The Count of Monte Cristo - Chapters 17 -23

[Peg]

Dantes learned so much from Faria , not just languages but how to figure out what makes people do what they do.

In chapter 17, Faria helps Dantes figure out how he ended up in prison using the axiom

“if you visit to discover the author of any bad action, seek first to discover the person to whom the perpetration of that bad action could be in any way advantageous.”

Dantes was so naive in the first chapters, he really needed this lesson.

[Cindy]

I was so happy when Dantes is able, with Faria's help, to connect the dots and figure out (correctly!) who was responsible for putting him in prison! I really love this book this far. Not only will Dantes be a wealthy man once he gets out and retrieves (I presume he will) the hidden fortune, but he will be a learned and genteel man, as well. "A man of the world and of high society, the abbe also had a sort of melancholy majesty in his bearing--from which Dantes, endowed by nature with an aptitude for assimilation, was able to distil the polite manners that he had previously lacked and an aristocratic air which is usually acquired only by association with the upper classes or by mixing with those of superior attainments," (171). Most men leave prison changed, but Dantes is going in as a common seaman and leaving a gentleman!

[Marie]

You are my son, Dantes," exclaimed the old man. "You are the child of my captivity.

I love this quote from chapter 18 because there is something so universal about the old man saying that he is the child of his captivity that is relevant to the bonds that are formed in trials and how strong they can be.

[Dan]

Dantes may have left prison with the manners of a gentleman. He can act like one without being one. Dantes so far is a great guy, but now that he is free he is also obsessed with finding both treasure and revenge.