Emily Thorne

Amanda Clarke, formerly known by the pseudonym Emily Thorne (also known as Emily Grayson), is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ABC television series Revenge (2011–2015), portrayed by Emily VanCamp. Description Emily Thorne has been described as a flawed and multifaceted heroine figure. She is emotionally scarred by her father's unjust imprisonment and a childhood spent in the foster care system, and she commits many morally questionable acts motivated by her obsessive desire for retribution against the woman who destroyed her family. Emily VanCamp, who portrays Thorne, described the character as having become "corrupted" to the point where she was concerned that it would be difficult to make Thorne appealing to audiences. Thorne usually appears calm and calculating, but as the series progresses, she begins to reveal vulnerabilities that impedes her efforts to get vengeance. According to VanCamp, Thorne has tried to bury her emotions but has an unstable emotional side, which means her feelings come out in extremes. In Revenge, Thorne serves as a modern female version of Edmond Dantès, the main character of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, the novel that inspired the series. According to Anthony Letizia of alterna-Tv.com, similar to Dantès being falsely imprisoned for 14 years on a false charge of treason, Thorne was imprisoned in juvenile detention and her father was framed for financing a terrorist attack on the United States. Thorne has been left shares in Nolcorp, which she liquidates to the value of $40 billion and is a fund for her revenge against the Grayson family, making her the second richest character in the series after Nolan. Letizia notes several more similarities between the characters such as both of them training in combat after leaving incarceration in preparation for their plans of revenge and both pursuing revenge against a group of powerful and wealthy conspirators. Her pursuit of revenge has been noted as a sympathetic aspect of the character. Commentators cited the 2008–2012 global recession as making viewers more receptive to Thorne's efforts to get revenge against a group of privileged elites for the harm they caused her family.