What is revenge? Revenge is defined as the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands (Oxford definition). It can also be described as the act of a person inflicting wrong on something that previously inflicted wrong to it, with the purpose of trying to restore justice. Revenge has been a part of humans for as long as they have existed. In fact, even before the emergence of humans, primates showed to have intragroup relationship conflicts. Primatologists (from Primatology, the study of primates) Frans de Waal and Lesleigh Luttrel conducted a study in which they would test for revenge in three species of primates. One of the species (chimpanzees) demonstrated a noticeable pattern of revenge. (McCullough 2008) Also, apart from primates, many animals, like ants, also express explicit behavior of revenge. In the ants' case, the previously enslaved ants kill the captors' babies in order to make it “even”. (Pamminger et al., 2012) So, what does this say about revenge? It says that the desire of acquiring justice is not only in humans, but also in animals. If this feeling is also seen in animals, then it is most probably an evolved trait.
Revenge is viewed in a different way by almost everyone, meaning that there is no definite answer as to if it is beneficial or not. The act of revenge has seen some drastic changes in perspective throughout history. During the Middle Ages, conflicts would not be regarded as resolved until they were avenged. In fact, many long-established justice systems (similar to the one that the Samurai class held in Japan's feudal past, that consisted of “revenge for honor”) are confined to only revenge. (Ikegami 1995) Even Modern Western legal s...
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Rosenbaum, T. (2013). Payback: A Case for Revenge. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
McCullough, M. (2008). Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tobias Pamminger, Annette Leingärtner, Alexandra Achenbach, Isabelle Kleeberg, Pleuni S. Pennings, & Susanne Foitzik (2012). Geographic distribution of the anti-parasite trait “slave rebellion” Evolutionary Ecology
Ikegami, E. (1995). The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Carlsmith, K. (May 2008) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (Vol. 95, No. 6).
Jaffe, E. (October 2011.) The Complicated Psychology of Revenge. Observer Vol.24, No.8
Revenge. (2013, November 17). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 21, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.
Secrets of the Samurai: A survey of the Martial Arts of Feudal Japan by Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook
Revenge is medicine to most people or it is an ongoing circle. When a person is betrayed or inflicted pain it is a natural reaction to think of a way to cause the same pain back. Revenge is part of everyday life and many find pleasure through it. Although it may be the natural reaction and could be someone’s gut feeling that is telling him or her to do it is almost never right and does not pay off in the end. Revenge is a ongoing circle due to the fact that when someone does something wrong to a person that person will want to do it right back and keep going back and forth until justice intervenes or someone realizes it is morally wrong. Just like the saying “an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” is the
The definition of revenge: “to punish somebody who has harmed you or harmed a friend” (Revenge, web).
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.
Justice is part of revenge; as also for revenge is part of justice. “Justice” comes from a Latin word that means “straight, fair, equal”, it’s the quality of being righteous and loyal towards one’s state, although serves the interests of the stronger (Hourani, 1962), while revenge is the act of taking retaliation for injuries or wrongs. What ever the circumstances are being the individual who experiences a unjust act, results in the hunt for one of these two things: Justice or revenge. What are the key differences between the two? Justice can be defined as the concept of moral rightness, which is based on the rules of law, fairness, ethics, and equality among the governed citizens. Revenge, on the other hand, refers to an action taken by an individual as a response to an act of injustice. The principle of revenge is “an eye for an eye”…. Can revenge be justified and be as equally part of justice if they both seek retribution for a wrongdoing?
It is the idea of revenge that sends a cool shiver down the spines of justly men when they begin to question as to why someone would stoop to such a level. But yet it is still more than an idea for revenge has been carried out in various forms along all the eras of history side-by-side of that of novels and tragedies. Even so, revenge is still a dark scheme; an evil plague of the mind per se. It is such a plague that will turn even the greatest persons of the brightest, optimistically capable of minds into lowly, as well as lonely, individuals. Thus, revenge will, and can, only end in despair and agony of the mind. Therefore, provided that all that has been said is true, revenge would appear quite unseemly to the observant onlooker. However, taking an in-depth insight into revenge you can uncover quite a compelling feature, which is best summed up into one word. Pride. Pride is the one clear motivational proprietor needed to push a protagonist into the downward spiral of personal vendetta. Without pride, revenge is no more than a mindless massacre of flesh and bone ending in the obliteration of any hope for reconciliation.
Vengeance is a dangerous temptation to fall under. People often are very easily lured into taking vengeance upon another individual. The cause of this is that some people often think to take justice into there own hands when it is not there duty. This is how people can become trapped and obsessed with taking vengeance upon someone else and how it can change a persons motives to evil ones, motives that are far from justice. To counter the poison of vengeance, people must act in forgiveness rather than hate and anger towards another. When showing forgiveness for others, you will also be shown forgiveness.
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)
... always justice, and there is usually more emotion involved in the revenge and thus the revenge hurts more than the original crime hurt.
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.
“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.
Retribution is a justification for punishment and not a theory about substantive criminal law. But what justifies also limits. Retribution offers solid moral bases for opposing overcriminalization. Retribution is the type of punishment that indicating the vengeance or revenge. It is the idea of an ‘eye for an eye’ or ‘tooth for a tooth’ basis. The punishments given are for the response to the offender to the crime that he had done. For example, the death penalty to the crime of murder. It is a form of ‘striking back’ . Basically, there are two rationales in this theory of punishment are first, for the victims or their relatives in the case of death, that the state represent for their dissatisfaction towards the offender. Besides, this also protect from they having private retaliation to the offender. Second, is for the public at large that the public has a need for revenge. Punishment is considered an expression of justified anger by the victim due to the violation of trust demanded by society .
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?
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.