The Count of Monte Cristo

“Edmond and Mercédès fell into each other’s arms. The fierce Marseilles sun shining in through the door covered them with a flood of light. At first they saw nothing around them; their overwhelming happiness isolated them from the rest of the world. Then Edmond suddenly became aware of a somber face glaring at him out of the shadows. Fernand had unconsciously put his hand to the handle of the knife in his belt.” 

This passage shows how the happiness of Edmond and Mercédès arouses the jealousy of Fernand, who then helps Danglars carry out the plot that results in Edmond’s arrest on his wedding day. The passage presents individuals as interconnected, whether they are aware of it or not. Happiness and good fortune do not exist in isolation, as people always compare their state with the state of others. The novel suggests that envy and aggression lie just below the surface of human nature and are easily aroused by such comparisons.

“I don’t think man was meant to obtain happiness so easily. Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.”

Edmond presents a view of happiness that will echo in his final letter to Maximilien, describing it as something only understood by those who have also experienced misfortune and despair. Edmond’s comment, made moments before his arrest at his wedding, also foreshadows the misfortunes and struggles he will soon face.

“He told himself that it was the hatred of men, not the vengeance of God, which had plunged him into the abyss in which he now found himself. He doomed these unknown men to all the tortures his fiery imagination could contrive, but even the cruelest ones seemed too mild and too short for them, for after the torment would come death which would bring them if not rest, at least the insensibility that resembles it.”

Facing despair during his imprisonment in the Chateau d’If, Edmond conceives of the vengeance that will consume him until almost until the book’s end. This passage articulates key elements of his philosophy of revenge: the blame for his misfortune lies with specific individuals who should be punished, and that the ideal punishment should bring the recipient to an understanding of the suffering they have caused instead of simply ending their life.