Monday, September 24, 2012

How were Dantes's ideas of justice and vengeance shaped by his imprisonment?

When Dantes is imprisoned in The Count of Monte Cristo, he spends eight years in the company of and learning from Abbe Faria, an Italian priest. As they work together to dig an escape tunnel, Dantes learns how to read and write, as well as how to fight and reason.
His education drives him in this time, as does his isolation and desire for revenge. Through the education, he decides to better himself if he ever escapes, but he also plans elaborate revenge. The gift afforded him by his time in solitude, as well as his time working with Faria, is a great sense of patience. He spends a total of around fourteen years in Chateau d'If, training, learning, and digging. This patience encourages his vengeance to grow and gives him time to deduce who betrayed him. As he grows stronger, so does his desire for revenge, and his plans grow more cruel and exacting, as he plans to inflict corresponding punishments onto everyone who has wronged him, according to what they have done—in essence, truly an "eye for an eye".

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