Count of Monte Cristo, The: Week 2 - Part 2: Chapters 21-40

[MadgeUK]

We breathe a sigh of relief - our hero has survived! thankfully we learn that swimming underwater to escape the eyes of his jailers 'was an easy feat to him, for he
usually attracted a crowd of spectators in the bay before the lighthouse at Marseilles when he swam there, and was unanimously declared to be the best swimmer in the port.' He decides that the Isle of Tiboulen was the safest island for him to head for and he swam there by the light of Planier. 'Before him rose a grotesque mass of rocks, that resembled nothing so much as a vast fire petrified at the moment of its most fervent combustion. It was the Island of Tiboulen....Dantes rose, advanced a few steps, and, with a fervent prayer of gratitude, stretched himself on the granite. which seemed to him softer than down.:-

http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/TE...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3350/3...

http://www.leuchtturm-welt.net/HTML/F...

'He knew that it was barren and without shelter; but when the sea became more calm, he resolved to plunge into its waves again, and swim to Lemaire, equally arid, but larger, and consequently better adapted for concealment.':

http://commondatastorage.googleapis.c...

Lemaire doesn't look much better to me!!

[[deleted user]]

Did you ever doubt that our hero would triumph? O ye of little faith. I'm rather puzzled by the character of Caderousse, is he really forgiven and rewarded? Surely not.

[MadgeUK]

I'm rather puzzled by the character of Caderousse, is he really forgiven and rewarded? Surely not.

After he finds the fortune, which he sees as God rewarding him and approving of his plans of revenge, Dante considers himself God’s messenger on earth, which is why he chooses to disguise himself as a priest when visiting Caderousse - a priest traditionally acts as a direct mediator between God and man. If we look upon Dantes as having the authority to act like Providence and exact justice in the same way as God then we would have to ask would God have forgiven Caderousse because of his deathbed repentance? I think in religious terms the answer would be 'yes'. But when Abbé Busoni/Cristo confronts the dying Caderousse with his faults, Caderousse says, 'what a strange priest you are; you drive the dying to despair instead of consoling them', which implies that Cristo as priest has got it wrong and has no power to forgive - or to condemn. Caderousse is his first act of revenge and already Cristo's plan to act as an avenging God is going wrong.

It is significant that when Dantes is standing in judgment he tends to dress as the Abbé Busoni. Later, when engaging in acts of excessive generosity, as he does toward Morrel, Dantès dresses as an Englishman whom we learn he refers to as Lord Wilmore. (Why an Englishman I wonder?)

[MadgeUK]

In the TV mini-series I recommended in Background info, each episode begins with a scene of the sea foaming around Chateau d'If and Dantes rising out of the sea - I think the sea is meant to be a sort of baptism, a symbol of being 'born again'. Or perhaps a Resurrection, as the grave-diggers were still standing on the shore: '...and on the highest rock was a torch lighting two figures. He fancied that these two forms were looking at the sea; doubtless these strange grave-diggers had heard his cry...But how could he find his way in the darkness of the night? At this moment he saw the light of Planier, gleaming in front of him like a star...'

Did anyone else read Chapter 21 as a rebirth? Is there any more religious symbolism here or later in these chapters?

[Connor]

I never thought about religious symbolism. That's pretty interesting.

[MadgeUK]

The book centres on the theme of revenge and (I think) the biblical notion that only God can exact revenge, therefore Dantes is wrong to do so:-

http://www.bible-topics.com/Revenge.html

I find it odd that although his escape appears to be about his baptism/rebirth as a Christlike figure, he subsequently does not display any of the attributes of Christ, such as forgiveness, 'turning the other cheek'. Although, like Christ, he emerges from a cave on the Island of Monte Cristo - the 'Mountain of Christ' - with the treasure which is the key to his new life, and later he adopts a coat of arms which has allusions to Calvary, 'a mountain with a field of azure with a red cross', he behaves in a very Old Testament way and says (to Villefourt chap 49) ‘I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.’ Perhaps Laurel could comment on this?

Wikipedia says: 'Dumas has himself indicated that he had the idea for the revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo from a story which he had found in a book compiled by Jacques Peuchet, a French police archivist, published in 1838 after the death of the author. Dumas included this essay in one of the editions from 1846. Peuchet related the tale of a shoemaker named Pierre Picaud, who was living in Nîmes in 1807. Picaud had been engaged to marry a rich woman, but three jealous friends falsely accused him of being a spy for England. He was imprisoned for seven years. During his imprisonment a dying fellow prisoner bequeathed him a treasure hidden in Milan. Picaud was released in 1814. He took possession of the treasure and returned under another name to Paris. Picaud spent ten years plotting his successful revenge against his former friends.'

[Laurel]

MadgeUK wrote: "The book centres on the theme of revenge and (I think) the biblical notion that only God can exact revenge, therefore Dantes is wrong to do so:-

http://www.bible-topics.com/Revenge.html

I find it..."

It just occurred to me to wonder whether this book inspired Tolstoy to make "Vengeance is mine" the saying (can't think of the right word) at the beginning of Anna Karenina--sort of an antithesis.

[MadgeUK]

It is possible - CMC was completed in 1844 and Anna Karenina was published in 1873 with the Epigraph at the head of the novel 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay'[saith the Lord] -from Romans 12:19.

[Laurel]

MadgeUK wrote: I find it odd that although his escape appears to be about his baptism/rebirth as a Christlike figure, he subsequently does not display any of the attributes of Christ, such as forgiveness, 'turning the other cheek'. Although, like Christ, he emerges from a cave on the Island of Monte Cristo - the 'Mountain of Christ' - with the treasure which is the key to his new life, and later he adopts a coat of arms which has allusions to Calvary, 'a mountain with a field of azure with a red cross', he behaves in a very Old Testament way and says (to Villefourt chap 49) ‘I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.’ Perhaps Laurel could comment on this?

His arms are pretty convincing. Thanks, Madge; I had missed that. Lets hope the dear count has a change of heart before the book ends. He is very wrong to take revenge into his own hands. I really think Tolstoy might have been trying to correct this book, which he read as a child and then crossed off his list: http://books.google.com/books?id=5Oo3...

[MadgeUK]

Thanks for that link Laurel- most interesting! I can imagine the boy Tolstoy liking the Dumas derring-does but they would not be sophisticated enough for his mature taste. And his was a gentler form of Christianity as can be seen from What I Believe, in which he criticised the dogma of the Russian Orthodox church but upheld the teachings of Christ, particularly the Sermon on the Mount: 'Many and many a time I read over the sermon and every time I felt the same emotion on reading the texts about 'turning one's cheek to the smiter', 'giving up our cloak to him who takes our cloak', 'being at peace with all men' and 'loving our enemies'....'Christ has revealed to me that the fourth snare is "resisting evil by violence" . I know that my doing so leads me and others into evil, and cannot therefore justify myself by saying that it is necessary for the protection of myself, of my property, and that of others. No sooner do I remember this than I cannot help abstaining from violence of any kind.'

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=10...

A very different p.o.v. to that of the Count! Let us see if he has an Ephiphany:).

[Laurel]

MadgeUK wrote:
A very different p.o.v. to that of the Count! Let us see if he has an Ephiphany:).

Oh, I do hope so!

[Loretta]

Only up through Chapter 30. I'm reading diligently (and loving every minute), but worked long hours this past week. I'll comment more when I'm finished with this section, but i suppose most of you will have moved on by then... :(