Essay Sample on Revenge Leads to Pain: A Study of Fictional Characters

Introduction

Forgiveness is a virtue in humanity that allows people to come to terms with the events that affected them in the past and move on through a healing process however revenge is the lack of forgiveness that leads to the characters taking an unholistic approach to sorting out the matter that affected their lives. This paper will look at the fictional characters who took it upon themselves to execute revenge, but lost the end and caused pain to bother themselves and the people around them.

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Captain Ahab is a fictional character in the novel 'Moby Dick' who happens to have lost his leg while hunting a white 'Moby Dick' who happens to escape the trap and while captain Ahab was struggling to retrain him, he overpowers the captain and takes his leg in the process. The captain is obsessed with an urge for revenge and spends his time in the sea seeking Moby Dick. Captain Ahab primary goal is to find the white whale and kill him to satisfy his anger and urge for revenge for his lost leg. Captain Ahab in the process of hunting the white leg, happens to lose all his crew except Ishmael, the storyteller who miraculously survives the hunt. The story of Captain Ahab and Moby dick explains how hatred and revenge can ruin the world and cause more harm than good (melvile, np). This vice is exemplified on how the urge for revenge leads to the less of the crew, time and resources in one man's obsession with revenge on an innocent white whale who was trying to save his own life. However, the captain count sees that but thinks that the whale is guilty of his lost leg. The captain does not picture the context of the accident, knowing that he is the one who invaded the province of the whale and anything could have happened. The captain does not consider his own mistake and ill intention on the life to the whale however he focuses on the pain caused by the loss of his leg and wants to seek revenge to satisfy his desire for revenge (Frank Bidart, NP).

Frank Bidart, on the other hand, brings out the theme of revenge and forgiveness in his writing whereby he mentions Herbert White a child murderer and Ellen west, a woman with anorexic behavior. Herbert white is a character who had a rough past and tried to fix his issues by causing more damages such as killing children. He ends up convincing himself that killing children will help him solve his issues; however, it is an act of hatred and revenge on innocent people for the evil done in his life. The narrator then states that this character convinces himself that he is not the one who did the actions that he did, hence failed to accept the situation that he has caused. The second character, on the other hand, is a woman called Ellen white who was amputated at some point in her life. She ends up having anorexic behavior that causes her to cut weight to a mere 92 pounds. Her problem is the urge for revenge and lack of forgiveness that she harbors in her heart and thinks by taking antidepressants drugs will help her escape the problem and solace in her heart. But at the end of the day, she hurts herself by the drugs she is overdosing herself with drugs attempting to kill herself to escape the issues she is going through. These characters do not consider that the actions that happened in the life were accidentals and irreversible and hence they could not change the fate so they should adopt the situation, forgive themselves and make their life better instead of resorting to antisocial habits and evils to please their heart desire of revenging and lack of forgiveness (Hatcher, Ashley, n.p).

The theme of revenge is bought out in both character of these books and their urge to seek, but their wrongdoers revenge the torment in their lives dominates the storylines of these characters. Captain Ahab loses his leg in hunting the white whale and instead of forgiving the whale and forging on a way of moving on with his life, he spends the rest of his life in hunting done the whale but instead he loses the lives of his crew member except for the storyteller who will live on to tell the story on the venture that they underwent. Herbert white, on the other hand, has a number of the evil done in his life and spends the rest of his life murdering innocent children to please his desire for revenge and punishing people for the wrongs done in his life. His urge to cause pin is insatiable and realizing the damage he has caused he convinces himself that he is not the one responsible for the actions done since he could not harbor the pain of carrying on the guilt of the sins he has caused. Ellen White, on the other hand, hurts herself since she cannot find any other person to hurt and in the process, her health deteriorates, but she cannot figure out to take care of herself (Shmoop, np).

Observing from these fictional characters, lack of forgiveness and the desire for the revenge corrupts the heart and the mind so that the victims of on forgiveness desire to find satisfaction in revenging the actions against them. The characters in these stories have pain in their heart as a results of the actions dome in their life whereby they are the victim if the circumstance but instead of understanding and finding forgiveness for themselves and the perpetrators of this action, they took it upon themselves to revenge but instead their cause pain and harm to innocent people. Captain Morgan not only loses his crew but also cause pain to himself in his desire to find Moby Dick the white whale that to his leg, but his chase makes him lose more of people, resources and time. Herbart white, on the other hand, carries atrocities against the innocent children and is considered one of the evilest characters in literature. He then convinces himself that he is not responsible for the actions that he did in his life which is a delusion and not a reality (schwarts n.p).

Forgiven sand softening of the heart could have been a wonderful solution for these characters, and they could not go a long way to harming themselves and harming the society around them. These characters could have understood the situations, accept reality and seek forgiveness for themselves and the characters who wrong them and begin a recovering process hence making the situation better but instead they took upon themselves to seek revenge and fail to forgive making the matter worse. Lack of forgiveness for this character led to a desire for revenge that cost them resources, lack of peace and harming of the people around them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, revenge is vice leading to more harm than good. In the story tackled above, the characters possessed the urge to revenge and lack of forgiveness hence causing damages to themselves and the society around them. If they could have forgiven themselves and the wrongdoers, they could have made their situation a lot better, but instead, they resorted to revenging hence loosing at the end.

Work Cited

"Frank Bidart". Poetry Foundation, 2019, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/frank-bidart.

Hatcher, Ashley. "An Interview With Frank Bidart". Poetry Center, 2019, https://poetry.arizona.edu/blog/interview-frank-bidart.

Melville, Herman. "Moby Dick: Character List". Cliffsnotes.Com, 2019, https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mobydick/character-list.

Schwartz, Allan. "Insult, Revenge And Captain Ahab - Relationship Problems ?EUR" Tools To Build And Maintain A Healthy Marriage". Mentalhelp.Net, 2019, https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/insult-revenge-and-captain-ahab/.

Shmoop. "Captain Ahab In Moby-Dick". Shmoop.Com, 2019, https://www.shmoop.com/moby-dick/captain-ahab.html.