Revenge

Revenge. What a great word, don’t you think? Wouldn’t it be great if you could get revenge on anyone you want to? What is so great about revenge? I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of stories of revenge, and in almost every one, the person seeking revenge ends up worse than they are.
Recently I was showed a few clips of Shakespear. Take the play Hamlet for example. There is a queen and a king who have a son named Hamlet. The kings brother poisons the king with the help of the queen to take over the kingdom. Well the king dies and the queen and uncle get married. Hamlet is deeply troubled by his fathers death. One night he is visited by his fathers ghost. The ghost then tells him about his murder, and all that the queen and uncle did. The ghost then asks him to avenge his death. Hamlet then sets out to avenge his father. In his craze for revenge, he slams his girl friend, she then kills herself because she loved him, and apparently he didn’t love her anymore. Then somewhere in the story, Hamlet accidentally kills his best friends father, who is also the father of his girlfriend, while his friend is away. Which gets his friend all fired up to get revenge on Hamlet. Well, in the end Hamlet and his "friend" have a duel of sport. Just for fun. Well, his friend decides this is the time to seek revenge on Hamlet so he poisons the blade of the sword so the tiniest scratch will kill him. Without knowing this, the uncle, knowing Hamlet is on to him, puts poison in a mug that will go to the winner, to kill Hamlet as well. The match begins, the queen drinks the poison from the mug on accident, and dies, Hamlet gets mad that the uncle poisoned her as well, kills the uncle, then is killed by his friend in the sword fight.
Now isn’t that the perfect example of how revenge makes one happy? I mean, sure the uncle should have been put to justice, but that isn’t really revenge. Instead, he ends up getting everyone killed, including himself, and the story ends with all the main characters dead.
Another story of revenge is in the book I am reading. This boys dad is shot in the back, the boy hears of his fathers fate and thinks he is dead. Then the people who shot his father, burned his house down. They flee from the town, and the boy takes a hundred and fifty dollars, and tries to go after the two men that are doing all this to him. He buys himself a pistol and goes looking for them. A bud of the two men find out and tricks him into getting caught. So he is taken to the old warehouse where the two men are hiding. They take his pistol and are mocking him, when he slugs one of the two guys in the nose. The guy then grabs a pistol and is about to kill the kid when the friend of the two guys, steps in the way with the boys pistol. He ends up shooting the guy who wanted to kill the boy in the chest, so he dies. The other guy grabs is buddy’s pistol then is shot as well. The friend then sees what he has done, and takes the boy and flees the town. Holding the boy captive.
Now isn’t that a pleasant story. Everything just seems to work out doesn’t it? Why do people get all hyped up about getting revenge when in the end they know it won’t work out, and they will be probably worse off then they are before they got their revenge. Revenge is a practice that brings death; and if used properly, the end of the world.