History RevengeByProxy / Literature

** In "The Sinkiang Executive", Quiller gets in a lot of trouble for the public killing of an enemy agent doing a routine tail of him. He admits it was to avenge the death of a girl who died as a result of ''his'' actions (he was supposed to [[IHaveYourWife give himself up in exchange]], but refused to honor his part of the deal). The tail was just a minor Opposition agent that he recognised from the incident that may well have had nothing to do with her death.

* The John Sanford novel ''Sudden Prey'' features a criminal named Dick [=LeBeau=] whose wife and sister were killed in a shootout with the police. [=LeBeau=] decides to get his revenge by killing the families of the cops involved.

* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series book ''New Moon'', Victoria chases after Bella because [[spoiler:Edward and his family had killed her mate]] in the previous book. This continues into ''Eclipse'' as well with an epic battle. [[spoiler:It ends when the Cullens team up with the werewolves to kill Victoria and her band of infant vampires.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter" has Severus Snape who bullies Harry due to the fact that his father, James Potter, relentlessly abused Snape while he was in school [[spoiler: and ultimately got together with Lily, Snape's childhood best friend and the love of his life.]]

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': In ''Mockingjay]]'', President Snow tortures and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy hijacks]] [[spoiler:Peeta Mellark]] in order to hurt Katniss. At one point, one of the other characters outright states that Snow will do to his victim whatever it takes to break her. [[FridgeHorror Made even worse]] when you realize that [[spoiler:when Snow wanted Katniss to convince him she loves Peeta in ''Catching Fire'', it's not in order to preserve peace in Panem, as Katniss believes at the time, but because the stronger Katniss feels for Peeta, the more effective it will be for Snow to torture him]].

** The death of Lady, Sansa Stark's direwolf, is because of this. The one who attacked Joffrey Baratheon was actually Nymeria, the direwolf of Sansa's sister, Arya, but Arya sent Nymeria away precisely so it would not be killed. Joffrey's mother, Cersei, demands that another direwolf should be executed in its place.

* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': The Doctor's monster decides to get revenge for his mistreatment and wretched existence by making Frankenstein suffer. The monster kills Frankenstein's [[spoiler: youngest brother, followed by his greatest friend, and then on Frankenstein's wedding day, the monster strangles his bride.]]
* In Creator/LloydAlexander's ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain The High King]]'', when Eilonwy is captured by a bandit and he realizes her connection to Taran, he tells her that he has a grudge with Taran, and he will get his revenge now. [[spoiler:He is interrupted by a wolf.]]
* Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' examples:
** ''Literature/ShardsOfHonor'': Vorrutyer [[ToThePain gloats]] over what he can do to Aral Vorkosigan (his ex) by torturing Cordelia (Aral's new love interest).
** ''Literature/TheWarriorsApprentice'': Count Vorhalas threatens to let Miles swing for treason because Aral did the same thing to Vorhalas's sons. Vorhalas eventually backs down, though, [[MamaBear when threatened with Miles's mother]]. This case is especially interesting as ''Literature/{{Barrayar}}'' shows that one of Vorhalas's sons was executed because of an accidental example. After Aral let one brother be executed, the other attempted to assassinate Aral in revenge. A pregnant Cordelia was caught in the attack, which led to Miles being born disfigured.
** In the short story, "Literature/TheMountainsOfMourning", someone tries to slit the throat of Miles' horse, because they couldn't get at him, in what Miles calls an "attempted retroactive infanticide by proxy."
* In Creator/CharlesDickens's ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'', Madame [=DeFarge=] is out for {{revenge}} on not only [[SinsOfOurFathers the innocent son of a man who had wronged her family, not only his innocent wife]], but also on their [[ChildrenAreInnocent little girl]].
* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Scarface'', at the end, Captain Cheap reveals that [[spoiler:Justin Blade is [[ChangelingFantasy the son of his old enemy Sir Robert Scarlett]], and now he has his {{Revenge}}, having assured that the boy would hang as a {{Pirate}}. At which point it is revealed that Justin had already had his case remanded on new evidence, and won't be executed]].

* In Simon Spurrier's Literature/NightLords novel ''Lord of the Night'', the priest kills Cog, a GentleGiant utterly loyal to Mira, who is unconscious, before he turns on Mira. This is a mistake.

