Is revenge something to be revered or idolized? This was a question that cropped up in the reading of Beowulf, in the fights between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother and then again between him and the dragon. Because whilst the first battle scene in Beowulf was shown as being a fight between good and evil, those that followed were simply a natural consequence of character’s action. So, while revenge was the natural and perhaps only course to follow for ancient Vikings, is it still something that we can or should ever hold in esteem?
We see the theme in Beowulf that revenge is not only noble but inevitable. It was inevitable that the tribes now making alliances and wedding pacts would eventually return to fighting and backstabbing, a tragic but inevitable fate. When Beowulf killed Grendel it was reasonable and perhaps right in their eyes that Grendel’s mother came to exact her revenge. There is a fight and Beowulf wins, but not over evil. He simply wins over Grendel’s mother, cutting off the chain of revenge with Grendel’s head and last living relative. The dragon too was fighting for revenge over a slight to his horde. And here too the dragon is treated as being within its nature, within the bonds of tradition. It is right that Beowulf must fight him to defend his kingdom, but it is also right that the dragon must protect his treasure. The story is no longer about the contest between good and bad and now about the contest between protagonists and antagonists.
This theme can also be seen in the work of Wuthering Heights. Revenge motivates nearly every action taken by Hindley and Heathcliff in the first half of the book – Hindley’s treatment of Heathcliff, Heathcliff moving back in. And then Heathcliff starts in on Catherine for abandoning him and Linton for stealing his friend, going to the extreme of marrying Isabella to rob Linton of her. Now this book does not attempt to expound (of yet) that these actions were right or just, but they illustrate in a manner similar to Beowulf how one cycle of revenge begets another. The pattern of hatred, once begun, is difficult to stop and merely escalates out of control – just as the wars between the neighboring tribes became all consuming and tragic.
This connection here reminded me of a radio story I heard the other day (a rerun of RadioLab, actually). They talked to a neuroscientist, investigating whether violence was an inborn condition stemming from our ancestors or merely a difficult cycle to break. He spends his summers studying baboons in the Serengeti, for some other brain-stress research. But in the course of these studies, he came in contact with one troop of baboons that lost a huge number of males due to infection. When he returned years later (the reduced population wasn’t suitable for study any more) the new males that had immigrated in had lost their supposedly inborn combativeness and hostile attitude – since there were no hostile males to ingratiate them to that culture, the culture did not exist. Instead it became a calmer, female run troop. A very interesting aberration from supposedly inborn behavior. As we are descended from related beings, by common secular account, perhaps we too are simply trapped in a cycle of violence and we, as much as they, could break free from it given the right stimuli.
I will admit that the reason I chose this issue is that I am developing plans for a new novel and revenge is one of the main motivators of my protagonist. More than that, I believe revenge might be the only thing keeping Nils moving forward – not the justice in destroying this organization but the pleasure of being the one to do it. I’m not sure what to make of this bloodthirsty motivation, or whether I can support Nils in it. I think that I can – because what is right and just in literature is not what is right and just in real life. In some ways literature is simply the base code of how life could be, or more importantly how it is not. It allows moral codes of various eras and peoples to collide and interact in a controlled environment while we wait outside with a warm cat and a cup of tea. Not really – you can hold a cup of tea, a cat or a book but never all three. But anyways, literature is escapism in that we allow it to contain the very things we fight against and are repulsed by in real life. Such is revenge. A noble act of literature with less realism or basis in modern society, a senseless call to violence in real life and literature that attempts to mirror such. But I wouldn’t think to rob Nils of his, because what’s a decent protagonist without some serious moral faults?
Works Cited
Abumrad, Jad and Robert Krulwich. “New Baboon” Radiolab. WNYC Radio. 19 October, 2009. Web. 30 October, 2012.
Very nice Lauren! I can't wait to read your novel! :-)
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