The Count of Monte Cristo: How Far Are We Willing To Go For Revenge?
An eye for an eye—the simplest definition of revenge. It never is that simple though. When injustice and revenge become your driving force, the line of morality blurs. How far are we willing to go to avenge the life we were once stripped of?
Once Edmond Dantès, a sailor, had everything. He was marrying the love of his life, he was the pride and joy of his father, and his bravery earned him a promotion at sea. Through hard work, courage, and love, he had formed a life many envied. Nonetheless, on his wedding day, it was all stripped away in one act of betrayal by his closest friends. An injustice left him helpless and doomed to incarceration on a remote island, forever separated from the life he knew.
Dantès was betrayed at every turn. Friends became foes, love turned to loss, and his future disappeared. Revenge became his driving force, but to what extent can revenge justify his future actions against the next generation and the friends he once had. Love, justice, pain, and revenge—this is the story of The Count of Monte Cristo (2024), a gripping retelling of the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas questioning the results and guiding forces of our choices.
Edmond Dantès loved Mercedes, a woman from one of the wealthiest families in Marseilles. On a recent mission, he dove into the water to save a drowning woman whose ship sank. As a result he gained a promotion and was finally set to marry, making his father, who worked for Mercedes’ family, proud.
However, everything changed when he was arrested in the middle of the wedding ceremony. His wife in agony and concern, looked at his family trying desperately to secure his release. Dantes's closest friends and confidants betrayed him. His captain did this angrily after his dismissal and Edmond's appointment. Nonetheless, the biggest betrayal was when his best friend, Fernand, a cousin of Mercedes not only backed up this false accusation but did so in order to steal his fiancee.
A hero, lover, soon-to-be husband, and son turned into a prisoner in jail for life, alone, counting his days. He had everything and now, nothing. He lost motivation and reason. He had nothing to live for until a man in the cell beside him, Abbé, found him and shared with him his plan to escape and find a hidden fortune known as the treasure of the Count of Monte Cristo. Upon escaping, Dantés found the treasure and began his new life as the Count of Monte Cristo.
Upon returning to Marseille he found out his father died out of grief, his fiancee married Fernand, and those who defended him ended up killed, jailed, or trafficked. The scenes of the Count, seeing his home completely gone, left him broken. He now had one clear goal: revenge.
And so, the Count set off on his journey of vengeance, getting back at all those people that had taken his past and his future from him. Despite getting back at various people, one key choice in the movie occurred when the son of Mercedes called a duel against the Count. This meant the death of one, and because of his expertise, it wouldn’t be the Count. While it might have seemed like the Count was going to go through with it, he was met at a crossroad. He had rebuilt a life, an identity, only to be able to avenge those who had taken everything from him. Yet, he still loved Mercedes. He knew he had no chance of being with her now, but he once had her himself and those moments remained dear to his heart. Upon the duel being called the Count begins to recall his life with Mercedes, the love they shared, which he now saw in her son Albert and the girl the Count had brought to lure him in. Nonetheless, the two children had fallen in love, it was pure just like his old love had once been.
The announcement of the duel brought Mercedes to go to visit the Count, she was clear in her message: “Don’t punish him for his father’s sins” (The Count of Monte Cristo (2024)). The count had a choice, avenge the man that took that love from him or let a child live without paying for the father’s actions.
This choice is the one that stuck with me the most as he had to choose between avenging his life through the death and pain of his enemy while causing the same pain to the woman he once loved or abandoning his fight for justice. This is significant as the Count explained that “if I renounce my fight for justice, I renounce the only force keeping me alive”(Count of Monte Cristo (2024)). He had spent so much time defined by revenge he forgot who he was before that.
The Count decided to let the child live during the duel, allowing Albert to remain with his loved one. The Count had decided that he would no longer let his life be guided by vengeance and justice, as he realized "I became what I needed to survive. But that is not who I am"(Count of Monte Cristo (2024)). He had seen too many deaths and harmful consequences of his actions, and he did not want to continue being a man guided by such causes leading to harm. He turned to a life of love, and hope, running away yet retaining the personality and morals of the man he once was.
Although the story has only been told in French, when it is translated into other languages, it is a must-watch. Despite the age of the novel, its themes are timeless and contain stories that resonate with conflicts that are a part of human nature. When I first saw it in the Alliance Française here in Singapore the story stuck with me. It left me reflecting on a lot of different choices made. The whole movie circles betrayal and love but it all left me wondering to what extent are those reasons even choices. We don’t choose who we love, we don’t choose who hurts us, and what we can choose is what we do with the cards we have been handed.
Your life matters more than you think. As Dumas explains, the life of Dantès affected everyone. His fiancee married her cousin, the captain bought out the company leaving the owner once favored moneyless, and the woman he saved was trafficked. A life matters. Your life matters. However, it isn’t our simple existence that matters but the choices we make along the way. Dantes chose to save that woman, Dantes chose to befriend Abbé in the jail, he chose to find the treasure, he chose to fight for justice, and he chose to forgive the next generation. He made his choices.
Life is made up of choices. Big or small, the choices we make shape the lives of ourselves and everyone around us. When faced with choices, it's important to take a minute and analyze the possible consequences, reflecting on who we want to be. Although we might not control what happens to us, we can control how we react. People can change, and the important thing is to let your choices be a reflection of who you want to be, not necessarily who you were.
References:
La Patellière, Alexandre, and Matthieu Delaporte, dirs. The Count of Monte Cristo. Pathé, 2024. 2 hr., 58 min.