Revenge In Hammurabi's The Scarlet Letter

In the Aristotelean treatise known as Rhetoric, Aristotle asserts that feelings of anger or passion "are due all acts of revenge...no one grows angry with a person on whom there is no prospect of taking vengeance" (Aristotle 15). This in itself is significant; it suggests that the very idea of one gaining recompense for a personal injustice has continued to remain a viable route to justice, regardless of any one time period in human history. Interestingly, the theme of retribution goes back as far as Hammurabi's Code around 1750 BC, or even to the Biblical myth of Cain and Abel. Therefore, one must raise of why revenge continues to have a leading presence in the social and artistic aspects of both the ancient and contemporary times. In fact,

For example, the audience gets a glimpse into Chillingsworth's devolving lunacy in Chapter 14, a scene where both he and Hester discuss Dimmesdale's fate while he picks herbs at the beach. When Hester expresses her regret that she didn't tell Dimmesdale who Chillingsworth was to her, she feels that it would have been better for the minister to die sooner, to which Chillingsworth replied, "Better had he died at once! Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered...an eye was looking curiously into him which only sought evil, and found it" (Hawthorne 162). Here the reader becomes disturbed, not only by how nonchalantly Chillingsworth describes the whole ordeal, but also by how he seems to enjoy the torture that he's inflicting on Dimmesdale. Although the reader doesn't get to see his facial expression, they at least can pick up on the sadistic, malicious tone with which Chillingsworth chooses his words. It's almost as if Chillingsworth's life force is solely dedicated to this one devilish mission. This same psychological effect is seen with the Joker during the rising action of The Dark Knight, when he disguises himself as a nurse so that he could speak to a bereaved and disfigured Harvey Dent. He briefly taunts Harvey's misfortunes, citing the source as Harvey being a societal "schemer" trying to keep the established