Count of Monte Cristo Comparing

Count of Monte Cristo

Comparing the Counts of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most popular novels by the French writer Alexander Dumas of the nineteenth century. It is a tale of revenge that takes many years to carry out, and is full of twists and turns. There is also a large cast of characters in the novel, each of them involved in the revenge plot in one way or another. All of this makes for a very complicated though compelling story, which is perhaps the reason that the story has remained so popular. It is so popular, in fact, that it has been made into numerous film adaptations, including one in 2002 starring James Caviezel and Guy Pearce. This movie greatly simplifies the story by eliminating several characters and simplifying the plot. These changes to do alter the story considerably, making it much more streamlined and therefore more appropriate for film. The complexity of Dumas' original Count of Monte Cristo works well in a novel, where the reader is able to control the pace of the plot to some degree, but in a film the more simplified version shows the emotional and dramatic highs and lows to the audience much more clearly.

One of the themes in the novel is jealousy, and in fact this could be said to be the driving force behind almost all of the actions taken in the Count of Monte Cristo. Danglars, Fernand Mondego, and Caderousse are all jealous of Dantes, which is why they develop the plot to imprison him. When Dantes escapes and becomes wealthy, a certain type of jealousy can be seen in his complicated and drawn out revenge plot. He is mostly getting back at these men for what they did to him, but he punishes the wealthy offenders far more than the now-poor Caderousse. In a way, it seems as though it is Dantes' jealousy of what these men were able to accomplish while he languished in a prison that causes him to behave the way he does for so long.

This theme is also apparent in the most recent film version of Te Count of Monte Cristo, but it is illustrated differently. This is because the character of Caderousse is not in the movie at all, which eliminates several of the sub-plots that are apparent in the book and also makes the issue of revenge much clearer. In the book, Caderousse serves as a foil to the other conspirators. While Danglars, Mondego, and even Villefort have all achieved much greater success in life during the years of Dantes imprisonment at their hands, Caderousse has not been so lucky. He is the most straightforwardly dishonest of the men, becoming a career thief in the course of the novel, =but he is also the most sympathetic -- or perhaps just pathetic -- of the conspirators. Dantes attempts in the novel to redeem Caderousse also show his more hopeful side, and his ability to see that nothing everything is as simple as right and wrong.

In the film, however, right and wrong tend to be very clear concepts, with the conspirators completely condemned for their actions and the good characters remaining almost entirely unharmed by Dantes, especially in the long-term. The removal of Caderousse from the story allows for this to happen much more clearly than it does in the novel by eliminating the one conspirator that Dantes showed sympathy for. In a strange way, though Caderousse was a foil to the real evil of Danglars and Mondego in the book, the fact that he is absent from the movie makes the evil of the other men stand out even more. The film version of the Count of Monte Cristo creates a world that is far more black-and-white, where bad is bad and must be punished.

The same basic principle is true of the good characters in the film as well. In the novel, for instance, Dantes' former fiance Mercedes marries Fernand Mondego while Dantes is imprisoned, and has a son by him. In the course of Dantes' revenge plot against Mondego, Fernand is publicly vilified and humiliated, and Mercedes and her son Albert head to far-off lands where their names and pasts will not be known and they can begin new lives, away from the shame brought to them by Fernand Mondego as their husband and father. Both Mercedes and Albert are basically good people, and their shame at Fernand's actions shows this. Yet the fact that they must leave to start new lives is a very harsh punishment, and it is visited upon them through no fault of their own. Dumas seems to be making a subtle point about revenge and the fallout of any action that harms another person, even -- or perhaps especially -- if the harm is only done to their reputation. Regardless of the point he is making in the novel, however, it is clear that the world is not simple, and that good people must suffer, too.

In the movie, however, tings end up drastically different for Mercedes and her son Albert, as well as for Dantes himself. Fernand Mondego is still shamed by some of is pas actions, but rather than flee Mercedes tells Dantes something very important -- Albert is actually Dantes' son, and the only reason Mercedes married Mondego was because she thought Dantes had died shortly after being imprisoned. This allows Dantes and Mercedes to form a new relationship, and Dantes is able to know Albert as his son. The movie ends with this new happy family starting a calmer life together, something that would have been utterly impossible in the book. In this way, the good aren't punished and in fact tings end up almost as happy -- perhaps happier, due to Dantes' riches -- as they would have had Dantes never been imprisoned. Balance is restored more effectively in the movie than it is in the book, making the story sharper.