I finished the book today. I have mixed feelings.
Montecristo doubting if his revenge was right or not felt extremely random.
I re-read some parts, even googled other people opinion's and what I gathered was "he saw that his revenge involved innocent people that became collateral damage".
Erm, duh?? It wasn't really the first time though was it? He was very chill about killing Albert, he wasn't at all worried about the entire Villefort family dying because of Heloise, even poor Barrois the butler died because of a mistake. How is Edouard different? Is it because he's a child? Valentine was very young too and he would have let her die hadn't Morrel asked for his help.
Why not choose another event to trigger Montecristo's self-consciousness? If Mercédès were to die as collateral damage, for example—someone he loved very much—wouldn't that be a more meaningful and impactful event to trigger his emotional response?
So the Count is having all these doubts, he starts to think he may have got it all wrong. He visits Chateau d'If, gets Faria's book and that basically reassures him that he was in the right and that he was completely justified.
He then goes on to forgive Danglars. Why? This is what I don’t understand.
If it weren’t for the chapter at the Château d’If, I would have assumed that he still wasn’t sure about his actions and that, in that moment, he had a change of heart (as much as I dislike this, for the reasons I stated at the beginning). To me, that would have made sense.
But to have a chapter where, after some introspection, Montecristo comes to the realization that he was, in fact, justified in his revenge and then have him forgive the one who caused all of his suffering just doesn't sit right with me.
What's it going to be? Doubt and regret or justification and commitment?