It is Fernand’s loving devotion to Mercedes that prompts him to go along with the treacherous plot that allows him to eventually marry her and move with her to Paris.ĭuring his time in prison, Dantes convinces himself that his purpose should be to exact revenge on those who have wronged him.

And love, Dumas’s central indicator of happiness, is not exclusive to Dantes, either. In this sense, Dumas understands Dantes’ loving relationships to his father, Mercedes, and Old Morrel as standing in for all the happiness that might have been his, had he not had the misfortune to run afoul of the jealous and cowardly Danglars, Caderousse, Villefort, and Fernand. Instead, Dantes’ life is only redeemed once he accepts romantic love from Haydee, a more platonic and friendly love for Mercedes, and a familial love with young Morrel and his intended, Valentine.ĭantes loses a great deal in being wrongfully imprisoned-his freedom of movement, his career-but most devastatingly, he also loses, for a time, the loving bonds that tie him to others. After escaping from the prison at the Chateau D’If, Dantes, as the Count of Monte Cristo, spends years exacting revenge on those who have betrayed him, but this does not return to him the happy life that was once in his grasp. Dantes is also a dutiful son to his loving father, Old Dantes, and Dantes recognizes, too, that his relationship to Old Morrel, the owner of the vessel on which he sails, is one of paternal and loving devotion. At the beginning of the novel, Dantes is about to marry his love, Mercedes, but the jealousy of those around him leads him to be falsely imprisoned on his betrothal day, which takes away his young life and thwarts his romantic fulfillment. The Count of Monte Cristo is a story of revenge and redemption, but Dumas presents both revenge and redemption as being motivated by love.

Last line of the count of monte cristo