Revenge in The Arts
Revenge is a popular subject in literature, drama, and other arts. Notable examples include the plays Hamlet and Othello by William Shakespeare, the novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe. Other examples are the Greek myths of Medea, the painting Herodias' Revenge by Juan de Flandes, the opera Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the novel The Princess Bride by William Goldman. In Japanese art, revenge is a theme in various woodblock prints depicting the Revenge of the Forty-Seven Ronin by many well-known and influential artists, including Kuniyoshi. The Chinese playwright Ji Junxiang used revenge as the central theme his theatrical work The Orphan of Zhao; it depicts more specifically familial revenge, which is placed in the context of Confucian morality and social hierarchal structure.
Some modern societies use tales of revenge to provide catharsis, or to condition their members against acting out of desire for retribution. In many of these works, tragedy is compounded when the person seeking revenge realizes he/she has become what he/she wished to destroy. However, in others, the consummation is depicted as satisfying and cathartic.
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Famous quotes containing the words revenge in, revenge and/or arts:
“The retaliation is apt to be in monstrous disproportion to the supposed offense; for when in anybody was revenge in its exactions aught else but an inordinate usurer?”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Follow me if I advance! Kill me if I retreat! Revenge me if I die!”
—Ngo Dinh Diem (d. 1963)
“Women hock their jewels and their husbands’ insurance policies to acquire an unaccustomed shade in hair or crêpe de chine. Why then is it that when anyone commits anything novel in the arts he should be always greeted by this same peevish howl of pain and surprise? One is led to suspect that the interest people show in these much talked of commodities, painting, music, and writing, cannot be very deep or very genuine when they so wince under an unexpected impact.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)