Green-Eyed Monster

Iago:[1] "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on..."

"He's faster than a bullet, stronger than a train
He's the one who got lucky, got his cape around Miss Lois Lane
I can't believe my dilemma is real
I'm competing with the Man of Steel."

—"Jimmy Olsen's Blues," by the Spin Doctors

Envy and jealousy are among the most powerful motivations in both fiction and Real Life. The Bible condemns it in many places, most famously in the Ten Commandments, and it's also one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Envy is the desire for some object, item, or abstract notion (such as love or power), which can lead to hatred of the possessor(s) of said object. If they cannot secure the object for themselves, the envious party may go so far as to harm or ...eliminate the possessor. If they're egocentric enough, they may even destroy/kill the object. Similar to but distinct from envy is jealousy, which applies much more to relationships. Jealousy is the fear by the possessing party of losing the object. For those in a relationship, this means fear of being supplanted in the object's heart by someone (or even something else). To be precise, envy is the desire for something one does not have whereas jealousy is the fear of losing that something. Both result in similar behaviour.

Envious and jealous characters on the losing side of a Love Triangle will often fall into the trap of assuming things about their competitor - or 'competitor'. Such characters are seldom portrayed positively - most are villains - and as such they tend to assume some rather bad things about their rivals. Expect to see some What Does She See in Him?? on their parts. Furthermore, they may slander their rivals with accusations of unsavoury actions and/or attribute base motives (such as Pride) to their actions. Whether they actually believe there is a fundamental truth to such slander - or have even been manipulated by a third party - plays a big part in determining audience sympathy for them.

This is the motivation behind the bad kind of Dead Person Impersonation. A Genre Savvy character may attempt to exploit this with Operation: Jealousy. See also You're Just Jealous. Feet of Clay or Shrouded in Myth may prove that the envy was unmerited—often to the glee of the envious. On the other hand, a story about the Lonely Rich Kid or some other Sour Grapes Tropes may demonstrate that the envy is wrong because the envied person really suffers more than the person doing the envy (and not because it's wrong to hate people for what they have).

Romantically, may stem from being Love Hungry and lead to a Murder the Hypotenuse—or be sacrificed because I Want My Beloved to Be Happy. Occasionally, it can actually overcome Cannot Spit It Out-- Operation: Jealousy may overtly attempt to engineer this—or lead to a Love Epiphany. A man driven by it will often unreasonably doubt whether a child really is his.

Because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, frequently two characters envy each other, as when an ordinary child envies the gifted child's abilities and rewards, and the gifted child envies the ordinary child's freedom from pressure.

When the trope is not connected to love, but rather based on a character's envy of another's talent or success, they are Driven by Envy. The Lancer (among heroes) and The Starscream (among villains) are particularly prone to the Green-Eyed Monster. The Dark Magical Girl often envies the Magical Girl. Inspiring envy is a defining trait of Always Someone Better, and feeling it, of Clingy Jealous Girl, the Fairest of Them All, and The Resenter. The Yandere is defined by it. The Daddy's Girl, inspired by it, may regard any possible stepmother as a Wicked Stepmother, even if she's truly the sweetest person in the world. Divided We Fall is often motivated by it.

One of Mary Sue's more noticeable traits is that many characters do not suffer from the Green-Eyed Monster about her, regardless of how plausible it is that they would not envy her gifts or be jealous of her romantic success. Either that, or the Mary Sue (specially the of Sympathetic Sue kind) will suffer horrific, mean-spirited attacks inspired by the Green-Eyed Monster, specially if it's from the character who poses the biggest threat to her and her beau's True Love.

Oddly enough, not correlated with characters who have Green Eyes. Compare Tall Poppy Syndrome

Examples of Green-Eyed Monster include:

