Revenge

Video Clips from the 2002 film, The Count of Monte Cristo

Before you embark on the journey of revenge, dig two graves. ~ Confucius

Last night ABC TV's 20/20 took on the subject of "revenge." As I was busy doing chores, I heard the program more than I watched it. The stories of the destructiveness and self-destructiveness of the people who sought to take revenge on others was painful to hear.

I believe that everyone, at one time or another, desires revenge. However, it is the action more than the thought that is so destructive. I say that knowing that lives have been ruined by carrying the desire for revenge year after year. Still, until one acts the revenge is limited to the one who desires it; after action is taken, the circle of pain and sorrow increases enormously.

To me the greatest fictional story of the evil of revenge is Alexandre Dumas' novel, The Count of Monte Christo. The protagonist, Edmond Dantés, was just promoted to sea captain and about to marry the woman he loved when he is framed by three enemies as a conspirator in the plot surrounding Napoleon's 1815 escape from exile on the island on return to France. Dantés is imprisoned without trial in the Chateau d'If. Dantés remains imprisoned in the French Alcatraz for 14 years.There he is befriended by the Abbé Faria, who teaches him much and, eventually, through Fraia's death enables Dantés to escape. Following the Abbé instructions, he makes his way to the island of Monte Cristo, where he recovers a huge treasure, that has been hidden there since the Renaissance. He then returns to the European mainland, having re-christened himself the Count of Monte Cristo and, with the wealth of the treasure, sets out to revenge his betrayal and imprisonment on the three men responsible.

His revenge is brutal and complete. The three men are destroyed, although at the end Dantés facilitates the rescue and salvation of the son and daughter of two of his enemies. It is to these two young lovers that Edmond Dantés, Comte 'd Monte Cristo, speaks what I belive are some of the most powerful words regarding revenge:

“Tell the angel who will watch over your life to pray now and then for a man who, like Satan, believed himself for an instant Edmond Dantés, but who realized in all humility that supreme power and wisdom are in the hands of God alone.”

When the desire for revenge come upon us, we may certainly, for an instant or longer, believe ourselves to be "like Satan... equal to God." It is then, perhaps, that we need to remember those words that Dumas put into the mouth of the Comte 'd Monte Cristo. We may also remember the words of Confucius (above) and these words:

"He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well." ~ John Milton

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." ~ The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness." ~ Josh Billings