In Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, the protagonist, Edmond Dantes, is betrayed by those he thought he could trust and accused of treason. Dantes is promptly thrown into a political prison called the something-or-other and left to rot for the rest of his natural life. His betrayal and subsequent imprisonment served as Dantes' baptism, though, apart from other symbolic baptisms in literature, it does not change him for the better.
Dantes, who, prior to his betrayal, was a happy-go-lucky man with boyish charms and not a care in the world, was transformed in the fourteen years he spent at the prison. After his escape, everything about him had changed. His mentality was ravaged to the point where his only concern was the terrible revenge he would inflict upon those who betrayed him, a far cry from his happy and charmingly positive outlook, where he considered all, known and unknown to him, a friend. His looks were drastically altered, as his boyish features were completely replaced by those of a man who had seen nothing but misfortune in his life. Dantes was, both mentally and physically, unrecognizable to anyone.
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