Dante's Revenge

God has a major role as the supreme being over all life, but through focusing on one aspect of His job in particular, one can conclude that Dantes is trying to play God’s role as justice-giver. Dantes, as the Count of Monte Cristo, is in the process of infiltrating the lives of his enemies in order to plot and exact the perfect revenge. In one instance, he is talking with Monsieur Villefort, the corrupt prosecutor who imprisoned him on false charges. He tells Villefort, “I want to be Providence, because the thing that I know which is finest, greatest, and most sublime in the world is to reward and to punish” (Dumas 556). Dantes admits his obsession with justice - reward and punishment - to Monsieur Villefort. He acknowledges his desire to be

Revenge is fueled by anger, but in the case of Dantes’s revenge, it is morally just as “the connection to anger … is common, and even fundamental, but it is not enough to make revenge immoral, for anger … can itself be morally justified” (McClelland 198). His anger is not without reason - he was falsely convicted of a crime due to corruption in the justice system. Thus, his anger is just and therefore his revenge is just, as well. In that, his actions of revenge can also be considered actions of serving justice. Both traditional and contemporary theologians are correct in some part about the role of God in serving justice while also being loving and merciful. Traditional theologians believe that it is God’s role to be harsh when necessary while contemporary theologians believe that God is loving and forgiving of man. Both are right in that “there are principles of justice that require a perfectly just God to condemn men who are sufficiently sinful to hell” (Adams 434). Dantes takes the role as the “perfectly just God” and instead of sending them to Hell as their punishment, he does what he is capable of with the power that he has earned. In the beginning when Dantes is depicted as the innocent man he was, the characteristic of love is easily visible. Throughout the story it is less visible, and he is harsher in his serving of justice to his offenders. Nevertheless, he ends up marrying Haydee, showing that love is still within him. Evidently, Dantes is ultimately a depiction of a God who represents love, but still serves justice as it fits, no matter if it is a harsh punishment, or a loving