Revenge: The Epitome of Dirty Hands…
To refresh your memory, dirty hands is
doing something that is wrong in order to do something that is right. As
discussed in class, there are many historical examples of the dirty hands
concept such as Harry Truman and the bomb and President Lincoln’s suspension of
Habeas Corpus. Abc’s show Revenge
is full of examples of dirty hand situations.
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| The Revenge Cast Photo by Tyler Shields |
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| Emily Throne/Amanda Clarke... Photo from ABC.com |
First, for those of you who don’t watch
this show, I’ll fill you in on what has been going on. Emily Thorne, or Amanda
Clarke, whatever you want to refer to her as… has returned to her childhood
beach house in the Hamptons in order to destroy the lives of the people who
ruined her life. Her neighbor on the beach is the Grayson family who are the
masterminds behind her father’s accusation of being involved with a terrorist
organization that is responsible for killing many innocent people in a plane
crash. While in jail, her father realized that he was being framed for this event
by the Grayson family and provided her with all the evidence she would need to
get revenge on them. He provided her with the truth. After being released from
her juvenile detention center and switching names with her cellmate (Emily
Thorne)… she began to take down every single person that had involvement with
her father’s death… The question is: is this scheme ever going to help Emily
fully recover from her broken childhood? Is it necessary for her to get her
hands this dirty?
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| Daniel Grayson Photo from ABC.com |
There are
multiple examples of the dirty hands concept so I am only going to concentrate
on a few. First: Daniel Grayson.
When Emily first arrives back to the Hamptons, she becomes romantically
involved with hear archenemy’s son, Daniel. It seems as though Daniel is very
serious about their relationship, but in reality there is no way that Emily can
actually be in love with him- she is just using him to get closer to his
family. Since Emily shows very little emotion it is unclear if she ends up
developing a little bit of feelings for him or is just pretending to go along
with her revenge game. Emily is convincing enough to Daniel to get him to
propose to her in the middle of season one. Initially, Daniel does not even
have a clue about all of the horrible things that his parents have been
responsible for… is it fair/just for Emily to involve innocent Daniel in her
scheme to destroy his family? Does he deserve to lose his parents the way that
Emily lost her parents? What is she really accomplishing by obtaining this
revenge… we have defined the dirty hands concept as doing the wrong thing in
order to do something that is right- it is only right that Emily exposes the
Grayson’s for framing her father, but why does she need to involve Daniel in
her game? Emily’s hands are dirty in this scheme because she is pretending to
fall in love with Daniel (which is wrong) in order to expose the Grayson’s for
putting her father in jail and then eventually having him killed (which is the
right thing to do…)
Next victim: Mason
Treadwell the author of the book written about Emily’s father. He was the
character that made me realize how much the dirty hands concept is demonstrated
in this show! In episode seven of season two Mason and Emily have this
conversion that made the light bulb go off in my head:
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| Mason Treadwell Photo from ABC.com |
Mason
Treadwell: “So I was right. You really
are the brains in this Machiavellian
scheme.”
Emily/the
real Amanda: “You were this close,
Mason. But you missed the one thing that’s been right under your nose the whole
time. She’s not Amanda Clarke.”
Mason
Treadwell: “You are.”
Emily/the
real Amanda: “Hmm.”
Right after her
father went to jail, Treadwell interviewed him and Emily (little Amanda at the
time of the interviews) about the entire accusation. He wrote the book The Society
Connection: David Clarke and the Flight 197 Tragedy, which was supposed to expose the truth behind the entire
controversy, but instead he was paid off by the Grayson’s and chose to be loyal
to them for fame and fortune instead of telling the whole world the reality.
