If you’ve read Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Cask of Amontillado, you know how evil the protagonist, Montresor, is. He expertly carried out a disturbing scheme that left a man buried alive in the deepest part of the Montresor catacombs to die and rot, all for the sake of revenge. We know that Montresor is a very dark and disturbing character, as his own personality was based off of Poe’s. There is no doubt that Montresor committed a heinous crime of which would not be excused in today’s world. However, there are several quotes and pieces of textual evidence to suggest that Montresor might have done the people a favor by killing the not-so-fortunate “fortunate one.”
These kinds of acts what Machiavelli pertains to as criminal means. He argued that these cruel acts, though evil, maybe be justified if done at once to build a prince's power and then swung to the regale of his people. Moreover, the prince having attained the principality is required to live with his subjects and should do all the injuries at once, if not, it is no longer acceptable. This second argument resembles Machiavelli's famous phrase “the end justifies the means”, showing that he approves bad behavior as long as at the end it will turn
Pursuing revenge through the legal system is a form of justifiable revenge in which justice is automatically granted if the court deems you fit. One good example of this can be found in The Count of Monte Cristo when the character Villefort recently places the character Edmond Dantes in jail : “This man, a turbulent sailor whom I had previously suspected of Bonapartism, had made a secret trip to the Isle of Elba. The marshal there entrusted him with a verbal message for a certain Bonapartist,in Paris, whose name I was unable to make him tell me. But I did learn that he was to instruct this Bonapartist in Paris to prepare his adherents for a return of the usurper within a short time,” (Dumas, 37). The decision of putting Dantes in jail was indirect revenge.
Macbeth begins to employ treachery in order to achieve his goals and use tyranny to subdue anyone who opposes him including his wife. His treachery is most visible in the play when Macbeth betrays and kills both Duncan and Banquo as well as Macduff’s family. Macbeth says this before deciding to kill Duncan, “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother'd in surmise.” (I. iii. 139-141) After steeling himself for the murder of Duncan, Macbeth says, “I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
After realizing the severity his plan to succeed the throne, Macbeth reveals his hesitancy towards killing King Duncan, and it is at that moment that he calls out to a “dagger of the mind” which symbolizes his guilt and temptation to carry out the evil deed (2. 1. 39). Inevitably, Macbeth’s desire for power outweighed his moral integrity, and he carries out the murder of King Duncan, beginning the slow spiral of his own demise mentally and physically. Shakespeare uses this apostrophe as a way to highlight the importance of the idea of murder and how easily its concept can be corrupted by greed. Before being told he would be king, Macbeth was content with
The man was released, leaving Jozef burdened with a sense of “guilt that he had not been able to protect his parents, and regret that he had failed in his responsibility to take vengeance” (11). On the basis of these narratives, Diamond advocates for a more widespread acceptance of the natural desire for revenge, an emotion which in is view is much like that of “love, anger, grief, and fear” (12). He concludes that great relief that can be supplied by properly expressing and acknowledging our thirst for vengeance. Taking a position so contrary to
Look where they got you, in slime up to your lip. If I stir the slime with my little finger, you'll drown!"(111) Montag is driven by Beatty's words to murdering Beatty, committing his first blatant act of crime against society and driving him over the edge to a new life on the run. Then, Beatty quickens Montag's development from seemingly content member of society to a determined rebel against it. Finally Beatty last effect on Montag was how he put curiosity it Montag's brain when he says, "Here or there, that's bound to occur. Clarisse McClellan?
Victor Frankenstein’s allure for power had been solely responsible for his downfall, along with the deaths of whom he loved. Victor created a beast in an attempt to be represented as a god-like figure. Due to Victor’s devotion he could not commit to hating this creature and kill it. It had only been after the murder of 3 of his family members when Victor finally saw his darkness. Frankenstein’s moral ambiguity reveals the meaning of the work as a whole- an overpowering allure for power can be your downfall and bring harm to those around
But he is the villian in the end. Agatha Chritie makes us feel like there is no villian at all. Judge Wargrave changes his personalty from the begging to the end. At first he seems nice,then he seems like the percfet hero,but at the need he is an evil person who wanted to kill people who were wrong and accidnet or purposaly killed other pople. The judge says in the book,I have wanted-let me admit it frankly-to commit a murder myslef.”
God has a major role as the supreme being over all life, but through focusing on one aspect of His job in particular, one can conclude that Dantes is trying to play God’s role as justice-giver. Dantes, as the Count of Monte Cristo, is in the process of infiltrating the lives of his enemies in order to plot and exact the perfect revenge. In one instance, he is talking with Monsieur Villefort, the corrupt prosecutor who imprisoned him on false charges. He tells Villefort, “I want to be Providence, because the thing that I know which is finest, greatest, and most sublime in the world is to reward and to punish” (Dumas 556). Dantes admits his obsession with justice - reward and punishment - to Monsieur Villefort.
Human behavior will determine the success of our world. Humans can destroy themselves if they are malicious like shown in the short stories The Cask of Amontillado, The Veldt, and The Lottery. Human nature is slowly decreasing in value in the world. Characters in those short stories prove to be the wrong answer to healing the wounds of the world today, like the injustice, and overall ignorance the world carries on its back. Although humans can be kind and selfless people, sacrificing loved ones, hurting innocent bystanders, and plotting revenge can reveal the dark side of human nature.