long and unnecessary analysis under the cut
1) like if you think about it God doesn't actually serve any function in the book, other than what pushes and motivates the characters (and even then, only four of those show any kind of Christian faith relevant to the plot):
Faria, obviously, being a priest
Mercédès, her faith preventing her from killing herself after Dantès' arrest
Bertuccio, when decides to adopt and take care of Benedetto (and even then his motivations seem of a superstitious rather than religious kind)
The Count, for a long series of contradicting reasons
but like. that's pretty much it. no major scene ever takes place in a church, no character other than the 4 i've mentioned is ever shown to be particularly faithful (except Franz, for a brief moment when he's in Rome, and Caderousse as he's agonising). God as, like, an actual tangible presence in the consciousness of the characters is basically inexistent.
even when the Count starts his journey of redemption, faith plays a surprisingly unimportant role in it and, instead of bringing him comfort and closure, actually only makes him doubt himself even more, at best, and at worst brings to the brink of suicide (which is actually a very interesting contrasting parallel with Mercédès: what saves her is also what almost destroys him, religion -- and what destroys her is what saves him, Haydée).
but like. compared to many other literary characters' redemption archs (the Unnamed in Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed, for example), the Christian God of love and forgiveness is... simply not there.
HOWEVER. what really moves and motivates the characters is actually the figure of the god-like man: it isn't God or Providence who push Héloïse, Benedetto and Caderousse to murder, it's the Count (who embodies the god-like man in all his arrogance and selfishness)! the Count thinks it's Providence, because otherwise he could not live*, but if the Count has talked himself into thinking that he is the instrument of Providence, doesn't that mean that what happens around him is his more or less direct fault?
like... God justifies the Count's actions, but it isn't God, is it? it's the Count's own warped idea of what God wants from him, not the kind and loving Father that Faria believed in.
so like... God as a force for good simply does not exist in the book.
*this is actually very closely tied to the Count's specific coping mechanisms, which I am expanding in the next point
2) one of his many coping mechanism is obviously self-delusion, where he convinces himself that he is so important in the grand scheme of life that God would choose him as a sort of avenging angel, because he simply literally wouldn't be able to live with his immense trauma if he didn't give himself a reason to exist.
his revenge plot isn't just "evil villains must die" it's also "i have wasted 14 years of my life, if i do not find a way to make them meaningful in a way -- aka God must be using me as an instrument for His will -- there is no point in living, because otherwise my pain and survival will have meant nothing". his revenge plot is a gigantic, fucked up coping mechanism.
but also. his obsession with speed (having the fastest horses and ships and carriages, always being on the move etc): it's either the fact that he spent 14 years confined to a single cell, which means being unable to move very well OR, the fact that he has seen just how quickly time passes, and he cannot bear to waste more time than what is strictly necessary (which is also why he sleeps so little).
4) I'm not going to dwell very long on this subject because I've already made a post about it, but JVJ and Monte-Cristo are just different faces of the same medal, aren't they? like on one hand you have pure, absolute selflessness and unwavering faith in God, on the other hand you have arrogance, selfishness and blasphemy.
it's like. one man tries to carry the burden of the world and is basically a Christ-like figure (JVJ), on the other hand you have the tempting devil, whose only purpose in life is to create chaos and hurt people (the Count).
7) okay so obviously the Count isn't Hamlet. there are several instances where he quotes Hamlet but he isn't him. except that he is!
like. Dantès = Hamlet. Claudius = Fernand, Villefort, Danglars. Mercédès = Gertrude (i vaguely remember reading something about Hamlet's anger at his mother being caused by an incestuous desire towards her, which is very interesting and if anyone can re-direct me to it feel free). Haydée = Ophelia. Albert & Co = Guildenstern, Rosencrantz, Horatio, Laertes.
also! both in Hamlet and The Count of Monte-Cristo we have the obvious themes of the long drawn-out revenge, madness, poison, murder, innocents dying etc etc etc.
but other than that the Count is Hamlet because neither Hamlet nor the Count actually exist. here's a post on why Hamlet doesn't exist.
but like the thing about Monte-Cristo is none of his identities exist, both metatextually (because they're fictional) and intertextually! like. the young Edmond Dantès is basically dead (him almost drowning into the sea as a symbolism of the old Dantès dying and the new Dantès being born and baptised by the sea), the Count of Monte-Cristo, Abbé Busoni and Lord Wilmore don't exist because they aren't him.
but also! everyone else thinks he exist, but everyone else has a different idea of what he is! everyone sees him differently, he doesn't have a fixed identity which he can project on other people! and whatever he does, whatever he says, he will never, ever truly be himself because his old self is dead, both to other people and to himself. he both exists and doesn't exist in the same way any of his assumed identities do!
and that's his real tragedy.
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