A Tale of Revenge out of Desperation
A Rose for Emily is a very good short story written by William Faulkner, this short story uses flashback techniques to draw the immediate attention of the readers. It starts with the funeral of Emily, the antagonist of the story. There is no protagonist in the story as the story is largely based upon the theme of emotional suffering. This paper will throw light on revenge in four stories and plays.
“Faulkner’s most famous, most popular, and most anthologized short story, “A Rose for Emily” evokes the terms Southern gothic and grotesque, two types of literature in which the general tone is one of gloom, terror, and understated violence.” (A Rose for Emily).
Revenge of Emily- Killing of Homer
The story is very intriguing and covers many aspects of human personality, Emily is the most important character in the story and she takes her revenge in the story by killing Homer. She supposedly poisoned Homer to death. She bought rat poison to kill Homer; Homer was last seen by the people residing in the same locality as Emily entering the kitchen of Emily’s house. Emily becomes so desperate in the story that she forgets everything and seeks emotional support from the corpse of Homer. She cannot be blamed for revenge in the story. She was emotionally broken and had no friends or family members with who she could connect. Homer was the only person in the story who shows promising signs of bringing Emily to sanity but she soon discovers that he was interested in men and she could not digest this fact. Out of utter desperation, she chose to poison Homer. This is quite evident from the fact that the corpse of Homer was found in the locked room of her house when she died. The locality members were shocked when they opened the room after several long years. She used to embrace the corpse of Homer and derive emotional support. This cannot be called revenge; this is utter desperation to seek emotional support. To conclude it is very fair to say that Emily had no other option but to kill Homer, he was her last hope and when he betrayed her, she could not control herself and killed him. The people in her locality should have helped her but they did nothing to help her out her insanity. It is a very sad story very effectively written by William Faulkner.
Revenge in Hamlet
Hamlet’s father was the king of Denmark and he was killed by Claudius, who has now become the king by marrying Hamlet’s mother. A ghost tells Hamlet that his father was murdered by King Claudius and this allegation was later proved. Based on this assumption that Claudius killed his father, Hamlet decides to take revenge for the death of his father. Hamlet’s rash actions go on to decide his fate. In the sense that he succeeds in killing King Claudius but before this Hamlet ends up killing an innocent old man by the name Polonius. Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius while he was praying; this causes an unnecessary delay and only goes on to make the readers believe that the actions of Hamlet were very Impulsive. To conclude with the character of Hamlet it can be said that since revenge was his sole aim, no one could have predicted the future and there are risks involved when a person seeks revenge, so it is fair to say that the death of Hamlet was not surprising as a reader and he pretty much deserved it. This is purely based on the fact that anything can happen when one seeks revenge.
Revenge in the Cask of Amontillado
In Cast of Amontillado, Montresor plans to take revenge on Fortunato and the readers get to learn that revenge is a very powerful motive but a dangerous one so we must take revenge on anyone no matter what that person has done to us. Montresor has shown extraordinary planning to seek revenge on Fortunato, Poe has chosen this plot to tell the readers that revenge is something that must never be pursued and this is what the readers can learn from this short story. Even though the story is completely fictitious, it can be applied in the real world and there must be a lesson that should be learned from it. The lesson of not to seek revenge against anyone comes what may. Poe is a master at developing curiosity among the readers and the story begins very abruptly and the same develops a lot of curiosity among the readers. Poe mastered the art of arresting the readers with the first few lines of his stories and this short story is no different. It begins with a very striking quote that immediately arrests the attention of the readers. Montresor’s pride shapes up the whole story and it is found that to satisfy his wounded pride he ends up plotting against Fortunato and ultimately this leads to the death of Fortunato. The lesson is in front of all the readers to learn, we must forget everything that creates a drive to seek revenge in our minds. We get a very good message from the story that must be implemented in real life properly.
Revenge in Tell-Tale Heart
The Tell-Tale Heart is another great creation by Poe and he was one of the finest short story writers. A Tell-Tale heart is also a story of revenge and a tale of murder. The significance of night is outlined in Tell-Tale heart. All the action that takes place is at night and the darkness has been used by Poe to great effect. The narrator in Tell-Tale heart is trying to convince the readers that he is not mad and the brutal murder was full proof and planned murder. This story is quite similar to The Cask of Amontillado, in both these stories murder is the prime objective of the narrator and both these stories are revenge-based stories. Lastly both the stories have been written by Poe.
References
A Rose for Emily. In Mead.
The Cast of Amontillado. In Book Rags.
The Cask of Amontillado. In Answers.
The Summary of Hamlet. In Globe Theatre.