There is a blurred line between revenge and justice. Is revenge justice? Is revenge justified? The difference may be nothing more than mixing the same words to feel morally healthy. If we can agree on the idea that revenge is a feeling or an act of punishment, and also that justice is nothing more than a “just” act of retaliation, then we can begin to question the subtle structure of moral values and how this affects life. definition of these selected words. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, what makes an action “right”? Must punishment be proportional to the initial act that led to that justice, or must it be morally humane? I would suggest that society is built on the propagation of civilization and acts of humanity, so to make an action "right" is to mean that it is humane or "good". This means that justice is a "good" or for the better act of retaliation, so the line between revenge and justice is whether it is for the good or bad of the parties involved. The problem with this arises in the true meaning of good and evil. “Good and evil are merely artificial constructs.” There is no good in evil in nature, things are simply what you make of them. I believe Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights shows a better distinction between revenge and justice. Rather than just a not-so-positive act of retaliation, revenge is a force that drives people to behave blinded by their anger. Another distinction can be made between revenge and justice, the expected outcome. The purpose of revenge is to restore or shift the balance of power. While, in contrast, the purpose of justice is more about maintaining balance and less about shifts in power. Wuthering Heights beautifully shows what revenge is and uses the importance of balance in a closed system (The Earnshaws and The Lintons) to demonstrate this. To create an environment structured around balance, Emily Bronte creates a highly dichotomous view of life and all our emotions, love and hate, revenge and justice, even The Heights and The Grange can be identified as part of the role of doubling and of the balance so often represented throughout this novel. The protagonist of this novel is Heathcliff and faces many emotions of loathing and betrayal. He deals with his negative emotions by channeling them into feelings of revenge. Revenge is a common theme and the balance developed between revenge and justice is a ploy used by Bronte to show how revenge drives people to act blindly and out of character. Heathcliff is an outsider in the Heights, and thus is condemned to a life of no economic class, meaning he has no power in his society. It is also confined to the social limitations of those who do not belong to any economic class. As a child, Heathcliff was abused by Hindley. Hindley clearly resented Heathcliff's entry into The Heights and felt he was being treated too kindly considering he was a stranger to The Heights. It is here that the cyclical revenge begins and that Heathcliff is planted with the seed of desire to plot his final revenge. “He blamed our father (how dare he?) for treating H. too liberally; and swears that he will put him in his place." , it seems that Hindley wanted more attention from Mr. Earnshaw and took out his feelings of abandonment on Heathcliff. Those who have power trample on the powerless, and then the powerless become those who have power and continue the hypocrisy of trampling on the new powerless. This cycle is located in Wuthering Heights and is powered by the.
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