I like that idea!

To me though it also supports the idea that he thinks he is above it all--that he can cast off what the "other" him did and have no remorse.

It certainly allows him to disassociate himself from his own actions and retain what he views as the core integrity of his "real" self.

So, seeing that he was a direct accessory to murder, you think that absolves him of the blame?

No, I don't think it absolves him of blame, but I think he thinks it does. Each personna sees their actions as completely justified and right. Righting a wrong, dispensing justice in the good old "eye for an eye" method Then that personna sheds its skin, like a snake does, and moves on to the next one. With each personna change the deeds of the one before are forgotten, absolved, done by someone else. It's never the "real" him that does them because that person never actually does anything and is therefore blameless.

Just now getting a chance to report a "sighting".

On last week's Person of Interest, the student was reading The Count of Monte Cristo. It must have been abridged though, because the prop wasn't nearly as fat as mine, lol.

So why do we end up invariably feeling like Monte Cristo is in the right and the rest are in the wrong if they've all committed crimes?

Because he's so likeable?

For me, it is probably because he was plotted against in the beginning and quickly gained my sympathy. The plotters gained my distrust and enmity. I don't think I could ever have come around to having sympathy for them. But I was pulling for Dantes from the beginning, first to get out of prison, then . . . . etc.

I think Dagny is right. We are immediately sympathetic towards Monte Criso because of what is done to him, we sympathise with his wish for revenge - I mean havn't we all wanted revenge for something at some time or another. As a character he is intensely human, with problems, feelings and motivations we can all empathise with. The plotters on the other hand represent everything we are against and again we can relate to them on the level of we would want bad things to happen to them if we were Monte Cristo.