Nietzsche's 'Jealousy In 1651'
Evil and Human Nature Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Man is the cruelest animal.” Some people may think it is preposterous, but in fact, evil consistently exists in our hearts. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes recognizes the evil nature of humans and paints a very blatant picture of it in Leviathan. He states that laws were devised for the sole purpose of keeping our evil nature in check. Without them, our base instincts would resurface and chaos would reign supreme. Hsun Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, also maintained that humans are born evil, he believed it is unrealistic to curb humans’ evil instincts by education. In my opinion, humans lack compassion, in addition, they are affected by prejudice and jealousy. Therefore, humans are naturally evil.
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As an illustration, in “Apollo”, it describes how the friendship was broken by jealousy. When the main character saw his best friend was talking happily with a woman, he notices that “With her, Raphael was different—the slouch in his back, the agitated foot. He was shy. She was talking to him with a kind of playful power, as though she could see through him to things that amused her. My reason blurred.” (Adichie 10) Consequently, he lied to his parents that Raphael pushed him, then Raphael was fired. All of humans have jealousy, including the children. As a kid, Okenwa (the main character) knows how to revenge his close friend even though no one taught him to do so. His behavior is completely instinctive. Jealousy is destructive, not only for kids, but also for adults. In “The Musgrave Ritual”, while Brunton was looking for treasure in the cellar, Howells “clutching at her treasure trove and flying wildly up the winding stair, with her ears ringing perhaps with the muffled screams from behind her and with the drumming of frenzied hands against the slab of stone which was choking her faithless lover’s life out.” (Doyle 7) Howells hates her husband’s betrayal, at that time, jealousy blows her mind. Then it causes irreparable result. With the power of jealousy, humans can do anything appalling. “More of men die of jealousy than of cancer.” (Kennedy) Jealousy is a potential disease and even the most professional psychologist is unable to cure it. Jealousy is the purely negative emotion which involves wishing that the other lacked the object of value. In other words, jealousy represents the evil in our
As an illustration, in “Apollo”, it describes how the friendship was broken by jealousy. When the main character saw his best friend was talking happily with a woman, he notices that “With her, Raphael was different—the slouch in his back, the agitated foot. He was shy. She was talking to him with a kind of playful power, as though she could see through him to things that amused her. My reason blurred.” (Adichie 10) Consequently, he lied to his parents that Raphael pushed him, then Raphael was fired. All of humans have jealousy, including the children. As a kid, Okenwa (the main character) knows how to revenge his close friend even though no one taught him to do so. His behavior is completely instinctive. Jealousy is destructive, not only for kids, but also for adults. In “The Musgrave Ritual”, while Brunton was looking for treasure in the cellar, Howells “clutching at her treasure trove and flying wildly up the winding stair, with her ears ringing perhaps with the muffled screams from behind her and with the drumming of frenzied hands against the slab of stone which was choking her faithless lover’s life out.” (Doyle 7) Howells hates her husband’s betrayal, at that time, jealousy blows her mind. Then it causes irreparable result. With the power of jealousy, humans can do anything appalling. “More of men die of jealousy than of cancer.” (Kennedy) Jealousy is a potential disease and even the most professional psychologist is unable to cure it. Jealousy is the purely negative emotion which involves wishing that the other lacked the object of value. In other words, jealousy represents the evil in our