With power comes corruption. Those who are high ranking or have wealth, have power and influence over others. Some will even go to the extreme to maintain their ranking or wealth, or use their power for the wrong reasons; regardless if it affects another person. In the novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, Edmond Dantes is falsely imprisoned due to the corrupt Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort. Once out of prison, Dantes abuses his newfound fortune and high rank to seek what he thinks is justice, but is actually revenge, on those who imprisoned him. Although he is successful on his quest, Dantes realizes fury should not control one’s decisions. Determined to achieve justice Dantes believes that those who do wrong must be …show more content…
Making sure his enemies’ children and relatives are affected as well. While Dantes is talking to Bertuccio about Bertuccio’s philosophy, Bertuccio says, “So, preferring death to capture, I accomplished the most astonishing deeds, and which, more than once, showed me that too great care we take of our bodies is the only obstacle to the success of those projects which require rapid decision and vigorous and determined execution. In reality, when you have once devoted your life to your enterprises, you are no longer the equal of other men, or rather, other men are no longer your equals, and whosoever has taken this resolution, feels his strength and resources doubled.” Dantes agrees with Bertuccio’s statement but he calls it faith. This demonstrates Dantes flawed understanding of revenge is faith and that God allows this. By thinking revenge is faith Dantes finds this acceptable and thinks it is only God’s doing. Dantes also finds this acceptable since he believes God is with him and helping him. While performing his acts of vengeance affected many including the innocent, Dantes comes to his senses once Benedetto dies. “He decided it was human hatred and not divine vengeance that had plunged him into this abyss. He doomed these unknown men to every torment that his inflamed imagination could devise, while still considering that the most frightful were too mild and,
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
Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dante 's Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dante 's treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the
Dante as a madman is defined as well as understood as an irrational figure, a figure possessing qualities that contradict Dante the poet who in turn is rational and calculated through his use of language within Inferno. The idea of madness can be portrayed in various different ways, one being to be in a state of madness (a madman), is to be, “mentally ill”, or otherwise to be someone that portrays irrationality in their actions (Soanes, Hawker and Elliott 2006). Wilson considers two such contrasting characteristics (the scholarly poet as well as the irrational madman) to derive from one Dante Alighieri: the author as well as creator of the Inferno. Such a form of malice can be seen through the idea of revenge, an intention to harm on a personal level. In the eighth canto through Dante’s encounter with Filippo Argenti, a political figure representing Dante’s opposition in political Florence during the thirteenth century, whom attempts to violently attack Dante
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is on a journey through hell in which he sees the different versions of sins and what consequences come after the immoralities. The person who commits a sin usually has to suffer in some way that would show revenge for the law of God. Dante threatens the people and tells them that they basically have nothing to look forward to except for having to suffer being separated from the will of God. Since these works were written by Dante, he had the power to judge others and decide how they will be punished for their sins. These visions that he had could very well be all false prophecies and may not be believed by every person. One thing that Dante did was to give enlightenment to sins that people did not know and made people
One of the major themes which Dante inferno raises is the nature of the virtues. Like the spirits of hell, the spirits that are encountered by Dante have all sinned. The spirits out there were punished
In this quote, the author is showing how Dante’s finally learns about how he has gotten mistreated throughout the whole prison affair. I chose this quote because it shows the how gullible and trusting Dante’s was as a person and how it quickly changed into a fury that would not be extinguished.
