Revenge

   

Revenge is also the name of a 1990 movie.

Revenge is retaliation against a person or group in response to a wrong-doing by that person or group. Although many aspects of revenge are similar to the concept of making things equal, the goal of revenge is usually more injurious than constructive. Proponents of revenge wish to make the other side go through what they went through or make sure they'll never be able to do what they did again.

Revenge is a hotly contested ethical issue in philosophy. Some feel it is necessary to maintain a just society. In some societies, it is believed that the damage inflicted should be greater than the original one, as a punitive measure. The Old Testament philosophy of "an eye for an eye" tried to limit the allowed damage to avoid a violence spiral. Detractors argue revenge is more like the logical fallacy "two wrongs make a right." Some Christians quote the line "'Revenge is mine' says the Lord" which is to say that, in their faith, only God has the moral right to exact revenge.

Vendettas were an important part of many pre-industrial societies, especially in the Mediterranean region.

In Japanīs feudal past the Samurai class upheld the honor of their family, clan, or their lord by katakiuchi (敵討ち), or revenge killings. These killings could also involve the relatives of an offender. Today katakiuchi is mostly pursued by peaceful means, but revenge remains an important part of Japanese culture.

The goal of some legal systems is limited to "just" revenge. However, a system evolved that substituted the damage of revenge with reparations like blood money or forcing a rapist to marry his victim. Modern Western legal systems usually state as their goal reeducation or reinsertion. Even in these systems, the notion of justice as revenge is held by part of the society.

Revenge has been a popular theme for art and culture throughout history. Many popular motion pictures have used it as a central theme, including Payback, The Wrath of Khan and Kill Bill. Classic literary examples of revenge stories include The Oresteia, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Chushingura, Don Giovanni, La Forza del Destino, Moby-Dick, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Some productions show disapproval for revenge as in the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series episode, Heart of Ice. In this story, Mr. Freeze pursues a vendetta against a callous business executive, Harvey Boyle, whose interruption of a life saving, if unauthorized, procedure killed Freeze's wife and create his deadly intolerance of above freezing temperatures. Batman learns about this grudge and stops Freeze from murdering Boyle in revenge, but also presents evidence of Boyle's crime guarenteeing Boyle's arrest and giving Freeze justice. In Brother Bear, a young man starts a cycle of violent vengeance that brings more suffering to the loved ones around him that only ends when he realizes he had been wrong to start it and a young one he has grown to love and inadvertantly harmed in his vendetta finds the wisdom and moral strength to forgive him. In Moby-Dick, Ahab's absurd desire for revenge against the white whale, a dumb beast that has no concept of this human desire, leads his ship and crew to ruin.

Quotations on Revenge

  • Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. - Leviticus 24:20, King James Bible
  • Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. - Romans 12:21
  • But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. - Matthew 5:44
  • If we practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless. - Mahatma Gandhi
  • Revenge without respect to the example and profit to come is a triumph, or glorying in the hurt of another, tending to no end (for the end is always somewhat to come); and glorying to no end is vain-glory, and contrary to reason. - Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan
  • Revenge is best dealt with by forgetting it. - Japanese Buddhism (Pure Land school) in an advise of a King about to be executed, to his son concerning his enemy, about to execute his father, the King.
  • "Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous." . . . "Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then I could do the other." - Moby-Dick

See also

Duel, forgiveness, Compensation Essay

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