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Collateral
Damage: The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
by
Marilyn Green Faulkner
In the evolution
of human revolution there are some great moments. Imagine the fierce
determination on the faces of the men surrounding King John as the
Magna Carta was signed. Picture the desperate expressions of the
Paris mob that stormed the dreaded Bastille Prison, or the icy resolve
of the noble Washington as he crossed the Delaware to continue a
seemingly hopeless battle against overwhelming odds. Yet none of
these moments, however daring, can compare for sheer bravery to
the day when a poor carpenter's son climbed a hillside, sat on a
rock, and calmly uttered a series of statements that turned his
nation's code of ethics inside-out and transformed the history of
the world forever.
"Ye have heard
that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also…Ye have
heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and
hate thine enemy, But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven…" (Matthew 5:38-44)
In the Sermon
on the Mount, Jesus presented an ideal of behavior so contrary to
the natural inclination of mankind that we continue to ignore it
and substitute a more comfortable compromise in its stead. Who among
us truly loves his enemies, turns the other cheek, and does not
seek revenge against those who persecute him? Our sense of justice
recoils at the idea. We cling to the notion that our ills are caused
by someone or something that must be ferreted out and punished.
If our relationships fail, we blame our spouses, or our upbringing.
If we commit crimes, the fault is in our economic system. It's the
government who forces us to cheat on our taxes and our employer
whose unfair practices lead us to fail at our work. In those rare
cases when we truly are the innocent victims of evil we may spend
a lifetime nursing the pain and increasing the damage by attempts
to even the score. With the bitter Shylock, we ask, "If you wrong
us, shall we not revenge?" (Merchant of Venice, III, i, 66) Yet,
as Shylock learned, revenge has a way of backfiring on us, damaging
us more than those we seek to punish. The almost irresistible lure
and the devastating effects of revenge are the central themes of
Alexandre Dumas' classic tale of adventure, The Count of Monte Cristo.
Alexandre Dumas
was the son of one of Napoleon's most decorated generals. His father,
the illegitimate son of a French nobleman and a Negro seamstress,
took his mother's name of Dumas, and rose through the ranks of the
military through his bravery and leadership. He was, however, a
dissolute man whose example of promiscuity and debauchery was followed
by his brilliant son. The young Dumas was determined to make his
fortune as a writer, and succeeded early on with several plays and
accounts of his travels. When newspapers began to serialize novels
in the late 1830's, Dumas saw an opportunity and began to write
his most famous novels, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte
Cristo. Both were serialized and were tremendously popular. Though
he wrote over 300 plays, novels, travel books and memoirs, and was
the most famous author of his day (more famous even than Victor
Hugo), Dumas died a poor man, having squandered millions of francs
on his reckless lifestyle.
Dumas did have
one great virtue; he was a tireless worker, writing up to fourteen
hours a day. For his plots he preferred to begin with an idea, such
as revenge, and find a historical incident that illustrated his
theme. He read an account in a police record of a remarkable conspiracy
between three friends to frame a fourth man, named Picaud, for a
crime he didn't commit, so that one of the three could marry his
fiancée. Picaud spent seven years in prison, and there grew
close to a cleric who left him a vast fortune of three million francs.
After his release Picaud staged an elaborate revenge on those who
had betrayed him that stretched over a period of twenty years. He
was eventually kidnapped and murdered by one of the group, who recounted
the whole story on his deathbed.
Dumas took this
true account as the storyline of The Count of Monte Cristo, preserving
many of the main elements but reshaping the protagonist, Edmund
Dantes, into a kind of superhero. Dantes, after his escape from
prison, dwells like a Sultan in a mysterious hidden grotto where
slaves and servants leap to do his bidding. His arrival in Paris
causes a sensation, and it is there that he begins to work his revenge.
The Count possesses unlimited knowledge, wealth, strength and resourcefulness.
As David Coward says, "Heroes do not come any taller. He is the
stuff of adolescent dreams, and will retain his fascination while
the boy's heart beats in man." Dantes believes that he is the agent
of Providence, sent to mete out justice to those who have sinned.
In the end he finds that revenge is a poison that infects all it
touches, symbolized by the terrible deaths of Madame Villefort and
her innocent son. To his horror he realizes too late that he is
as much a victim of his own vengeance as he was a victim of the
men who wronged him.
