Hey ya'll!!!
So which is it? When do emotions transcend from Jealousy into Envy and vice versa? No of course they are no the same thing? After all what is the point of coming up with two different words which give one same meaning. Now, it is quite different.
First, let's put yourself into this scenario (please, work with me here!) Say your girlfriend/boyfriend is becoming increasingly intimate with his/her best guy/gal-friend. You hate to say it but you feel very much like pounding the crap out of his face or pulling all of her hair out. You cannot quite explain it because you wish to give your boyfriend/girlfriend their privacy and their right to hang with the people they wish (even so since it's your guy/gal friend we're talking about here). Yet, at the same time to hear them laughing together is like your heart is rending apart. Each "ha" and "ha" and "ha" drives rusty nails coated in lemon juice into the valleys of your heart. A distinct bitter taste rises up the back of your throat. That bitter taste...that is jealousy!!!
Jealousy is usually involved on a bigger scale (meaning more persons that you!). IT is when you want to keep something you already have for fear of loosing it to someone else. In this scenario, your boyfriend/girlfriend.
A tailor gets friendly with a client as his wife looks on Jealousy..."Hey! Isn't that envy?" you would ask! WRONG! It is not envy.
Now picture this other scenario (work with me!), you're a guy (alternatively change the genders and adjectives accordingly if your a female) walking down the street. You're (lets just pretend) skinny and awkward all over. The very way your knees always seem to knock on each other as you walk makes you cringe and you've got pimples dotted all over your greasy face. Along comes this Adonis of a man, tanned, muscled and with a face that looks like it could have been carved by angels. And worse, clinging on to him, like a barnacle is the most beautiful girl in your class! The girl you've been EXTREMELY nice too and have been DYING to ask out.
Envy at work...You look at his smooth tanned face and are suddenly concious of your pocked one. You watch him run his hands through his silky hair and you realise yours is limp, greasy and plastered to your forehead. You watch his muscles ripple and realise how small and scrawny you are. You suddenly feel small about yourself. You realise the significance of your ugliness and wish to shy away, or wear black and daub eyeliner around your eyes. You wish to go for plastic surgery! You wish you could go to the gym! Or maybe...you wish you could KILL yourself! A horrible sour taste rises in your chest and stays there, corroding its surroundings. That, my friends is Envy, which in my opinion is a way more dangerous emotion than jealousy.
Envy is when you see something other people have and greatly desire it for yourself. It is the emotion that tells you you are nothing compared to that other person (beginning to see how it gets dangerous?) and it is the one that usually drives people to extreme measures to stand up to what they believe is superior to themselves. This is the emotion responsible for anorexia and depression and a whole lot of other diseases. (see how it's dangerous now?)
In short, you know it's envy when...
You (guy) want to be him...and
You (girl) want to be her...but
Have your self confidence severely beaten up for it!Of course, Jealousy and Envy are constantly changing, though I daresay it is much easier for Jealousy to transcend into Envy than otherwise. You see, Jealousy ends either when the "other person" is eliminated or when you loose! If the other person is "eliminated"...okay fine everything is hunky dory (you possesive twit!) but if you loose! That's when you long for the girl, and long to find out "what's he/she got that I don't!" (He/She is probably not possesive like you!) and that's when it turns into envy!
Still, I suppose the Christian Lord had good reason placing Envy in the list of seven deadly sins rather than jealousy! You can see it is the more destructive one! Rather, existentialism means you measure your life by your own standards which makes it very possible to avoid such emotions!
PEACE OUT
~Envy and Wrath shorten the life~
