Envy's Non-Innocent Victims

Envy has often been seen as a vice and the envied as its victims. I suggest that this plausible view has an important limitation: the envied sometimes actively try to provoke envy. They may, thus, be non-innocent victims. Having argued for this thesis, I draw some practical implications. Envy is a vice, and the envied are its victims. This is one of the major strands in our thinking about envy. Thus, we say such things as, "Be careful with Bertha, she envies you," or, "Don't believe what Gus says about Ethan—it's envy speaking," alleging that Bertha may harm you out of spite or that Gus is speaking to undermine Ethan's reputation behind his back. We find this view in literature as well: Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, for instance, is so envied for his personal qualities, quick rise in the ranks, and the love of a beautiful woman that he is framed for a crime. In Jean Genet's play The Maids, two maids envy their mistress and conspire to kill her. Balzac's character Bette, from The Cousin Bette, envies the social status and superior physical beauty of her cousin, Hortense Hulot, and plots to destroy Hortense's happiness. The view of envy as a vice with the envied as its victims goes as far back as the Book of Genesis, where we find the story about Cain and Abel: Cain, envious of God's love for Abel, kills Abel. And in the Parson's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer suggests that envy is the worst of all sins, "For truly, all other sins are sometimes only against one special virtue, but