Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Limits of Human Justice
Edmond Dantès takes justice into his own hands because
he is dismayed by the limitations of society’s criminal justice
system. Societal justice has allowed his enemies to slip through
the cracks, going unpunished for the heinous crimes they have committed
against him. Moreover, even if his enemies’ crimes were uncovered,
Dantès does not believe that their punishment would be true justice. Though
his enemies have caused him years of emotional anguish, the most
that they themselves would be forced to suffer would be a few seconds
of pain, followed by death.
Considering himself an agent of Providence, Dantès aims
to carry out divine justice where he feels human justice has failed.
He sets out to punish his enemies as he believes they should be
punished: by destroying all that is dear to them, just as they have
done to him. Yet what Dantès ultimately learns, as he sometimes
wreaks havoc in the lives of the innocent as well as the guilty,
is that justice carried out by human beings is inherently limited.
The limits of such justice lie in the limits of human beings themselves.
Lacking God’s omniscience and omnipotence, human beings are simply
not capable of—or justified in—carrying out the work of Providence. Dumas’s
final message in this epic work of crime and punishment is that
human beings must simply resign themselves to allowing God to reward
and punish—when and how God sees fit.
Relative Versus Absolute Happiness
A great deal separates the sympathetic from the unsympathetic characters
in The Count of Monte Cristo. The trait that is
most consistently found among the sympathetic characters and lacking among
the unsympathetic is the ability to assess one’s circumstances in
such a way as to feel satisfaction and happiness with one’s life.
In his parting message to Maximilian, Dantès claims that “[t]here
is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the
comparison of one state with another, nothing more.” In simpler
terms, what separates the good from the bad in The Count
of Monte Cristo is that the good appreciate the good things
they have, however small, while the bad focus on what they lack.
Dantès’s enemies betray him out of an envy that arises
from just this problem: despite the blessings these men have in
their own lives, Dantès’s relatively superior position sends them
into a rage of dissatisfaction. Caderousse exemplifies this psychological
deficiency, finding fault in virtually every positive circumstance
that life throws his way. Caderousse could easily be a happy man,
as he is healthy, clever, and reasonably well off, yet he is unable
to view his circumstances in such a way as to feel happy. At the
other end of the spectrum are Julie and Emmanuel Herbaut—they are
fully capable of feeling happiness, even in the face of pressing
poverty and other hardships. The Dantès of the early chapters, perfectly
thrilled with the small happiness that God has granted him, provides
another example of the good and easily satisfied man, while the
Dantès of later chapters, who has emerged from prison unable to
find happiness unless he exacts his complicated revenge, provides
an example of the bad and unsatisfiable man.
Love Versus Alienation
Dantès declares himself an exile from humanity during
the years in which he carries out his elaborate scheme of revenge.
He feels cut off not only from all countries, societies, and individuals
but also from normal human emotions. Dantès is unable to experience
joy, sorrow, or excitement; in fact, the only emotions he is capable
of feeling are vengeful hatred and occasional gratitude. It is plausible
that Dantès’s extreme social isolation and narrow range of feeling
are simply the result of his obsession with his role as the agent
of Providence. It is not difficult to imagine that a decade-long
devotion to a project like Dantès’s might take a dramatic toll on
one’s psychology.
Yet Dantès’s alienation from humanity is not solely due
to his obsessive lust for revenge but also to his lack of love for
any living person. Though he learns of his enemies’ treachery years
before he escapes from prison, his alienation from humanity begins
to take hold only when Abbé Faria dies. Until Faria’s death, Dantès’s
love for Faria keeps him connected to his own humanity, by keeping
the humanizing emotion of love alive within him. When Dantès learns that
his father is dead and that Mercédès has married another man, his
alienation is complete. There are no longer any living people whom
he loves, and he loses hold of any humanizing force.
