Similarities Between Frankenstein And The Count Of Monte Cristo

Everyone has a thirst for vengeance, but, rarely, is revenge ever sweet. “The old law ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind,” Martin Luther King Jr. (“Revenge”). After reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, both published in the 1800s, it’s obvious that revenge is a major, consistent theme in both books. Although revenge is glamorized and encouraged in literature, such as The Count of Monte Cristo and Frankenstein, pop culture, and society, it is never morally justified and it causes collateral damage.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas is solely based on the theme of taking revenge on those who wronged the main character, Edmond Dantes. Edmond Dantes does indeed gain vengeance,

When Victor realizes that the human-like creature he created was an absolute monster, he abandoned it which led to the monster’s ultimate revenge. "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge.” (Shelley 121). The monster is talking about his horrible creator, Victor, and that he is responsible for his misery. To release his anger, he burns down a cottage rather searching for Victor. He catches his first real taste of revenge when he murders Victor’s younger brother, William, while they both happened to be walking through the forest. William made some distasteful comments towards the monster then proceeded to say that his father was a Frankenstein in which the monster had the instinct to grab the boy and strangle him to death. Not only did the monster murder William, but after several events, killed Victor’s best friend and his wife. All of Victor’s loved ones are dead now due to the monster’s actions, and he vows to hunt down the monster and to harass him until he or the monster falls dead in a physical conflict. “...I swear...to pursue the demon who caused this misery until he or I shall perish in

Rather than doing the damage themselves for revenge, people resort to a lawyer, the police, or the government to get back at someone. A Harvard professor persecuted a family-run Chinese restaurant for mistakenly overcharging the man $4.00 (“The Futility of Vengeance”). People who tend to take revenge seem to overreact about the situation. A man in Sweden was upset with his daughter’s husband for not staying home with her while she was sick and told the FBI that the son-in-law was associated with al-Qaeda (“Modern-Day Revenge”). The U.S. authorities showed up and the man was charged with libel for for lying. People who don’t trust the government to help or plan to do something illegal, take matters into their own hands. A woman named Carol Bond discovered her husband got her best friend pregnant and to get revenge, attempted to poison her former friend 24 different times (“The Toxic Revenger: Supreme Court Considers a Crime of Passion”). It’s a bit sick, but this shows that no matter how often someone says, “I’d never do that,” it really depends on the situation. It’s easy to see that the act of revenge only leads to disaster and, in the end, no one ever benefits from