* In Harper Lee's ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'', after Atticus Finch defends a black man whom Bob Ewell's daughter accused of raping her, Ewell is infuriated and attempts to punish Atticus [[spoiler:by attempting to murder the latter's children]]. This revenge makes even less sense than the trope usually would since the man in question was innocent -- Bob Ewell ''himself'' was the one who beat up his daughter -- and Atticus actually lost the case due to a racist jury.
** The case still exposed Ewell as the scum of the earth, and he probably wanted revenge for humiliation. [[spoiler:He likely didn't go after Atticus himself only because Atticus is a BadassBookworm, and his kids were an easier target]].
* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars The Gods of Mars]]'', John Carter is particularly horrified to learn that Issus has Dejah Thoris prisoner and knows that she is the wife of John Carter and the mother of Carthoris -- the two men who dared raise their hands against her.
* Happens now and again in the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' continuity.
** In the Literature/HandOfThrawn duology, a corrupted copy of the Caamasi Document surfaces. The document details Palpatine's successful plan to raze the planet of a species of {{Actual Pacifist}}s who were almost universally opposed to him, and as it turns out, he used Bothan agents to lower the planet's shields. The document doesn't actually say specifically who these Bothans were, Bothan authorities deny any knowledge, and the issue acts as a ConflictBall between peoples who want the names coughed up or, failing that, want revenge on the Bothan people, and peoples who think that revenge on the Bothan people is a terrible idea. In many cases, the Bothan issue is no more than an excuse for rivals to war over.
*** There's a smaller example when a station containing twenty-two Bothans is shot down because of one particular species who believe that the punishment for a murder calls for either the death of the murderer or ten innocents related to the murderer for each person killed - two of those people had been killed in a skirmish earlier. Rogue Squadron is furious at this concept of justice, but those people also sabotaged their X-Wings so that they can't interfere.
** In ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire'', Prince Xizor wants to shame Vader and kill his son for two reasons. One, because that would leave him that much closer to the Emperor. Two, because the Empire set up a biological weapons lab on his homeworld and when some particularly nasty disease escaped, Vader ordered that the region around the lab, for about a hundred kilometers or so, be bombarded from orbit to sterilize it, and Xizor's [[YouKilledMyFather family]] was in that region.
* In ''Literature/SirAproposOfNothing'', after Apropos's mother is killed, he vows to get revenge on her killer. Not by killing him (by all accounts, the guy who did it is a giant of a man who'd tear Apropos apart like tinfoil), but by killing ''his'' mother. [[AntiHero Our protagonist, everybody]].
* In the Creator/AgathaChristie novel ''Pocket Full of Rye'', this was Ruby [=MacKenzie=]'s original plan. Because Rex Fortescue left her father to die of a fever on an expedition to Africa, [[spoiler:when Rex's son Percival comes down with pneumonia, she gets herself assigned as Percival's nurse, intending to let him die of neglect]]. She couldn't go through with it, however, and chooses a different revenge: [[spoiler:she marries Percival so that in time she will inherit the money Rex Fortescue scammed out of her father]].
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series book ''New Moon'', Victoria chases after Bella because [[spoiler:Edward and his family had killed her mate]] in the previous book. This continues into ''Eclipse'' as well with an epic battle. [[spoiler:It ends when the Cullens team up with the werewolves to kill Victoria and her band of infant vampires.]]

* In Andy Hoare's Literature/WhiteScars novel ''Hunt for Voldorius'', Nullus reports that killing a thousand people for each revolt is stopping the resistance. Later, he uses the threat on Malya to get her to serve as Voldorius's equerry.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "A Witch Shall Be Born", when ColdBloodedTorture no longer hurts Taramis, Salome brings her the head of her faithful councilor, Krallides.

* ''Literature/TheDragonRises'' by Adrienne Martine-Barnes has this codified as law: "we are a culture with strong bonds of family. We now hold that the suffering of the guilty party's family is a deterrent to crime. Few persons are so dead to family feeling that they would wish to endanger their innocent wives or husbands or children. This, at least, is the theory."

