Riddhi Jain
AP English: Mr. George
14 July 2009
Count of Monte Cristo Essay
Injustice of Vengeance
The scale of social justice compares the morality of either side in a moral quandary. As one side is weighed down by its actions, the other side finds balance when committing actions considered justified. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort bring a great weight upon their side of the scale, when they plot against and ruin the life of Edmond Dantès. When Edmond returns, he shifts the weight to his side when he exacts the purest vengeance against each one of his enemies. Dantès sought God’s justice, but indeed overstepped his boundaries, killing many innocent people. His judgment was selfish, and his punishment, unnecessary.
In the beginning of the story, we meet Danglars, the envious purser of the acclaimed Pharaon. This sinful man wrote the letter which later denounced the virtuous Edmond Dantès as a Bonapartist agent. Thanks to Danglars, Dantès is taken away from his beloved Mercédès, his chance to be captain of the Pharaon, and the respect earned for his reputable deeds. When Dantès returns as the Count of Monte Cristo, he only seeks one thing: revenge. Monte Cristo’s resentment towards Danglars increases as he meets the newly titled, Baron Danglars: “At the very sight of the man anyone can recognize in him the snake by his flat forehead, the vulture by his protruding cranium, and the buzzard by his sharp beak!” (255). Monte Cristo takes advantage of Danglars’ greed and uses his own limitless wealth against him. With his money, Monte Cristo puts a fraudulent report in the newspaper of a revolt in Barcelona, spurring Danglars greed to speculate on the market. When the report is later pronounced as false, Danglars loses a great amount of money, which begins the plummet of his wealth that continues throughout the book.
Not only is Danglars’ financial status crushed, but he also loses his family. His poor daughter, Eugénie, is filled with shame and rejection by the man she is to marry and his wife runs off with her secretary, Debray: “She has gone away with her mother, and, knowing her as I do, I am sure she will never return to France again. She could not endure the shame brought to her” (523). After he tells Monte Cristo about his wife and daughter’s departure, Danglars escapes before having to pay back any debt he develops. Monte Cristo turns into a selfish man, who only wants revenge for himself, not thinking of the lives being ruined in the process.
As the story continues, Dantès comes to find out that he is not the only one in love with the beautiful Mercédès. Fernand Mondego, the cousin of Mercédès, is just as passionately in love with her. Fernand’s envy for the love shared between Dantès and Mercédès causes him to help Danglars in the plot against Dantès. Fernand was the felon who posted up Danglars’ fake letter. When Monte Cristo hears Caderousse’s story and learns that Fernand married his beloved Mercédès, he tells Fernand: ”I show you to-day a face made young by the joy of vengeance, a face that you must often have seen in your dreams since your marriage with-- Mercédès” (486). Monte Cristo cleverly brings about Fernand’s humiliation when Haydee testifies against Fernand’s unfaithfulness to her father, the great Ali Pasha, and explains how he was also responsible for the painful death her father received.
Monte Cristo was able to make Fernand suffer through the humiliation and dishonor given to the Morcerf family name, but he also crumbled the lives of Albert and Mercédès. Fernand was one of the scoundrels that caused Monte Cristo to suffer for fourteen years. Mercédès and Albert did not do anything, but love Monte Cristo. After Fernand was denounced, they left their luxurious lives to live a life of poverty and loneliness. Mercédès was left with nothing to support Albert and herself: “She had managed very well on the little she had, but to-day there were two to manage for and she had nothing with which to do it” (548). The man Monte Cristo wanted to chastise ended up committing suicide, while Albert left his forlorn mother on the island of Marseilles to earn money for the two of them. In the end, Monte Cristo made Albert and Mercédès suffer more than Fernand did. There was no justice in the way Monte Cristo retaliated against Fernand because, similar to Eugénie and Baroness Danglars, he made two other innocent people suffer.
Villefort was the man who sent the noble Edmond Dantès off to the Chateau D’If for fourteen years. Monte Cristo’s revenge on this man was despicable. He was the infidel who gave Madame de Villefort the heinous idea of poisoning almost the entire Villefort family. There were three deaths before Valentine, Maximilian Morrel’s sweetheart and adored daughter of Villefort, was poisoned. If it was not for Maximilian’s plead to help his beloved Valentine, then Monte Cristo would have shown the least bit of care towards the family:”What is it to me? Do I know these people? Must I lose the one to save the other? Indeed not, for I have no preference between the guilty and the victim” (494). Monte Cristo was able to ruin Villefort’s reputation. Nobody wanted to be near or around the Villefort household knowing its members were mysteriously dying. These deaths led to Villefort’s insanity.
Though Monte Cristo may have been exacting justice upon Villefort, he caused the deaths of five innocent people. He had no right to hurt them; they simply lived peacefully in the Villefort household. In complete horror, Villefort pointing to the dead bodies of his wife and son said, “Look Edmond Dantès! Are you satisfied with your vengeance?” (567). Even the delinquent who robbed Dantès of his liberty, love, and happiness was enraged to see the small child and his mother lying dead on the floor helplessly in front of them. Monte Cristo wanted to avenge Villefort for his deleterious acts, but ended up causing more pain and suffering to Villefort’s family.
Throughout the novel, Monte Cristo believed he was acting fairly towards his enemies. He refused to open his eyes and realize that everybody around him was also being affected by his malicious acts. Monte Cristo was not executing a just behavior when he was poisoning, threatening, and manipulating the people who found trust and admiration for him. He was not acting just when the people who cared about him were getting hurt. Monte Cristo ruined the lives of the people around him more than the lives of the people who he meant to hurt. He turned into a bitter soul and acted with ignorance. Monte Cristo ruined the lives of the people around him more than the lives of the people who he meant to hurt. He turned into a bitter soul and acted with ignorance. Gandhi summed it up perfectly, “An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind” (Thinkexist.com).
