Commonplace Reading

Just so you know, I have an assignment in my grammar class to read a book while thinking about the structure used in the sentences and what-not. All in all I have to write an examination of a paragraph or sentence that I thought was really cool. I find this very interesting really.This is my third paper on this but the first one I thought was so cool that I couldn't keep it to myself. Keep in mind that I wrote this for a class--I will change a little so you understand some stuff that we talked about in discussions.
Hope you enjoy. 

This really long quote, taken from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, is while Dantes is contemplating suicide in the Château d'If. This is just before he starts to hear a scratching sound coming from Abbe Faria who is digging a tunnel in an attempt to escape.  

“Before him is a dead sea that stretches in azure calm before the eye; but he who unwarily ventures within its embrace finds himself struggling with a monster that would drag him down to perdition. Once thus ensnared, unless the protecting hand of God snatch him thence, all is over, and his struggles but tend to hasten his destruction. This state of mental anguish is, however, less terrible than the sufferings that precede or the punishment that possibly will follow. There is a sort of consolation at the contemplation of the yawning abyss, at the bottom of which lie darkness and obscurity. “

I really love this quote. The imagery is amazing here, and it really helped me as a reader connect with Dantes since he was a sailor. Not only does it show his struggle with the idea of killing himself, but also shows the struggle he is facing while being imprisoned. On the surface he is putting on a calm face, like the dead sea and azure calm, for the jailers. Perhaps to persuade them that he is not mad. But there is a huge struggle within himself about the direction his life has taken him, which is the monster dragging him down to predition. He is stuck in prison for a crime that he didn’t commit and he sees no hope for getting out at the moment. This is exemplified by the comment about his mental anguish. The sufferings that precede and follow is referring to the question as to whether being freed from theChâteau d'If would bring a better life than he had before. Dantes has been praying very religiously about his freedom, which shows that he is hoping for help from the protecting hand of God, and his attempts to get his case looked at by an inspector of the prison, though it didn’t hasten his destruction, didn’t help him much. Then of course, the last senctence is a play at the fact that Dantes is left with so much free time that thinking about killing himself, and about what life would be like if he ever regains his freedom, is really his only source of entertainment.

 The punctuation in this paragraph is, in my teacher's terms, sexy to me.When I saw the use of the semicolon in the first sentence, I got the impression that what Dumas says in the second clause of the sentence is so important to the overall idea that he doesn’t want to be interrupted. (I thought of this because we just discussed that the semicolon is only used by grammar nazis who are so smart they just plow over you if you try to make a comment)The commas are placed in the right spots to help your mind pause and think about what is being said and the illistration being used. When looking at the words choice, I was shown the extent at which Dantes has thought about killing himself. Words like hasten, mental anguish, precede, consolation, contemplation, abyss, obscurity and azure, are all words that I would use in a college paper trying to show my teachers that I have put quite a bit of thought into the subject that I am writing about. Overall I thought that this paragraph flowed really well while being read and I loved it.