Monte Cristo’s desire to take revenge on the three men responsible for his imprisonment functions as his primary motive throughout most of the novel. Monte Cristo shapes his life around the pursuit of vengeance and does not question the rightness of this pursuit until after the death of Edouard. In addition to Monte Cristo, Haydée is motivated by a desire for revenge, as is Bertuccio, in his vendetta against Villefort and Benedetto when he publicly exposes Villefort as his father.

The way in which Monte Cristo equates personal vengeance with divine justice implies a belief that making others suffer the same pain that they have made their victims suffer does not merely relieve the victim’s anger, it also restores balance to the world. Similar to honor and obligation, vengeance is often discussed by characters in the language of debt and repayment. The classic vendetta engaged in by Bertuccio formalizes the concept of vengeance in one way, and the ritualized duels fought by several characters formalize it in another.

Monte Cristo does not see the justice system and capital punishment as serving the needs of vengeance nearly as well as these more individualized forms, as he explains to Albert and Franz before the public execution in Rome, and makes a similar point in his first conversation with Villefort.