[Abstract] This paper centers on the lover’s conflicts among four protagonists --- Edmond Dantes, Fernand Mondego, Mercédes, and Haydee in the book of The Count of Monte Cristo. Through the love story, we can find love plays two different roles ---- a killer and a saver. Dantes’ deep love for Mercedes has made him lose himself in the revenge, because Mercedes does not keep her promise and marries Mondego, who is Dantes’ total personal enemy. While love between Dantes and Haydee helps Dantes get him out of the revenge. Alexandre Dumas has given a new annotation to love.

[Key Words] love; The Count of Monte Cristo; revenge

【摘 要】这篇论文主要讨论《基督山伯爵》中四个主人翁爱德蒙·唐太斯、弗尔南多、美塞苔丝和海黛等情侣之间恋爱所引发的矛盾。我们能够发现爱情在整个爱情故事中扮演了两个截然不同的角色——杀手与拯救者。爱德蒙·唐太斯对美塞苔丝深深的爱使他迷失在复仇的怪圈中不能自拔，因为美塞苔丝没有遵守自己的诺言，嫁给了弗尔南多，而他恰恰是爱德蒙·唐太斯真正意义上的仇人。然而爱德蒙·唐太斯与海黛的爱，帮助他找回自己，走出复仇的怪圈。亚历山大仲马给了爱情一个全新的诠释。

【关键词】 爱情；《基督山伯爵》；复仇

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction

2. Context

2.1 Plot overview

2.2 Context on the author

2.3 The origin of the story of The Count of Monte Cristo

3. Introduction of the lovers’ relationship

4. The devastation of love

4.1 Love–the last straw of revenge

4.2 The revenge of love

5. The salvation of love

6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography

1. Introduction

The name of Alexandre Dumas is synonymous with romance and adventure. In June 1844 he wrote The Count of Monte Cristo, his most enduring novel. It has not only delighted generations of readers but made history exciting. It is a great pity that so far we have done little research on this book. This paper centers on the research in the field of love in The Count of Monte Cristo. [1]

Love is a forever theme in every form of literature. Alexandre Dumas has no exception since he is such a romantic person. But Alexandre Dumas has given a new annotation to love. In his novel The Count of Monte Cristo, love plays two different roles----a killer and a saver.

2. Context

2.1 Plot overview

At the age of nineteen, Edmond Dantes seems to have the perfect life. He is about to become the captain of a ship; He is engaged to a beautiful and kind young woman, Mercedes; And he is well liked by almost everyone who knows him. This perfect life, however, stirs up dangerous jealousy among some of Dantes’ so-called friends. Danglars, the treasurer of Dantes ship, envies Dantes’ early career success; Mondego Mondego is in love with Dantes’ fiancee and so covets his amorous success; His neighbor Caderousse is simply envious that Dantes is so much luckier in life than he is.

Together, these three men draft a letter accusing Dantes of treason. There is some truth to their accusations: As a favor to his recently deceased captain, Dantes is carrying a letter from Napoleon to a group of Bonapartist sympathizers in Paris. Though Dantes himself has no political leanings, the undertaking is enough to implicate him for treason. On the day of his wedding, Dantes is arrested for his alleged crimes.

The deputy public prosecutor, Villefort, sees through the plot to frame Dantes and is prepared to set him free. At the last moment, though, Dantes jeopardizes his freedom by revealing the name of the man to whom he is supposed to deliver Napoleon’s letter. The man, Noirtier, is Villefort’s father. Terrified that any public knowledge of his father’s treasonous activities will thwart his own ambitions, Villefort decides to send Dantes to prison for life. Despite the entreaties of Monsieur Morrel, Dantes’ kind and honest boss, Dantes is sent to the infamous Château d’If, where the most dangerous political prisoners are kept.

While in prison, Dantes meets Abbe Faria, an Italian priest and intellectual, who has been jailed for his political views. Faria teaches Dantes history, science, philosophy, and languages, turning him into a well-educated man. Faria also bequeaths Dantes a large treasure hidden on the island of Monte Cristo, and he tells him how to find it should he ever escape. When Faria dies, Dantes hides himself in the abbe’s shroud, thinking that he will be buried and then dig his way out. Instead, Dantes is thrown into the sea, and is able to cut himself loose and swim to freedom.

