The+Avenger


 * __Orestes__**



Inigo Montoya

An avenger is literally someone who takes vengence for something or on behalf of someone else. For example someone who avenges a slain ally or is after revenge for an grave insult is an avenger. This archetype has many forms in the world some on the side of good and some evil, but more often then not the avenger stands somewhere in the middle ground. It can be the person who you harmed and comes back to get you or a friend or relative of someone who can't exact vengence themselves. An avenger in modern day could be an attorney for those who have been dismamaged or otherwise harmed. In a mythological sense sometimes the avenger came in the form of an angel sent from God. The avenger is someone whose soul purpose or their believed purpose is to restore the balance of good and evil.

The avenger is a highly reoccuring character throughout history. In almost all stories their is a person seeking venegence for something. One of the greatest avengers of all time is the legendary Joan of Arc, or Jeanne d'Arc as she is known in French. Joan was born in 1412, a very difficult time for the French. By the time Charles VII, the only remaining son of the previous king, assumed the title of Dauphin in 1419 most of France was under the control of foreign nations. The English had taken advantage of the chaos of the current ruler and conquered much of France. Joan of Arc was just a peasant girl between the ages of 7 and 12 living in a small village when she had a vision of three saints telling her to drive out the English and bring Charles VII to Reims for his coronation. Joan rose to power by way of a remarkable military prediction that allowed her to see Charles VII. Such was the state in France at the time that she somehow convinced him to let her dress as a knight and lead the army. She led the army to victory after victory and became a source of hope for a regime near collapse. After many battles she did finally reclaim Reims and Charles VII was crowned as the King of France. Unfortunately shortly afterwards she was captured in battle and given over to the English. In a fixed trial she was found guilty of herasy and was burned at the stake. Joan of Arc avenged all the defeats and plots against Charles VII and France and saved the nation in the most devistating of times. To this day she is a Saint and remains a legend to people everywhere.

Another and less rightiously motivated avenger is in the Greek story of Orestes. When Orestes and his elder sister Electra's father, King Agamemnon, returned from the Trojan War he was murdered by their mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. Before this occured Electra or Orestes' nurse had fled with Orestes and delivered him to Phanote and placed him in the care of King Strophius. When Orestes turned 20 he was told by the Delphic oracle to return home to avenge his father's death. At his father's tomb he met Electra and they planned the deaths of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. With the help of King Strophius' son, Pylades, Orestes avenged the murder by killing his mother and her lover. Afterwards however he suffered the consequences by going insane and being pursued by the Furies who punish violaters of the ties of family piety and even Apollo, who had bade him to do commit the murders, could not protect him. Finally he recieved trial on the acropolis of Athens. The vote was tied so Athena voted for an acquittal. Some stories end here, but others go on to say that Orestes and Pylades had to go and recieve a statue of Artemis and were captured to be sacrificed. When the priestess who would sacrifice them offered to let one go if he took a letter of hers, Orestes recognized her as his sister Iphigeneia who was supposedly sacrificed during the Trojan War. All three escaped together and Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom by killing Aegisthus' son, Alete. Even though Orestes did avenge his father's death, he still ended up having to face the penalties for his crime.

A more modernized example of the avenger is Inigo Montoya from the movie //The Princess Bride// played by Mandy Patinkin. When his character is introduced in the movie he says that his father was murdered by a six-fingered man. He is on a lifelong quest to destroy that man and avenge his father. Throughout the entire movie he keeps saying its his mission, his goal. Wherever he goes he is always on the lookout for the six-fingered man asking anyone if they've seen him. When he battles the Dread Pirate Roberts and loses the victor leaves him alive to continue searching for his father's killer. Towards the end of the film when they storm the castle he finally runs into the six-fingered man. He says the line he has planned since his father's death "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Over and over again. Even when he is severely wounded and shouldn't be able to keep fighting anymore he kept repeating that line and finally avenged his father's death. Inigo Montoya is a true avenger who is obessed with his cause and eventually gets his vengence.

Another avenger from modern film is John Creasy (Denzel Washington) from //Man on Fire//. In the movie Mr. Creasy had a long history of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism activities, but all the death and violence wore on him over the years and he became an achololic to deal with it. When he gets a job as a bodyguard for young Pita hes not that interested. He just wants to do the job and get paid. As time goes on, however, he becomes friends with the young girl, taking over when her parents are away and coaching her in swimming. She shows him "that its ok to live again." When he takes her to piano lesson however there is an ambush; Creasy is severely wounded and Pita is kidnapped. While he is unconscious due to injury there is a ransom offered in exchange for her life. When the deal goes bad (the police have and ambush waiting for the kidnapper's nephew) the kidnapper calls saying that he has taken Pita's life. When Creasy finally learns of these events he becomes enraged. He sets out to destroy anyone and everyone involved with the kidnapping. Creasy takes life after life searching for the person in charge and finds a whole system of corrupt police and even the girl's father mixed up in the plan. At last he tracks down the kidnapper's brother and girlfriend. When he contacts the kidnapper the man arranges a deal: his brother and Creasy's life for Pita. Creasy is shocked to learn that she is still alive and agrees to the terms full well knowing that he has pushed himself too hard with his wounds and will die soon anyway. In the end the kidnappers men exchange Pita for the kidnappers brother and take Creasy away. He dies in the car and the kidnapper is found and killed in attempting to escape when authorities show up to arrest him. John Creasy is an avenger who goes on a rampage to get vengence for Pita's death and everything he lost. In the end his purpose is fulfilled and everyone who took part in the plot pays dearly.

The avenger is difficult to detemine as good or evil. If someone has been harmed and seeks revenge, usually by violent means, who is really at fault? Is the avenger evil because they killed their bother's murderer? Are they good because they removed an evil person from the world and prevented them from harming anyone else, even though they did this in a way that would be considered evil? When we consider it this way it takes us back to the very nature of the law. Is an eye for an eye a really a harsh punishment as modern society suggest or was Hammurabi's code somewhat more right than people realized? Sure you can say its not fair to take away my eye for an accident, but can you prove that it was a accident? And what if it was your eye? Would you think it fair that the person who harmed you should walk away with his own eye? The need for revenge is a part of the human mind that is difficult to understand. Whenever we are wronged we wish ill upon the other. It is a part of our nature. This being so can it be wrong? A third party observer may feel that revenge is a silly a pointless thing, "When you fight fire with fire all you get is burned," but how can they know what is right? What about the victum? What is right for them? The avenger achetype stays with us because these questions are still unanswered. People will always be wronged and wish for revenge and this need for vengence can become so strong that it causes us as humans to strange and desperate things. No matter where the world goes there will eventually be injustice or wrong doing and an avenger will always appear to tip the scales.

Another reason for the reappearance of the avenger is that people would like to believe that age old saying "What comes around goes around." They want to believe that every wrong doing will be repaid and in most instances there will be compensation. But sometimes in our own everyday lives its just not possible. You can't make someone pay for every wrong doing and sometimes even for the big things there is no justice. Life isn't perfect and many times people get away with things they ought to be punished for. As people though we like to see someone getting vengence for a wrong doing against them. People enjoy the fact that in stories and film fairness will prevail and the person will get even.