Monomaniac revenge in Melville’s “Moby Dick” and Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”
List of Authors
  • Abdulkareem, Danear Jabbar , Abdullah, Omar Najem , Salih, Ismail Khalaf

Keyword
  • Monomaniac revenge, anger, love, damage, excessive desire, destructive result

Abstract
  • Revenge can be one of consequences of bad feeling towards others. This feeling of anger, hatred and prejudice could be based on traumatic visible or invisible experience. The level of that anger and hatred depends on the volume of damage caused by the action or judgment and, on other hand, it depends on man’s endurance and tolerance upon that action or judgment. Revenge can be individual or collective as well. Individually, it is driven personally as a reaction of other’s perceived harm when the individual desire is set to retaliate for bringing justice and satisfying his need. Collectively, most of ancient wars and conflicts were based on the concept of revenge which mostly brought collective devastation. This study will utilize rereading of the canonical texts; Moby Dick” by Herman Melville and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, to make better understanding of the ‘monomaniac revenge’ by highlighting and analyzing the main characters in the two novels above ‘Ahab’ and ‘Heathcliff’, respectively, and their destructive revenge under the light of Psychological theory. Ahab was isolated from his family. Heathcliff was dismissed by his family. Later on they both lost their lives. Melville and Bronte prove that destructive revenge brings destructive results. The top focus of the study analysis will be on how Ahab and Heathcliff’s excessive desire of revenge develops and then brings them and people around to death.

Reference
  • 1. Peterman, A., Palermo, T., and Bredenkamp, C. (2011). Estimates and determinants of sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. American Journal of Public Health, 101(6). 1060-1067
    2. Barash, D. P., Lipton, J. E. (2011) Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge? Oxford University Press.
    3. Bersani, L. (1994) "Incomparable America." Herman Melville: a Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
    4. Carruth, B. (2013) Psychological Trauma and Addiction Treatment. Routledge.
    5. Cloke, K. (1993) Revenge, forgiveness, and the magic of mediation. Mediation Quarterly, vol. 11: 67-78.
    6. Jacobs, N. M. (1986) Gender and Layered Narrative in Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Reprinted from The Journal of Narrative Technique, 16 (3): 204–219.
    7. Jacoby, S. (1983) Wild justice: The evolution of revenge. New York: Harper and Row.
    8. Jaffe, E. (2011) The complicated psychology of revenge. Observer, Association for psychological science. 24 (8).
    9. Kim, S., & Smith, R. (1993). Revenge and conflict escalation. Negotiation Journal, vol. 9: 37-43.
    10. Marotous, G. (2013) Cambridge Checkpoints VCE Text Guides: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Cambridge University Press.
    11. McCarthy, P. (1987) Forms of Insanity and Insane Characters in Moby-Dick. Colby Library Quarterly, 23 (1): 39-51.
    12. Mills, H. (2005) Psychology of Anger. http://mentalhelp.net
    13. Paulson, R. (2007) Sin and Evil: Moral Values in Literature. Yale University Press.
    14. Whitley R.P. K. (2012) Honor and Revenge: A Theory of Punishment. Springer Science & Business Media.