[PHILOSOPHY] The Dual Nature of Vengeance

As I was listening to a recording of the Strauss opera Elektra (1909), I felt prompted to write about its revenge theme. Elektra has one single goal, a single driving force that keeps her alive: revenge. It requires a daily injection to be kept alive. Every day she performs a ritual; she plays the scene in her imagination where she sees her mother kill Elektra's father. She screams, howls. The idea of revenge is everything to Elektra. It drives her to live, but simultaneously consumes her from the inside.

It's not difficult to understand Elektra. We have all experienced the feeling of wanting to revenge an injustice done unto us. The difference is that most of us have boundaries. But all those ugly thoughts and feelings are there, hidden somewhere in the abyss.

The Chinese proverb "If you are planning revenge, dig two graves" shows an important aspect of revenge: it's destructive also to the avenger. For revenge to be meaningful, there must be a someone to take revenge on. Someone with a consciousness and will - attempting to avenge an earthquake or storm is meaningless. This means that the one you want to take revenge on must be regarded as an equal. Revenge seems to be universal, a notion that the balance is disturbed and must be restored. And we humans aren't unique. Herd animals that collaborate for survival need a system to prevent exploitation of the cooperation; researchers have found revenge behavior also in chimpanzees and elephants. Free riding individuals or individuals that betray or dupe have to be punished. But for us humans the practice of vengeance changes over time and with its social context. Today we can get revenge via for instance social media. On Twitter and Facebook we can shame and blame others, and as humans we (most of us) are greatly tormented by being perceived as immoral.

But is there no such thing as good revenge? We are fed with the idea of righteous vengeance and its healing powers in books, film and television. In reality, one must be aware that the avenger takes a great risk. Take the example of the man on the bus who spews insults. The person who intervenes is actually rarely popular. That's because the person who acts in a vengeful way, also violates a social norm, and the punisher thus destroys itself. There is a small minority who appreciates the avenger and in some communities, with a strong culture of honor, it's seen as righteous to retaliate with violence.

Few things are more provocative than a person who will not only escape punishment, but also lacks feelings of guilt for the crimes he has committed. Therefore, popular culture is filled with happy endings where revenge is sweet. Although research shows that vengeance rather is dysfunctional and often rather nourishes the strong feelings that led to the revenge in the first place.

But back to Elektra's fixation of revenge. What happened to her? In the Greek myth Elektra is the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra in Mycenae. To appease the goddess Artemis when the ship suddenly stops on its way to the Trojan war, the king sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia. The winds return and Agamemnon can continue his journey. Upon returning home, he is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover.

And it's in this moment that the Strauss opera begins. Elektra sees the mother and her lover kill her father in retaliation for the murder of the older sister. The only purpose of her life is now to avenge her father and wait for her brother Orestes to return and help her kill the mother. A claustrophobic cycle of revenge upon revenge. She has lost her sister, has been abused by her father, tormented by the life of with the mother and her lover, and on top of that has witnessed the murder of her father. Revenge is her only defense. Elektra live day by day with the promise that when the day comes when her revenge is fulfilled, there will be a great feast and everyone will watch as she dances. Elektra's last words are "Schweig, und tanze" - "Be quiet and dance." She collapses, or dance herself to death, we're not sure. Her mission and purpose is fulfilled, there is nothing left. Revenge has kept Elektra alive and simultaneously extinguished her.

I leave you with the final scene of the Strauss opera from the brilliant 1981 film version directed by Götz Friedrich. In the role of the deranged Elektra we see Leonie Rysanek. Her sister Chrysothemis is played and sung by Caterina Ligendza. Karl Böhm is leading a red hot Vienna Philharmonic. Strauss takes romanticism and bends it to the very limits of tonality. We get to witness the end of a dysfunctional family as Elektra and her sister Chrysothemis are dancing a feverish and lunatic waltz before Elektra finally falls down dead. A shocking and disturbing opera on the darkest sides of human nature, and musical expressionism at its very best.

 @SteemSwede