Outline

Text 1: “Revenge: Will You Feel Better?”

Question 2 of your assignment asks you to outline the attitudes to revenge in the three texts.

Text 1, “Revenge: Will You Feel Better?” is an article written by Karyn Hall in 2013. A doctor in psychology, Karyn Hall promotes mindfulness and emotional sensitivity through her books.

The writer’s overall attitude to revenge is a negative one, as the main claim of the text is that taking revenge does not lead to people feeling better.

The article starts by presenting different attitudes to revenge. Initially, the author gives a formal and neutral definition of revenge.

The article then shows that writers such as Shakespeare believed revenge to be as normal and unavoidable as pain, happiness or death, as suggested by quoted passages from Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. However, while Shakespeare sees revenge as a part of everyday life, a number of philosophers take the attitude that revenge is something negative that should be avoided. The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius argued that taking revenge hurts both the one who carries it out and the one who is the victim of revenge. Similarly, the pacifist religious leader Gandhi argued that revenge will not lead to a better world, but has the capacity to cripple everyone. In other words, these thinkers reject the idea that revenge has any positive value.

The article then describes the attitude of researchers and theorists towards revenge, which is generally more positive. They argue that taking reve...