Andy Choo
My Most Memorable
Moment
In my
section, the most memorable moment for me was the build up and the duel between
Monte Cristo and Albert de Morcef. The main reason this part of the novel stood
out to me was because Albert wanted vengeance against Monte Cristo to restore
his family honor. Despite everything Monte Cristo did for Albert and his
family, Albert was willing to risk it all for the sake of his family’s honor. Albert’s
motivation is what really made this part of the novel stand out.
The
general idea of this moment was that Albert’s father, Fernand, was jailed for
the murder of the Persian emperor and the selling of the emperor’s family to the
slave market. The news of his confinement ticked Albert off and he was
determined to restore honor to his family name. Albert pieced evidence together
and concluded that Monte Cristo had framed his father and that it was a giant
plan that Monte Cristo had plotted out. The duel was set to the next day at
dawn. The duel; however, was solved by Albert’s mother and Monte Cristo’s
ex-fiancée, Mercedes. Albert learned of Monte Cristo’s motives, vengeance
against the people who imprisoned him, and forgave Monte Cristo.
Before the build up, Albert and
Monte were good friends, even with a huge age gap of around ten to twenty
years. The two met at Italy and became friends due to Albert’s inconvenience of
having no carriage to take him back home. Monte Cristo saved Albert’s life from
bandits and also broke up Albert’s planned marriage with a woman he hated. After
all this good Monte Cristo has done, Albert still wished to duel Monte Cristo
and restore his family’s honor. This whole idea of honor and family is what really
caught my attention.
I chose this moment not because
it was a duel, but because of the ideology of family honor. I noticed how
important the family name and reputation was back then and it really made me
think about what it means today and how it’s changed throughout the years. In
previous years before the modern age, honor was a big thing. People, such as
Albert, would do outrageous things to restore family honor or to make sure no
secret escaped. Albert wanted to duel an expert in which he had no chance on
winning simply to make sure his father’s name would not be shamed. This honor
ideology was also apparent in a movie I watched called 47 Ronin. In ancient
Japan, the emperor of a city committed suicide infront of the shogun to pay for
his crimes. The emperor sold his land to another terrible emperor and committed
suicide simple to make sure his family name wouldn’t be injured. Both Albert
and the emperor were willing to do such costly actions for the sake of the
family name.
Nowadays, I think the family name
is just used to differentiate people with the same first name. Shame and
reputation are no longer held as a curse to the family as it used to back then.
Thoughts and relations are held more towards the individual person as opposed
to the family because siblings can be polar opposites from each other. More
people are worried about how they are perceived now instead of how they’re
family is. This moment was my most memorable one in my section because it
really made me think about how society has changed with regards to the family
honor.
