Revenge: The Ever-Present Themes Of Revenge In The Iliad

There are many forms of revenge and there are many views on whether it is right or wrong and whether or not it can make someone feel better. In the article “Revenge: Will You Feel Better?”, Karyn Hall Ph.D. explains how no matter how powerful urge is to get revenge on someone because they have wronged you, the outcome usually only makes both subjects involved feel much worse. She explains how all revenge is rooted in anger and sadness. Hall makes the conclusion that “Maybe the purpose of revenge is in preventing certain hostile actions....”, meaning that if one gets revenge on another, it is possible that he or she has just intimidated the other enough to not repeat the same action that made him get revenge in the first place. Hall also believes

“There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.” says war veteran John Billings. Revenge is the desire to repay an injury by inflicting harm and hatred is the deep, negative thought that may lead to it. Hurting or harming other humans in today’s society is not allowed. Revenge has the reputation of being barbaric, short-sighted and a pointless instinct. It is an aspect of our human makeup that we must resist. It is an example of man’s complete and utter capacity for abstract thought. Society should be against hatred and revenge because it causes violence and chaos and is inevitably a destructive motive for actions.

People always try to find a way to argue that revenge is not justified. It is easy for people to understand that someone can go overboard with revenge. For example, someone might kill another person to avenge his son's murder. They see this and say that all revenge is bad and can never be justified because now more people are dead. Examples like this persuade people that revenge is not justified. However, sometimes you have to put yourself in a victim's shoes. If that was your kid, wouldn’t you want to get revenge on the murderer. Your whole view of revenge would probably change. It is easy for someone to say revenge is bad when they have never felt the need for revenge. Most people would seek revenge on someone if something bad happened to them. It is a part of human nature, we can’t control it. So, revenge is a part of everyone and will happen. It just has to be reasonable to get any justification. I’m not saying it is ok to go kill someone for revenge or do something bad because they did something to you. The point is that revenge, whether morally right or wrong, can be

Honor is one of the major themes in The Iliad. However the concept of honor in The Iliad is not the same as our current understanding of honor. Honor plays a key role in how the characters in the Iliad act, why they make certain decisions, and why the events in the Iliad occur the way they do.

It is so deeply rooted that it encompasses Achilles, becoming a characteristic of this great warrior, influencing his actions and chooses throughout the story, such as leaving the fighting and considering the idea to return to Pythia. The depth of Achilles rage and hatred is demonstrated through in his response to Agamemnon, concerning the gifts he offered as compensation for his wrongs, saying that “not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sand and dust in the earth, no not even then could Agamemnon bring my fighting spirit round” (9.470-472). The true rage of Achilles is extremely important to the entire story of The Iliad, as from Book One through Book Nine Achilles allows this rage to control his actions, causing him to Achilles remains absent from the fighting as well as causing him to pray to Zeus that Trojans may receive the upper hand in the fighting so that the Greeks may suffer for Agamemnon’s actions. Therefore, this profound rage is an extremely important aspect of The Iliad, as it ultimately effects not only Achilles actions but also course of the

During the Trojan war Gods picked sides depending on who they thought was justified or to get revenge. The Gods used mortals as pawns in their game of the revenge and justice. Aphrodite saved Paris in an act of justice, rather than letting the cowardly Paris die at the hands of Menelaus. This angered the Greeks and even ones close to Paris. Helen expresses what everyone thinks of him, “‘You’ve come back from the fight. How I wish you’d died there, killed by that strong warrior who was my husband once’” (Homer, Iliad 3. 480-482), this stirred up conflicts on the ground between the mortals and made Helen and other Trojans dislike Paris even more. Goddesses like Athena were out for revenge in the Iliad because Paris did not see her fit for the golden apple that was to be given to the fairest Goddess, in the Judgement of Paris. So Athena and Hera, who mainly used her marriage to Zeus to do her dirty work, plotted against the Trojans. Athena seeking revenge approaches Hector with the guise of Deiphobus, Hector’s brother, while Hector was being hunted down by Achilles, “‘Now, let’s go straight for him. Let’s fight and not hold back our spears, so we can see if Achilles kills us both, then takes the bloodstained trophies to the ships, or whether you’ll destroy him on your spear’” (Homer, Iliad 22. 301-305). This action was brought on by revenge in divine

One of the major consequences of war is the horrific tragedies that occur. In the Iliad, in book eighteen, when Achilles hears that Hector killed Patroclus he is filled with rage and enters the war seeking vengeance. His rage causes him to kill hundreds of trojans and seek

Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for the gothic themes he presents in his writings, this was no exception for Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”. Several important ideas are brought up about the story’s central theme of revenge. These ideas can be broken down into 3 parts: the incentive, the extent, and the reaction of the person partaking in revenge. It is essential to consider these ideas while reading Poe’s story, in order to comprehend his views on revenge. It also provides the reader the ability to question their own views on revenge as well as compare it with Poe’s. However, with most readers having no major revenge experiences such as the one in the story or some extreme cases in general, it is somewhat hard for the average reader to relate

I will be discussing the key facts and critical issues presented in various roles/goals within the United States (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). The

Furthermore, in the Hamlet Effect which was previously mentioned written by Holly Crocker has explained how behind each motive there should be a reasoning. The paper in a specified part explains in depth how maily there is no clear motive behind the act of revenge. This part of the section reads “ We argue that there is no clear standard … on the perceivers attributions for the act” ( Crocker 1194). The quote explains what revenge is and the behavior that goes along with it. They also talk about the psychological benefit and cost that goes along with revenge. Depending how far revenge goes the person can stray off the right path. The sane motive for people who act on revenge doesn't have a true purpose behind it.For explain, in the monster’s case he hates that fact he was brought to life so because of that he will kill everyone his creator loves. The pursuit is extreme compared to have Victor did.

In ancient Greek ideology and mythology there is a common theme of characters ‘getting what they deserve’. In Homer’s graphic novel The Odyssey, there are several occasions where this theme of reciprocity is occurring. Revenge and justice are something that the romans held highly in their culture, so characters in their stories often had fates that was deemed fit for their ‘crime’.

Mary Shelley shows the endless amount of revenge and that it is driven by pure hatred and rage. The monster was not created to be vengeful, he was kind hearted but when he was poorly treated by Victor and then by the Delacey family, he turned cold. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley displays the immorality and destructive effects that revenge can have through Frankenstein and his pursuit of the creature.

themselves if they are malicious like shown in the short stories The Cask of Amontillado, The

Forgiveness and revenge go hand in hand, many times in order to reach forgiveness the person must get revenge. After a bad event occurs to you, the physiological damage will forever be with you.

Revenge is a strong urge that shouldn't be acted upon because of the consequences. Understanding the influence of emotion and thought on human behavior is important for coming up with solutions to problems. Karyn Hall writes about, and goes in-depth about the topic of revenge. Revenge is self-destructive, yet it is still a part of everyday life. One theory about the purpose of revenge is to prevent certain hostile actions. In addition, the threat insures others don't hurt another in the future. But revenge is unnecessary. It only makes one feel worse about themselves, proven by multiple scientific experiments. The idea that revenge restores justice is truly about trait being rests blushed with one another. To conclude, revenge is not beneficial