Master Gopher
Member
Most people don't do High Noon, but anyway: it's such an unusual text in terms of subverting conventions of the genre, it's often hard to pin down what exactly it does say about Revenge Tragedy.
So I've got this sort of thing:
* Rather than the avenger being isolated, it is the victim who is. Also, we empathise with him, so perhaps High Noon can be considered a call to not always think of revenge as instinctive, passionate action which is felt to some degree by all of us - sometimes revenge is just destructive and unnecessary, an obsession which we shouldn't sympathise with to the extent that we no longer condemn it.
* Religion fails Kane, but not the law - in fact the law is the only thing that remains to support him. The avengers have not so much been failed by the law - they were justly condemned and have escaped to exact their vengeance on a man who has no personal hatred for them. It's not revenge for the death of a loved one, or out of grief. Vengeance is not always emotional, sometimes it's thoughtless and not really directed against a specific person because they have done wrong, but just an action out of a general anger at society.
* So the tragedy is not for the avenger, it's what happens to the victim and to the town. It is no tragedy that the avengers have been degraded; they were already criminals. It is a tragedy that their passion for revenge has harmed innocent people.
Anyone else doing HN want to contribute some ideas about it?
So I've got this sort of thing:
* Rather than the avenger being isolated, it is the victim who is. Also, we empathise with him, so perhaps High Noon can be considered a call to not always think of revenge as instinctive, passionate action which is felt to some degree by all of us - sometimes revenge is just destructive and unnecessary, an obsession which we shouldn't sympathise with to the extent that we no longer condemn it.
* Religion fails Kane, but not the law - in fact the law is the only thing that remains to support him. The avengers have not so much been failed by the law - they were justly condemned and have escaped to exact their vengeance on a man who has no personal hatred for them. It's not revenge for the death of a loved one, or out of grief. Vengeance is not always emotional, sometimes it's thoughtless and not really directed against a specific person because they have done wrong, but just an action out of a general anger at society.
* So the tragedy is not for the avenger, it's what happens to the victim and to the town. It is no tragedy that the avengers have been degraded; they were already criminals. It is a tragedy that their passion for revenge has harmed innocent people.
Anyone else doing HN want to contribute some ideas about it?
