The concept of Revenge in stories

Revenge can be exhilarating, satisfying, justifiable and according to some beliefs, a complete waste of time. Literature is overrun with the concept of revenge and comeuppance. Fairytales too, had their own version of revenge wherein the villains were made to pay for their evil deeds in the most gruesome manner if you read Grimm's original version. 

 Most famous classics had that theme - Moby dick, The Count of Monte Cristo, most of Shakespeare's plays... All of them had us cheering for justice to be served. In movies, we exalt these heroes, agree with them when they find the most twisted ways to avenge an atrocity done to them and cheer when they take law into their own hands.

 Especially if the role is played by our favorite actor, then every transgression is forgiven and every act is valid. Ultimately, revenge becomes a thought that seems like the most acceptable way to do things if someone does even the slightest bit of wrong to you. 

 There are three ways to go about when you are wronged: Let it consume you as you watch the culprits live in perfect harmony while you live in the burnt ashes of your trust and happiness, or you plot out a revenge scheme, become someone who will never be able to forgive until you are avenged, or you believe in the concept of karma and wait until the evildoers are given their due punishment. 

 The only movie that I've seen in which the third way was made to work was Ek Villain, where the ruffian was cursed by a mother who predicted that he too would feel the same pain she did when he had killed her son before her eyes. The ruffian, throughout the movie, reforms himself with the help of a terminally ill woman who survived her disease only to be murdered by a serial killer. Thus, karma had come around the make the ruffian feel what it was like to lose a loved one. 

 In the first way, a very famous quote states that resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. We can burn ourselves and kill every happy moment in our life by thinking about the bad thing that had been done to us, or we could plainly live our life. Because the alternative is, crossing a moral line and becoming the person who only wants to hurt others the way you've been hurt. 

An eye for an eye may be said to be unpractical, but sometimes the sinner will only understand what mistakes they've made when they are made to suffer the same circumstances. Or so it would seem. The evildoers are probably made of a different substance. Repercussions simply don't matter to them and even though they would be made to suffer the same plight, what are the chances they would feel the same way their victim did? Being heartless is what prompted them to commit a sin in the first place. And then what about the crimes they commit. Stories show a glorified way of the heroes murdering people the way their loved ones have been killed. 

But what of the other crimes. A rapist, for example, would never understand the pain he has caused unless his own act is committed on him. So who will perform such a heinous act on them as punishment? When it comes down to it, certain lines are always drawn. Heroes are heroes because they don't stoop to that level. Their standard of revenge will have to be different so that they stand out and not blended in with the villains.

 In Ek Villain, for example, the ex-thug will do whatever it takes to avenge the murder of his pregnant wife. He is feared among his peers and when he finds the killer, he does beat him up until he dies, but with the help of a doctor, brings him back to life and claims that the killer will have to suffer a severe punishment. Killing him in one shot was just too easy. The tale becomes more about karma in the end. The killer's wife, whom he is madly in love with him even though she nags and abuses him, is killed by his enemies. While fighting the hero, he accidentally comes in front of a car that loses control when it drives over a pothole- the very pothole the heroine had complained about to the killer accidentally which had led to her being murdered. 

 While writing, it becomes a little important to keep in mind to make the protagonist a little moral. For instance, I was working on a revenge tale and had the protagonist face a terrible ordeal. In the end, when it came to the revenge part, I couldn't write the scene I wanted to. Or else, what would have been the difference between my hero and the villains? My protagonist had to stand tall and just. Something had to be done so that the wrongdoers would be punished and I wouldn't have to compromise my character's integrity or ethics. I feel I may have succeeded a little bit. Only time will tell how my readers will react to this twist in the tale.