Seventeen Months (The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapter 14 – Part 4)

He doesn’t beg for freedom—he begs to be judged.

In this devastating passage, Dantès speaks not just of imprisonment, but of the emotional erosion that comes with lost time, lost love, and lost purpose. He remembers the exact hour of his arrest. He measures time not in days, but in emotional ages. And above all, he asks not for pity, but for justice: a trial, a verdict, a name in the eyes of the law. This is one of Dumas’ sharpest critiques of institutional cruelty—not active violence, but total indifference.

 

Topics Covered:

•Dantès’ trauma, time distortion, and plea for justice

•Romanticism’s treatment of lost potential

•The cruelty of silence vs. the clarity of a verdict

•Existential punishment vs. physical restraint

 

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