Dantes travels to Monte Cristo and finds Faria’s enormous treasure. He considers his fortune a gift from God, given to him for the sole purpose of rewarding those who have tried to help him and, more important, punishing those who have hurt him. Disguising himself as an Italian priest who answers to the name of Abbe Busoni, he travels back to Marseilles and visits Caderousse, who is now struggling to make a living as an innkeeper. From Caderousse he learns the details of the plot to frame him. In addition, Dantes learns that his father has died of grief in his absence and that Mercedes has married Mondego. Most frustrating, he learns that both Danglars and Mondego have become rich and powerful and are living happily in Paris. As a reward for this information, and for Caderousse’s apparent regret over the part he has played in Dantes’ downfall, Dantes gives Caderousse a valuable diamond. Before leaving Marseilles, Dantes anonymously saves Morrel from financial ruin.

Ten years later, Dantes emerges in Rome, calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo. He seems to be all knowing and unstoppable. In Rome Dantes ingratiates himself with Albert de Morcerf, son of Mondego and Mercedes, by saving him from bandits. In return for the favor, Albert introduces Dantes to Parisian society. None of his old cohorts recognize the mysterious count as Edmond Dantes, though Mercedes does. Dantes is thus able to insinuate himself effortlessly into the lives of Danglars, Mondego, and Villefort. Armed with damning knowledge about each of them that he has gathered over the past decade, Dantes sets an elaborate scheme of revenge into motion. Mondego, now known as the Count de Morcerf, is the first to be punished. Dantes exposes Morcerf’s darkest secret: Morcerf made his fortune by betraying his former patron, the Greek vizier Ali Pacha. He then sold Ali Pacha’s wife and daughter into slavery. Ali Pacha’s daughter, Haydee, who has lived with Dantes ever since he bought her freedom seven years earlier, testifies against Morcerf in front of the senate, irreversibly ruining his good name. Ashamed by Morcerf’s treachery, Albert and Mercedes flee, leaving their tainted fortune behind. Morcerf commits suicide.

Villefort’s punishment comes slowly and in several stages. Dantes first takes advantage of Madame de Villefort’s murderous intent, subtly tutoring her in the use of poison. As Madame de Villefort wreaks her havoc, killing off each member of the household in turn, Dantes plants the seeds for yet another public expose. In court, it is revealed that Villefort is guilty of attempted infanticide, as he tried to bury his illegitimate baby while it was still alive. Believing that everyone he loves is dead and knowing that he will soon have to answer severe criminal charges, Villefort goes insane.

For his revenge on Danglars, Dantes simply plays upon his greed. He opens various false credit accounts with Danglars that cost him vast amounts of money. He also manipulates Danglars’ unfaithful and dishonest wife, costing Danglars more money, and helps Danglars’ daughter, Eugenie, run away with her female companion. Finally, when Danglars is nearly broke and about to flee without paying any of his creditors, Dantes has the Italian bandit Luigi Vampa kidnap him and relieve him of his remaining money. Dantes spares Danglars’ life, but leaves him penniless.

Meanwhile, as these acts of vengeance play out, Dantes also tries to complete one more act of goodness. Dantes wishes to help the brave and honorable Maximilian Morrel, the son of the kind shipowner, so he hatches an elaborate plot to save Maximilian’s fiancee, Valentine Villefort, from her murderous stepmother, to ensure that the couple will be truly happy forever. Dantes gives Valentine a pill that makes her appear dead and then carries her off to the island of Monte Cristo. For a month Dantes allows Maximilian to believe that Valentine is dead, which causes Maximilian to long for death himself. Dantes then reveals that Valentine is alive. Having known the depths of despair, Maximilian is now able to experience the heights of ecstasy. Dantes too ultimately finds happiness, when he allows himself to fall in love with the adoring and beautiful Haydee.[2]

2.2 Context on the author

Alexandre Dumas was born in 1802 in the village of Villers-Cotterêts, fifty miles northeast of Paris. The younger Dumas was not a good student, but he had excellent handwriting. [3] When he moved to Paris in 1823, hoping to make his fortune as an author, his lovely handwriting earned him a job as a minor clerk. Dumas spent six years as a clerk, during which time he wrote plays, conducted torrid love affairs, and lived beyond his means until in 1829, when he had his first dramatic success with Henry III and His Court.

