In The Unvanquished by William Faulkner, the theme of revenge appears throughout the story. Primarily, Bayard and Ringo avenge the death of Rosa Millard, their grandmother. By violently shooting the sociopath Grumby, Granny’s killer, their revenge is wrought through the traditional Southern form of closure, bringing about the death of the killer and avenging the victim. Next, Drusilla, Bayard’s cousin, displays revenge by joining Colonel Sartoris of the Confederate army in order to avenge the death of her fiancé. By joining the Confederates, Drusilla gains the opportunity to kill the Yankee soldiers responsible for her fiancé’s death in battle. Finally, Bayard exacts vengeance upon Redmond for murdering Colonel John Sartoris, Bayard’s father. However, Bayard achieves his goal of seeking revenge in a nonviolent way, avoiding killing anyone, breaking the traditional Southern code of revenge. Each character struggles with the necessity to avenge the death of their loved ones, seeking the ultimate, most appropriate punishment for the murderer who harms their family.
First, Bayard and Ringo take vengeance upon Grumby. Uncle Buck also joins them, exclaiming, “'Need me or not,' he hollered, 'by Godfrey, I'm going. You can’t
stop me. You mean to tell me you don't want me to go with you?'" (Faulkner 159). This displays Uncle Buck’s need for the death of Grumby, and his fel necessity in taking part protrudes. When Bayard and Ringo succeed in killing Grumby, Uncle Buck congratulates them for avenging Granny and fulfilling family obligation.
"’The proof and the expiation!’ Uncle Buck hollered. ‘When me and John Sartoris and Drusilla rode up to that old compress, the first thing we see was that murdering scoundrel pegged out on the door ...
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...lifies the overall message, exemplifying the alternative to violence in revenge.
To conclude, in The Unvanquished by William Faulkner, the theme of revenge is amply illustrated. Bayard and Ringo display revenge through Grumby’s shooting, following the old Southern code to avenge Granny’s killing. Likewise, Drusilla joins the Confederate army to take vengeance upon the Yankees, sacrificing all to ensure her fiancé’s honorable death. Finally, Bayard takes revenge upon Redmond for killing his father, Colonel Sartoris. However, Bayard approaches the situation differently by confronting Redmond unarmed. This proves that a necessity for violence when seeking revenge is not necessary, thereby changing the old Southern code. It also proves that violence as a response is not a positive way to approach a situation; it is better to address situations calmly and without anger.
William Faulkner tells his novel The Unvanquished through the eyes and ears of Bayard, the son of Confederate Colonel John Sartoris. The author’s use of a young boy during such a turbulent time in American history allows him to relate events from a unique perspective. Bayard holds dual functions within the novel, as both a character and a narrator. The character of Bayard matures into a young adult within the work, while narrator Bayard relays the events of the story many years later.
Revenge is the opportunity to retaliate or gain satisfaction for a real or perceived slight ("revenge"). In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor, the narrator, is out for revenge. Montressor seeks revenge against Fortunato and thinks he has developed the perfect plan for “revenge with impunity” (Baym). Montresor never tells the reader why he feels Fortunato deserves punishment. He only says that Fortunato causes him “a thousand injuries”until “[venturing] upon insult” (Baym ?). As a result, Montresor plans to bury Fortunato alive.
In this story Faulkner appears to be using Drusilla as the primary voice representing the old Southern honor system, an honor system that is distinctly masculine. As the grieving widow, it is Drusilla who seems to be pushing the hardest for retribution in the form of a duel—an option that would put Baynard’s life at risk. Baynard is barely home after his long ride back from college when Drusilla directs, not asks, him to take the dueling pistols (Faulkner 459). Drusilla expects Baynard to challenge her husband’s killer with "the long true [dueling] barrels true as justice" (Faulkner 459). She is inflamed and passionate about Baynard’s chance to kill and speaks glowingly of what so many Southern men in the same position must have thought: "to be permitted to kill, to be permitted vengeance, to take into your bare hands the fire of heaven that cast down Lucifer" (Faulkner 460). Drusilla expects that Baynard one day will be grateful for her support. She tells him that "you will remember me who put into your hands what they say is an attribute only of God’s, who took what belongs to heaven and gave it to you" (Faulkner 459).
takes the form of “an eye for an eye”, meaning that the offender should be punished by an act of
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 1992 film Unforgiven, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, has a central theme that is one of good versus evil in which good overcomes evil by bringing justice to those who are evil. Munny has changed from the vicious murderer he was in the past and now wishes to bring justice to evil men who harmed the innocent prostitute Delilah and his friend Ned. The film is not quite the traditional Western film by any means as Eastwood’s character Will Munny has not always been a moral man. Nevertheless, Will Munny through the use of violence sets out to balance out the battle of good and evil by seeing that evil men get what is coming to them, even though Munny is no saint himself.
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.
In the short story “Killings,” by Andre Dubus, revenge, loss, and consequences are explored. Richard Strout, a man of little to no morality, committed a crime of passion, which I do not think is a justifiable crime, since he murdered a man who was in a relationship with his wife that he is separated from. Strout is an impatient and violent man with no boundaries. This is evident since he did kill Frank in front of his children and his estranged wife.
Norms of Revenge. 4. Blackwell Publisher, 1990. 862. eBook. . Bar-elli, G. and Heyd, D. (1986), Can revenge be just or otherwise justified?.
Throughout history, revenge, or vengeance, has been altered by several cultures and even the American culture. This is shown throughout many ancient greek epics. Throughout these two epics, what is just revenge and what the action of revenge is are much different than what Revenge is seen through today’s society. Revenge is the main theme in The Iliad, with Achilles’ revenge on Agamemnon and Hector, and in The Odyssey, with Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus and Odysseus’s revenge on the Suitors, and these epics define how revenge was seen in the ancient Greek world.
When you read a book or watch a movie, you want it to capture your attention immediately. Revenge is one of those themes that can easily be used grasp the audience. It is always an exhilarating theme to read about because it can bring out so much in a character. It will often be used to bring out the worst in people. It can make people go mad, and in fact it can completely consume them. It can bring people to an extreme point in life, and this is what makes it so fascinating. In the movie, Straw Dogs, the protagonist, Dustin Hoffman, goes to such an extreme. After Hoffman’s wife is taken advantage of, he begins to slip into the abyss of madness. He wants revenge, and then it escalates quickly into a bloody battle. Older novelists also often used revenge to show the extremes of people’s personality.
The major act of revenge within the play that affects people the most, is when Abigail Williams accuses multiple people of witchcraft. Her accusations is an act of revenge because she had a love affair with John Proctor during the time she worked at his house, John’s wife found out and fired her immediately. Even though the situation happened a while ago, Abigail still felt bitter towards the Proctors and wants to get John back into her life but when she realizes that she won’t be able to do that she decides to seek vengeance on the people that broke her heart. Her solution to the issue is that she will accuse people within the town of witchcraft, a crime punishable by death. When Abigail first accuses John, everybody is shocked and surprised
“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.
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?