The Count of Monte Cristo
By: Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Alexandre Dumas in 1844, is a very powerful French Novel. So powerful in fact, that was controversial when it was first released. The Catholic Church in France condemned it because of the powerful message it presented to the reader. This theme was one of revenge and vengeance. Monte Cristo had two goals- to reward those who were kind to him and his aging father, and to punish those responsible for his imprisonment and suffering. For the latter, he plans slow and painful punishment. To have spent fourteen years barely subsisting in a dungeon demands cruel and prolonged castigation.
The Count of Monte Cristo is set within the nineteenth century of France in large and populous cities. This was a time of great disruption. There was confusion all over the land in regards to who led France, King Louis or Napoleon.
Alexandre Dumas, père
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 film)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1934 film)The two ruling parties divided the citizens of France. Royalists and the Bonapartist cut at each other's throats in order to declare that their ruler was supreme. This situation has a profound effect on the events of the story. Dantes' enemies used the rivalry between the two parties in order to convince the Royalists that Edmond is a Bonapartist; therefore it is the basis for his arrest and inevitable captivity in the Chateau D'If.
The Count of Monte Cristo is a strongly revenge based novel. Almost immediately after Edmond Dantes (alias Count of Monte Cristo, Abbe Bousini, Lord Wilmore, Simbad the Sailor) discovers the true reason for his imprisonment, the jealousy of a lover and a co-worker and the self-preservation of a judge, he vows to take his reprisal. Fortunately enough for him [Dantes] he is bestowed an enormous fortune by an almost father...