Mayar
Khalid Mayar
Mr. Gallivan
ENG4U
12 February 2019
A Taste of Your Own Medicine
Revenge is a form of desperate anger and craved justice mixed into one concoction. Francis Bacon expresses his opinion on the nature of revenge during the 17th century. Throughout the essay, he highlights the key points of revenge and distinguishes between the two reactions a person that has been done wrong can have. Bacon begins by stating that the urge to retaliate against the wrongs done to us provides us with pleasure and fulfillment. With this being so prevalent in his time, the law would regularly be present to stop wrongful and illegal actions by any means. Inflicting any harm on anyone is considered breaking the law as no person should have that right. In the same nature, the person done wrong should not respond in the same manner, rather he/she seeks legal action to the injustice placed upon them. Bacon continues to explain that any person can take revenge and become “Even with his enemy” (Bacon), but if they choose to forgive the actions done to them, they would obtain great amounts of strength and courage in comparison to a prince’s power to royally pardon sinners. “The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy; but then let a man take heed the revenge be such as there is no law to punish” (Bacon). In this quote, Bacon states that if there is no legal punishment to bring the perpetrator to justice, it is acceptable to take revenge. The act of revenge must be carefully chosen as it should not break the law in which the avenger can be sued. Bacon ends off his essay with a few examples of people that were killed due to acts of revenge and a concluding thought on them.
The opinions and claims made by Bacon accurately represent the zeitgeist of revenge in the 21st century with relation seeking a legal form of revenge and forgiving. In today's society, drama and hatred are very evident with there being a lot of focus on the negative things people go through and less on the good. The news and media are attracted towards drama since that is what gets them their following. An argument between Donald Trump and another politician is always going to be publicized by media outlets while good deeds like charity donations are ignored. Analyzing certain events that portray a sign of revenge will provide a greater understanding of what the zeitgeist should be.
A recent occurrence in the National Basketball Association (NBA) including drama between two teams precisely demonstrates acts of revenge with relation to Bacon’s essay. A player on the Los Angeles Lakers (LAL) desires to recruit a star player from the New Orlean Pelicans (NOP) by communicating privately over social media. By the ru...
