A fine way to resond when you are hurt by something is with silence. Instead of yelling at the person, which is what is expected, you can be silent. Some people can accomplish things by shouting. It is a useful tool and they may succeed and indeed that is what is expected when you are hurt. People expect you to yell and they often are prepared with perfect responses so that you lose your case, and you walk away feeling foolish for yelling.

When you are silent, however, you are doing the unexpected and you are fighting back in a way that the offender is usually not prepared to handle. If he is not prepared to handle to then he might not have the right things to say. Granted, you are not likely to get what you want, although this does happen in certain cases, but on the other hand you will frustrate the offender which is more than you would have done probably if you would have responded.

Thus, if you do want to inflict punishment on the other person then silence may work, but it is unlikely. However, if you want to deal with a situation, an untenable situation, in which you do not have any alternatives and you have no way in which to get what you want or you feel that it is unlikely then you may well be silent in which case you will be inflicting the maximum response on the offender.