Jealousy: a feeling that everyone must have felt in their life at least once, maybe even more than once. A feeling so strong that it can be hard to control one’s inner feelings. Is it regret, hurt, or envy, or maybe even sadness and anger? These are all feelings that can be related to jealousy. But what exactly is jealousy?

Oftentimes people when people think of jealousy most people think it’s like wanting something, whether it be looks or an item, that someone else has but you don’t. But that’s not true; that’s being envious, not jealous. Envy and jealousy both do have similarities like wanting something another person has. But there are differences between them. Jealousy is the feeling you get when you feel “threatened or fearful of losing in a position to someone else.” While envy is the feeling of wanting something that someone else has. 

Now that, that has been explained, jealousy can be a dangerous emotion, it can make people do crazy and unthinkable things. A great example would be in the play Othello written by William Shakespeare. Othello gets jealous over Casio who was ‘sleeping with his wife,’ as claimed by Iago. This jealousy was so strong that overtook Othello’s mind and made him do unthinkable things, which he ended up later regretting. This is a great example as to why jealousy can be dangerous. Even Iago himself warned Othello by saying, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” 

Jealousy is a feeling that is natural; it can’t be helped when people feel jealous. As long as you don’t act recklessly upon your actions of jealousy, like Othello, you’ll be okay. There are always ways to combat this feeling, like gaining more self-confidence. A majority of people who are jealous lack self-confidence. “Self-confidence plays an important role in managing our feelings of jealousy”, so working gradually on improving your self-confidence can help you focus on “achievements and qualities that one’s proud of.” Of course, just know that being jealous is normal and okay. It’s part of being human with our imperfections and flaws. But, even with that being said don’t live a life filled with jealousy.