Nothing For Pain Meir Kahane, an American-Israeli politician, said “No trait is more justified than revenge in the right time and place” (Kahane). Is it really? Will you heal yourself by hurting another one? When there was no more pain to make them feel will you feel satisfied, are you going to smile like a Cheshire cat? Feel yourself, feel and understand what you want to do and what is revenge. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, revenge is “harm done to someone as a punishment for harm that they have done to someone else” (“Revenge” --Cambridge Dictionary). Mahatma Gandhi, who is the leader of Indian Independence Movement said “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind” (Ghandi). If there would be punishment for punishment, …show more content…
What will happen when these irrevocable mistakes series turn in to be a revenge cycle? The only possible result is just more sadness, more hatred, and more rancor. What is this revenge cycle? In my interview with Mr. Leiter, English teacher at Robert College, he explained the cycle that revenge is in until one of the sides’ decides to stop hurting each other. After my question “Do you think revenge causes hatred or rancor?” he explained his thoughts and pointed the revenge cycle with the following words “I don’t think revenge causes hatred. I think hatred causes revenge, but I guess it is like a cycle. At some point somebody is going to have to say no I will not commit an active revenge or that cycle will just continue” (Leiter -- personal interview). When the successive revenge incidents starts to make a chain and becomes a revenge cycle, the person’s conscience becomes a part of this revenge cycle as well. As long as the person starts to see and comprehend the horrible results of the active revenge, the conscience starts to act and immediate stop becomes to be the only choice. While talking about how revenge has terrible consequences and causes only destruction, sometimes the humankind is unable to see the giant truth in front of us because of the barrier that the devil puts in front of our eyes. In my second interview, which was done with the member of the writing center at Robert College, Ms. Oguz, she pointed out the negative feelings that revenge left the person with at the end. Also the main conversation was based on how everybody has to avoid the disease named “revenge” and at the point about justification of the word revenge, as an answer to my question “Is revenge ever justified for you?” she said “No, it is not. I feel it but whether I should take action on it or not I think that to me is very important I want to believe that I have not take action on that feeling but I also confess that I have felt it for
Revenge is a fairly strong emotion; it’s wanting to retaliate towards those who wronged you. Revenge is such an uncontrollable form of retaliation that it can result in a destructive outcome or be carried out successfully. Although the results may vary, revenge sums up to one thing which is pain of some sort, affecting both parties or just one. Throughout history, we see many tales of revenge and redemption. Often revenge does leave the one carrying it out feeling victorious, but this can suddenly change as the process of karma generally begins in some tales.
Evil exists naturally in the world, and there are many acts that are considered evil. As a result, evil is often a theme in literature. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” by William Shakespeare, and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe each rely heavily on evil to portray a message. Out of all of the evil acts that exist, exacting revenge is the evilest act that a person can make, for a person’s rash decision to exact revenge will ruin their sense of morality. The characters of Hamlet and Laertes in “Hamlet” each commit terrible acts of revenge, as does Montresor in “The Cask of Amontillado.”
Justice and revenge are two completely different things but are sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably. Many people get them confused with each other. Justice tends to be very rational, impartial, impersonal, and by definition fair. Whereas, revenge is emotional, personal, and generally people acting out based on their negative emotions. First, revenge tends to be much more brutal, where justice is more along the lines of moral correction and someone getting arrested for their wrong doings.
For the meek, vengeance pleasures the soul; however, it is only temporal. Like an addictive drug, revenge soothes anger and tension by sedating the mind with ephemeral comfort. Despite the initial relief, pain ensues and conditions seem worse than before. Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the non-violence movement in India, stated once that “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” There is no such thing as a sweet revenge.
Revenge is best served cold or so says the well-known expression. This idea of revenge that they seek is usually to restore balance and take an “eye for an eye” as the Bible says. Revenge, if by chance everyone were in Plato’s perfect utopia, would be in a perfect form, where justice and revenge would be one, and the coined phrase “eye for an eye” would be taken literally. By taking an eye for and eye, and punishing those who did wrong equally as they did wrong, there is justice. However, this revenge sometimes goes too far and is consequently not justice.
