Entry #4: Moral of the Story

     Have you ever read a book that not only leaves you thinking about the lesson long after you finish reading, but also encourages you to incorporate the moral of the story into your own life? Whether you answered yes or no, fact of the matter is that I have experienced exactly what I described when I read The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. I will attempt to provide a brief overview of the story as context before I get to the moral.

    The main character of the book is a sailor by the name of Edmond Dantès. He was a very bright and cheerfully happy young man, and he was also very naïve. Edmond was very successful, and he was going to be promoted to captain of the Pharaon. In the time the book takes place, being the captain of a ship was quite rewarding, financially. He also had a very beautiful fiancé, whose charms were revered by the townspeople. Basically, he had a very good life ahead of him. Naturally, such a person who "has it all" is more than likely going to incite jealousy from the people around them who are less fortunate, which is exactly what happened. 

    Two people, whom Dantès considered friends due to his naivety, conspired together to come up with a scheme to put Dantès in jail, and it worked. On the day of his wedding, Dantès was charged with a very serious and grave crime that, needless to say, he did not commit. He was made to serve a life-long sentence in a high-security island prison for notorious criminals. Despite all that, Dantès remained positive and assured himself a mistake must have been made; that with a little bit of talking to the right officials, the misunderstanding would be cleared up. Such was not the case. The crime Dantès was charged was a serious and grave offense during the time the novel takes place. Therefore, he never had a chance to "correct" the misunderstanding. Due to his complete naivety, he remained clueless and ever hopeful.

    During his time in prison, Dantès meets another prisoner and they develop a father and son relationship. This other prisoner was extremely intelligent and highly capable, but he was old and dying with a disease. The prisoner managed to figure out the truth behind the conspiracy against Dantès with bits of information that Dantès relayed to him. After finding out the truth, Dantès was enraged, and he swore to bring complete vengeance against those who wronged him. With a resolve unlike any other, Dantès asked the prisoner to teach him everything he knows. During their time in prison, Dantès literally accumulated/inherited an immense knowledge that completely changed his character. But that's not all. The prisoner also gave Dantès a map to an island which conceals the location of an immense wealth. As a result, Dantès experienced a metaphorical rebirth, and he no longer was the naïve and cheerful boy from before. Soon after, the prisoner dies, and Dantès manages to utilize his death to escape the island prison, and he set off on his journey to completely destroy his enemies. 

    A piece of information that is important to note is that when Dantès finally managed to locate his fiancé, he discovered that she gave up on waiting for him and already married; to make matters worse, she married one of the perpetrators responsible for Dantès's downfall. The book ends with a young couple, pretty much a Romeo and Juliet trope, that were left with a letter by Dantès, which reads, "All human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'wait' and 'hope'."

    The words found within the letter can be interpreted in quite a few ways, I imagine. The way I see it, Dantès was ruined by his desire for revenge, and he could have had happiness if he simply retained hope, and if his fiancé had waited for his return, hopefully, might I add. The ending scene and all the drama that happens in the book left a deep and powerful impression on me. I highly encourage any book readers to check this novel out, because I cannot summarize all the important points and twists and characters and relations. I was completely astounded by the novel that it had an impact on the way I live my life. My life slogan is derived from the letter in the novel, and it goes like this, "if you simply have hope while you wait, then everything will work out in the end." I can say I grew as a person after reading this novel because now, I have more patience and I see things with optimism and a bit of a realist touch. When I was younger, I was quite the pessimist and the person that I was then, I would not want to associate with now.

    With all that being said, would you be interested to read The Count of Monte Cristo? It's quite long. The version I read had 1600 pages, but it is definitely worth the read if you are into good books.

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