Storming the Castle

When I learned that I was going to write a blog post about revenge, I instantly knew that I wanted to write about one of my favorite TV shows, Castle. In Castle, Rick Castle and Kate Beckett often solve murders where the motive is based upon revenge. One of my favorite episodes actually has revenge as a motive, even though it wasn’t the main focus of the plot.  

Sit back and let me explain this great episode to you.  The year is 1947, the show is done in black and white and the characters are dressed in period clothes. Here’s the plot for this episode called “The Blue Butterfly,” Castle and Beckett find a murdered treasure seeker who was looking for a necklace called the Blue Butterfly because of all of it’s blue diamonds. In the show, Castle narrates the diary of a private investigator, named Joe Flynn. (Can you hear the 1940’s jargon?)  Joe Flynn is hired by Sally Scofield, a young country gal “looking for her big sister.” Joe finds Vera Mulqueen, as he was asked, but he ends up falling in love with her, even though she was dating a mobster named Tom Dempsey.  Joe and Vera plan to run away with each other, but while planning, Joe ended up telling the truth about how he found her. Vera was astonished, but not because of his story but because she didn’t have a sister.  Joe and Vera planned to leave town, funded by the Blue Butterfly, but when they were leaving Sally and her husband showed up with a gun. It turned out that Sally was the daughter of Tom Dempsey’s last girlfriend, who he broke up with to date Vera. Sally’s mother then committed suicide. Sally blamed Vera for this, and thus she sought revenge. She planned on killing Vera and taking the Blue Butterfly so that both Vera and Dempsey would be hurt. Vera would be dead and Dempsey would always wonder where his treasure went. (Thus Sally’s motive for murder, and theft, is revenge for her mother’s death!) Joe and Vera fight off the two attackers, but Sally and her husband die in the accident. Joe decides to burn the bodies to cover the evidence. Vera then decided that the Blue Butterfly was indeed cursed, as was the popular belief. She and Joe hid it in a loose brick and they ran away with each other. I love this episode, and I knew that I wanted to write about it.

Revenge isn’t only found in modern TV shows though. William Shakespeare even wrote about it in his play Hamlet. In Hamlet, his brother kills King Hamlet for both the throne and for his wife, the queen. Hamlet’s son, also named Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost. The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius, the king’s brother, was his murderer, and it demands that Hamlet revenges his death. Hamlet is conflicted at first because he doesn’t know what to believe, but as the play goes on he finds out that Claudius was indeed the killer. He then plans on tricking his uncle into revealing the truth by putting on a play that paralleled the murder almost exactly, and Claudius stopped it in guilt. Hamlet then started to plan how he was going to exact his revenge. Revenge can be a powerful driving force. It can lead to many things from theft, battery, or even murder.

Revenge has been around as long humans have, but in the media it has flourished. Modern TV shows, movies, and even books have revenge in almost every plot. (An example of which is Castle) Better watch your back, because revenge is all around us! 

My Sources:

Castle Season 4 episode 14 "The Blue Butterfly"

ABC's Castle homepage

William Shakespeare's Hamlet

and YouTube 

These are just my sources. If you want to find revenge in the media you can look almost anywhere. Try to see what you can find!