Anime and Manga

  • Magical Project S Misao Amanoshe secretly envies Sasami's family and her ability to get friends easily
  • Fruits Basket
    • Kyo and Yuki's relationship is driven by the bitter and reciprocal jealousy of each other; both think the other has the traits he lacks—the same traits.
    • Some other schoolgirls, fans of Yuki, envy Tohru her closeness with him and plot against her.
    • Kyo turns into this around every guy who has some sort of relationship with Tohru. It would count as Green-Eyed Epiphany except he's so bloody thick-headed that he doesn't see it for a really long time.
    • Kagura whenever Kyo is involved.
    • Also, Momiji points out to Kyo that some other man might marry Tohru if he doesn't overcome his feelings and get her, in order to inspire him. Indeed, when Kyo first attends school with Tohru, he overhears some classmates discussing that she's pretty, looks dumb and easy to seduce; this inspires him to walk over to her and look possessive, to drive them off.
    • Machi's parents accused her of trying to murder her baby brother because of this. She was trying to keep him from getting cold by putting a blanket on him.
  • In the Naruto anime, Sakura is unexplainedly jealous of any girl that takes Naruto's attention away from her, despite her claim in Part 1 that she doesn't even like him. This was also seen at least once or twice in Naruto Shippuden.
    • Additionally, Sasuke grows jealous when he discovers that Naruto is advancing faster than he is, eventually completely annihilating his better judgment and going off to join Orochimaru. It just goes downhill from there.
      • Naruto was jealous of Sasuke long before Sasuke was jealous of him, however; both for his skills as a shinobi, and because Sakura was a Sasuke fangirl, while she disliked Naruto. One of Naruto's primary motivations early on in the series was to show up Sasuke and win Sakura's affections.
    • Lee gets jealous of Naruto and Sasuke despite having curbstomped both of them; the former for defeating his rival Neji, and the latter for getting to fight Gaara in the finals and having the Sharingan.
  • In Skip Beat!!, this is explicitly shown as the reason Kyouko didn't have any female friends back in elementary or junior high school: since she was too close to School Idol Shou, the other girls outcasted her. Several other characters in the series have this as part of their personalities: Shou towards Ren, that Rich Bitch against Kanae, a certain band leader toward Shou...
  • SHUFFLE!: Kaede directed towards Rin. More so than the other characters of Rin's harem, anyway.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka becomes jealous of Shinji for his apparent skills at piloting, and of Rei for becoming closer to Shinji. Misato gets very jealous whenever Kaji sneaks off to flirt with other women.
  • In Lovely Complex Otani was jealous when Risa had a crush on Maity sensei, leading him to realize/confess his feelings. Later, he is also jealous and possessive towards Risa on several other occasions. To say nothing of Risa, to a lesser extent, over Otani as well. Then there's Mimi who is a Yandere over Otani. She gets better, though.
  • In Kekkaishi, Yoshimori is jealous of Tokine always paying attention to his older brother. Also Tokine was seen obviously jealous when Julia was crushing on Yoshimori.
  • Sailor Moon: Usagi towards any girl who expresses interest in Mamoru. Queen Beryl, Galaxia, Ann, and Nehellenia are jealous of Usagi because of her romantic involvement with Mamoru. Then there's Ali and Prince Diamond, who are both jealous, to a T, of Mamoru.
  • Black Cat: Train + A Girl = An insanely jealous Creed.
  • Full Metal Panic!: Ditto with Gauron, only it's Sousuke + Kaname = One very pissed off Gauron. It doesn't even have to be with Kaname. Sousuke + anyone else (including True Companions / father figure) = very pissed off Gauron. Kashim should not be with anyone else.
  • Kisshu in Tokyo Mew Mew.
  • Elfen Lied: Yuka and Lucy. Both are very much a Clingy Jealous Girl over Kouta, with Lucy being much more of a Yandere about it, though Yuka has her moments.
  • Yui in Fushigi Yuugi is jealous of both Tamahome and Miaka, constantly trying to come between them.
  • Peach Girl revolves around this Trope. Let's see...
    • Sae is jealous of Momo to the point of hating her, but she possibly admires her as well, otherwise she wouldn't fuck with Momo's life so much, and try to steal Toji away from her. Toji and Kairi are also jealous of eachother because they both are competing for Momo's attention.
  • Deadman Wonderland: Genkaku. Jealous of any girl who threatens to take away the murderous side of Nagi.
  • In Daa! Daa! Daa!! Miyu has been jealous of Kanata's old childhood friend, and Kanata jealous of that older guy Miyu had a crush on.
  • In Magic Kaito' Kaito was jealous that Aoko felt safe with the teacher while they were exploring the school after dark and that she didn't partner with him and that she didn't seem bothered by Hakuba asking her out.
  • In Detective Conan Shinichi felt jealous when it seemed any male was interested in Ran, Heiji has been jealous of a magician when Kazuha flirted with him, Kazuha jealous of Ran when she thought Heiji liked her and several other characters showing jealousy.
  • In Ranma ½, Almost every character in the series.
  • In Kamisama Kazoku Tenkou was jealous of Samatarou's crush on a girl, Samatarou was jealous when Tenkou went on a date with his friend.
  • In D.N.Angel, Riku was jealous that Daisuke seemed to be getting it on with her sister (he wasn't).
  • In His and Her Circumstances Arima has been intensely jealous of Yukino paying attention to anyone but him several times. And Arima's Unlucky Childhood Friend Tsubasa sets a failed Wounded Gazelle Gambit out of pure jealousy against Yukino. She gets over it, though.
  • In Love Roma Hoshino has been jealous of Negishi's old classmate.
  • In Zero no Tsukaima both Louise and Saito have shown IMMENSE jealousy whenever the other showed interest in anyone but them (especially Louise).
  • In Revolutionary Girl Utena:, the very green-haired Kyouichi Saionji is the personification of envy. He's envious of his best friend and classmate Touga because he seems to be better than him on every field, he's envious of the chairman Akio because, well, because he's the fat cat, and he's envious of Utena because hey, she defeated him, she got Anthy as her "bride" and she's now the "official" Prince... on second thought, poor guy. Okay, maybe his eyes aren't green, but he has a "green" theme going on (hair, pants, duelist rose).