Like his Romantic colleagues, Dumas believed in the principles of social equality and individual rights. [4] He tried to infuse his dramatic works with these principles. Dumas went further than writing about his beliefs, however. He took an active role in the Revolution of 1830, helping to capture a powder magazine at Soissons, and he was appointed organizer of the National Guard at Vendee. Encountering strong local opposition, Dumas gave up the position, refusing to act against the wishes of the majority.

Returning to the literary community of Paris, Dumas continued to write popular plays, sticking to historical works that he filled with melodrama. He also began to write travel literature, which led to a walking tour of southern France in 1834 [5] (a tour that he would later put to use in The Count of Monte Cristo). In the late 1830s, Dumas began writing novels, as much for financial gain as for artistic reasons. At that time, it was common for cheap newspapers to run novels in serial form. If a writer was adept at writing quickly and melodramatically, as Dumas was, the financial incentives would be enormous. Dumas was so good at this sort of writing that he sometimes had three or four serial novels running simultaneously. His writing soon made him the most famous Frenchman of his day, and he gained renown throughout the Western world. In 1844, the same year when he published The Three Musketeers, Dumas began the serialization of The Count of Monte Cristo. He continued writing prolifically for most of his life, publishing his last novel, The Prussian Terror, in 1867, three years before his death.

Dumas was also a generous man, granting money and gifts to virtually anyone who asked. Dumas’ self-indulgent lifestyle and excessive generosity eventually took a toll on his finance. By the time he suffered a stroke in 1870, he was far from a rich man, despite the fact that he had earned millions of dollars in his lifetime. He died in December, 1870.

2.3 The origin of the story of The Counte of Monte Cristo

Dumas’ liberal borrowing from outside sources occasionally brought him accusations of plagiarism. While he lifted many of his plotlines from the works of other authors and from historical events, he molded these stories in his own characteristic way, making them his own. The Count of Monte Cristo is an example of the appropriation process Dumas frequently employed. His inspiration for the novel was from an anecdote he read in Memoires historiques tires des archives de la police de Paris,[6]a collection of intriguing criminal cases recorded by Jacques Peuchet, a former police archivist. The anecdote relates that in 1807, a man named François Piçaud became engaged to a pretty and wealthy girl, inspiring the envy of his friends. One of these friends, Loupian, persuaded the others to join him in denouncing Piçaud as an English spy. Though innocent of the charge, Piçaud was arrested and kept in prison for seven years. While in prison, he befriended a rich Italian cleric who left Piçaud his vast fortune when he died. Piçaud returned to Paris in 1815 as a wealthy man. Using his wealth, as well as numerous disguises, he enacted a complex plan to avenge himself on his enemies, murdering several of them. Though this real-life story has all the essential plot elements of Dumas’ novel, it lacks the fantastical, epic proportions of a great melodrama. Dumas’ greatest gift was his ability to grant epic proportion to existing stories.[7]

3. Introduction of the lovers’ relationship

Edmond Dantes — The protagonist of the novel. This paper refers to Dantes by his given name until Chapter 30, after which he is generally referred to him as the count of Monte Cristo.

Mercédes — Dantes’ beautiful and good fiancée. Though Mercédes marries another man, Mondego Mondego while Dantes is in prison, she never stops loving Dantes. Mercédes is one of the few whom Dantes both punishes (for her disloyalty) and rewards (for her enduring love and underlying goodness).

Mondego — Dantes’ rival for Mercédes’ affections. Mondego helps in framing Dantes for treason and then marries Mercédes himself when Dantes is imprisoned. Through acts of treachery Mondego becomes a wealthy and powerful man and takes on the name of the Count de Morcerf. He is the first victim of Dantes’ vengeance.

Haydée — The daughter of Ali Pacha, the vizier of the Greek state of Yanina. Haydée is sold into slavery after her father is betrayed by Mondego and murdered. Dantes purchases Haydée’s freedom and watches her grow into adulthood, eventually falling in love with her.

Gérard de Villefort — The blindly ambitious public prosecutor responsible for sentencing Dantes to life in prison, who is just going to marry Renee for his political reasons.

Renee – the daughter of M. de Saint Meran (Villefort’s senior). Renee likes Villefort , who pays more attention other than herself.

Altogether there are four couples of lovers. Their relationship can show as follows:

Dantes Mondego

Mercedes

Villefort Renee

means love

Love has run through The Count of Monte Cristo. Everything comes from it and ends with it.

