Adelphiasoplot
Vengeance Taken for Kindred upon Kindred: Georg Polti Plots or Storylines - The 36 Dramatic or Tragic Situations
Abstract
Wise Women Discuss—Plot!
Vengeance Taken for Kindred upon Kindred
Augments the horror of the situation Discovery of the dishonor of one’s kindred. An infinite variety is possible by combining the extensions mentioned in the commentary to Crime Persued by Vengeance with the possibilities of Discovery of the dishonor of one’s kindred. Add also the possibilities inherent in the circumstances determining the avenger’s actions:
- a spontaneous desire on his own part (the simplest)
- the wish of the dying victim
- or the spirit of the dead mysteriously appearing to the living
- an imprudent promise
- a professional duty (as when the avenger is a magistrate, etc)
- the need to save other relatives or a loved one, or even fellow citizens
- ignorance of the kinship which exists between the avenger and the criminal.
Is there a case where the avenger strikes without having recognised the criminal? What if the act of vengeance is an error because the victim proves to be innocent and the avenger finishes up the guilty one.
Dramatists have concentrated on the father’s death avenged upon the mother. What of a father’s death avenged upon the brother of the avenger, upon his sister, upon his mistress, upon his wife, upon his son, upon his daughter, upon his paternal uncle, upon his maternal uncle, upon a grandfather or a grandmother, upon a half-brother or a half-sister or a cousin? All can be applied to a feminine avenger making the appropriate changes. And the person being avenged can be altered. The vengeance can be on someone other than the criminal, eg his children or some object he prizes.
Interpret kin metaphorically and a host of new scenarios appear—the mogul and his nominated successor, the professor and his ace student, soldiers whose friendship develops like brothers through training…
Elements
- An avenging kinsman
- A guilty kinsman
- Remembrance of the victim
- A relative of both
Themes
- A parent’s death avenged upon the other
- A father’s death avenged upon a mother Hamlet, Shakespeare
- A mother’s death avenged upon a father
- A brother’s death avenged upon a son
- A father’s death avenged upon a husband
- A husband’s death avenged upon a father