    • This is also Shiori's motivation. She felt inferior compared to Juri, so she began hanging out with her to manipulate her feelings, culminating in stealing a boy who wanted to ask Juri out. The real tragedy is that this worked and turned Juri into a Broken Bird...because she was in love with Shiori from the start.
  • In Tokyo Crazy Paradise both Ryuji and (eventually) Tsukasa have been jealous when the other showed any interest in anyone but them.
  • In The Prince of Tennis, Tomoka's jealousy of almost any girl who talks to Ryoma (aside of Sakuno), Kamio's jealousy of any males who get too close to his crush An, and Yuuji's possessiveness of his partner Koharu are quite played for laughs. In the manga, Sakuno also has a brief moment of jealousy when Kotoha from Tsubakikawa appears and claims to be in love with Ryoma, but unlike the others she manages to set it aside.
    • Yuuta Fuji's jealousy of his older brother Shuusuke and Kurumi Iijyuin's jealousy of her older twin sister Narumi make both of them rebel against their more succesful siblings. A big part of Shuusuke's earlier Character Development is tied to him first hiding his own pain and later managing to resolve the issue with Yuuta; later, he uses his experience to help Kurumi reconcile with Narumi.
  • Unsurprisingly, this is a major motivator to the homunculus Envy in both incarnations of Fullmetal Alchemist. In the manga and Brotherhood, Envy is envious of humanity for all the things that makes them survive and live despite their lacks when compared to Father and the homunculi. It commits suicide when Ed pities it for it. In the 2003 anime version, Envy is the result of Dante and Hohenheim attempting Human Transmutation on their son. Hohenheim would later abandon Dante and Envy and remarry, and the homunculus is incredibly envious towards Ed and Al for having their father's love and attention, while at the same time wanting to kill Hohenheim for abandoning it.
    • A humorous example in the manga (sadly, the scene wasn't in the second anime) is Roy's reaction when Barry the Chopper grabs Hawkeye around the waist. The fangirls were delighted.
  • Arguably, Hayato Gokudera from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, over Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada. He gets incredibly jealous of anyone who gets along well with him. Ho Yay, anyone?
  • Takuma Fudou from GetBackers is shown to be this... and not towards Ban, but towards Ginji. To elaborate, he's jealous of the attention that Ginji gets from Ban, and he actually tells Ginji that he dislikes him because Ban doesn't even notice him when Ginji is around. He then proceeds to try to Murder the Hypotenuse while telling Ginji that Ban's eyes aren't on him because Ginji is in the way.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima we have Chisame's reaction to Akira going all flustered and blushing over Negi, especially to his "Natural Gigolo Talk".
  • This has happened to the otherwise pure, sweethearted Belldandy in Oh My Goddess!. During the incident Keiichi let Shiho stay over at his home to go along with her exorcism hobby, Shiho was a little too affectionate in saying "thank you", and, while trying to suppress her feelings, Belldandy's powers went haywire. Once she realized it, broke down, and finally admitted it, Keiichi told her it was part of being in love... that it wouldn't always be pretty, and forgave her.
    • Keiichi also apologized for taking her feelings for granted and giving her a reason to worry
    • Sayoko Mishima is VERY jealous of Belldandy.
  • Haguro Dou of Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest is instantly and irrevocably jealous of anyone that the protagonist Inugami Akira warms up to. After all, how dare Inugami not warm up to the man who wants to kill him? THE NERVE OF HIM!!!
  • Many customers in the Nightmare Inspector have this, whether they realize it or not. In most cases, it causes them to become quite frightening.
  • In Black★Rock Shooter, Takanashi Yomi becomes a literal Green Eyed Monster when her jealousy over Yuu seeming to take her place as Mato's friend turns her into Dead Master
  • In the live-action adaptation of Uzumaki, it's Mitsuru, one of Kirie's schoolmates, who becomes this. He practically makes deep gouges on the tree he's hiding behind while watching Kirie and Shuichi, and the look on his face is that of sheer jealousy and hatred towards Shuichi.
  • This is why Natsume is often such a jerk to Sae: on the day on the entrance ceremony, she found herself having to go alone, the train (which normally takes 42 minutes on top of the 10 minutes by bicycle) had to make an emergency stop, she took the wrong street, and finally, she found the shoe locker she thought was hers to be full. Sae directed her to the next set of lockers, and they talked as they hurried. Now, Natsume latched on to this, thinking that they might become best friends. She was unable to meet up with Sae, and didn't see her until ten days later, and upon greeting her, found her with Hiro, who was in the same class and apartment. This triggered something inside her, and, well... she realized as she sulked after her initial outburst that Sae didn't do anything wrong, but that didn't prompt her to change. (As a side note, Natsume does have green eyes.)
  • Miu often feels jealousy over Nobue's preferential treatment of Ana and Matsuri, and sometimes competes for her attention even when she's trying to take care of her sister when she has a cold.
  • Wendy Garret of Gun X Sword displays jealousy whenever other women show too much interest in Van. (She's also green-eyed, but that's probably a coincidence!) It is just possible that some of Van's dislike of Joshua also falls into this trope, but that may be a stretch.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • Touma's mother looks really scary whenever her husband looks at another woman.
    • Every member of Touma's harem gets angry when they see him with another girl.
    • Accelerator and Hamazura's harems get mad when they see the two hang out with Fremea, even though she's only a little girl.
