Essay on "Count of Monte Cristo"

Essay 3 pages (1024 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Monte Cristo

Hope and Patience in the Count of Monte Cristo

There is a distinction which may be useful to describe the protagonist of any important literary work that makes as its focus the human experience. If not a hero, the protagonist is an individual whose profound effect on the events and interactions constituting the lives of those in his presence makes his story worthy of recollection. In Alexandre Dumas' preeminent revenge drama the Count of Monte Cristo there is a protagonist who captures this notion. Indeed, Edmond Dantes serves as an example for the singular will to hope which seems to define an individual of such impact. Suffering sudden injustice in spite of his youthful brilliance and wide open opportunities, Dantes is thrust into a deep, despairing darkness to which there is no apparent end. It is thus that his life become a masterpiece of patience and optimism. It is perhaps the case that he is sustained by knowledge, and most certainly true that he is afforded much by the presence of the mentor which he gains in his circumstance. Thus, although Dantes would ultimately grow to be men of considerable success and importance, capable of gaining that which desires upon design and whim, he is a man molded by a combination hope and waiting. Thus, when at the resolution of the novel his revenge leaves him empty, this is the only resolution in which we may gain comfort. Where he expresses man's obligation simply to 'wait and hope,' he offers quite simply the philosophy which helped to deliver him from permanent darkness to an ultimately luxuriant existence.

As the protegee of Abbe Faria, Dantes undergoes a transition that will essentially render nonexistent the innocent and ignorant young man who enters the Chateau d'if. With no way to pass the hours of his days but to learn, Dantes' time in prison is spent amassing the power of wisdom. The brilliant Faria is not simply essential to initiating an education that would shape the boy into a hardened man but also for endowing him with the wisdom to see the truth of his situation. A former political dissident himself, Faria has an intuition not afforded to his young prison-mate. But as he helps Dantes to understand the plot which had him incarcerated, he provokes a change which will shape the direction of the rest of the novel. In recognition of that change, Faria tells Dantes that "I regret now,... having helped you in your late inquiries, or having given you the information I did." "Why so?" inquired Dantes. "Because it has instilled a new passion in your heart -- that of vengeance" (Dumas 56) This exchange illuminates the importance of the mentor's influence, for better or worse, in shaping the course of his student's future exploits, and for giving him a proposition upon which to rest hope and patience. Under the oppressive weight of the prison walls, it is clear to a man of Faria's experience that Dantes will undergo a change of disposition from which he will never recover but which,… READ MORE

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