“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” Everyone knows this line from the movie “Princess Bride.” People hear it, and they laugh. Does anyone ever think of revenge implied in this line though? This character has been wanting to seek revenge ever since his father was killed by the six-fingered man. He has been plotting his revenge, not just in the weeks and months but during the years that have passed since his father’s death. Through the action and dialogue in this film, the audience can infer that the process of seeking revenge, has caused Inigo to miss out on life; that life has passed him by. He shows that he is an excellent sword fighter, which would have taken years of practice and he explains that he has been on a quest to find his father’s killer since he was 12 years old. That is a lot of life not lived. Besides, is he satisfied when he kills the six-fingered man? Does he seem better? Happier? Overall, Inigo Montoya’s actions show that seeking revenge is unnecessary because it wastes one’s life. As revenge also leads to feelings of self-loathing and a never-ending cycle of not being satisfied.
One reason why seeking revenge unnecessary is that it is a waste of one’s life. As a result of someone's instinct to seek revenge, special moments in life are missed out on. Inigo Montoya didn’t seem to have a wife or family. He had no close friends and he had no job. He’d devoted his life to revenge and once the six-fingered man was dead, what was he going to do? Some people seek revenge, give up close relationships, create a family, and just live life. The
Matthews 2
worst part is, that even if all this time has been spent on a plan of revenge it might not end the way it was meant to be. Did it feel fair after the fact? Did the person feel fully satisfied after they had gotten full revenge? Did the person suffer and feel the pain that was done to the victim in the first place? Of course not! “Seeking revenge doesn’t cancel out the behaviors that hurt you. It just perpetuates the cycle of pain.” After seeking revenge, it is really hard to get out of the loop and that is just more of a wasted life. They overwhelm themselves with planning. It is an ongoing loop that will never end. The wheel just keeps on turning.
Another reason why seeking revenge unnecessary is that it can result in feelings of self-loathing. In the article titled “Revenge: Will you feel better,” a study was conducted that looked at where people who took revenge, felt better afterward, and not to a surprise the results were: No! They did not. To quote, “Everyone who was given the chance for revenge, took it. And they predicted that they would feel much better after they got their revenge. The results showed that the students who got revenge reported feeling worse than those who didn't ...” In the process of getting their revenge, the feeling of doing something worse in return is very common. You are now just as bad as the person that hurt you. In this study, taking revenge did not result in satisfaction. The revenge seeker compared their revenge with the original actions done to them and they felt that their revenge was just not enough. A 2012 study in the journal [Biology Letters] found that “people tend to punish others not because of a desire for revenge but because of a sense of fairness.” And a 2014 study found that after committing an act of revenge, people feel worse.” After planning and plotting vengeance there should be satisfaction. The satisfaction of having taken an ‘eye for an eye’. The reality is that people feel worse after the fact; that taking revenge makes the situation ten times more frustrating, annoying, and even better disappointing. All that revenge led to was more toxic emotions. After all the hard work that was put into seeking revenge, the satisfaction gained did not equal the emotional frustration spent on the plan.
The last reason why revenge is bad is that it leads the vindictive to become unsatisfied. False satisfaction comes without forgiving the person who attacked in the first place. As forgiveness is important to reduce the path of revenge, the article, “The Grace of Forgiveness,” “Forgiveness is the act of compassionately releasing the desire to punish someone or yourself for an offense. It’s a state of grace, nothing you can force or pretend. There are no shortcuts.” Revenge doesn't come with forgiveness and if someone can’t forgive, the dissatisfaction grows. Did the person feel as much pain and suffering as I did? If revenge wasn't taken in the first place then forgiveness could have been part of the picture. As “...seeing an offender suffer was important. His research results showed that the only situation when acting on revenge was more satisfying than not acting on revenge was when the offender understood and acknowledged why the act of revenge had occurred.” Some people may argue that if revenge wasn’t taken in the first place how would one know if they were or were not going to be satisfied? Why take the chance of losing the opportunity to forgive and forget? Forgive the person rather than waste a lifetime on revenge.
To conclude, seeking revenge wastes one's life, it leads to feelings of self-loathing as you lower yourself to another’s level, and it can set off a never-ending cycle of not being satisfied. In the end, Inigo Montoya doesn't get the satisfaction that he wanted. Even after killing the six-fingered man, he was not happy and his father was still dead. Even though Inigo Montoya is just a made-up character in a fictional story his well-known line to this day shows that there are lessons to be learned about revenge.
Works Cited
“The Grace of Forgiveness.” Judith Orloff MD, 29 Mar. 2018, drjudithorloff.com/grace-forgiveness-even-9-11/.
“The Power of Forgiveness: Why Revenge Doesn't Work.” Google, Google, www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/emotional-freedom/201109/the-power-forgiveness-why-revenge-doesnt-work%3famp.
“The Psychology of Revenge.” Science of People, 18 Jan. 2019,www.scienceofpeople.com/the-psychology-of-revenge/.
“Why Revenge Is Pointless.” Google, Google, www.google.com/amp/s/www.huffpost.com/entry/why-revenge-is-pointless_b_689132/amp.
“Why We Should Leave Revenge To Karma.” Elite Daily, www.elitedaily.com/life/why-we-need-to-stop-seeking-revenge.