Ideas of power and hope have preoccupied the minds of humanity for a long time. Truths like these fill the backdrop of our consciousness and yet our reason can’t make sense of them. I’ve come to my own terms with these truths and attempted giving them my own definitions using the conventional ones as a foundation. If power is the capacity to change things then hope must be the belief in the existence of such capacity. Edmond Dantes, a young ambitious sailor and groom-to-be was wrongfully imprisoned in The Château d'If where he was left in a cold, dirty, and isolated cell with nothing but his own thoughts.
Dantes lost all hope, he was left tormented to face uncertainty which stripped him of his belief in anything. It wasn’t until he was met with the resolve of a frail old priest who, despite his weakness, still mustered the audacity to have hope that he began to believe again. This stirred something in Dantes; “No, Dantes needed only to be encouraged by example. Anything that another man had done or could have done, Dantes would do.” In that moment Dantes realized that hope lies beyond reason and that the only person who can strip him of all hope is himself. To me, this entire prison sequence was about Dantes’ encounter with uncertainty and how capacity is only rationalized internally. No matter how hopeless your situation is, there is solace in the fact that it is temporary and your own capacities which you have grown accustomed to your entire life won’t betray you.
Later in the story as Dantes’ enacts the revenge he plotted during his time spent in The Château d'If he briefly has a conversation with one of his adversaries (under a guise of course). Up to this point Dantes had been living as “The Count”, a wealthy lord of oriental eccentricities[1], and his elusive/mysterious nature had raised a lot of questions. Sitting across from one of his clueless adversaries he proclaims himself as “an agent of providence”. Dantes goes on to recount an allegory where he made a bargain with the devil atop a mountain in which he asked to be providence in exchange for his soul. Satan says he can’t give him that because providence already exists and works invisibly so no one can become it.[2] The best he can do for the count is make him an agent of it, which he accepts. The count intentionally echoes the temptation of Jesus found in the bible[3] and inverts it. This irony reflects the internal conflict that Dantes has to overcome in order to take revenge. Dantes believes that he is carrying out a transcendental mission that suspends all ethics[4] yet accepts this undertaking from Satan in exchange for the humanity gifted to him by God.
This is one of the best stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. To all the future readers who pass by the thick spine of this 19th century masterpiece at their local bookstore or own bookshelf and wonder if reading this book is a good use of their time I leave you with some of its last words: “Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.” Have patience and enjoy the book.
[1] There is a very strong literary connection between this book and Arabian Nights. The story is littered with direct allusion for Arabian nights and Dantes even uses the name “Sinbad the Sailor”, who is a prominent character from the story.
[2] Satan’s acknowledgement of God’s oneness is shared in islam and christianity. What makes him evil is his defiance
[3] Matthew 4:1-11