Emily’s hands are quite dirty when it comes to Mason Treadwell- What did she do
wrong here: she managed to sneak into his house, steal all of the video footage
of the interviews he conducted with her father and her as a little girl. Then
after breaking into his house, she burnt the entire thing down without a trace…
What is right? All of the content of the interviews would expose the entire
Grayson family and they would then be punished for their involvement with the
Flight 197 Tragedy…
There
are plenty of other examples of the dirty hands concept within the episodes of
Revenge! If you watch, what are some other examples of the concept that you have
recognized? If you don’t watch- GET STARTED! I finished the entire first season
in three days! Emily continues to plot against the entire community that destroyed
her family and killed her father… Machiavellian schemes are still present in
modern day entertainment.
Samantha,
ReplyDeleteI do not think it was just or fair of Emily to use Daniel and play with his emotions in order to get close to the Grayson. However, I think that is part of what makes Emily’s plan so Machiavellian. Even though Victoria never liked Emily, regardless of Emily’s relationship with her son, Emily was still able to play the situation in her favor, such as getting into the Grayson’s house to snoop around and set up hidden cameras. For Emily, lying to Daniel was necessary in order to carry out her larger plan, so the end justifies the means.
I also watch Revenge and agree that there are several examples of Machiavellianism in every episode. One that comes to mind is when Emily lied to Amanda about the paternity of her baby. When Amanda’s fiancé Jack asked for a paternity test, Amanda asked Emily to guarantee that the results said Jack was the father. In the end, Jack actually was the father but Emily lied to Amanda and told her that she had to change the results. Emily lied in order to gain leverage on Amanda to ensure that she would stick to the plan and continue to help Emily by lying about their identities. This was Machiavellian because Emily had to lie to Amanda (and caused Amanda to think she was lying to her fiancé—which she felt awful about) in order to guarantee that the plan would work and in the end, she would be able to expose the Victoria and Conrad Grayson for causing the plane crash and framing her father.
Thanks for your comment! You make a great point while explaining that although it is not nice that Emily completely uses Daniel in her scheme, it does make her “closer,” both physically and emotionally to Victoria. Without Daniel, it is quite obvious that she would never have gotten such leisurely access to the Grayson estate. The ends may justify the means for her larger plan to destroy the Grayson’s, but I still do not think that all of what she is doing is worth it. Last night’s episode demonstrated this perspective very well. When Victoria exposed her mother as a gold-digger and explained to Ben that she was actually a horrible mother to her and allowed her to be raped by all of her past boyfriends, Conrad (her husband) asked her if it was all worth it? It seems as though Victoria had her own little Machiavellian scheme to destroy her mother and frame her into dating this very wealthy man. But was it all worth it? Does the fact that her mother is now left with nothing make Victoria sleep better at night? Can she now move on knowing that she “won” and finally beat her mother? She responded ton Conrad by saying to ask her in the morning… I hope that his is brought up again because I feel as though this is a demonstration or a foreshadowing moment for how Emily will feel once or if her plan is completed.
DeleteYou also provided another great example of Machiavellianism in Revenge with Emily and Amanda with the paternity test. Usually I understand why Emily makes certain decisions in her work and I do comprehend that she needs Amanda to remain loyal to her and continue lying about her identity, but I feel like this lie was more emotionally fueled rather than strategically fueled.
Samantha,
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post very similar to this actually, but applied the concept of dirty hands to the show Breaking Bad instead! I have never seen this show but I have to point out the flaw that I had in my post as well. Although the situation does seem to be a case of dirty hands, the only way it can technically be a case of dirty hands is if the moral wrong Emily was committing were being committed for the greater good of the general population. I did the exact same thing applying it to a much smaller scale situation, but many people pointed out to me that although, in this case, the character is trying to help her family/her dad, it can't technically be dirty hands unless she does these things to help more people. Also, as I have said, I have never seen the show. But I'm curious now that the idea of dirty hands has been applied, does she feel guilty after committing these morally wrong acts? Does Emily acknowledge when doing these things that what she is doing is wrong? Because that, I believe, is also key to deciding whether or not someone is truly dealing with a case of dirty hands. Also, another important feature is that she must have also committed these acts because there was no other alternative to getting what she wanted. Is this the case with the things Emily does? Or does she do the things she does purely out of vengeance?
