Othello Jealousy And Envy Analysis

Envy is known as one of the seven deadly sins for its ability to corrupt those who experience it. Similarly, jealousy can have a similar effect on people, especially when they decide to act on it. Although both envy and jealousy seem extremely similar, there is a fine line separating the two. Darlene Lancer mentions in her article, “How Insecurity Leads to Envy, Jealousy, and Shame,” that envy is a “feeling of discontent… with regard to someone’s advantages, possessions, or traits such as beauty, success, or talent.” Envy usually stems from feelings of inferiority. In contrast, whereas envy is “the desire to possess what someone else has,” jealousy is defined as the “fear of losing what we have” (Lancer).
Both emotions have reared their ugly heads throughout many literary works and were proven to be quite destructive, however as Lancer mentions, they cannot exist without feelings of
At the beginning of the play, Iago makes it clear that he wanted Cassio’s position as Othello’s lieutenant: “I know my price; I am worth no worse a place” (Othello I.i.10). He feels that the position belongs to him, and he becomes extremely envious when the position is given to Cassio instead. Lancer mentions that envy is a defense mechanism to insecurity and that those who experience envy “might [even] go so far as to sabotage, misappropriate, or defame the envied person.” This is exactly what Iago does; he conjures up a plan to sabotage Othello and defame Cassio in his fit of rage by using something he has mastered: jealousy/envy. In her essay, “Jealousy in Othello,” Jennifer Putnam states that Iago “wants everyone to feel as he does so he engineers the jealousy of other characters” (43). In short, Iago wanted to bring everyone, specifically Othello, down to the same level as him. He wanted those who made him feel insecure to share the same feelings in hopes of destroying