Acting on revenge can either be bittersweet or deadly. Revenge is the act of “getting someone back” who has done another person wrong. The emotion one feels that could lead to revenge is anger, as a replacement of grief. Normally, the person taking revenge lets the one who has done him wrong know that he is vengeful. Other times, the person would act upon his revenge without letting the victim know what he is getting revenge on. Although, sometimes, an individual would just forgive the other person and move on. Anger is one of the main emotions one feels when taking revenge.
In one case, a person would be angry in their state of bereavement and wants vengeance. Sometimes, this is a good idea. In the article, “Some Crusades Need to Be Fought” by Catherine Jackson, a man named Jim Swire lost his daughter, Flora, due to a bombing on her flight in 1988. He spent the past 25 years trying to discover the truth about what really happened. Swire was angry at the government for “not looking after its citizens and is hell bent on concealing the way the disaster was allowed to happen (Jackson ? ). ” He said his way of acting out was guided by how he thought Flora would have onsidered to be right.
It was controlled but he still showed his anger on the matter. Further on, psychiatrist, Colin Murray Parkes, described how one of his clients that lost her sister and was afraid of grieving. As an alternative, she acted upon anger to make it through. However, Sue Marshall, a psychotherapist said,”Anger is quite energizing. It gives people a sense of doing something: they can’t bring the person back to life but they can channel their anger into raising money for hospital equipment, say, or campaigning to raise awareness of road danger (Jackson ? ). Although using anger as an alternative to grief, it can also be a bad idea.
In the book, Half Bad, Nathan, a Half Code (good and bad witch) was looking at a picture of his mom, Cora, who was a White Witch (good witch), in memory of her because she committed suicide. His sister, Jessica, came and took the picture frame out of his hands and sliced the edge of it across his cheek and said, “Don’t ever touch this again. ” She was angry about her mom passing and she blamed it on Nathan because she died after his birth (Green, 30). Nathan soon found out that the Council forced Cora to kill herself because she reated Nathan with the most famous Black Witch (bad witch), Marcus (Green, 128).
Furthermore, a story was told of a tribe years ago that had a special witch named Geeta. Not only would she heal the people of her tribe, but in other tribes as well. The tribe leader, Aster, did not want that so he ruled that no one from another tribe was to see Geeta without his permission and imprisoned her. Soon after, she escaped with the help of one of her patients, Callor. They ended up falling in love and had twin girls, Dawn and Eve. Years later, Aster became ill and requested Geeta to come back and heal him. Geeta sent Eve, the hateful twin, in place of her to cure him.
However, instead of healing him, Eve placed a curse on Aster and left. He died a month after. Ash, Aster’s son, was driven on anger and took revenge on the family by killing Callor and capturing Geeta and Dawn. Even though the outcomes of a vengeful act can be pleasurable or deadly for the avenger and victim, it all depends on how the act is planned. One way is called a private revenge, where the avenger takes his/her revenge on the recipient without making it known what he/she is getting revenge for. In the reading, “Of Revenge,” Francis Bacon stated, “… but base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.
He means that when someone plots revenge in a private manner, that person is a coward and is thought lowly of. An example of private revenge would be in The Cask of Amontillado. Montresor has been insulted and injured by Fortunato numerous times in the past, which caused him to seek revenge (Poe 1). Montresor convinced Fortunato to go into the catacombs with him in search of the Amontillado (Poe 5). As they went deeper into the catacombs, Montresor locked ortunato in chains from the walls and built a wall out of building stone and mortar that he found near by.
Fortunato did not know what was happening since he was in a drunken state and Montresor knew that no one would be able to hear Fortunato’s screams; therefore, it was the perfect time to get his revenge. Once he was done building the wall, it was interpreted that Montresor was cleansed of his hatred for Fortunato when he said, “In pace requiesct! “, that translates to “Rest in peace. ” Similarly, in the tragedy Hamlet, Claudius and Laertes secretly plot to kill Hamlet (Ham. IV. VII. 135-76). Claudius wants to kill Hamlet because he is a threat to him.
Hamlet tried to kill Claudius but ended up killing Polonius in the process. Laertes wants his revenge because his father, Polonius, was murdered and his sister, Ophelia, was driven to insanity because of the loss of her lover. Claudius tells Laertes that he will bring him and Hamlet together to sword fight. Hamlet will be careless enough to not examine the swords for Laertes to pick one with a pointed tip. Laertes explained that he will use poison he received from an unqualified doctor to put on the tip of his sword to injure Hamlet. With this poison, the slightest cut would kill Hamlet and there was no cure for it (Ham. IV. VII. 154-62). Claudius states: .. lf this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance. Twere better not assay’d. Therefore this project Should have a back or second, that might hold If this did blast in proof.
Soft! let me see. We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings-I ha’t! When in your motion you are hot and dry-As make your bouts more violent to that end- And that he calls for drink, ‘ll have prepared him A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your enom’d stuck, Our purpose may hold there… Ham. IV. VII. 165-77) Claudius proceeded to say that if Laertes’s plan fails, he shall offer Hamlet a cup filled with the poison and let him drink it. Also, in Half Bad, the Council plotted to have Marcus killed by someone as strong as him. They wanted Nathan to perform that duty. But he refused each time they brought it up because of the sole purpose of them being the cause of his mom’s death. Moreover, another way to plot revenge is to let the other person know that their revenge is coming and for what. This type of revenge is known as generous revenge.
In “Of Revenge,” it said, “Some, when they take revenge, are desirous the party should know whence it cometh: this is the more generous. ” It is important to let the person receiving the revenge know that he is the target. This will allow him to make notice of his original action and be sorry for it. For instance, in Hamlet, Hamlet puts on a play called The Mousetrap for Claudius to let him know that Hamlet knows about the events of King Hamlet’s death. Hamlet wants to see Claudius’s guilt to ensure he killed King Hamlet. No matter how someone takes their revenge, it will either esult in death or the other person learning their lesson.
It can be bittersweet to the avenger because they are finally resolving their anger toward that person. Yet, it can also be deadly for not only the recipient, but the avenger as well. If something goes wrong, they could both possibly end up dead. Hamlet’s revenge was bittersweet because he managed to kill Claudius for his murderous act. However, it was deadly too because Hamlet, Laertes, and Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother) died in the process. Anger is mostly what one feels when acting on revenge because they dwell so much on the past instead of letting go and moving on.
