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‪Our contribution proposes a semiolinguistic approach that accounts for the issues raised by the emergence of a language of revenge in response to terrorist attacks. Based on a comparative study of civil reactions in 2004 Madrid and 2015 Paris, our approach aims to understand the linguistic strategies (speech acts, redefinitions, projections, imaginations) that are used to express the desire for revenge, in spite of revenge generally being considered socially inappropriate. In this perspective, we focus on the semantic role of the agent by exploring the construction of agency (the real or imagined ability to act) in the conflict zone between wanting to act (a desire for revenge motivated by suffering and anger) and not being able to act (determined by social, moral and legal norms).‪