"I have waited a month, which means I have suffered a month. I hoped—man is such a poor and miserable creature—I hoped, for what? I don't know: something unimaginable, absurd, senseless, a miracle…but what? God alone knows, for it was He who diluted our reason with that madness called hope. Yes, I waited; yes, Count, I hoped; and in the past quarter of an hour, while we have been speaking, you have unwittingly broken and tortured my heart a hundred times, for each of your words proved to me that I have no hope left." (117.44)
By the time we hear Maximilian say this, we can't really feel for him, not knowing that the Count has suffered for much longer. Soon, though, young Max will learn the importance of hope.
"My God!" said Morrel. "You terrify me, Count, with your lack of emotion. Have you some remedy for death? Are you more than a man? Are you an angel? A god?" And the young man, who had never flinched from any danger, shrank away from Monte Cristo, seized with unspeakable terror. (94.87)
Monte Cristo's ability to change makes him seem something more than human. If he can be more than one thing, it follows that he can be anything at all.