  • Tekkaman Blade: Tekkaman Evil/Shinya is loved by his family, but feels like he's being considered the weak one as the 'good' treatments was given to Blade/Takaya, for instance, when they both were nearly drowning, Shinya was saved instantly, but Takaya was told to just save himself... yet Shinya was JEALOUS because the family trusted Takaya's strength over his own strength. Kind of complicated, yes.
  • Ultimo: Rune and Yamato were lovers in their past lives. This time, Rune reincarnates as a boy, though he's still in love with Yamato. Yamato doesn't still carry that affection and chases after Sayama instead. Rune is not pleased. Sufficiently not pleased to partner up with the fittingly-named Jealousy, the embodiment of envy.
    • Jealousy's former master, Iruma, was jealous of the incompetent Jerkass Mikado in his past life, believing that he would be better for the position.
  • In Berserk, there are several instances of this:
    • First, pre-Eclipse Griffith grows quickly jealous when he notices that Guts and Casca have become an item. It is unclear who he envies more due to his ambiguous sexual orientation. It's possibly both.
    • Averted with Judeau. Despite his unrequited crush on Casca, he knows he has no chance whatsoever, noticing the bound she and Guts had formed, even before either of them would realize it. Preferring to lose with honour, he helps a lot in the cementing of Guts and Casca's relationship, even going as far as encouraging Guts to take Casca away with him, by force if necessary.
    • During the Griffith rescue operation, Casca had the Green-Eyed Monster attitude toward Princess Charlotte for a bit, since she admitted that she was still worshiping Griffith like before, even after she and Guts made love for the first time earlier. She tried reconciling to herself, but ended up saying the wrong thing to Guts about the matter, which succeeded in pissing Guts off even though HE admitted to himself that he couldn't take his mind off Griffith. But don't worry - they made up later.
    • Then, post-Eclipse, there's the unspoken rivalry between Sonia and Charlotte. Charlotte is Griffith's Meal Ticket, even though he acts in order to make her feel like he actually values her for herself and NOT her birthright. Sonia is a faithful servant to Griffith, gifted with clairvoyance, and as such considers herself the only girl worthy of him. Sonia is very jealous of Charlotte but her nascent and reciprocated relationship with Irvine might wash it all out.
    • There's also the jealousy Farnese feels for Casca for being the object of Guts's affection. Farnese is technically betrothed to Roderick, who is himself quite handsome, but she definitely has a crush on Guts who doesn't see her beyond being Casca's caretaker. Farnese even breaks down in front of Casca, telling her that she's really ungrateful to ignore Guts after all he did for her but Casca being insane and retarded, it doesn't do shit, although Casca seems to understand Farnese's distress.
    • Finally, there's Schierke's Precocious Crush on Guts but, unlike Farnese, Schierke only has shades of this and knows deep down that she's way too young for Guts (he is more than twice her age). Plus, her Toy Ship moments with Isidro also seem to drop some hints about she may eventually like.
  • In the manga of Brigadoon Marin and Melan, one of the first signs that Melan is developing romantic feelings for Marin is the jealousy or anxiety he displays when he sees her alone (and half-dressed) with another love interest.
  • Soul Eater has the Envy chapter of the Book of Eibon, although we only see what Soul and Maka have envy for; Maka is jealous of Liz and of music itself, since Soul loves it so much while she can't even understand it, despite studying it ad nauseum. She's also jealous of/worried about other meisters who claim to fit Soul better - especially girls. Soul is jealous of his older brother, Wes, for his superior musical talent. It is also implied that he chose to be Maka's partner because she didn't understand music, and he feels guilty for that. What makes this even better is that Maka actually has green eyes.
  • Madame Red in Black Butler. The love of her life Earl Phantomhive (Ciel's father) married her beloved sister. She tried to be happy for them but when Ciel was born, jealousy started to consume her. Even when Ciel's parents died in the fire, though devastated, she envied her sister for dying with someone she loves.
  • Ai no Kusabi: Iason flies into fits of jealous rage every time Riki even looks at someone else but Guy actually takes it Up to Eleven and tries to Murder the Hypotenuse.
  • Vegeta from Dragon Ball has got to be the epitome of this trope. Throughout the entire series Vegeta envies Goku because no matter how hard he trains and fights he is never able to surpass Goku. This becomes a literal case of Green-Eyed Monster when Vegeta becomes a Super Saiyan (the transformation gives you green eyes) and despite becoming the warrior of legend that the Saiyan Race had admired for thousands of years 'still couldn't let go of his pride. During the era of peace after Goku died he still finds a reason to be jealous because he sees that Goku's family life is more loving and meaningful than his is as Goku's family supported him and made him a better fighter while his didn't show the same results. It is only when Vegeta lets go and admits that becoming better than Goku isn't all there is to his life that he truly shines as a warrior and becomes a good guy.
  • Bleach: After Ichigo sinks into depression because his failure to protect resulted in Orihime getting badly injured, Orihime can't cheer him but Rukia does by making him resolved to never let Orihime get that injured again. Orihime believes she's incapable of bringing Ichigo out of despair leading her to feel jealous of Rukia's ability which has made her feel useless. This trope is immediately subverted when, instead of becoming bitchy or bitter, Orihime gushes about how wonderful and amazing Rukia is and how bad she feels to be jealous of such a good person. Rangiku resolves the issue almost immediately for her and a few chapters later it's confirmed Rukia and Orihime are very good friends and training hard together.
  • Yukio Okumura from Blue Exorcist. Despite being a fully qualified Middle First Class exorcist and exorcism school teacher at the age of 15, he always felt inadequate compared to his Idiot Hero older brother with self-control issues and his Badass Preacher father. Saburota Toudou attempts to use this and Yukio's fear of becoming a demon to induce a Heel Face Turn.


