The Count of Monte Cristo

Dantes, who was then mostly known as the Count of Monte Cristo, then made arrangements to find out who had remained his true friends. In disguise as an Abbe Busoni, he questioned Caderousse. He found out that his love had married Fernand and his father had died. However, his dear friend, a Monsieur Morrel, an owner of a shipping business, had throughout Dantes absence cared for his father and frequently tried to find ways to free Edmond Dantes. After the greedy Caderousse received a diamond from the count, he committed murder in an attempt to get more money still but he met his deserved demise in the end. The Count of Monte Cristo rewarded Morrel, who was almost bankrupt, anonomously and very extravagantly for loyalty and kind heart. The parts of the story that follow are mostly describing the count's revenge. He concentrated his efforts on punishing all those who had caused him harm in any way. He did not do so frankly or quickly either. He formed elaborate plans which intertwined the surely dismal fates of all his enemies. All his enemies lost a great deal of money, security and sanity, but they also lost loved ones. When one thinks about it, all these losses mirror his own which were inflicted on him by those greedy, jealous men.

Vengeance also made the Count hateful, but when he saw that Albert de Morcerf, who had become his friend (son of Mercedes and Fernand) was suffering and when Mercedes told him she knew who he really was, he began to wonder if his plan of vengeance was quite as justified. People other than his enemies were getting hurt. Because the Count played a part in exposing Fernand's dishonesty and nasty character to the world, Albert de Morcerf challenged the count to a duel and then Mercedes made sure that the Count would promise not to kill her son. When he found out who the Count really was and what his father had done, Albert apologized and the duel was called off. The Count's dear friend Maximilien (the son of Morrel) and Villefort's daughter Valentine, who was betrothed to someone else, fell in love with each other. As her only real protector in the family, Valentine's grandfather Noirtier, who could not communicate except through his eyes, was nonetheless able to make it so that she did not have to marry the other man that she did not love. However, Madame de Villefort had poisoned several of the other people in the house and planned to do the same to Valentine so that her son would get Valentine's fortune instead. The Count decided to watch over her and saved her from being poisoned. While assuring both Valentine and Maximilien that she would be fine, he gave her a powerful sleeping drug and everyone thought her to be dead. After stopping Maximilien from committing suicide, he took him with him to the island of Monte Cristo to show him his fortune. He revealed that Valentine was not dead in time to stop Maximilien from suicide a second time. In the end,