what morality tells them is right, but because of what their emotions tell them is right. When one seeks vengeance for an act done against another person, they not only ignore morality, but also what the one who has been wronged may have wanted. In the case in which one who has suffered injury from another calls upon a third party to avenge them, the selfishness is clear. However, just because retribution is a selfish act, that does not necessarily mean that it is a wrongful act. After all, devotion to oneself is human nature. We all want for the world to be fair, so we take it upon ourselves to punish those who act unjustly. In doing so, we are often guilty of partisanship, ourselves. This is especially common when a wrongful act of great magnitude is inflicted upon an innocent person. Such a case exists in The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. Edmond Dantes, the protagonist of the novel, is wrongfully imprisoned for false accusations of treason. He spends years in a dungeon, not even being released when the laws against what he was accused were changed with the rise of a new ruler, and his “treason” was to be looked at as a favorable action. As he is left to rot in prison, he learns of the events that lead to his confinement, and swears revenge. He also learns of a massive cache of treason hidden on the island of Monte Cristo. His mind set on vengeance, Dantes escapes prison, travels to Monte Cristo and claims the treasure in order to use it to punish those responsible for his incarceration. With his new wealth comes a new name for himself; the Count of Monte Cristo. The name changes more than his title; it changes is identity. Dantes is transformed from a noble sailor with dreams and ambitions to an empty shell of a man devoid of emotions. The only ideals he holds on to are the ideals of reward and punishment, which allows him to feel no remorse as he seeks to ensure that the men who caused his suffering meet their demise. Vengeance becomes his obsession. But is such an obsession within the boundaries of true morality? It is certainly not. However, that does not prevent his vengeance from being within the boundaries of true justice. His enemies deserved their fate, as they caused Dantes a great amount of suffering for little to no reason. Dantes may have wished for them a great amount of suffering, but he is unlike them in a very important aspect; he had something to gain from their destruction. Or rather, something to regain: the life that was stolen from him without cause.
Dantes was in no way deserving of the act committed against him. He was a kind, generous man with love and compassion in his heart and a great sense of honor. The only crime Dantes committed was the crime of being too trustful. Even when he is first told of how the men he considered to himself to be on good terms with had caused his incarceration, he refused to believe it. This shows that he had a great amount of trust for these men, and would never have expected them to commit such a disgraceful act. Even though he did not particularly like any of them, he was still just enough trust them and not behave in any way that might offend them. That makes what they did to him even more despicable. There actions are made to be a greater degree of loathsome by the fact that none of them had a good reason for making a noble man like Dantes suffer. Danglars had no fair reason to hate Dantes. He was simply jealous that Dantes’ superior sailing skills and leadership had earned him the position of captain, which Danglars wanted for himself. Fernand’s only reason for plotting against Dantes is that Mercedes, Fernand’s cousin and the woman he loves, chose to marry Dantes instead of him. Perhaps the most disgusting of all is Villefort, who imprisons Dantes despite knowing his innocence. He does so only because freeing Dantes would jeopardize his position. All three of these men had virtually no real basis for their motives. Dantes was simply a victim of circumstance, as well as a victim of three malevolent fiends.
Dantes’ time in prison turned him from a man with many emotions to a man with very few. There was no great detail in the description of what his life in the dungeon was like, and after seeing the result of it, it is clear that no description is needed. Dantes must have endured Hell to become such a cold, uncaring person. Throughout the novel, he become less like a person and more like a representation of pure justice, believing that if good actions are to be rewarded, then evil actions are to be punished. This belief becomes his personality, as when he becomes the Count of Monte Cristo, human kindness and random acts of charity become foreign concepts to him. The fact that reward and punishment are the only concepts he is left to understand after his time in prison only strengthens the argument that his vengeance is just. His life and love were torn away from him, and he felt that those who acted against him deserved to feel what it was like. He felt that they had everything, but deserved to have nothing. So, he took it upon himself to make his idea of rewards and punishments into a reality. This is appropriate because the actions of his enemies were based on their own greed and selfishness, the very traits that would lead to their downfalls.
Dantes grew to become the representation of a literal justice. In doing so, he gained rewards while his enemies suffered punishments. As I said before, retribution is a selfish act. This is proven by the result of the novel, as justice came to serve Dantes, and Dantes was justice, himself.