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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 heatedly contested ethical issue in philosophy. Some feel it is necessary to maintain a just society, akin to the biblical philosophy of "an eye for an eye."
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 only God has the moral right to exact
revenge in their faith.
Vendettas were an important part of many pre-industrial societies,
especially in the Mediterranean region.
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 (movie), The Wrath of
Khan and Kill Bill. Classic literary examples of revenge
stories include The Oresteia, Hamlet, Chushingura, Don Giovanni, La Forza del
Destino, 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 vengence 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.
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
- 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
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