Addressing Vampirism in the Count of Monte Cristo-novel and anime

So I noted that I have not posted about my one hundred novels project in awhile. I have to admit, I have been slacking. I am currently reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" and it has been slow going, mainly because I was stupid and went and bought the anime out of curiosity and let me tell you, it is Hellsing all over again. I am obsessed, I think that if I mention "The Count of Monte Cristo" one more time, rokk_lobster and rayechu are going to kill me. The anime is trippy and demented. I love it. I also like the way the Count is portrayed. In the movie I watched, the actor that played the count was not menacing enough. On the other hand, I cheated and looked up the end of the series and apparently, Edmond Dantes sold his soul and let a demon possess him and help him wreak his vengeance. I am not too impressed by that. In fact, I think it does the characterizations of Alexander Dumas a disservice.  

The count is magnificent in both book and anime, but in the book, the count is sinister because we are privy to his point of view some of the time and in the anime because we are not. I really like that Dumas made the count super pale and very eerie. In fact, in Rome, the Countess G-- goes into paroxysms of fear when she glances at him after he awakes from his nap at the ballet (yes, apparently the great Count of Monte Cristo is bored by ballet and sleeps through it. He also likes his hashish, which amuses me so). She tells Franz that he must not visit the count that night because she wants nothing to do with him and that even visiting him after seeing her would bring misfortune. She compared him to Lord Ruthwen (Byron's vampire character currently en vogue at the time) and is convinced that if he is not a vampire than he is a demon. The count is always described as incredibly handsome and beautiful and most people are uneasy around him. I think that the contrast between Edmond and the Count is amazing, it's almost like they are two different characters, and the Count in essence is Edmond Dantes' alter ego. It is significant that the Count of Monte Cristo is compared to a vampire or demon, mainly because, in a way, that is figuratively what the count is. He doesn't suck blood, but his vengeance is swift and horrible and he swims among the Parisian aristocracy like a shark, deadly and cold, a predator out for nothing but prey. And ultimately, isn't that what a vampire is? His need for vengeance is so great that it literally transforms him. But unlike in the book since the reader has been with Edmond from the beginning, in the anime, it is hard to view the count as anything but a villain, a cool, attractive, villain, but a badass bad guy none the less. In the novel, I am rooting for the count's revenge. I like the other characters and I feel bad for the children of Danglars, Ville fort, and Morcerf, but on the other hand, I read what those three did, and their treachery and callous disregard for the life of Dantes is breathtaking. They are so selfish; it is hard to imagine how they lasted as long as they did. But then again, this is the aristocracy, so maybe being selfish is a prerequisite to success. In the anime, on the other hand, while I know what is coming and I know who and what the count is, I squirm when I think of him exacting his revenge. 

In the novel (I skipped ahead, so sue me), I read passages referring to the death of Ville forte’s children and the Count is filled with so much remorse that he halts his plans and repents. He no longer considers himself above the law or God. I am disappointed in him, but it is also cool that Edmond resurfaces, because the Count is a bit much to take. Going back to the whole theme of retribution and justice, I gotta say the anime does a poor job addressing it. While I am thrilled by the way the anime addressed the Counts schemes (at times you can almost see the web he is weaving around poor Albert) and the Count himself, it does a poor job of addressing morality. 

In the novel, Dumas sets the scene by telling stories of the Count in relation to bandits and pirates. The Count saves quite a few and in fact saves Peppino for the bandit Luigi Vampa. He helps these men because he is no longer Edmond Dantes, a citizen and man of law, but the Count of Monte Cristo. By doing this, Dumas cleverly lets us know that the Count is no longer part of society and is no longer bound by its rules. He is other, outsider and his association with the outcasts of society is the reader's clue to this status. He is now truly vampire, because that is what vampirism is about---a human being who has lost the ability to reside in human society and then must prey on it to sustain their damned existence. So now that Dantes is the Count and thus vampire, he can exact his revenge because he is no longer bound by law. His revenge is not horrifying but a sort of justice. It is understandable and in a way, divine. The Count is acting as ancient fury or angel of retribution, his revenge is no longer human, but otherworldly, outside time and space. It is epic.  In the anime, since we are not privy to this knowledge, and the anime is from the point of view of Albert, the count is horrible, truly a demon. 

I think that the creators of the anime cheated by so clearly making the Count and Haydee alien and then by having it be an actual demon that possesses Dantes.  Dantes is no longer an agent of fate or the powers that be. His revenge loses its divinity and becomes shallow and cruel. Where the novel count moves about Parisian society as other, as vampire, as fury, the anime count literally becomes the demon that posses him. In the novel, Dantes' need for revenge transforms him and ultimately redeems him, but is doesn't quite consume him. In the anime, he becomes inseparable from his revenge. But that isn't really criticism, because while I prefer the novel above the anime, both mediums explore what it is to be human or not. They take different sides of the vampire theme.

 Dumas's count is beautiful and aloof, more like a lake or mountain, or storm. He is neither good nor evil. That is what the vampire in Dumas's novel is....something not human, outside of human society, but not a leech. The Count in the novel reacts with human society the way a lion would, as predator, but as natural as the lion. The anime's count is the vampire of Bram Stoker. He is Byronic (ironic because in the novel he is compared to Byron's vampire), but he is also deadly. He, too is predator, but not in the way a lion or tiger is. He is human predatory impulse incarnate, and that is what makes him, well, evil. He has not moved outside of society, but swallowed it whole.  Granted, these are my initial thoughts on the book and anime and since I have neither finished the anime (my information about the end comes from Wiki) or the novel, this may be subject to change. In general, I would have posted about this novel when I had finished it, but it is so long, I felt a premature post was required.