* The John Sanford novel ''Sudden Prey'' features a criminal named Dick [=LeBeau=] whose wife and sister were killed in a shootout with the police. [=LeBeau=] decides to get his revenge by killing the families of the cops involved.
* ''Literature/InDeath'': Eve Dallas works hard to take down Ava Anders in ''Strangers In Death''. When Roarke asks her why she's treating this one like a competition, Eve admits that Ava reminds her of Magdelana from ''Innocent In Death''. Ava and Magdelana have BitchInSheepsClothing in common. Roarke says "Revenge By Proxy", because Eve wanted to take down Magdelana in her own way, and she didn't get it. She figures that taking down Ava will have to do. This example is treated a ''lot'' more sympathetically than a number of other examples in this article.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: In ''Home Free'', Owen Orzell reveals to the Vigilantes that he had worked with UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} director Calvin Span and BigBad Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. Jellicoe has already been captured and is currently rotting away in a federal prison. Span is dead because sometime after he was forced to resign from his job as CIA director by President Martine Connor, he was shoveling snow off his driveway and died of a heart attack. Orzell points out that Span knew better than to do that because he had heart surgery a few years ago, and that he had clearly become a DeathSeeker. Orzell asks if they're going to punish him in Span's place, and the Vigilantes say yes. Now this example is treated sympathetically, because the president had essentially enlisted the Vigilantes to take down Orzell, and Orzell's hands are just as dirty as Span's and Jellicoe's.
* In Tolkien's ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', Morgoth punished Hurin for defying him by cursing his children and [[ForcedToWatch forcing him to watch]] as their lives are slowly destroyed.
* ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]]'': President Snow tortures and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy hijacks]] [[spoiler:Peeta Mellark]] in order to hurt Katniss. At one point, one of the other characters outright states that Snow will do to his victim whatever it takes to break her. [[FridgeHorror Made even worse]] when you realize that [[spoiler:when Snow wanted Katniss to convince him she loves Peeta in ''Catching Fire'', it's not in order to preserve peace in Panem, as Katniss believes at the time, but because the stronger Katniss feels for Peeta, the more effective it will be for Snow to torture him]].
* In Creator/JohnMilton's ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', the point of tempting Adam and Eve to sin is that it hurts God.
* ''Literature/{{Quiller}}''
** In "The Ninth Directive", a female agent shows Quiller the gun she intends to use to avenge her dead lover, a fellow agent. She doesn't know who his killers were or even what side they were on, so kills a {{mook|s}} who's about to kill Quiller as an acceptable substitute, throwing the gun away afterwards.
** In "The Sinkiang Executive", Quiller gets in a lot of trouble for the public killing of an enemy agent doing a routine tail of him. He admits it was to avenge the death of a girl who died as a result of ''his'' actions (he was supposed to [[IHaveYourWife give himself up in exchange]], but refused to honor his part of the deal). The tail was just a minor Opposition agent that he recognised from the incident that may well have had nothing to do with her death.
* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'': The Count has no problem with goading his archenemy Morcerf's son Albert into a duel he knows he'll win. Only [[spoiler:Mercedes']] intervention saves him, having figured out what he's up to, and though the Count goes to the duel perfectly ready to die, [[spoiler:Mercedes explained the situation to Albert, who calls off the duel and apologizes]].

* In ''Literature/PanTadeusz'', ever since Jacek Soplica has killed his beloved master and run for the border, [[OldRetainer Gerwazy]] hunts and duels (or kills) people named Soplica.
* In ''Literature/WolfHall'', Cromwell warns his son Gregory about this trope while he's in the process of putting Anne Boleyn and five rather popular gentlemen through a KangarooCourt that will end in execution--people who know Gregory for Cromwell's son might try to get retribution on his father by attacking him.
* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': [[Literature/LoomingShadow In the second book]] Annala finds herself in the crosshairs of someone with a grudge against her mother and HonoraryAunt, Hasina. Nulso Xialin seeks to enslave her because he can't attack his true targets directly.
* In ''Literature/AWorldLessVisible'', to get back at Adam, Sima manipulates Wren into forcing Adam to kill his best friend.
* This is a major reason why monsters constantly attack demigods in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. They often want to get revenge on some god, but that god is too powerful to attack directly, so they attack their children instead. In ''The Demigod Diaries'', it is revealed that all demigods have a certain scent that allures monsters. The scent was crafted by Lamia, whose children were killed by Hera because she formed a relationship with Zeus. Lamia obviously couldn't exact vengeance on Hera directly, nor she could to Hera's demigod children (since she never had any), but she could condemn the demigods of ''other'' gods to live a life of suffering, just as she had to suffer the deaths of her children.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** In ''Moth Flight's Vision'', Willow Tail blames Red Claw for the accidental death of their fellow rogues, and the only way she can think to get revenge at this point is to cause a war against his current Clan and have him see his beloved Clanmates hurt.
** In ''Mapleshade's Vengeance'', Mapleshade first intends to get revenge against her ex-mate by killing his new mate. When he [[TakingTheBullet takes the fatal hit meant for her]], Mapleshade vows that she will get revenge against the pair of them by haunting their bloodline; in ''Crookedstar's Promise'' we see her following through with this by tormenting their great-grandson Crookedstar throughout his life.
** In ''River of Fire'', Sleekwhisker blames Rowanclaw for the death of some of her Clanmates because he didn't deal with Darktail, and she plans to kill his mate Tawnypelt in revenge.

* In P.D. James's [[spoiler:Original Sin]], the killer's goal is revealed to be this.
* ''The Dragon Rises'' by Adrienne Martine-Barnes has this codified as law: "we are a culture with strong bonds of family. We now hold that the suffering of the guilty party's family is a deterrent to crime. Few persons are so dead to family feeling that they would wish to endanger their innocent wives or husbands or children. This, at least, is the theory."

* ''Literature/{{Quiller}}'': In "The Ninth Directive", a female agent shows Quiller the gun she intends to use to avenge her dead lover, a fellow agent. She doesn't know who his killers were or even what side they were on, so kills a {{mook|s}} who's about to kill Quiller as an acceptable substitute, throwing the gun away afterwards.