This post, exploring revenge, will have some spoilers. They do not disclose the ending but they reveal more than some readers might want before they read the book.
A warrior woman, Dania, will risk her life for revenge.
As set out in my review, the preceding post, she ingests a blend of zoraat seeds that allow her to transfigure her appearance.
With the power of zoraat magic also come whispers in Dania’s head. Revenge is advocated in those whispers. It is hard to resist pleas made in your mind. They never leave.
I was reminded of Hamish McLeod in the Ian Rutledge mystery series written by Charles Todd (a mother / son duo for most of the books). Hamish was a corporal executed by his commanding officer, Lieutenant Rutledge, for failing to follow orders in WW I. Rutledge was forced to kill Hamish. After the war Rutledge returns to England and resumes his career as a police officer.
Hamish talks to Rutledge giving him advice. The comments are often pointed. Rutledge finds them unsettling; even disturbing. Rutledge conceals that Hamish is inside his head.
As a criminal defence lawyer I have represented people who hear voices. For confidentiality I provide no identifying particulars. What I describe in this post was stated in open court. I recall an accused who said he was hearing voices telling him to hurt or kill people. He was finding it harder and harder to resist the voices. It was frightening. He wanted help. Eventually, he was sentenced to the regional psychiatric centre where he could receive treatment.
The voice inside Dania becomes more frequent and more insistent.
Dania wants her enemies to suffer before death. Varga skilfully addresses the dilemna of revenge. At what cost to your principles will you exact vengeance?
When Dania is desperate to save her friend Noor, an evil djinn, a magical supernatural being, offers her greater powers than the zoraat can give her.
Dania makes a Faustian bargain. Each of us, in real life, has experiences on whether we will barter our soul, our integrity.
A deal with a demon has consequences.
When Dania exercises her new powers of destruction and death:
Elation filled my blood.
To experience joy through causing devastation and death is not the Dania who had lived an honourable life.
The soldiers she kills are abstracts to her. She has lost empathy. Her victims are not people. She does not think about their families.
Noor is upset. She tells Dania no revenge is worth what Dania has surrendered.
Can you withdraw from a deal with a djinn?
In the Catholic faith a person’s soul can always be redeemed. The worst sins can be forgiven through the act of confession and seeking God’s mercy. That mercy does not mean escape from temporal punishment for crimes and misdeeds but the soul is saved.
Dania engages in a fierce battle for her soul.
The voice of the djinn in Dani calls out to her “Revenge. Revenge. Revenge”. It is a seductive call.
Can she save herself?
Her closest friend Maz, who betrayed her, confesses he put revenge ahead of Dania and begs forgiveness. He lets her decide if he will live or die.
Dania sees in a person close to her the fearful costs of revenge. That person exacted revenge which involved killing. The revenge proved a temporary satisfaction for it left the avenger deeply damaged.
I recognize that fighting evil and exacting revenge can be intertwined but in the real world there are alternatives to violence.
Josef Lewkowicz was a Jewish Polish teenager during WW II. He survived 6 Nazi camps. Last year I read his book The Survivor which he wrote with Michael Calvin.
He describes the evil Amon Goeth who was in charge of the Plaszow camp. Goeth personally murdered at a whim. Because of a dropped brick Goeth killed the man who did not catch a brick tossed to him by Josef. Josef said Goeth then “raised his revolver until it was about two inches from my face, and pointed it between my eyes”. Josef prays the Shema Yisroel and awakes in a hospital bed. He has survived because a Jewish man who aids the Nazis beat Josef and told Goeth to save his bullet as Josef is “already dead”.
After the war Josef searches for and finds Goeth. He could have killed Goeth but his “only memory of logical thought was an inner determination not to kill him”. To have summarily killed Goeth when he found him in a prisoner of war camp “would have made me no better than him”.
Josef had already sworn an affidavit against Goeth and helps find others who confirm his identification. Goeth is taken to Poland where he is tried and convicted and hung.
Josef sets out the personal code that sustained him:
… I was, and am, a man of faith. That meant that, in the worst of times, I had something to hold on to. If you have no belief system, what do you cling to? A lamp post? A new car? An expensive watch?
I believe everything happens because of God's will … in my darkest moments I believe he was by my side.
In 1946, when Josef searches for and finds Goeth he is 20, about Dania’s age.
There are no courts of law in the empire depicted in For She is Wrath but there is personal choice. You will need to read the book to find out Dania’s choice on revenge.
****
For She is Wrath by Emily Varga
This book really does seem to deal with some deep issues of revenge, integrity, and more, Bill. As you say, I think we do have to confront our inner demons and decide what we'll do when we are wronged. It can be incredibly tempting to go all out for revenge, but is that really good for us - it's an interesting set of questions, and I can see how you'd be drawn into the way they're addressed here.
ReplyDelete