If one views Dantes as a man who embodies a kind of Divine Retribution and acts according to the principles of justice, the novel appears in an entirely different light. One is willing to accept Dantes' actions, even if they do appear to be extreme (and murderous) at times. However, one is placated by Dantes' ability to show mercy to Danglars.
On the other hand, if one chooses to read the novel as Marinetti describes it -- as an attempt to illustrate modern man's reach for omniscience and power -- one may see it as a Romantic dream. In this sense, Dantes becomes a man fashioned after the principles of Rousseau, the French philosopher who wrote of accepting oneself on Nature's own terms. Rousseau did not accept the principal of original sin and thus did not accept the idea that man was fallen in nature. Viewed from this standpoint, Dantes becomes a Romantic hero, whose imprisonment is equated to the modern's sense of the traditional concept of sin. Dantes frees himself from prison and thus from this concept and begins a course of exacting justice on those who betrayed him. Dumas himself describes him thus: "erect and triumphant, like the avenging angel" (517).
From this standpoint Dantes' journey and quest for vengeance is just because it is Romantic. Dantes' doubt at the end of the tale allows him to explore the reasons for his vengeance and analyze whether they are just or not. Because he is a Romantic hero and personifies self-acceptance, his vengeance is viewed as morally just: it is part of his plan of upward mobility and the rightful enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Dantes is heroic because he does not crumble under the weight of introspection. He looks at himself just as Rousseau looks at himself in his Confessions, and realizes that he cannot be condemned for pursuing his course of revenge (even if it might have unwanted consequences). Dantes accepts everything, and because he accepts everything he is able to climb another step higher...
By coming to a new sense of nobility, he allows Danglars to have his freedom too (but of course he has been punished and has also repented as well).
Thus, one may see Dantes as a representative of two kinds of men -- one in the Christian tradition, embodying the justice of God and repaying all men for their actions, whether good or bad; and one in the Romantic tradition, embodying the self-acceptance of Rousseau and the doctrine of possessing an unfallen nature. In the former, Dantes' quest for vengeance is just because it is tempered, ultimately, by mercy (and therefore representative of God). In the latter, Dantes' quest for vengeance is just because it is natural: it represents (as Copes states) "the innate desire to enact justice or to deliver comeuppance, a desire that few can suppress completely when wronged" (Copes 362). In either case, Dantes may be judged as morally just in his actions.
In conclusion, although the Count of Monte Cristo is a tale of revenge, Dantes may be viewed as a character who acts justly. Throughout the novel, he both rewards and punishes -- representing the Christian concept of God (especially as John describes in the book of Revelation). On the other hand, Dantes may be viewed as morally just because according to the Natural teaching of Rousseau, there is no reason to view him as morally corrupt when he is simply acting on a natural impulse. Dantes, thus, may be seen as both a representation of God's justice and as a representation of the Romantic hero's need to act according to nature.
Works Cited
Copes, Heith. "Social Control, Deviance, and Law." Contemporary Sociology, vol. 36,
no. 4, 362-3. Print.
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo. Boston: Little, Brown and Company,
1904. Print.
Marinetti, Amelita. "Death, Resurrection, and Fall in Dumas' Comte de Monte-Cristo."
The French Review, vol. 50, no. 2, 260-269. Print.