Although this might not be a strict case of dirty hands, it certainly is Machiavellian in nature. The fact that it sounds like Emily is willing to do anything, like burning down a house, using a poor innocent guy, breaking and entering into someone's house, etc., etc. clearly highlights the idea of "ends justify the means". This is why I think that you are completely right when you say that Emily is very like minded to Machiavelli. The fact that she is willing to do all of this for revenge (which sounds like her ultimate goal) clearly highlight the nature of what Machiavelli talks about in "The Prince". Now, if only it was a utilitarian approach for sure (benefitted the biggest number of people), I would definitely say it was a case of dirty hands as well.
I'd love to find out whether or not she did feel guilt or if there were any alternative routes to what she wanted done! This post was really interesting, and might have just convinced me to go out and watch the show!
Heather, thank you for your comment!
DeleteActually, I still believe that Emily’s hands are dirty in this case… if Emily does expose the Grayson family, then every victim of flight 197’s families would know the truth about their loved one’s murderer. Mostly all of her actions somehow lead back to the Grayson family and exposing all of their lies. Technically, her plot/scheme will be helping the whole world of people who have been lied to for all of these years.
I did not mention this in my post, but the writers have exposed to watchers that Emily seems to have been trained by a Japanese man all of her Machiavellian skills. This man who goes by the name of Takeda and is in her phone address book as “X.” He is her teacher of the “art of revenge.” He has taught her to almost control her emotions so she does not feel guilty and does not become emotionally attached to anybody who she encounters while doing her dirty work. Emily has only cried in one episode when an old lover comes on the show, but up until then it seems as though she does not feel any guilt or any other emotions for that matter.
I do not know if there is any alternative way for Emily to attempt to expose the Graysons, but I want to give that a bit more thought. The Graysons are a family that has an abundance of power in society so I do not know if any plan that was less… bloody?... would really work. They would interfere with the information being leaked… I truly do think that all her actions are out of vengeance.
You should really start to watch! I finished the entire first season, and the beginning of the second season in one week! It is very addicting… but I must admit the first season is way better than the second so far… Try it out over break!
Samantha,
ReplyDeleteRevenge is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine, so I enjoyed the post :) I also thought it was funny when Treadwell called Emily's plan a Machiavellian scheme.
What I am wondering is if Emily's situation is actually a case of Machiavelli's dirty hands theory. She certainly does do wrong in order to achieve what she thinks is right, but she is not doing so for any greater good and makes it clear that she will let no one in her way or be sensitive to others while avenging her father's death. This is how Emily differs from people in power and politicians who have to make difficult decisions with the greater good in mind. I think that if Emily were looking out for others she would have exposed the Greysons in a legal and strategic ways to ensure that they could no longer exploit others and use their wealth and status to control the world around them.
Lauren, thank you for your comment!
DeleteI recently replied back to Heather who brought up a similar point about determining if Emily’s situation is actually Machiavellian. I think that she has a different type of approach to getting her hands dirty in comparison to the numerous politicians that I mentioned have been in dirty hands situations. I think that it is obvious that Emily did her research while creating this plan (as is clear in the most recent episode of Revenge from this Sunday) and I think that it would not be very easy to just expose the Graysons. As we learned this week, Aiden also had a connection to flight 197 and if she was just looking out for herself, she would not have cared about him killing that Russian man (Serge I believe). When Emily’s plan began, the Graysons’ bodyguard Frank was still alive and it seems as though he, as well as the Grayson family, had an abundance of connections to people with great power. I think that they somehow would have intercepted any type of information that would reveal the truth about the lies that they have told all these years. I do think that her scheme may be very narrowly fueled (as in she does have mostly her own revenge in mind), but I do think that she wants the whole lie to be exposed so others who have suffered like her because of the crash will finally know the truth. I think that the Grayson’s wealth and status is more overpowering then the word and evidence given by a “terrorist’s daughter” who was in a correctional center for most of her teenage years…