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Villains And Revenge In Homer's Odyssey

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Villains and Revenge

The Archetype Villains and Revenge is a description of people who become evil because of something that happened in their childhood or throughout their lives. These villains are only acting evil to get revenge on those who were cruel to them. This archetype is evident in the Odyssey when Poseidon, god of the sea, becomes a villain by disrupting Odysseus’ journey home. He delays Odysseus’ voyage to his homeland by years, and kills his entire crew. He makes Odysseus suffer many hardships and makes him miss his family more and more everyday. Poseidon has a reason to act this way though; in his journeys, the great Odysseus blinded Poseidon's son. Poseidon was full of rage and sympathy for his son to be treated this way. He …show more content…

One book this archetype is in is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm K. Grimm. In this famous fairytale, Snow White has a stepmother that has always been the “loveliest in the land”. The stepmother becomes outraged and jealous when her mirror on the wall tells her that Snow White is the loveliest in the land, and not her. She immediately turns into a villain by plotting to kill the princess. She sends a servant to take her deep into the woods and kill her, but he fails. So she dresses up as a little old lady and gives Snow White a poisoned apple, leaving her lifeless. The stepmother does this out of jealousy, for she, the queen must be the loveliest, not Snow White. She feels threatened, and wants to get revenge on Snow White for stealing her spot as the “loveliest in the land”.

Many poets write about villains getting revenge, one of which is Nathan Stobbs, who wrote the poem Two Faced. In this poem a man tells of how he is viewed as a villain for things he did; even though, like poseidon, he was doing them for a greater good. “I am the unsung hero Nobody knows the battle I have to fight”(line 14); he is the unsung hero because he could have been getting revenge for his son like poseidon did, he is trying to do what he believes is right to get even. The man only becomes a villain when he gets his revenge, he is viewed this way “Because only the evil comes to the light” (line

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