The triumph and the downfall Can you fix yourself by breaking someone else? Can you find happiness by destroying someone else's? In The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, there are many acts of betrayal and jealousy, but the person who is most responsible for turning the naive sailor, Edmond Dantes into the cold-hearted man he becomes is Baron Danglars. The jealousy Danglars feels toward his younger and more attractive co-worker leads him to commit despicable acts that have a terrible outcome. Danglars is the ringleader; his actions, such as manipulating the aimless Fernand and the drunken Caderousse into doing his dirty work, cause Dantes to lose everything he has. Vice is an emerging theme in the text. Danglars’ jealousy consumed his life and eventually his greed destroyed everything his loved. Danglars’ plans to use Fernand’s jealousy to his advantage and involve him in the plan to destroy Dantes. He always have an ulterior motive “Danglars looked scrutinizingly at Fernand” (Dumas 15). Danglars is …show more content…
Danglars is a silent but bitter opponent. He stood in the shadows and pulled apart Dantes peace until the sailor was nothing but a broken man. Baron Danglars is not to be trusted but Dantes makes the mistake of not discarding Danglars,‘“Poor fellow!” excludes danglars, pretending to pity the young man from the bottom of his heart” (Dumas 14). The betrayal of Danglers made Dantes realize that it's better to have an enemy who honestly say they hate you than to have a friend who is putting you down secretly. Danglars tries to make Morrel doubt Dantes’ actions “The ship was as sound as i am and as i hope you, are monsieur morrel, wasting that day and a half was nothing but a whim of his; he just wanted to go ashore for a while, that’s all” (Dumas 3). Dantes reliability in terms of his friendship with Morrel was another thing that made Danglars see
“Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow. In the end it is a story of the ineluctable conflict between good and evil, daylight and darkness, the White City and the Black.” (xi) This shows the contrast between the White City and the Black City. One, perfect, beautiful, magical, the other dark, filthy, evil. The two work together yet against each other in the battle to win over the hearts of the people who visit, and those who decide to stay
In the play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, is a book about Cyrano de Bergerac, who is one of the main characters in this book that has a downfall in the his love life. Cyrano had a flaw in his life that lead to his downfall in the end. The contributions that lead to this would be his tragic flaws, which truly prevented him from achieving the women of his dreams. Cyrano may have had favorable traits about himself like being able to take control as a leader; gaining him respect from others. Surely, that would have given him the confidence to gain Roxane’s but he stood in the shadows because of his honorary code. Roxane did love him, but she loved him through Christian. Cyrano would be considered a tragic character because he
While he was successful in his goal, the pain and suffering he caused to innocent people like Edouard, the son of Villefort, and Mercédès, the wife of Fernand, throws the question of whether Dantes was really successful into doubt, as he wanted to reward the innocents and not hurt them. While Dantes was getting his vengeance on the Villeforts, he unintentionally kills Edouard. Dantes immediately regrets what he did when Dumas states, “Monte Cristo paled at the horrible sight. He realized that he had gone beyond the limits of rightful vengeance” (485). Dantes immediately feels regret for killing the innocent boy when he sees him. Dumas emphasizes this regret and sorrow even more by stating how Dantes was pale from the sight of the consequences of his actions, something that only happens when you truly feel terrified of what you’ve done. He acknowledges for the first time in the story that he was wrong in his pursuit of revenge, so he himself admits that he went too far. He realized that while he did get his revenge on the Villeforts, this was too much as Edouard never did anything besides be related by blood to them. Dantes tries to revive Edouard, but he failed to bring him back, which is the first point in the story where he fails during his quest. He punished the bad and was highly successful with that, but the suffering that he caused upon innocent people made him realized his justice was not worth it or even good. Furthermore, the death of Edouard caused Dantes to become the wrongdoer this time, as he unjustly killed a person for no reason. His original idea was to bring justice to all these criminals, but he ended up only becoming one himself and bringing more undeserved tragedy to people. After everything had happened and Dantes achieved the vengeance he wanted, he reflects on his actions when Dumas says, “Having arrived at the summit of his
For the last and final essay of the semester, I decided to pick a couple themes that are included in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Themes are a very important part of any story, play, poem, or any writing for that matter. It is important to understand what themes are involved in a story because it helps the reader better understand what is going on throughout it all. This novel has two main characters named Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. In essence, this story is about both of these characters coming together to solve the disappearance of Harriet Vanger that is over forty years in the making. Throughout their journey to solve the mystery, I came across a couple key themes. Regarding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, there are a few themes I chose to write about including: violence against women, the topic of revenge, and isolation.
I 'll start with the simple one first. Danglars was one of the men that helped frame Dantes. He clawed is way up the social ladder because of his great wealth. He is very determined to keep it though. He abandons
Throughout his play, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of themes in order to convey the sense of evil. These themes are omnipresent, and well implemented into the text, as they allow the reader to visually imagine the different occurrences, and how they might lead to a sense of evil throughout. The themes included consist of appearance and reality, guilt, ambition, violence and tyranny and order and disorder. Several quotes are weaved into the text in order to express more clearly the theme Shakespeare is attempting to convey. The themes all come together to enhance the dark symbolism of evil, and how it is actually conveyed.