Revenge, on the other hand, refers to an action taken by an individual as a response to an act of injustice. The principle of revenge is “an eye for an eye”…. Can revenge be justified and be as equally part of justice if they both seek retribution for a wrongdoing? The universal distinction between justice and revenge is quite distinctive, is there more beyond their differences? Revenge is retaliation by a wronged party against the person or people they see as having caused the wrong.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once declared, “It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it.” In other words, when one is suffering, the desire to reap revenge without consideration as to who is being harmed in the process is innate. This is a common theme within the poem The Epic of Gilgamesh, Euripides tragic play, Medea, and Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet. Characterization is used in these three works to exemplify the revenge seeker’s disregard for anyone but themselves in order to take vengeance on those who committed an act against them.
In “Of Revenge” by Sir Francis Bacon, he expresses his thoughts on revenge and claims that those who seek revenge only hurt themselves and referred to revenge as a “wild justice”. Additionally, Bacon claims, “…vindictive persons live the life of witches: they are mischievous and come to a bad end” which explains that private revenge ends with negativity. He believes public revenge can mostly be good. Even though revenge can be good, “…a man consumed with a desire for revenge keeps his own wounds open which otherwise would heal” (Bacon). Bacon’s idea of private revenge is present in other literature such as “The Interlopers” by Saki, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, and in the “Autobiography of Takashi Tanemori”.
Seeking revenge is never the answer to any problem. In Romans 12:19 it states, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, “It is mine to avenge, I will repay,” says the Lord.” In Shakespeare play Hamlet, there are plenty of examples of the domino effect of revenge seeking. The first example is the rage and revenge expressed by Hamlet, which drives him mad. The second is Laertes seeking revenge on Hamlet. Lastly, all characters who played the game of revenge all payed the price in the end. Let us begin the game of revenge dominos…
“Those who plot the destruction of others often fall themselves” (Phaedrus). This quote was said by a Roman fabulist and it depicts the entire concept of revenge in Hamlet. The nature of revenge causes someone to act upon anger rather than reason. Hamlet takes place in Denmark and is about Hamlet’s uncle who kills his dad to gain power of Denmark. After the killing, Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle. In the play, there are several characters wanting vengeance like that of Hamlet. Throughout the play, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all had a tragic death of a family member which caused their decision for revenge. Consequentially, these revenges caused the demise of two characters and the rise of power of another. The retaliation shown by the Prince of Denmark, as well as Laertes led to the downfall of their government.
Revenge is such an enormous part of a being human. It is something that no matter how much you try to avoid part of you will persistently lust for it. When you are hurt in any way your natural instinct will always tell you to make the one who hurt you feel just as bad if not worse as how you felt. It is such a natural and powerful feeling, that when revenge is incorporated into a story it makes it so much stronger. Revenge will make you see so many more sides of characters and make them seem much more complex. Revenge can give fictional characters a more human quality. That is why so many writers use it as their theme.
Meir Kahane, an American rabbi and writer, quotes, “Mercy has its place, as do cruelty and revenge.” Kahane implies that revenge and betrayal occurs when something provokes it to take place. Self- benefit and injustice drives betrayal and revenge.
Taking revenge is a bitter sweet thing. I have always thought that people should always get what they desire, whether it be a grade, a smile and hug or in some cases, revenge. When I was in high school there seemed to be someone always trying to get me in trouble, they would say things that wouldn’t be true or do things to make me look bad. The fact that I never seemed to do anything to them would make me mad and wonder what I could do to get them back. Revenge would usually come in some sort of verbal put down or I would try to physically hurt them. It always seemed when I would get the revenge right away I would feel really good but as I thought about what I did, and what they did to me I would always feel guilty or wish I would have never done anything to them in return.
Retribution is what most commonly referred to as the “just deserts” model that says the punishment should match the “degree of harm a criminal has inflicted on their victims” (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2013, p.6). In other words, what they “justly deserve”. Where minor crimes should expect a minor punishment, those who commit more severe crimes should expect to be met with just as severe of a punishment in return. An example, some believe that when someone kills someone else, that person should then, in turn, receive the death penalty (depending on the state this would also be allowed or expected by law).
People can be motivated to take revenge on others for various reasons. While these reasons may be considered as very serious or rather trivial, they are all motives for revenge. Revenge occurs when a person has been offended or angered by an individual and in result they have the desire to pay them back. People’s opinions on revenge differ from each other, some may believe it is justified and some don’t. Mahatma Ghandi believed that revenge is not the answer and he stated that “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. This quote portrays the opinion that if everyone gets even then there will be no one else; if we all take an eye for an eye everyone would be blind. Revenge can be learnt through real life experiences as well as fiction and can be shown as justice or unacceptable. It becomes difficult to determine when revenge can be justified but is revenge always worth it?