This is a part of college term paper on Revenge:
Characters in many medieval literary collections commonly practice the act of revenge. Sometimes, the character seeking the revenge is successful, other times he/she is unsuccessful. In The Decameron, on the eighth day, seventh tale, Rinieri carefully constructs a way to achieve revenge on Elena, and he succeeds. In The Lais of Marie de France, the lais “Bisclavret” is about a wife who schemes to get revenge on her husband, but her plan backfires in the end. If the scholar Rinieri could teach the wife in “Bisclavret” how to develop a successful revenge strategy, he would advise her to be patient, try to force the victim to understand the revenge, and make sure the victim learns a lesson from their punishment.

When Rinieri vows to get revenge on Elena, the first thing he does is become very patient and waits for the right time. He leaves it up to Fate to determine the circumstances under which he can get back at Elena. In other words, his Yin personality leads him to let things happen naturally. Many days after Elena purposely leaves him out in the cold all night, his love for her quickly turns to hatred. “He made a full recovery, and feigned to be more than ever in love with his widow, while he nursed his hatred” (Waldman 509). Rinieri pretends to still be in love with Elena by suppressing his anger in front of her and her maid. He remains patient for about six or seven months, and during that time he continues to strategize the many different ways he can get his revenge. Then, when the day finally comes for him to put his plan into action, he is ready. (read full text…)