Comics

  • Loki is Marvel's personification of this trope to the point he has green eyes. His constant envy of his elder brother, Thor and his need for love from his father warp him into a villain. Most of his mischief is about getting attention and love. His history as an abused child doesn't help. Neither did Odin's blatant favoritism towards Thor. Odin adopted Loki out of obligation and guilt. Ironically he creates his own destruction by doing so.
  • In the Fantastic Four, this is the reason Dr. Doom hates Mr. Fantastic. He can't stand the fact that Reed Richards is smarter than him, and has beaten Doom every time he has tried to kill Reed and/or Take Over the World. In addition to those few extra IQ points, Reed also has everything else Doom doesn't have, from worldwide respect all the way down to unmarred good looks.
  • Why does Lex Luthor hate Superman? Because Superman made him bald Lex worked his whole life to gain power and respect, while Superman was handed his powers by a quirk of genetics and won the hearts of Metropolis without any effort at all.
    • Confirmed in Blackest Night, wherein Lex is bound by Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth and is forced to admit to himself and everyone around him that: "The truth is...I really want to be Superman."
    • It also probably isn't a coincidence that modern portrayals of Lex in the comics often have green eyes.
  • Haazen from Knights of the Old Republic (the comics) is this trope- he was consumed years ago by his jealousy of his friend (and later employer) Barrison Draay's wealth, good looks, talent with the Force, and luck in love with the girl Haazen was also sweet on. This lead him to ultimately arrange Barrison's assassination and then spend decades concocting an Evil Plan that would pervert everything Barrison stood for as well as his family name, while ending with Haazen ruling the galaxy from behind the scenes. And if would have worked if Zayne Carrick hadn't convinced Barrison's son Lucien that this wasn't what his father would have wanted.
  • Guy Gardner hates Superman because his girlfriend Ice admitted that she thought Superman was cute. He still hates him to this day.
  • The special power of Convolvulus in Asterix and the Roman Agent.
  • Envy of the Seven Deadly Sins in the DCU can turn anyone, hero or not, into a Green-Eyed Monster. Under its influence, Green Arrow once succumbed to his own envy of Batman over, well, everything, and tried to kill him.
  • Thomas Elliot, aka Hush, dedicated himself to destroying Bruce Wayne out of sheer envy. The way he sees it, Bruce was "lucky" that his parents died when he was a kid (and getting all of their money) -- Thomas, on the other hand, had to go to all of the trouble of cutting his parents' car's brakelines and later smothering his horrible mother to get access to their money.
  • Veronica Cale is this to Wonder Woman. She thinks that an Omnidisciplinary Scientist billionaire magnate who worked her way up from rather humble origins like herself is more deserving of the title than a magical princess like Diana. If she wasn't also a Complete Monster Mad Scientist who kills innocent people and turns others into living weapons she might actually have a point.
  • Donald Duck and Gladstone Gander
  • Wiske in Suske en Wiske at any pretty girl that is interested in Suske.
  • Bert Bibber and Theo Flitser in Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber.


