Keeshia Vayne B.

Perea
The Count of Monte Cristo

CS301

Edmond is sailing in French waters along with his best friend, Fernand, when their captain falls ill. They stop for help at a nearby island, which happens to be where Napolean Bonaparte is in hiding. Bonaparte pulls aside Edmond and asks him to deliver an "innocent letter" to an old friend in Marseille, France. Edmond agrees, as that is the price for the use of Napolean's physician. The captain unfortunately dies, so the crew returns home to Marseille. Edmond is made captain for his bravery in seeking a physician, and thefirst mate comes to despise him for it. Fernand finds out about the letter, and reads it while Edmond is sleeping, and is angry that Edmond did not tell him about it. Edmond, not knowing that Fernand knows about the letter, rushes to greet his fianc, Mercedes, and tell her that they can now be married as he was just promoted to captain. This is also the point in the movie when you realize that Fernand is in love with Mercedes, but she loves Edmond. Fernand, still angry, decides to work together with the furious first mate, and get Edmond arrested for treason, which he didn't commit. Fernand works also with a very important magistrate, Villefort, whose father is the man Edmond was to deliver the letter to. Thus, Edmond is arrested, and thrown into a remote island prison by the name of Chateau D'if. There, he meets Priest, who teaches him many valuable lessons about life, how to sword fight, and give Edmond a proper education. All this is in turn for Edmond helping to dig, in order to escape the prison. For 13 years, Edmond is held captive in the Chateau D'if, and unknown to Edmond, a letter was sent to his family and Mercedes saying that he was executed on grounds of treason. Finally, Edmond escapes when the priest dies, and becomes part of a crew on a merchant vessel, along with his good friend Jaccapo. After 3 months, Edmond is released along with Jaccapo, and they go in search of finding out what has happened to Edmond's loved ones. They find out that Edmond's father committed suicide, and the Mercedes wed Fernand a month after learning of Edmond's execution. Edmond has by this time figured out that he was framed by Fernand and the others. Thus, he and Jaccapo sail to a remote island that the Priest told Edmond about, and there they find a treasure, making Edmond extremely wealthy. Edmond decides to become a count in order to get revenge on those who betrayed him, so he becomes The Count of Monte Cristo, being the treasure he found The Treasure of Monte Cristo. Soon after, he "saves" Fernand and Mercedes' son Alber from captivity, and thus enters the lives of those he is trying to hurt like they hurt him. Mercedes begins to suspect that The Countis really Edmond, and when she confronts him privately, he denies it but slips and she realizes that he really is Edmond. Then, they kiss, and realize that they are still in love, so Mercedes goes back ot her Chateau to inform Fernand that she is leaving him, when Fernand tells her that he has gone bankrupt and is leaving the country. Mercedes proceeds to inform Fernand that Alber is not his son, but Edmond's. Fernand becomes angry and goes out to his old, abandoned

villa to collect the gold he had supposedly stolen from The Count of Monte Cristo, only to find that it is not there. Then, Edmond shows up, and tells Fernand where he has been all these years, and they begin a duel, only to be stopped by Mercedes and Alber. Mercedes then tells Edmond that Alber is really his son, not Fernand's. Fernand then shoots Mercedes in the shoulder and runs off. Edmond follows him and they begin sword fighting again. Finally, Edmond kills Fernand, and goes back to Mercedes and Alber and Jaccapo. At the very end, Edmond buys the Chateau D'if thanks the Priest for his wisdom and help.