4. The devastation of love

4.1 Love – the last straw of revenge

At the very beginning of The Count of Monte Cristo, we can easily find Dantes’ deep love for Mercedes. Only having a necessary talk with his boss and his father, Dantes immediately goes to meet Mercedes who expects Dantes no less impatiently than his father. However, it is Mondego who also declares that he loves Mercedes. “… Make me understand once for all that you are trifling with my happiness, that my life or death is nothing to you. Ah, to have dreamed for ten years of being your husband, Mercedes, and to lose that hope, this was the only stay of my existence!"[8]

But it is Mondego who stays with Mercedes all the time when Dantes is on his duty leaving Mercedes. Mondego always looks at Mercedes with “an air in which vexation and uneasiness were mingled. He questioned her with his eyes, but the firm and steady gaze of the young girl controlled his look.” Yes, he loves her so that he wants her to become his own belongings. Because she is “trifling with his happiness, that his life or death are immaterial to her” .Even Mondego “have dreamed for ten years of being her husband, and to lose that hope, with was the only stay of his existences.” What’s Mercedes response? “I love Edmond Dantes” the young girl calmly replied, “and none but Edmond shall ever be my husband.”

“And you will always love him?”

“As long as I live”

Here comes, the first hint for revenge. While Dantes believes so much that as long as Mercedes lives, she will not marry others but him. However, Mercedes marries Mondego. There is no choice but revenge for a man knew his most reliable fiancée married his enemy ---- Mondego. It is the enemy who put him into prison for fourteen years. However, when Dantes first meets Mondego, he does not realize that Mondego considers him as his enemy. “I did not know, when I came with such haste to you, that I was to meet an enemy here.”

As we all know, an enemy always comes with killing. That is revenge, when two men love the same woman, there is nothing but a duel. Love no matter it is pure or deep, has become a last straw for the revenge in the future.

4.2 The revenge of love

After fourteen years, Dantes comes out of prison. The first thing Dantes wants to know is about his fiancée as well as his father. By contrary, when Dantes pretends to be an abbe and goes to Caderousse’s inner to inquiry about what he wants to know, he intently emphasizes that "he" (the abbe) has forgotten what Dantes call her lover.

"Mercedes" cried Caderousse eagerly.

What does Dantes want to cover? How can he forget his betrothed name? That’s owe to suspicion, suspicion for everything .Due to his true honesty to this world, Dantes has been in prison for fourteen years. After his father’s death, there is only Mercedes who Dantes deeply believes in. He hesitates and is keen to knowing what has happened to Mercedes. In the end, he gets the answer that Mercedes has not waited for his coming. So there is noting he values in the world. Revenge is the only reason for his existence. [9] Here comes the force running the revenge of love.

Time flies. After twenty-four years, Dantes finally gets to meet Mercedes again because of her son, who is one part of Dantes plan of revenge. That day "the count bowed again, but lower than before; he was even paler than Mercedes"But when Mercedes (the countess) said:"We shall have this pleasure to meet the Count of Monte Cristo another time. You promise that?" Monte Cristo inclines himself without answering, but the gesture might pass for assent. How can Dantes be so calm to his forever lover’s invitation? It is the most exiting thing for Dantes before he is put into prison. The reason is disloyalty, which causes him to take revenge. Even his former betrothed lover can not change his ideas. It is his former lover.

Soon there comes a second meeting between Dantes and Mercedes. This time Dantes chooses to avoid.

"…But your house is not M. de Morcerfs," murmured Mercedes; "and since he has been here I have watched him."

"Well?"

"Well, he has taken nothing yet."

"The count is very temperate." Mercedes smiled sadly. "Approach him," said she.

Even Mercedes has taken such an initiative, he still gives Mercedes his back. He is afraid to meet Mercedes because he knows that he still loves Mercedes, especially when he has a face with Mercedes. He doesn’t know whether he could let himself under control on facing her. Loving her so deeply only brings him incontrollable hatred due to her disloyalty. As long as Dantes continues to avoid Mercedes, the revenge of love is still on its way.

Although Dantes is so unwilling to meet Mercedes, he meets her a third time on her son—Albert’s birthday ball and has a dance with Mercedes without making any resistance when she invites him to have a dance, which indeed comes to be a face-to-face private talk.

"…But," said the countess, breathlessly, with her eyes fixed on Monte Cristo, whose arm she convulsively pressed with both hands, "We are friends, are we not?"

