Metamorphosis means that Dantes changed or developed throughout the course of the novel. Before Dantes goes to prison, he is an honest and caring man. We know this because he cares and shows his love for his father, he is devoted to his fiance, and tries to look for the best in others. It is when he is in prison that Dantes undergoes his metamorphosis. He becomes emotionless and vengeful. We know this because he obsesses about the wrongs that have been done to him, when in the past he would try to think the best of the people who committed wrongs against him. When Abbe dies, he focuses only on carrying out his mission and seems incapable of feeling emotions when before he was in prison he was an outwardly loving and caring man. Dante further transforms when he meets Haydee and is able to feel love and compassion for another human being again. Dante transforms from being an honest and caring man, to an emotionless individual, to a man looking to feel like a human again.