The Turn to God (The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapter 15 – Part 2)

Alone and exhausted, Dantès finally turns to the last power he has not yet pleaded with—God.

In this haunting chapter, Dumas charts the next phase of Edmond Dantès’ psychological descent. He asks for the company of even the madman in the next cell, but is denied. Then, having exhausted every earthly plea, he remembers the prayers of childhood and finds new meaning in their repetition. This is not a triumphant moment of faith—it’s a desperate search for meaning in isolation. But even prayer offers no release. Dantès is left only with memory and madness, circling the same thought over and over like a man gnawing his own soul. Dumas ends with a chilling image: Dantès, trapped like Ugolino in The Inferno, devouring the one thing he cannot escape—his loss.

 

Topics Covered:

•Solitude, prayer, and the return of faith under pressure

•How Dumas uses Dante’s Inferno to mirror Dantès’ emotional state

•Memory as both comfort and torment

•How Dumas frames spiritual awakening as a psychological shift, not just religious redemption

 

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