The count became pale as death, the blood rushed to his heart, and then again rising, dyed his cheeks with crimson; his eyes swam like those of a man suddenly dazzled. "Certainly, we are friends," he replied; "why should we not be?" The answer was so little like the one Mercedes desired, that she turned away to give vent to a sigh, which sounded more like a groan."Actually they are lovers but now they become friends. What a great shock to Dantes especially when it is Mercedes who asks such question to him. The more he meets with Mercedes, the more pain he receives. This eventually strengthens his determination to revenge. Thereafter the Count of Monte Cristo’s real name is known by Mercedes through his indirect statements: "…I loved a young girl, was on the point of marrying her, when war came and carried me away. I thought she loved me well enough to wait for me, and even to remain faithful to my memory. When I returned she was married. This is the history of most men who have passed twenty years of age. Perhaps my heart was weaker than the hearts of most men, and I suffered more than they would have done in my place; that is all." The countess stopped for a moment, as if gasping for breath. Although Mercedes has not recognized Edmond Dantes immediately, that day comes sooner or later.

"…Edmond, you will not kill my son?" The count retreated a step, uttered a slight exclamation, and let fall the pistol he held.

"What name did you pronounce then, Madame de Morcerf?" said he. "Yours!" cried she, throwing back her veil,--"yours, which I alone, perhaps, have not forgotten. Edmond, it is not Madame de Morcerf who is come to you, it is Mercedes."

"Mercedes is dead, Madame," said Monte Cristo; "I know no one now of that name."

"Mercedes lives, sir, and she remembers, for she alone recognized you when she saw you, and even before she saw you, by your voice, Edmond,--by the simple sound of your voice; and from that moment she has followed your steps, watched you, feared you, and she needs not to inquire what hand has dealt the blow which now strikes M. de Morcerf."

Since Mercedes knows who he is, Dantes decides to tell everything to her

"You well know, Madame, was my arrest; but you do not know how long that arrest lasted. You do not know that I remained for fourteen years within a quarter of a league of you, in a dungeon in the Chateau d'If. You do not know that every day of those fourteen years I renewed the vow of vengeance which I had made the first day; and yet I was not aware that you had married Mondego, my calumniator, and that my father had died of hunger!"

"Can it be?" cried Mercédes, shuddering.

"That is what I heard on leaving my prison fourteen years after I had entered it; and that is why, on account of the living Mercédes and my deceased father, I have sworn to revenge myself on Mondego, and--I have revenged myself."

"Oh, Mercedes, I have uttered your name with the sigh of melancholy, with the groan of sorrow, with the last effort of despair; I have uttered it when frozen with cold, crouched on the straw in my dungeon; I have uttered it, consumed with heat, rolling on the stone floor of my prison. Mercedes, I must revenge myself, for I suffered fourteen years,--fourteen years I wept, I cursed; now I tell you, Mercedes, I must revenge myself."

"The count, fearing to yield to the entreaties of her he had so ardently loved, called his sufferings to the assistance of his hatred."Revenge yourself, then, Edmond," cried the poor mother; "but let your vengeance fall on the culprits,--on him, on me, but not on my son!"

Since it is revenge taken by a loyal lover—Dantes, to tell everything to his lover—Mercedes is the perfect result for this kind of revenge.

Here is the end of the revenge of love. No brood! But a millions and thousands of hurt to both lovers—Edmond and Mercedes!

5. The salvation of love

After Mercedes has left Monte Cristo, he falls into profound gloom. Around him and within him the flight of thought seems to have stopped; His energetic mind slumbered, as the body does after extreme fatigue.

Since his revenge has come to its perfect end. There is nothing left as his stay of existence. So life for him has no meanings. He has died for one time in his mind. Death is also nothing for his. He is ready for a second death. Someone should appear to save our poor Dantes. It is love that makes Dantes go through such a fate. It is nothing but love itself could help Dantes out of his revenge cycle and death ideas. It is the author who chooses Haydee to perform this role.

When Haydee first appears in the book, Dumas has given an apparent hint for her part to play in the story.

"...and held out his hand to a young woman, completely enveloped in a green silk mantle heavily embroidered with gold. She raised the hand extended towards her to her lips, and kissed it with a mixture of love and respect. Some few words passed between them in that sonorous language in which Homer makes his gods converse. The young woman spoke with an expression of deep tenderness, while the count replied with an air of gentle gravity. Preceded by Ali, who carried a rose-colored flambeau in his hand, the new-comer, who was no other than the lovely Greek who had been Monte Cristo's companion in Italy, was conducted to her apartments, while the count retired to the pavilion reserved for himself. In another hour every light in the house was extinguished."

