HUM 100

Final Composition

Jealousy

March 6, 2016

Jealousy also termed as enviousness or resentment. It is a word that refers to an emotional feeling in which an individual has fear, insecurity or concerned that they have lost something valuable or has a deeper connection to them. Mostly, characterization of jealousy includes resenting, jaundiced eye or feelings full of rage and humiliation. This paper looks on jealousy as a main theme in different sectors, which are, the Bible, a film written by William Shakespeare, and a visual art drawn by Edward Munch. The paper aims to explore different areas in which the characters portray jealousy, the reasons behind this feeling and what impact the feeling has brought to the characters directly involved. Narrowing down Cain and able in the book of Genesis, the soldiers in the Othello film and the two men in the green room, this essay will explain how the different characters of different times and different settings relate to each and how jealousy makes their stories correlate with one another. It will finally analyze what impact or effectiveness jealousy has on them.
To begin with, Cain and Abel were the sons of the first human beings on earth and related to each other as brothers. Cain being the first-born engaged and interested himself in farming and working on the soil while his brother Abel worked as a shepherd who kept flocks of sheep. During the time of the offering, Cain offered the fruits of his harvested crops to God while Abel offered a sacrifice of the fat portions of his flock. In their offering, God favored Abel’s offering more than Cain’s offers, and hence, he became angry and was jealous of his brother. Cain’s jealousy increased immensely after God asked of his anger and told him to do right. At this point, Cain called Abel out to the field as an excuse and killed him.
The Othello play begins with a character named Roderigo complaining to Lago that he had not informed him of the planned marriage between Othello and Desdemona since he wanted to ask her hand in marriage. At the same time, Lago hates Othello because he chose Michael Casio as a soldier instead of him. With such anger, Lago also tends to believe that Othello had an affair with his wife Emilia hence stirring up his anger. With such anger Lago and Roderigo, plan to revenge Othello by telling on him to Desdemona’s father about the marriage.
Luckily, Othello convinces Desdemona’s father about their genuine relationship and he wins over Roderigo’s plans. However, Lago still determined works with Roderigo to frame Desdemona in a part of an affair so that their relationship would end as well as removing Casio in his position. With their plan proceeding on well the two succeed in their plan, and Othello becomes furious on both Desdemona and Casio. However, towards the end, things do not flow as planned when Casio and Emilia know part of their plan. So that there is no exposure of the plot, Lago kills his friend Roderigo as well as his wife. Finally, his actions fully come into the light, and the authority justly punishes him. In the green room, we see an artistic drawing of two men and a woman in the middle. From the piece of art, one man is jealous because the other man has the woman that he allegedly loves as well. The author uses green color in the drawings to emphasize on the jealousy in which both men seem to want Dagny, the woman.
In all the three aspects, in my personal view and understanding, jealousy is not a pleasant feeling but more of bitter, sour feeling. In the presentations, we see that jealous has feelings of anger that eventually lead towards murder. In the Genesis’s story, Cain kills Abel, in Othello film, Lago kills his wife, and Roderigo while in the green room, the green color expresses intense anger that highly leads to murderous feelings. In all the presentations, jealous is effectively a central theme because the characters are not contented with their present status. People who are content and satisfied rarely feel jealousy of other people. According to the Bible analysis, Jealousy is not a feeling that comes from God, it is demonic, tempting and makes people covet. The Bible compares jealousy with hatred and that it is because of hatred that Cain killed Abel. Using the same aspect, I think that it is Lago's hatred that steered him into plotting bad deeds to Othello, and finally killing his friend and wife. It is the same Jealousy that made Othello kill his wife because he could not picture her with another man beside her and the feeling of committing suicide. In Othello’s film and green room, sexual jealousy leads to murderous feelings as well as death itself. Othello killed Desdemona because he thought she slept with another man while Lago became angry because he thought the same of his wife. To conclude, from the three presentations, we can say that jealousy impacts negatively on people’s lives and its effects are never good. Jealousy is what people perceive in their minds. It is founded on psychological perception and not the true behaviors and feelings.

References
Frustrated Love. (n.d.). Retrieved March 06, 2016, from http://lovefrustrated.blogspot.de/2011/05/munch-jealousy-1895.html
Shakespeare's Othello - Othello's Jealousy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 04, 2016, from http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/othello/othellobradley2.html
Womenlivingwell.org/2014/09/jealousy-sibling-rivalry-genesis-4/