Facing the Inevitable in An Act of Vengeance by Isabel Allende

Throughout an individual’s life-time, he/she has a vision as o what his/her should be. But when things do not go as planned and the unexpected occurs, does that person face it, or run away? In “An Act of Vengeance” by Isabel Allende, running away is not an option at well. Through the usage of plot, character and irony, Allende illustrates the cost of war.

For the young Dulce Rosa Orellano, life is great being the beautiful daughter of Senator Anselmo Orellano. She has people waiting on her hands and feet, and is even crowned jasmines of Carnival Queen for another consecutive year. That is until “rumors of the beauty who was flourishing in the Senator Orellano’s house reaches the ears of Tadeo Cespedes” (Charters 43). Given that he was “only concerned with the Civil War”, everything is a fight for him. So Tadeo made it his mission to seek out the young beauty and have her as his own. This mission consisted of shooting up the home with all of his men, murdering Senator Orellano, and unwillingly raping Dulce Rosa. Before being in he hands of the Tadeo, she says before her father, “let me live so that I can avenge us both” (Charters 44). In doing so, Dulce Rosa grows up to forget about her high fame and beauty, to a woman to live alone and whose only mission on Earth is vengeance (45). Tadeo how ever, gets old and leaves his violent days. He actually comes to his sense and searches for Dulce Rosa to apologize for his past behavior so that he may “attain a certain degree of happiness” (Charters 46). To his own dismay he ends up falling for Dulce Rosa, who in turns kills herself as her revenge for her father to him.

Such a series of tragic events has a great toll among the two main characters (Cox ) . For a vicious, careless indivi...

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... change his life to do things for the better. It was the terrible past that he constantly is reminded of as his driving force. The same goes for Dulce Rosa, without Tadeo missing his key happiness to come and find her, she would have him live with his guilt of not having to live with the women his soul could ever love (Charters 47). It seems as though it was all meant to be for the both them. It was all at the cost of the Senator Anselmo Orellano. War is not something that an individual should wish upon another person, until after reassessing the repercussions of it.

Works Cited

Charters, A. (2011). The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (8th ed.). Boston: Bedfor/St. Martin's.

Cox, K. C. (2003). Isabel Allende: A Critical Companion. Greenwood.

May, C. E. (2012). Critical Survey of Short Fiction: World Writers (4th ed.). Ipswich: Salem Press.