Fairy Tales


Fan Works


Film - Animated

  • Remy the Rat from Ratatouille was jealous that Colette could get public recognition for her culinary prowess and he couldn't.
  • Chick Hicks, the villain of Cars, is a bright green racecar. His envy of The King's success wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't so personal. What he does on the final lap demonstrates just how much it's twisted him.
  • This is Woody's Fatal Flaw in Toy Story; a nice guy otherwise, but competition for his position as Andy's favorite toy leads him to trouble, and his better nature leads him into more trouble.
  • Scar from The Lion King was a literal case with his brother Mufasa.
  • Somewhat averted in Pinocchio, as there were no jealous characters. As the puppet lies to the Blue Fairy about why he didn't go to school, he explains that "there were these two big monsters with big green eyes" that put him in a big sack and Jiminy Cricket in a little sack. All the while, of course, his nose grows.


Film - Live Action

  • Cameron in Ferris Buellers Day Off was envious of the fact that the High School Hustler Ferris Bueller seemed to have the entire world in the palm of his hand, while Cameron himself languished with miserable parents in a miserable life.
  • Salieri, in Amadeus, was insanely envious of Mozart's God-given musical talents.
  • In Care Bears: The Movie, the girl protagonist made a Deal with the Devil to become Camp Champ.
  • In Se7en, the serial killer says he killed Mrs. Mills out of envy. Given his agenda, he may have exaggerated his envy just for that purpose.
  • Commodus from Gladiator had some intense jealousy issues, mainly because his sister didn't like him that way, and because another man was chosen to succeed his father.
  • Eastern Promises: Kirill both admires and resents Nikolai for being a good deal more capable than himself; flares into fully-fledged jealousy when Kirill's father seems to prefer Nikolai.
  • In Cherrybomb, Luke gets seriously upset and jealous when his best friend Malachy gets a girlfriend, seeing her as a threat to their friendship. It doesn't stop him from persistantly suggesting that the three of them engage in a "spit-roast" though. The mind works in mysterious ways.
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World shows this in a literal sense: Scott's jealousy over seeing Ramona with her latest ex fuels him to summon a huge Green-Eyed Monster with his music. His eyes also turn green very briefly during this sequence.
  • In The Social Network, Mark is shown to be jealous of his friend Eduardo for securing a place in in the Phoenix Club and Eduardo's laywer suggests this might have been part of the reason he cut Eduardo out of the company.
  • Bicentennial Man shows one of the few thing-human-human cases of Green-Eyed Monster. Andrew, an android, sees Portia about to marry someone else, a person who has a very prominent chin, which Andrew constantly makes fun of behind his back, to Portia of all people.
  • The entire plot of The Awful Truth is kicked off by and runs on this.


Literature

  • In The Count of Monte Cristo, envy is the motivating force of two of the conspirators—Danglars is jealous of Dantes' success, and Fernand of his fiancée.
  • Demandred in The Wheel of Time became evil because he envied the fact that Lews Therin was slightly better than him in every way. Also, Lanfear envied Ilyena for marrying Lews Therin. The same applies to Sammael, who was as skilled a general and sportsman as Lew Therin but felt that his height was the reason he was the less honored of the two. Be'lal (one of whose nicknames is "The Envious" was reputedly extremely jealous of virtually everyone; Lews Therin, Lanfear and Ishamael amongst them. A case could be made this was true of a lot of the Forsaken, many of whom were prominent Light side generals or otherwise decent figures but jealous of the acclaim given to the chosen leader Lews Therin or perceived general lack of acclaim for themselves. Not all though. Semirhage in particular may have been the greatest healer in the world but she was also a vicious sadist long before the Dark One appeared, and Ishamael, as Elan Morin Tedroni, seems to have switched sides for philosophical reasons.
  • In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novel Ghostmaker, Inquisitor Lilith actively tries to foment this between Gaunt and Corbec. Gaunt slaps her down because he realizes she's doing it, and she doesn't need to, when he is willing to work with her. She apologizes, saying she is too used to having to manipulate people to get the to do what is needed (although at the end, she reveals that she had actually found Gaunt attractive).
  • In Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer 40,000 novel Scourge the Heretic, Horst finds himself quite envious of how obviously Lord and Lady Tomis are Happily Married after they jumped to their deaths together.
  • In William King's Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolf novel Wolfblade, when Ragnar speaks of having lost the Spear of Rus, Haegr, with open envy, says that he had wielded the Spear of Rus and struck down a primarch with it, which shows he was marked for greatness.