It is in the
spiritual rebirth of Dantes that the novel goes beyond a simple
romantic adventure. He is faced at every turn with the impossibility
of true revenge, and we are forced, through his experiences, to
question our own sense of justice. For example, his rival has married
the woman he loved, and they have a son. Should this son of his
enemy be destroyed, breaking the heart of his beloved Mercedes?
Dantes finds that he cannot exact vengeance on the guilty without
harming the innocent. Today this dilemma faces us, as we strive
to mete out justice to terrorists and find instead that thousands
of innocent women and children are driven from their homes in the
violence of war. In the climactic scene where Dantes finally confronts
Mercedes, she challenges his notion of justice by reminding him
of the "collateral damage" attendant to revenge, and begging for
the life of her son. He comes to the realization that his intricate
plans for revenge may not be inspired by God. On the contrary, he
admits, "Providence is now opposed to them when I most thought it
would be propitious." (889) As Dantes brings his plan to a close
he attempts to mitigate the damage he has set in motion, and finds
a place for mercy and forgiveness in his heart.
In the figure
of Edmund Dantes, Dumas created a folk hero whose popularity has
never waned. Numerous film versions have been created, and The Count
of Monte Cristo has been continuously in print and beloved in countless
languages since its debut. Of Dumas' unique ability to create characters
that crossed national boundaries Victor Hugo said, "The name of
Alexandre Dumas is more than French, it is European; and it is more
than European, it is Universal." The great William Thackeray wrote
to a friend that he "began to read Monte Cristo at six one morning
and never stopped until eleven at night." George Bernard Shaw placed
him in the same order with Dickens. There aren't many books that
will pull me out of bed for a few extra chapters late at night,
but this was one that kept me up way past my bedtime. By following
the path of revenge as far as it will take him, Monte Cristo shows
us what a dangerous path it is for any of us to tread, and the reason
why the scripture counsels, "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."
The Count of
Monte Cristo is the Best Books Club selection for November. We invite
you to share your comments by clicking on bestbooks@meridianmagazine.com.
Readers
comment on How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn
Our October
selection drew some affectionate comments from readers. Here is
a sampling:
I was touched
by your review of Llewellyn's masterpiece. My first exposure
to the story was through the black and white film made in the 1940s
with Paul Robeson playing and singing a daring vignette to add to
the tale. Since then, I have read the book every year as an
inward pilgrimage to hold onto the sweet memories of the sad crippled
boy who becomes an observer of the ins and out of life in his beloved
but doomed village. It is deeply romantic, with thrilling
tales of love that cannot be, deeply tragic as industrial disaster
robes homes of fathers and sons, and compellingly rich in humour. Llewellyn
is a master crafter and I still weep as I read his closing words,
"How green was my valley then, and the valley of those that are
gone."
Thank you for
reviving treasured memories. Ronnie
-----
I remember watching
How Green Was My Valley as a teenage and being so touched by it
(at a time in my life when little else was touching me.)
Read on!
Bonnie
-----
I have read
your "books of the month." I spent many years growing-up in a mining
town. In another time I probably would have gone "underground" at
the age of twelve. But even so, I was personally aware of the dangers,
hardships, and just plain hard work and ruined health of friends
and neighbors. At the age of eight, my step-father and best friend
was killed in a cave-in. So Llewellyn's book, to me, was more than
just another interesting tale. Thanks for including me in your Group.
Darryl
Best Books Club
Reading List: December 2000 - June 2002
I've had
many requests for our reading list, past and future. Here are the
books we have read together so far and the upcoming books for the
first half of 2002. Check the archives at Meridian for articles
on any books you missed.
December 2000
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
January 2001
Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian
February 2001
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
March 2001 Celestial
Navigation, Anne Tyler
April 2001 Silas
Marner, George Elliot
May 2001 The
Chosen, Chaim Potok
June 2001 A
Room With a View, E.M. Forster
July 2001 The
Keys of the Kingdom, A.J. Cronin
August 2001
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and/or Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
September 2001
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
October 2001
How Green Was My Valley, Richard Llewellyn
November 2001
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
December 2001
The Human Comedy, William Saroyan
The Christmas
Books, Charles Dickens
January 2002
O Pioneer, Willa Cather
February 2002
Dear and Glorious Physician, Taylor Caldwell
March 2002 Cranford,
Elizabeth Gaskell
April 2002 Angle
of Repose, Wallace Stegner
May 2002 The
Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
June 2002 The
Once and Future King, T.H. White
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© 2001 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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