The Passion of Revenge

Abstract

This essay examines some texts belonging to different cultures which offer a clear example on the subject of revenge. It tries to find the emotional motivations which show  a dialectic relationship with the concept  of revenge as a right/duty (in the classical world) or as an admitted exception to the evangelic message (in the  European civilization). The most frequent and important among these motivations is the Machtwille which, both in Seneca's Thyestes and in Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, turns the avenger into a divine being.