Revenge and justice both play an important role in With a Vengeance. The destruction of Anna’s family is integral to her character arc, as it incites her plan to exact justice upon the people who have hurt her most. It is justice that she claims to want, as when she finally greets the assembled conspirators aboard the Philadelphia Phoenix, she says, “I’m here to get justice. Because I have irrefutable proof that the six of you are responsible for destroying my family” (19). Anna specifically utilizes the term “justice” to describe her intentions, as she plans to bring the group to Chicago to be arrested, tried, and convicted within the United States justice system, even though that same system failed her father.

However, though her aims are noble, Anna is not entirely incapable of slipping into fantasies of revenge. She remembers that when she first saw the evidence illustrating the conspirators’ roles in destroying her family, “her brain filled with violent thoughts. Of strangling them with her bare hands. Of holding them underwater until their eyes bulge and their faces turn blue. Of stabbing them, shooting them, stomping them to pulp” (93). The visceral violence of Anna’s thoughts demonstrates how the desire for revenge is a corrupting force that can bring out people’s more aggressive desires, which deviates from the idealist and fair notions associated with the pursuit of justice. This contrast between what Anna tells herself she seeks (justice) and what she sometimes feels (revenge) underscores the novel’s central tension: whether true justice can ever be disentangled from personal vengeance.

Besides Anna, several other characters wrestle with the idea of revenge. Seamus hunts down the people who killed his brother even though he promised Anna to abide by her plan and seek justice. Reggie also takes revenge into his own hands. During his final faceoff with Anna, he asks her if Seamus told her how it felt to kill for revenge. Anna says that Seamus described it as “beautiful” (445). Though Reggie attempts to goad Anna into joining him and killing Jack and Sal, she tells him, “I’d rather see you in prison along with the others” (445). Anna is so committed to justice that she’d rather turn Reggie in to the authorities than join him in his violent revenge plot, even though Seamus, her close friend, confided in her about the satisfaction revenge could offer. In these moments, Anna distinguishes herself from the men around her, resisting the lure of revenge that consumes both Seamus and Reggie, and proving that her conception of justice, even if imperfect, is ultimately restorative rather than destructive.

Kenneth is another character connected to revenge. He plotted to destroy Arthur and his family because of Margaret and Tommy. When Dante tells Anna about Kenneth and Margaret’s past romantic relationship, Anna realizes, “[The plot] wasn’t about making money. Maybe it was to Lapsford and Herb Pulaski and all the others. But for Dante’s father, it was personal. And what he did wasn’t merely an act of sabotage. It was revenge” (287). Kenneth didn’t only want to obtain Union Atlantic and make a mint; he also wanted to destroy the man who he believed stole his romantic partner. Revenge corrupted Kenneth so completely that he was willing to kill dozens of innocent people to ruin Arthur’s life. The tragic irony is that his revenge plot killed his biological son Tommy, illustrating the detrimental impacts of seeking revenge. Anna, who seeks justice, is rewarded with an offer of working for the FBI and starting a new life, while Kenneth and Reggie are imprisoned for their crimes. Thematically, the novel thus links revenge to loss and self-destruction, while justice, even if fraught, is aligned with survival and renewal.