"Do you think any man could cast such a weapon? Even a hero such as I?"

  • In Ben Counter's Warhammer 40,000 Horus Heresy novel Galaxy In Flames, Lucius is envious of how easily Tarvitz assumes command of the betrayed Emperor's Children, which motivates his betraying them to Horus.
  • In James Swallow's Warhammer 40,000 novel Deus Encarmine, Arkio, primed by Sanchiel, accuses Rafen of being envious—although when Rafen declares he is concerned, Arkio immediately drops it to say that Rafen still thinks of him as a child.
    • In Deus Sanguinius, Inquisitor Stele plays on Rafen's fears of envying him to convince him that he ought to die to free Arkio; Rafen has a desperate time breaking free, receiving assistance toward it. Later, when Arkio believes that he has killed Rafen, he feels a freedom he had coveted a long time.
  • In Alexander Pushkin's Mozart and Salieri, Saliery explains how he hates Mozart for being so talented while never having to strain where he, who dedicated his entire life to music, lacks such talent. This is definitely a Historical Villain Upgrade.
  • In CS Lewis' Till We Have Faces, a retelling of Psyche and Cupid, Orual hears that she persuaded Psyche to bring in the lamp at night and so lose him, because she was jealous. Infuriated by this injustice, she writes her story to make the truth known. Writing it, and the events afterwards, reveal to her that she was jealous: having raised Psyche from childhood, she was jealous of Cupid.
    • In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one temptation for Lucy to cast the spell to make her beautiful was that it would make Susan, always the beauty of the family, jealous of her.
  • In Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novel Turn Coat, we learn that in the Backstory Morgan was in love with Luccio and so was jealous of Harry. In fact, Luccio was afraid he had hunted Harry down out of it. Then Morgan dies. And Luccio learns that she had been magically manipulated to "love" Harry.
  • In GK Chesterton's Father Brown story "The Man in the Passage", the jealousy between Miss Aurora Rome's rival lovers is quite palpable.
  • In JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Denethor's jealous attitude toward Aragorn was a major factor in his suicide; even if his side won, he would be demoted. It's also jealousy of Gandalf that causes Saruman to reject his offer of a Last Second Chance.
  • In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40,000 Ultramarines novel Courage and Honour, Uriel is warned of Leachrus, who had commanded his company in his absence. Later, he has it out with him: when Leachrus claims not to resent him, Uriel accuses of him of lying, and Leachrus reluctantly admits that he wants Uriel's post, and with Uriel gone so long, he had gotten used to it. Uriel agrees that his ambition is not wrong and predicts that he will get a captaincy, one day.
  • In Edgar Rice Burroughs's Thuvia, Maid of Mars, Jav is second only to Tario but must cringe before him and knows that Tario is awaiting the slightest excuse to be rid of him.
    • In The Chessman of Mars, O-Tar is jealous of his son A-Kor because A-Kor would be much better for the throne than O-Tar is, and everyone knows it.
  • Dragonlance: Raistlin is very jealous of his brother's looks, charm, health, strength and popularity.
    • Likewise Kitiara is incredibly jealous of her romantic rival Laurana's impossible beauty. This jealousy causes Kit to relentlessly stalk Laurana and attempt to kill her rival. Even after Kitiara defeats Laurana and has the elfmaid as a prisoner completely at her mercy, she still can't let it go and continues to obsess about how Laurana is more beautiful than her.
  • In Wen Spencer's Endless Blue, Mikhail feels deeply guilty that (in the Backstory) in his jealousy that Turk did not have to attend formal functions and got a trainer rather than a tutor, he did not consider what the trainer did until he accidentally stumbled on the Cold-Blooded Torture that was training for Reds. He put a stop to it at once, but thinks he should have thought earlier. Hardin reveals that he was jealous of Mikhail, because his Royal Blood ensured that he would be, at least, a footnote in history, and deliberately sabotuged his career because of it.
  • Invidia of the Codex Alera, who, in the backstory, had Gaius Septimus killed because he chosen a commoner, Isana, over her. She spends most of the series attaching herself to powerful figures and aiding them while waiting for an opportunity to stab them in the back.
  • Harry Potter: Ronald Weasley has a bad case of this throughout the series. He grew up envying his older brothers' achievements and, to a lesser extent, his younger sister's as well. It Got Worse as his best friend Harry Potter got more fame and glory year after year (though Ron did get made a prefect instead of Harry in their fifth year). It is also implied that Ron suspects (perhaps subconsciously) that his mother saw him as a disappointment, as she really wanted a daughter. In the last book, Voldemort's locket Horcrux actually tries to use this envy to turn Ron against Harry, and it almost works. Fortunately, after that incident, Ron finally conquers the Green-Eyed Monster.
    • Also, we learn in the last book that Petunia wishes she were a witch, just like Lily. It doesn't help that Lily was also the smarter and the prettier.
    • Harry also experiences this when he sees Ginny kissing Dean. It's described as a roaring monster in his chest.
  • Ivypool from Warrior Cats has this towards Dovewing because of her powers. But this is only because she doesn't know of her powers yet, and she gets really tired of living as her sister's "echo." However, she overcomes her jealosy when Dovewing reveals her powers after hearing Tigerstar's plan.
  • Kludd from Guardians of Ga'Hoole feels jealousy towards Soren because he thinks his litte brother gets more attention. He doesn't get better, though.
  • Each of the villains in the Keys to the Kingdom series represents a deadly sin, with Superior Saturday representing envy. She has become absolutely consumed by the fact that Lord Sunday controls the Incomparable Gardens (the epicenter of the universe), and she does not. She spends ten thousand years attempting to correct this fact through the following means:
    • Turning her demesne into an immense tower to try to breach the underside of the Gardens.
    • Attempting to destroy the four Drasil trees which are forever growing and taking the Gardens out of reach.
      • In her titular book, she succeeds by sinking two sevenths of the House into nothing, an action of such catastrophic affect that by one of the last chapters of the book, nearly all of the House has been consumed.
    • Attempting to assassinate various figures of power.
    • Attempting to remove Arthur, the protagonist and rightful heir to her demesne and Lord Sunday's, from power via various means.
    • Betraying one of her closer friends and turning her into a Leviathan rather than letting her give power to Arthur or another heir.
    • and inflicting amnesia upon the Piper's Children because of a prophecy that states that doing so will prevent Arthur from winning.
    • In short, she would be the Big Bad if it weren't for the fact that Lord Sunday was so much more powerful than she.
  • Ella Enchanted: Hattie is jealous of Ella because she's brave, smart, and pretty. It's mainly the reason why she treats Ella so miserably.
  • In Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie becomes increasingly jealous of Howl's attempts to court Miss Angorian, a pretty teacher in Wales. However, when the Witch of the Waste kidnaps her to lure Howl out, Sophie goes out to rescue her, believing that Howl loves Miss Angorian and attempts to pull I Want My Beloved to Be Happy. Turns out Miss Angorian was the Witch of the Waste's fire demon and that Howl loved Sophie the whole time.
  • Jealousy is a major theme of Cold Comfort, and the driving motive of the murderer.
  • In Suzanne Collins's Catching Fire, Peeta confesses he feels this about Gale.
  • The Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Cardboard Box is about a murder which resulted from jealousy. A woman fell in love with her younger sister's husband, and when he rejected her (because he loved his wife), she conspired to get her sister to have an affair with another man.
  • Caroline Bingley is venomously jealous of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, because Mr. Darcy clearly admires Elizabeth and is completely oblivious to the fact that Caroline wants to marry him. In her mind, at least; while Darcy clearly admires Elizabeth from early on, towards her it's suggested that he's adopting the time-honoured 'ignore-her-and-maybe-she'll-go-away' approach.
  • Also in the Jane Austen universe, Jane Fairfax rejects efforts by Emma Woodhouse to be friendly, because she's secretly engaged to Frank Churchill, who pays attention to Emma as part of the coverup, and even though she knows Emma's completely out of the loop she doesn't like it.
  • In Daddy Long Legs, a man who is in love with Judy (Jervis Pendleton, aka Daddy Long Legs) tries to keep her away from Jimmie McBride, whom he mistakenly believes is his rival.
  • In Aaron Allston's Galatea in 2-D the reason why Kevin turned on Roger and Donna with such vindicativeness.
  • In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story The Slithering Shadows Thalis boasts of how the women are jealous of her, because she has not succumbed to the Lotus Eater Machine and her reality is her chief allure to men. When her efforts to vamp Conan fail because of Natala's presence, she abducts her for Cold-Blooded Torture and Murder the Hypotenuse. After she dies, Natala is still jealous.
  • In Memoirs of a Geisha, it was Pumpkin's jealousy (along with a healthy dose of her mentor's influence) of Sayuri's popularity that would eventually cost them their friendship and would lead Pumpkin to betray Sayuri at a crucial moment.
  • In Robert E. Howard's "The Shadow Kingdom", Kull envies the lack of formality at the Pictish banquet.
  • In the Chinese Cinderella story Bound by Donna Jo Napoli, this was why Xing Xing's Wicked Stepmother treated her like she was a slave. Xing Xing's mother's last request was that Xing Xing would take care of all her father's needs more than anyone else, which she happily did and her father loved her more than the stepmother and his stepdaughter. In some ways, Xing Xing was closer to her father than her stepmother was to him.
  • Green eyed Ozonne of the Disgaea novels is jealous of her big sister Flonne because of her fallen angel status, her disposition in the Netherworld and their parents favoritism of her.
  • Lalla Moore is envious of Harriet Johnson's skating ability in Skating Shoes.
  • Susie Peters and Mimi Barron are envious of each other's dancing ability in On Your Toes, Susie!. Oddly, neither realizes how the other feels.
  • Bee Bye Simms is envious of David Perrin's riding ability in The Horsemasters.
  • In the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne is jealous of any girl who gets too close or mentions they would like to get close to Gilbert. She doesn't recognize this as jealousy, and frustratingly, it doesn't lead to a Love Epiphany, though everyone else can see she's jealous.
  • Morgan Sloat in The Talisman is driven by equal parts envy and ambition. By the end, they and the even worse Morgan of Orris have completely consumed him, leaving him a threat to the entire multiverse who cares for no one.
  • Harrison Bergeron is about a society built on appeasing envy in the only logistically possible way—reducing everyone to ciphers.
  • In Agatha Christie's Sad Cypress, Elinor Carlisle is jealous of her romantic rival to the point of being suspected of her murder. However, she's a rare case, because she pulls an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy, breaks up with the guy so that he can be free and actually gives him relationship advice. (That's before the murder, obviously.)
  • In John C. Wright's Count To A Trillion, when Menelaus comes out of his other personality, Blackie fiercely accuses him of trying to steal his fiancee, whom he's never met.
  • In L. M. Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill, the grandmother toward anyone who gets some of her favorite daughter's attention.
  • In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Monster Men, von Horn toward Number Thirteen.