Dantés states, "Can I have been following a false path for ten years?" (Dumas 497). It is then that the Count of Monte Cristo realizes that he is not the privileged person of God's providence, but merely a victim like everyone else. Dantés now abandons the idea that he must get revenge on everyone and realizes that he has made a mistake and wasted a part of his life. Dantés says, "How stupid I was … not to have torn my heart out the day I swore to avenge myself!" (Dumas 379). Dantés finally realizes that revenge is not everything and that the result isn't happiness and fulfillment like he thought, but it's an emptiness that leaves you with
The text answers the question in a direct way using the works of Aristotle, “How his Ethics describes, and deals with at length, the three dispositions rejected by Heaven, Incontinence, malice, and bestial rage and how one of these offends God less and so incurs less blame?” (Canto XI 80-83). At this explanation a reader could draw the conclusion that God’s judgment is merciful and perfect. The question though still remains, if those of previous levels offend God less why do they still incur such a horrible punishment? This question leaves implications that God’s punishment might not be perfect and just. In previous cantos Dante seems to have developed some pity for those shades he has met in previous circles, such as Ciacco, and Francesca. He sympathizes with those damned almost as if he is realizing his own sins of his world. The implications of an imperfect and unjust God can ripple right to the very core of our own existence. If god is not perfect then
Power corrupting individuals also applies to literature and fictional novels. One example of power causing corruption is found in a novel called Animal Farm by George Orwell. Animal Farm is a story about animals ruled and dictated by humans. Eventually, the animals overthrow their human dictator, Mr. Jones, and try to form their own government. After a pig named Napoleon was declared leader, he gained power which caused him to become corrupted. Napoleon dictated the animals and the entire farm throughout the novel. Napoleon considering himself as powerful as God is an example of Napoleon?s level of corruption. One loyal and
Reason, logic, and pure thought are the compasses of humanity. Unfortunately, today no one even bothers to look at the compass or to ask for directions. The lack of logic and reason in our everyday decisions leads to the larger scale chaos that results from apathetic actions. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, as in Dante's case, we have slipped from our guide of Reason and shown pity to people, like Francesca and Paolo, who fall to carnal lusts, or to those like in the Wood of the Suicides. Like Dante, we are only too eager to hear their stories and report back to those above, still in the Dark Wood, of their fate. We feel as though the punishment which God, in His great Wisdom, has dealt out for them were unfair. And we fear for our own
Journeys can be taken many ways. Some people take the path less traveled and some people take the easy way out. Dante happens to be on journey that is less traveled, by exploring the depths of Hell in the Inferno. The epic poem’s story is about self-realization and transformation. It sees Dante over coming many things to realize he is a completely different person from the start of the Inferno journey. Dante sees many things that help him gain courage in order to prove to himself and the reader that accepting change and gaining courage can help one to grow as a person and realize their full potential. After seeing people going through certain punishment Dante realizes that he must not seek pity on himself and others in order to fully realize his true potential.
Violence without consideration, striking out at another in anger, frustration, hatred or selfish ambition is inherent in the nature of these actions. Accordingly Dante interprets them as being less detrimental to one's being than crimes of thought and meditation.
As Dante explores the Second Circle of Hell, he is horrified by the punishments that the sinners must suffer through. When he hears the story of Francesca and Paolo’s lustful actions, Dante relates deeply to their stuggles because he reflects on his own sins and believes he may be cast to a similar fate in the afterlife. Dante reacts to the story when he says, “I fainted, as if I had met my death. / And then I fell as a dead body falls” (5.142-143). Dante faints from compassion for the two sinners’ pitiful story. Dante struggles to grasp the wrongdoing these people have participated in to be placed in Hell because he continues to search for the noble qualities in everyone. On the one hand, Dante believes God’s punishment for the lustful sinners, relentless winds and storms, is unethical. On the other hand, this belief is naive because it is known that all of God’s punishments are just. The lustful are condemned to an eternity in Hell because they did not care about their actions on Earth, so the raging storm that torments them is not concerned with what is in its path. Dante is not only attempting to discover the possible consequences of his own actions, but also learning to trust in God’s judgement.
The notion that the sinners Virgil and Dante meet are historical figures tempts readers to interpret Dante’s symbolism in a historical sense. Paul G. Chevigny, for example, argues that Dante’s view on betrayal originates from his ethical concerns in a “political milieu” (Chevigny, 790). For Dante, the most severe crime was the most human, the one that most clearly exhibits the misuse of free will: the betrayal of trust. Dante believes that crimes of betrayal were the most serious not only because they required the most deliberate practice of free will, but also because they did the most damage to the ethical net of obligations in society. As previously mentioned, Dante’s political role in Florence established his ideal of a stable society built among the trust of political leaders and their followers.
Often when we set out to journey in ourselves, we come to places that surprise us with their strangeness. Expecting to see what is straightforward and acceptable, we suddenly run across the exceptions. Just as we as self‹examiners might encounter our inner demons, so does Dante the writer as he sets out to walk through his Inferno. Dante explains his universe - in terms physical, political, and spiritual - in the Divine Comedy. He also gives his readers a glimpse into his own perception of what constitutes sin. By portraying characters in specific ways, Dante the writer can shape what Dante the pilgrim feels about each sinner. Also, the reader can look deeper in the text and examine the