Revenge

Revenge or vengeance consists of retaliation against a person or group in response to perceived wrongdoing. Although many aspects of revenge resemble or echo the concept of making things equal, revenge usually has a more injurious than constructive goal. The vengeful wish is to make the perceived wrongdoer go through what they put the victim through or to make sure the wrongdoer can never do what they did again.

Revenge in art and culture

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, Death Wish, ', Kill Bill and OldBoy. 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.

Related Topics:
Payback - Death Wish - Kill Bill - OldBoy - The Oresteia - Hamlet - The Merchant of Venice - Chushingura - Don Giovanni - La Forza del Destino - Moby-Dick - The Cask of Amontillado - The Count of Monte Cristo

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Many works show disapproval for revenge:

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• In Moby-Dick, Ahab's absurd desire for revenge against the white whale, an animal with no concept of this human emotion, leads his ship and crew to ruin.
• In the episode, Heart of Ice, 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 created his deadly intolerance of above freezing temperatures. Batman foils Mr. Freeze's attempt at vengeance, but gives him closure by taking Boyle to the police.
• In the Disney animated feature 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.