Count Of Monte Cristo Ambition

In the timeless Romantic era novel The Count of Monte Cristo set in France during the early nineteenth century, Alexandre Dumas displays the complexity of the word ambition and demonstrates, through his characters, how ambition is the common driving force behind actions–often rooting itself in the very essence of a character's being. Ambition is defined by The Random House Dictionary of the English Language as “an earnest desire for some type of achievement of distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment” ( ). Most apparently, Edmond Dantès (the Count of Monte Cristo) has an ambition for revenge, which influences much of his decisions throughout the entirety of the novel. Additionally, Gérard
A perfect example of this in the novel is Caderousse whose ambition for wealth ultimately ends in his demise. His ambition first becomes apparent when Dantès (disguised as Abbé Busoni) “took the diamond from his pocket and handed it to Caderousse” (Dumas 110) in return for information incriminating people from Dantès’s past. Caderousse intentionally withholds the fact that he himself falsifies details in the letter which incriminates Dantès. Moreover, this diamond–worth fifty thousand francs–is not enough for the innkeeper and he resorts to killing the diamond merchant and even his own wife in order to get more money out of the diamond. Lastly, when his allowance is not enough, he attempts to rob the Count of Monte Cristo’s house; this final act on his greedy ambition results in his murder. This parallels in life where ambition for wealth causes men to be so blinded from reality that they lose everything that is important to them. Though many believe that money is the key to happiness, studies support the contrary; ‘financial rewards mainly generate short-term boosts of energy which can have damaging unintended consequences’ (Williams 2). Like Caderousse, most individuals whose ambition is for wealth find little fulfilment from their efforts for financial gain. Similarly to the ambition for wealth,
This is precisely the case for Dantès–the central character who is falsely convicted as a dangerous political prisoner and is placed in the Chateau d'If. As resentment towards those who ruined his life boiled inside him, he begins to form an ambition for revenge. After his escape, Dantès unrelentingly strives to enact revenge on his enemies who caused him to suffer in prison for fourteen years. It is not until after his revenge is all but complete when he begins to doubt his actions; however, after returning to the location of his suffering, he again is convinced he did right saying to himself, ‘Woe to those who put me into that wretched dungeon, and to those who forgot I was there!’ (Dumas 504). This ambition for revenge is far from irrational. Seeking revenge is actually a natural desire “because vengeance is part of the innate survival mechanics of a complex social species” (Bloom 1). Though Dantès may have taken his ambition to the extreme, one could argue that his actions are justifiable. Throughout The Count of Monte Cristo, as in life, there are a variety of ambitions that guide the lives of many people; Alexandre Dumas exhibits this complexity through Caderousse’s ambition for wealth, Villefort’s ambition for political status, Abbé Faria’s ambition for freedom, and Dantès’s ambition for revenge. Like in the novel, ambition can come