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mbitions, 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 beco本论文由英语论文网 www.51lunwen.org整理提供me 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 illegit