Revenge "remains close to the other person" because people manifest themselves to each other in speech and action. That is, even in their mistakes and misdeeds, people are people and form relationships. In the same entry, Arendt went even further to say that forgiveness between equals was a "sham event." The burden someone has put on his own shoulders is apparently lifted, while the other, the forgiving person, must accept a burden and at the same time appear to be "unburdened," to rise above the other and his misdeed. Only thus can the wrongdoer be unburdened of his wrong action. No one, Arendt wrote, can be that unburdened.
Forgiveness: The Desperate Search For A Concept Of Reality, in Unlearning with Hannah Arendt by Marie Luise Knott, translated by David Dollenmayer
Forgiveness: The Desperate Search For A Concept Of Reality, in Unlearning with Hannah Arendt by Marie Luise Knott, translated by David Dollenmayer
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