Question

Write a character sketch of Dantes using examples from
the text.​

Answer 1

Answer:

Edmond Dantes, the novel’s protagonist, is a French sailor who is wrongfully imprisoned at age 19, escapes, and then spends his life getting meticulous revenge on the men who wronged him. He is fiercely loyal, and—as his elaborate plans show—quite capable and intelligent. At the novel’s start, Dantes is poised for a glorious life as a future captain-at-sea and husband to the beautiful Mercedes. But Dantes’s life is changed entirely when a group of jealous men (Danglars, Fernand, Caderousse, and Villefort) hatch a plot to imprison him unjustly. Dantes lives in a dungeon for fourteen years, befriending the Abbe Faria (who provides an education to substitute his lack of formal schooling). When Dantes escapes, he recovers the Abbe’s much-spoken-about fortune on the island of Monte Cristo. Dantes devotes his life after prison to vengeance against those who plotted against him, which marks a shift in his character: while he was openhearted and generous at the beginning of the novel, prison has embittered him, making him prioritize vengeance over love. Eventually, Dantes becomes so consumed by revenge that he can hardly distinguish between those who have wronged him and those who are innocent bystanders. After ruining the lives of his enemies and developing a chaste friendship with Mercedes, however, the Count undergoes another shift. Realizing that he is more fulfilled by love than vengeance, he becomes betrothed to his former “slave” Haydee and bequeaths his fortune to Maximilien Morrel, son of his former shipping boss, and to Valentine, the daughter of Villefort.