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. Revenge for the most part is on a selfish personal level, while justice is impersonal and relies on the non-self-interested law. If you want revenge on someone, then they have done something bad or caused harm to you in the past. Lastly, revenge typically …show more content…
Where justice is putting a stop to the perpetrator for what they have done wrong. “Justice-as logically, legally and ethically defined-isn’t really about getting even or experiencing a spiteful joy in retaliation. Instead, it's about righting a wrong,” from Leon F.Seltzer’s “Don’t Confuse Revenge With Justice: Five Key Differences.” In other words, justice is not about getting back at anyone with retaliation but correcting a wrong to restore balance. An easy way to visualize the difference between the two is with revenge being; if someone murders someone close to you, then you turn and murder them. “Revenge is mostly about acting out (typically through violence).” (Seltzer) However, if they murder someone close to you and they are put in prison, that would be considered justice. Obviously, justice is more reasonable, honorable, and doesn't question an innocent person’s virtue. “But men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice.” (Robert …show more content…
Justice is not on a personal level because the person who was harmed in some way or another, doesn't often have much to do with serving the justice, or righting a wrong. “The driving impetus behind revenge is to get even.” (Seltzer). Basically, people want to get back at another person or do something more harmful, making it personal. Usually it is the police and courts who serve justice, making it impersonal and objective to the person who was wronged. “ It revolves around moral correction in situations where certain ethical and culturally vital principles have been violated.” (Seltzer) In short, justice is for correcting the wrongs of another person as even handed as possible. “All calls for justice require that victims feel avenged, and revenge is never just if it’s disproportionate.” (Thane Rosenbaum) Many people percieve revenge to be something that falls under justice, as they are driven by emotions, while others consider getting the police involved as serving justice. Moreover, some people find revenge to be pleasing and satisfying, but to argue the point that just because something is more satisfying does not mean it is
The definition of revenge: “to punish somebody who has harmed you or harmed a friend” (Revenge, web).
While revenge may feel sweet at times, in most cases it is destructive to yourself and those around you. The article “Revenge:Will You Feel Better?” makes one contemplate this, and draws the question “is revenge really worth it?” Well, in the article, Karyn Hall suggests that “Revenge can be a strong urge, but you may not feel better if you act on it.” In fact, in a study performed by Kevin Carlsmith showed that “...the students that got revenge reported feeling worse than those who didn't…” With this, one may see that revenge is pointless, and in most cases leaves you feeling worse than the people you performed it
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 a fairly strong emotion; it’s wanting to retaliate towards those who wronged you. Revenge is such an uncontrollable way of retaliation that it can result in a destructive outcome or 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.
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.
Have you ever wondered whether revenge is misguided or can sometimes be justified? If we take a look back in history to the west in the 1800’s or during World War II you would see that revenge can sometimes be justified. For example, in “True Grit” we see Mattie Ross seek revenge by returning the favor and killing Tom Chaney, the man who murdered her father in cold blood. Another example is the struggle between Prospero and Caliban in “The Tempest,” after Prospero punishes Caliban after he tries to rape Miranda. Depending on the gravity of the situation revenge can be justified and possibly one of the only probable solutions considering the situation.
Retribution – is a correctional aim which is to hold a person who has committed a crime accountable for committing a crime against another or society in the form of punishment. (Stojkovic and Lovell 2013) What we look at in retribution is when someone is punished there is legitimacy in the punishment of a particular crime that was committed. Some of the pros of retribution are retribution can make a person or society feel safer or a feeling of justice being served when a person is punished for the crime they committed. The con of retribution is during court proceedings the prosecution and the offender’s lawyer may come to a plea agreement which could give the offender a lesser sentence than what he or she would have gotten originally. (Stojkovic and Lovell 2013)
Norms of Revenge. 4. Blackwell Publisher, 1990. 862. eBook. . Bar-elli, G. and Heyd, D. (1986), Can revenge be just or otherwise justified?.
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.
But as Harold Takooshian, professor of psychology at Fordham University in New York says, "It's not healthy, but like many other human needs, it's also normal.” Although we should not act upon this need for revenge it is normal for us all to feel it. In paragraph 12 the difference between revenge and justice are explained so perfectly, “Some people equate revenge with seeking justice, but the two are not the same. People who seek revenge are driven by anger and violence and have not thought about how channel their negative feelings into something positive. They have not considered how they could use their negative experience — the injustice they suffered — to bring about
The feeling and act of revenge is known to many people. It is often characterized as getting payback on a person in order to gain self-satisfaction. We can most likely all look back at a time when we thought somebody wronged us or made us feel pain. Do you not ever want the person causing the pain to feel a piece of the hurt? This is the feeling of revenge. You can find an easy picture of what revenge looks like when you watch young children argue or fight. Children who hurt others feel that they have been hurt and they try to even up the score. Sometimes people will go through
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).
I do agree that revenge does have an effect on the story, but not as strong as conflict does. An example is the plot that follows the battle of Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet wants revenge on Claudius, killing his father (Shakespeare, 39). Claudius wants Hamlet out of the picture in any way possible before that kid spoils his plan. That conflict, that revenge, that fight between them causes events like people dying or Hamlet gets shipped away.
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.
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?