Faria, a priest, completely changes Dantés' perspective on life when he helps Dantés figure out who put him in prison and why. Faria regretted what he had done to Dantés' innocent mind. Dumas writes, "Faria looked at him [Dantés] steadfastly and said, 'I regret having helped you clarify your past and having told you what I did.' 'Why?' 'Because I have instilled in your heart a feeling that wasn't there before: vengeance" (Dumas 58). When Faria dies, Dantés considers killing himself, but ends up vowing to get revenge instead. After a dramatic escape, Dantés sets out to destroy the lives of those who turned on him using his riches, important friends, and vast amount of knowledge. Dantés states, "He doomed these unknown men to all the tortures his fiery imagination could contrive, but even the cruelest ones seemed too mild and too short for them, for after the torment would come death, which would bring them, if not rest, at least the insensibility which resembles it" (Dumas 42). After life in prison, Dantés was no longer recognizable. He had been changed from the innocent, carefree, living life to the fullest boy of nineteen to a hardened and cynical adult man. Dantés' path of life had now become reversed the second he hits the water. He now lies to and uses everyone around him to further his own agenda of gaining revenge similar to the way
Supporting the statement that Edmond devotion and care is set towards his loved ones, for he does not worry about his well being because prospering with his family means he is the best he can be. Edmond’s fortunate life included perspectives of those who purged at his life virgiousling stated “Dantes will certainly carry the day; he will marry their fair damsel, become captain, and have the laugh over us, unless….’ a livid smile was seen to pass over his lips ‘unless I set to work’”(Dumas, 20). Danglars is sarcastically boasting of Dante’s blessed life to infuriate Fernand, who envied Dantes’. The life of Dantes’ was not always so fortunate, though he did not sense this hatred among his companions, it was still prevalent to his death. Consequently, this envious perspective lead to Dante's’ framed imprisonment, for he suffered and his enemies prospered. Edmond is a naive being who believed he was always admired, however Danglars and his accomplices were outliers. When one thrives, others attempt to hinder that growth, and in this case Danglars succeeded with the death of Dante's. Dante’s was not admired by all, for his fortune and purpose in life to prosper with his loved who he cared deeply about was
The book contains a captivating use of symbolism making the story more interesting and understandable. This magnetizes the reader into the book. "At the first show of dawn, great Alcinous left his couch, as did that ravager of cities,
When developing the different points to analyze I found that the way I was setting this paper up was truly showcasing my abilities to analyze a passage from a well know author. While going through the text, I found a vast amount of imagery,” When considering the imagery in the folktale one of the first
First mate of the Pharaon, engaged, and at a young age of nineteen, Edmond Dantes was set for life. Dantes is a naive and innocent man. To him “they'll all tell you they love and respect me” (Dumas 26). No one has a reason to hate him and if they do, he hates them in return. “I'd rather not know who they are, because then I'd be forced to hate them” (Dumas 26) Dantes says as he is questioned as to whom could have framed him as a Bonaparte. Dantes is too trusting and he is innocently arrogant. He thinks he is too lowly and humble to be hated. He is prideful, but not overly so. Dantes is lucky and an outlier who happens to be in the right place at the right time. He has love, his family, his career, friends, and a good future to look forward
Edmond Dantes was a 19 year old man who became captain of a ship name the Pharaon. He was much loved by everyone. He is pretty gullible and becomes vengeful when the one guy he considered his friend betrayed him the other two who he was not to fond of ruined his life. He was a respectable young man who showed that numerous times like when he had to leave Morrel while he was talking to him; he said “I beg you excuse me, Monsieur Morrel (Dumas 5). He was to be betrothed to a girl named Mercedes who he’d loved very much but he loved his father most of all. He felt bad when he found out his father was broke from paying his debt causing him to fall to his knees and said “may God forgive me” (Dumas 9). Dantès is a pretty unique character who
This entire sequence symbolizes that in this seemingly pleasant and normal family town, is a dark and evil underworld. This theme is repeated and elaborated throughout the
Theme is an integral part of this story and is mostly presented through the narrator. One of the major themes of the story is conscience, in which many of the conflicts in the
Charles de Gaulle once said “Love is the strongest force in the world.” de Gaulle’s sentiment about love’s power holds true. In The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, love is the most powerful driving force. During this romantic novel, a man named Edmond Dantés gets falsely imprisoned for fourteen years. When he escapes as a rich man, he swears revenge on his enemies, but in the end, love prevents him from enacting several of his vengeful plans. A moral in The Count of Monte Cristo is that love is the strongest power in the world because it can stop revenge in its tracks and cause great joy.