Haydee is a saver —Dante’s saver through love.

However, at the beginning Dantes only considers Haydee’s affection for him as love between father and daughter. Only after Haydee’s direct admitment could he realize Haydee’s love a little.

"You are wrong, my lord. The love I have for you is very different from the love I had for my father. My father died, but I did not die. If you were to die, I should die too." The Count, with a smile of profound tenderness, extended his hand, and she carried it to her lips.

What’s more, Haydee also knows she should do in Dantes’ house, which could be a manifesto or beginning of her salvation to Dantes --- her lover!

" …No, my lord. In the morning, I shall rejoice in the prospect of your coming, and in the evening dwell with delight on the happiness I have enjoyed in your presence; then too, when alone, I can call forth mighty pictures of the past, see vast horizons bounded only by the towering mountains of Pindus and Olympus. Oh, believe me, which when three great passions, such as sorrow, love, and gratitude fill the heart, ennui can find no place."

Still Dantes can not believe that God has not forgotten him since he has been forgotten by God in the prison for more than ten years.

"You are a worthy daughter of Epirus, Haydee, and your charming and poetical ideas prove well your descent from that race of goddesses who claim your country as their birthplace. Depend on my care to see that your youth is not blighted, or suffered to pass away in ungenial solitude; and of this be well assured, that if you love me as a father, I love you as a child."

It doesn’t matter because Haydee has known what she should do and when she should do it. She is sure that there will be a suitable chance, so it is.

When Dantes decides to have a duel with Albert, whose mother --- Mercedes has begged Dantes not to kill her son, there is only one result---- Dantes has to die. So he makes a will to Haydee leaving all his money to her if he dies. Haydee smiles sorrowfully, and shakes her head.

"Do you think of dying, my lord?" said she.

"The wise man, my child, has said, 'It is good to think of death."

"Well, if you die," said she, "bequeath your fortune to others, for if you die I shall require nothing;"

And, taking the paper, she tore it in four pieces, and throws it into the middle of the room. Then, the effort having exhausted her strength, she falls not asleep this time, but faints on the floor. The count leans over her and raises her in his arms; and seeing that sweet pale face, those lovely eyes closed, that beautiful form motionless and to all appearance lifeless, the idea occurres to him for the first time, that perhaps she loves him otherwise than as a daughter loves a father.

It is Haydee who lets Dantes reopen his heart to his feeling of love, which, in his eyes, will never come to his ideas when he knows Mercedes has married Mondego. As we know, if a person comes to realize his love, everything in his eyes will be more beautiful than before, especially for Dantes, since there is only revenge in his mind for such a long time.

At last, Haydee succeeds, Love succeeds.

When Dantes asks Haydee to go and gives her freedom, Haydee replies gently: "I love the life you have made so sweet to me, and I should be sorry to die."

"You mean, then, that if I leave you, Haydee"

"I should die; yes, my lord."

"Do you then love me?"

"Oh, Valentine, he asks if I love him. Valentine, tell him if you love Maximilian." The count felt his heart dilate and throb; he opened his arms, and Haydee, uttering a cry, sprang into them. "Oh, yes," she cried, "I do love you! I love you as one loves a father, brother, husband! I love you as my life, for you are the best, the noblest of created beings!"

"Let it be, then, as you wish, sweet angel; God has sustained me in my struggle with my enemies, and has given me this reward; he will not let me end my triumph in suffering; I wished to punish myself, but he has pardoned me. Love me then, Haydee! Who knows? Perhaps your love will make me forget all that I do not wish to remember."

"What do you mean, my lord?"

"I mean that one word from you has enlightened me more than twenty years of slow experience; I have but you in the world, Haydee; through you I again take hold on life, through you I shall suffer, through you rejoice."

7. Conclusion

This is the end of a story caused by love and ended with love! In Dumas’ eyes, love does not only mean sweetness and pain but forgiveness. [10] It is such kind of love that helps Edmond Dantes forgive himself and forgive the people who have betrayed him. There is neither happiness nor misery in the world. There is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living. Live, then, would be happy. Never forget that until the day when God closes all doors, he will leave a window open for you. The key of this window is forgiveness.

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