God Sees The Truth, But Waits

The protagonist of Leo Tolstoy's short story "God Sees The Truth, But Waits" is a carefree young man named Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. The fact that he is, at the beginning of the story, so carefree should serve as fair warning that he will not be this way long. We are further warned of storm clouds on the horizon of Aksionov's life when his wife -also young, also beautiful, but more aware of life's uncertainties -- tells him she has had a bad dream about him, and asks him not to go to the Nizhny Fair, where he plans to sell his wares. He laughs at her and goes anyway. Disaster doesn't surface immediately. Halfway to the fair, Aksionov stops at an inn for the night and winds up sharing a cup of tea with another merchant whom he knows slightly. The two merchants go to bed in adjoining rooms. In the morning Aksionov gets up, pays his bill, and gets back on the road. But twenty-five miles later he is overtaken by soldiers, who question him about his activities the previous night. Aksionov finally asks him why they are treating him as if he's committed a crime, and he is informed that the merchant with whom he spent the previous evening has been found murdered and his goods plundered. When the soldiers search Aksionov's bags, they find a bloody knife. Predictably, Aksionov is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder. His wife is able to see him one time before he is exiled to Siberia; after rousing herself from a dead faint at the sight of him in shackles and chains, she asks him whatever possessed him to murder the stranger on the way to the fair. His own wife doesn't believe he is innocent. In Siberia, Aksionov is such a model prisoner that the other convicts call him "The Saint," and come to him with their problems and disputes. His life is hard but bearable until a new prisoner, Makar Semyonich, comes into the camp twenty-six years later. Aksionov learns that the new man comes from the same home town as Aksionov himself. Makar Semyonich knows Aksionov's sons well; they are rich and successful merchants, even though it is said their father is a convict in Siberia. That is the good news. The bad news is that Makar Semyonich reveals himself to be none other than the true perpetrator of the crime for which Aksionov is now serving a life sentence. he conflict is made even more acute when Makar Semyonich attempts to tunnel out of prison and his tunnel is discovered. The prisoners are assembled and asked to reveal who had dug the hole.

This is the perfect opportunity for Aksionov to have his revenge on Makar Semyonich but he cannot do it. The damage to Aksionov's life has already been done, and no good can come of making someone else's life worse. In private that evening, Makar Semyonich comes to Aksionov and begs his forgiveness.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Based on the two stories, The Count of Monte Cristo and God Sees the Truth but Waits have the same theme and also concept. In, God Sees the Truth but Waits, the character of Aksionov suddenly splits up in the middle: from being a business man to becoming a religious man. He almost abandoned his fame as the rich merchant because he accepted that his pleas were kind-of nonsense to the Tsar. He also is a character of an innocent man being suddenly destroyed by injustice and coincidence. Aksionov that he was innocent of the world, and through coincidence and injustice he realized that materialism and remaining worldly isnt really a right thing to do, and that he thought that religiousness will free him from the Siberian cold. He thought that being radical alone; almost a hermit in his actions will save him fully of his sins the very same thing Tolstoy did. It shows his idealism that material possessions couldnt save a person, and that religion alone could. In the Count of Monte Cristo, The major symbol in The Count of Monte Cristo is Dantes's friendship with Abbe Faria. After Dantes was taken away from his fiance and father on his wedding day, he is completely and utterly alone in the Chateau D'If. When he encounters Abbe Faria, the two immediately become inseparable, and Abbe Faria serves as a father figure to Dantes while he is in prison. Abbe Faria is a symbol of the father that Dantes needed while in prison to guide him and teach him how to survive in the "real world" when he finally would be able to escape. The tunnel that the two had been digging symbolizes a Tunnel of Freedom for Dantes and Faria, but in the end only Dantes would escape from the horrible Chateau D'If. The conflict in The Count of Monte Cristo is between Dantes and Mondego, Villefort, and Danglars. This conflict is the bud of revenge for Dantes, and this revenge is the motive for most of the Count of Monte Cristo's actions throughout the story. It would be before you accused someone make sure that you wont accuse a wrong person and always pray because God always answers your prayers. Its just that sometimes the answer is no. The more one gives in to the thought of revenge, the more it consumes him. And if that goes uncheck, it can mean the death of whatever spark of nobility lies in the human person. The world, for all its cynicism, does recognize thats park when it is given a chance to break through the dark and negative elements that seem to always stifle and put it out. We have proof of thats park in the great men and women, sung and unsung, who graced this side of existence.