Ultimate Bliss

“Only someone who has suffered the deepest misfortune is capable of experiencing the heights of felicity” (Dumas 1077). The greatest joys, the heights of felicity, do not come out of revenge. Revenge is a natural impulse to injustice where one can be obsessively consumed. It returns lonely, painful suffering. One must keep hope alive when things become more dreadful than a disastrous nightmare. Hope to a better end. To justice – that fate will punish those well deserving and reward those well deserved. The heights of felicity do not blossom out of revenge – but they can come from forgiveness and salvation. Alexandre Dumas wrote about a man, whose life is shattered, bent on revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo; Martin Campbell directed a movie about lost love and vengeance in The Mask of Zorro; and Hope wrote a poem called Aware of a Sunnier Side about an alternative to revenge. These three works illustrate the meaning of happiness.

Ultimate bliss from ultimate despair. People must see how bad things can get to really appreciate how precious their happiness is. The world is filled with ungrateful selfish people. The populace is blind to their true blessings and gold fortunes of famil

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He acknowledges his human capability, which shows that he is no longer consumed. For Dumas, forgiveness is salvation.

“One day, in a moment of despair equal to your [Maximilien] own…I too wanted to kill myself…if anyone had said to us [Dantès and Morrel] at that climactic moment [suicide]: Live! Because the day will come when you will be happy and bless life…we would have answered it with a smile of skepticism” (Dumas 976). He is so driven that he sacrifices his disguise of fourteen years. When Edmond sees Mercédès for the last time, he speaks to her of hope. People feel they are miserable and happiness is just around the corner, unreachable. He suffers and knows ultimate despair thus when the Count gives him Valentine, he is truly able to appreciate his bliss. As he becomes obsessed with revenge, he assumes the role of Providence. He believes he can control fate by bringing back the Pharaon to Morrel. A person may start out down the path of revenge but they will realize that revenge is not what they seek. When he exacts his divine justice upon Villefort, he appears triumphant as the Edmond Dantès unjustly incarcerated. She realizes she is searching for resolve, not revenge. The Count reveals this to him in a letter.

Approximate Word count = 1905
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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