With a Vengeance

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.