Theme of Revenge in Metamorphoses
Revenge is a recurring theme in the book Metamorphoses. It is usually the cause of whatever transformation the stories are explaining. The gods are always avenging themselves and changing mortals into animals or plants so that they can prove their own superiority.
The first instance of a revenge transformation is when Jove turns Lycaon into a wolf. Lycaon met Jove in a mortal form but didn't believe that he was actually a god. Lycaon tried to kill Jove while he was sleeping. After that he boiled human flesh and tried to feed it to Jove. This is the reason for Jove's revenge and Lycaon's transformation.
Io was a young girl who Jove raped, and Juno had suspected this. Jove turned Io into a cow in the hope that Juno would not find out about the rape. Despite this transformation, Juno still thought that the cow was a girl. She asked Jove if she could have the cow, and he agreed, believing it would allay Juno's suspicions. Juno gave Io to Argus, to watch, because she was still skeptical of the cow's true identity. Because Argus protected Io, Jove could not get back to her. He sent Mercury to kill Argus. The murder of Argus convinced Juno that the cow was really Io. The jealous Juno drove Io mad. Io, in return, prayed to Jove to be turned back into a nymph. Finally Juno was satisfied with torturing Io and allowed the nymph to assume her true form.
Another example of revenge is when Mercury stole Apollo's cattle. The only person who saw the crime was a man named Battus. Mercury bribed the man with one of the cows so that he would not reveal what he knew. Mercury then tested Battus' word by changing his form and voice, and then going ba...
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...evenge involving Hercules was when Juno bribed the goddess of childbirth to prevent Alcmena from delivering her baby, Hercules. Juno was jealous because Jove was the baby's father, and she wanted to make it as difficult as possible for Alcmena. The birth goddess crossed her legs, preventing the delivery of the child. Alcmena's servant, Galanthis, tricked the birth goddess into standing and Alcmena delivered the child safely. As punishment for the servant's deception, the birth goddess turned Galanthis into a weasel.
There are many examples of transformation and revenge in Ovid's book Metamorphoses. Revenge brings about transformation, whether the people are turned into animals, plants, monsters, constellations, or fish. All of the instances of revenge in Metamorphoses are important, and they play an important role in telling the story.
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.”
The story of The Metamorphosis starts out simply, with a human waking up no longer human, but rather like a giant bug. This existential novella is filled with absurdity, as well as betrayal. When Gregor Samsa, the main character, wakes up one day as a bug, his first priority is getting to his job, in order to make money to support his family. But as the story goes on, he is betrayed by the family he loves so much, but worse, he betrays who he is as a person. Betrayal in the novella The Metamorphosis contributes to the overall message of the story that anyone will betray you, regardless of whether they are family, enemies, or even yourself, through showing the actions of Gregor’s father towards Gregor, Grete’s actions against Gregor, and Gregor’s own actions against himself and his family.
In modern times, phrases such as “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” are commonly used. Also, the mere word revenge holds negative connotations as it is seen as immature and unnecessary. The theme of revenge uses archetypes to develop ideas without having to reiterate their meaning. According to the creator of the term, Carl Jung, “archetypes are defined as being a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.” (Dictionary) The Count of Monte Cristo, one of the novels that pioneer this theme, tells the story of a man’s quest for revenge on those who betrayed him. This man spends 14 years of his life imprisoned because of his betrayers, but he manages to escape to avenge his suffering. In the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas uses the archetypes of the byronic hero, the betrayer and the old sage to demonstrate that one’s suffering doesn’t give them the right to seek revenge on those who have failed them.
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The Essence of Betrayal “Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.” John le Carr. The novel Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka is a story about the transformation of a man named Gregor who turned into a bug. The story takes place inside an apartment and describes the struggles Gregor goes through with his life and family.
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 a 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 an “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 to far and is consequently not justice. This notion of Revenge and justice is often in literature, one of the better-known being the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Alexandre Dumas. However, literature is not the only time that revenge and justice is discussed in. Works and Rules and real-life events that took place like the Bible, Hammurabi’s code, Twelve Tables, and others each have something different about the topic. More religious texts seem to forbid violence, while laws, such as the Hammurabi’s code, recommend revenge, but equal revenge. By judging from literature, it can be concluded that most authors have different opinions on the matter at hand, and revenge is sometimes justice, but usually not, and tends to lead to violence that was not intended.
turns out to be a punishment for that rebellion. The Metamorphosis is a story of
Bar-elli, G. and Heyd, D. (1986), Can revenge be just or otherwise justified?. Theoria, 52: 68–86. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-2567.1986.tb00100.x
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.
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.
Revenge almost always has the makings of an intriguing and tragic story. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a perfect example of how revenge unfolds and what it unveils. The play tells the story of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, marries his mother soon after his father’s death. Hamlet greatly disapproves of the hasty marriage and suspects foul play. His suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father appears and tells him that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet’s father asks him to take revenge upon Claudius, and soon everything takes a drastic change. The courses of revenge throughout Hamlet surround each character with corruption, obsession, and fatality.
My personal experience with revenge isn’t much, and it concerns little things. Revenge can simply be when a person draws on your book, and in spite you would draw on their book as well. It might as well occur in a game, for example my friend plays a lot of game online and this game is to simply ‘kill’ other opponents. Once, her character got attacked by another opponent but she was not prepared for the attack and she lost. Because of this, she was angry and wanted to seek revenge. She then got all her other friends to ‘gang’ up and attack the opponent. Since it wasn’t a very fair battle, the opponent lost. This act might seem childish and trivial, but this is the act of revenge.
Transformations from one shape or form into another are the central theme in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The popularity and timelessness of this work stems from the manner of story telling. Ovid takes stories relevant to his culture and time period, and weaves them together into one work with a connecting theme of transformation throughout. The thread of humor that runs through Metamorphoses is consistent with the satire and commentary of the work. The theme is presented in the opening lines of Metamorphoses, where the poet invokes the gods, who are responsible for the changes, to look favorably on his efforts to compose. The changes are of many kinds: from human to animal, animal to human, thing to human, human to thing. Some changes are reversed: human to animal to human. Sometimes the transformations are partial, and physical features and personal qualities of the earlier being are preserved in mutated form.
One year after passing this legislation, Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Title VII, making it unlawful to discriminate based on a person’s race, religion, color, or sex. The Title VII confronts sexual discrimination ranging not only to wages but to compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment. As a result, with the Equal Pay Act and Title VII, an employer cannot deny women equal pay for equal work; deny women transfers, promotions, or wage increases; sway job evaluations to relegate women’s pay; or purposely segregate men and women into jobs according to their gender. However, some researchers suggested the idea that some female employees consider that receiving less pay than a male counterparts is fair due to studies given. In Spite of this, is the Gender Pay Gap which is related to society’s gender-associated roles and norms based on research opinions. Equal pay f...