Examples Of Fascination In The Count Of Monte Cristo

Infatuation for Vengeance

Fascination is a human characteristic that is natural in proportion. However when a fascination grows stronger one becomes much more passionate, and often times obsessed with pursuing whatever it is they desire. Alexandre Dumas demonstrates in his novel, The Count of Monte Cristo that a fixation with revenge can frequently become addictive. Dumas shows this obsession through the character of Edmond Dantes. Dantes, a 19 year old boy growing up in the small town of Marseilles, leads an innocent life overflowing with good fortune, causing him to be unaware of hardship. However when wrongly imprisoned by those whom he thought were his friends, Dantes’s innocence is replaced with a longing for revenge. After escaping
In other words, Dantes’s obsession for revenge oversteps true justice, causing a restoration of his initial character. To begin, while Dantes attempts to avenge Villefort, Villefort’s son Edouard is killed. Dantes realizes upon entering the house that his need for revenge resulted in the loss of an innocent life. Villefort, while looking at the bodies of his dead wife and son, asks if Dantes is satisfied with his work. Dantes “paled at the horrible sight. He realized that he had gone beyond the limits of rightful vengeance and that he could no longer say, ‘God is for me and with me’” (Dumas 485). Dantes completely oversteps the boundaries of true justice as he is responsible for the loss of an innocent life. Prior to this moment Dantes has always felt as if God was supporting his actions and in some ways he felt as if he was performing divine justice. However when Edouard dies, Dantes resizes that men cannot perform divine justice, and that Edouard’s death is his fault. Second, after Dantes leaves Mercedes he realizes that since Edouard’s he had changed: “Having arrived at the summit of his vengeance after his slow and tortuous climb, he had looked down into the abyss of doubt. Furthermore, his conversation with Mercedes had awakened a host of memories which now had to be overcome” (Dumas 497). The change in Dantes is significant because it is his first mental transform since his loss of innocence. Dantes’s passion for vengeance lessens as he finds himself starting to remember the emotions that he had bid farewell to so many years before. In addition, after reuniting Maximilien and Valentine, Dantes tells Haydée, his slave, that she is now free. Haydée expresses her love for Dantes, and he “felt his heart swell; He opened his arms and Haydée threw herself into them with a cry” (Dumas 529). After