One of the best revenge stories that Art has ever produced is in The secret in your eyes, Argentine film, winner of the Oscar for best international film. Directed by Juan José Campanella, its protagonist is Ricardo Darín – the great film actor, who rejected Hollywood and shrugged off soap operas -, alongside Soledad Villamil (what a beautiful sign!) and Pablo Rago.
That said, I ask: why not the best revenge story?
Because I respect – and really like – Shakespeare and his various tragedies based on this theme, starting with Hamlet, the classic of classics on theater stages around the world (I think it works less well on the big screen, but I accept differences).
Of course, we couldn’t forget Diadorim, the tragic heroine of Guimarães Rosa, who hid her beauty until the moment of death – which occurred at the moment she carried out her well-kept secret of revenge. Of course: Machado de Assis also brought to the world “the hungover eyes”, “of an oblique and dissimulated gypsy”, from Capitu, in the narrative full of love and spite by Bentinho (betrayed? Anyone who wants to argue their point of view) .
There are other less well-known authors who have dealt with the topic wonderfully, such as the Albanian Ismail Kadaré, who revealed to us in April shattered the universality of this feeling that leads us to a reaction, as terrible or more terrible than the action. The writer who lives in France, where he moved when Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship still ruled the mountains and people in the territory located on the Balkan Peninsula, tells a little about a tradition that existed for many centuries in deep Albania.
For those who haven’t read the book or seen the film (which I haven’t seen either): the story is in every way similar to what, for decades, we followed perplexedly in Exu, in the neighboring state of Pernambuco, land of King Luiz Gonzaga, where the revenge was continuous between the Alencar and the Sampaio. With each death, the question: who will be next? The homicidal series begins as a very Brazilian and country replica of Romeo and Juliet, from that Englishman who specializes in revenge stories.
Practiced almost always hot, as pain does not always lose its heat over time, revenge – mortal or not – found the best definition, or the most popular, in the French author Eugéne Sue, in the 18th century, in Matilda’s Memoirs. The thermometer, for him, measures another temperature when carrying out the desired act:
– Revenge is a dish best served cold.
It is undeniable, people, that despite the age of Humanity and the already long construction of Civilization, which we pursue so that there is a better coexistence between our species, the desire for revenge has never been quelled in our soul.
It is clear that in countries like Brazil, but not only, this feeling strikes us as automatic, a reflex act, in every situation of violence in which innocent people – children, women, the elderly, black people, gays or whoever – are fatally hit or almost. We then cast our imagination towards vigilantism, which is already practiced by the State whenever on the other side there is someone without a surname or without large bank accounts.
Taking into account that the Brazilian Judiciary, as well as a large part of the population – the Law group didn’t come from other planets, right? –, is selective and tolerant towards those who see us from above, revenge always appears to common sense as a feasible and desirable possibility. But I hope it stops being one day, even if it’s distant, until it seems sweet to us – if we change, if Justice changes.
If you want to know, I don’t place myself above ordinary citizens, I am one of them, considering our virtues and defects. But whenever this idea comes to mind, for some reason, I remember the maxim attributed to Confucius (?):
– Before you go in search of revenge, dig two graves.
The worst thing for someone, I imagine, is to carry the remorse of someone who is already dead, even if they are alive.