A sudden wave of jealous rage swept through the man's vicious brain. He saw that the soulless thing within was endowed with a kindlier and more noble nature than he himself possessed.

he envied the blackbird his glossy, devoted little sweetheart, with all his might. He almost strained his voice trying to rival the love-song of a skylark that hung among the clouds above a meadow across the river, and poured down to his mate a story of adoring love and sympathy. He screamed a "Chip" of such savage jealousy at a pair of killdeer lovers that he sent them scampering down the river bank without knowing that the crime of which they stood convicted was that of being mated when he was not. As for the doves that were already brooding on the line fence beneath the maples, the Cardinal was torn between two opinions.
 He was alone, he was love-sick, and he was holding the finest building location beside the shining river for his mate, and her slowness in coming made their devotion difficult to endure when he coveted a true love; but it seemed to the Cardinal that he never could so forget himself as to emulate the example of that dove lover. The dove had no dignity; he was so effusive he was a nuisance.

  • In A Reluctant Queen by Joan Wolf, a retelling of the story Esther from the Bible, King Ahasuerus's close friend Haman grew jealous of Ahasuerus's new wife Esther, whom the king was deeply in love with. He also grew envious of Coes, another close friend of Ahasuerus, when the king had summoned Coes during an assasination attempt on his life but not Haman. And his jealousy towards Esther's uncle Mordecai, whom the king grew to like, would eventually lead to his own death.
  • In a new trilogy series called Dogs Of The Drowned City, Shep's friend Zeus gets jealous because Shep seemed to care more for the smaller dog breeds instead of him and the bigger breeds. This causes him to run away from the pack and form one of his own.


Live Action TV

  • Done literally in Sabrina the Teenage Witch
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Faith envies Buffy for being the "main" slayer, having friends, family, love, acceptance, etc. So she envies Buffy's life in general—right until she has to lead the charge.
  • In both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, Angel has been shown quite frequently, despite having left her for her sake, been openly jealous towards Buffy's love interests or suitors, especially to Riley and Spike.
  • The brotherly relationship between Frasier and Niles Crane is dominated by this trope.
  • Farscape had an episode actually called Green-Eyed Monster, in which Crais' jealousy of Crichton (and vice-versa) nearly led to Crichton's death. It also led to John telling Aeryn about his feelings, again. To be fair, the near death was courtesy of Talyn, not Crais. He actually had him Thrown Out the Airlock.
    • Oh come on, Talyn gets all his ideas and feelings from Crais, pretty much. He's just a very powerful baby who wanted his Mummy and Daddy to stay together - though, admittedly, the fake sex tape of Crais and Aeryn isn't something most toddlers would come up with.
  • In Desperate Housewives episode Back in Business, Mary Alice's ending narration focuses on the various types of envy, stating that if you look carefully at the people near you, you may spot a green-eyed monster.
  • iCarly: Freddie suffers this in iLike Jake and iDate A Bad Boy. Carly also gets this like whoa during the recut version of iSaved Your Life. When a slutty girl comes up to Freddie and offers him weekend sex with her whilst her parents and brothers are away, Carly grabs Freddie by the shoulder, embraces him and starts French kissing him so the girl will take the hint that Freddie is taken, much to his surprise (and approval).
  • In Robin Hood, Guy of Gisborne envied Robin his popularity and status as a national hero, and the love of Marian.
    • In the third season, Kate envied Isabella and Guy because of Robin's continual obsession with all things Gisborne-related.
  • An episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys had Cupid turn into a literal green-eyed monster when the woman he was in love with fell in love with Hercules (who reciprocated due to being struck with one of Cupid's arrows).
  • Prince Arthur a couple of times on Merlin. He responds to the sight of Lancelot and Guinevere holding hands by throwing a Big Sulk (and this is before he and Guinevere are in a relationship), and later gets riled at Gwaine for flirting with her. The fact that both knights have been reinstated at Camelot gives you the feeling that this is heading somewhere...
  • One of the longest running jokes in Everybody Loves Raymond is how much Robert envies his brother, Raymond. In his rants, he would talk about how "Everybody loves Raymond", how his mother favors Ray over him, how much successful Ray is compared to him, and how he has a better life than him(at least in his eyes). It gets to the point that when ever Ray fails at something or doens't get what he wants, Robert would find joy in this and openly mock him for his shortcomings.
  • MASH has Margaret, who is jealous of Frank's wife. When she finds out Frank bought a set of expensive pearls for his wife and a second, cheaper pair for her, Margaret devises a plan to get Frank to swap out the cheaper ones so she will have the more expensive necklace and Frank's wife will get the cheaper set.
  • During the Grand Finale of Smallville, Lex Luthor confesses to Clark that part of the reason for their rivalry was Lex's jealously of Clark's powers:

Lex: You were always one step ahead of me.
Clark: It wasn't a competition.
Lex: Of course it wasn't; you're simply better than the rest of us.
Clark: And that always killed you, didn't it?
Lex: No. What killed me was that you didn't even want it. You rejected it. If I had your destiny, I would have embraced it.

Jeff: "You want a shot at the Jeff Winger throne? You better bring a powerful ass!"

  • In the Castle episode "Eye of the Beholder", Castle and Detective Beckett are joined on their investigation by Serena Kaye, a classy, attractive insurance investigator who is clearly attracted to Castle and whom Castle begins to find intriguing in return. Not entirely surprisingly, Beckett spends most of the episode seething with badly-concealed jealousy about this.
  • On Leverage, Parker is this during the episode The Double Blind Job with regard to Hardison being friendly with the client. She later breaks a beer bottle as she is watching them talk.
  • This comes up periodically in Supernatural; people who don't know the boys see that they're handsome, tall, competent, charming, good liars, etc., and conclude they have it easy. As the stars of one of the most depressing shows on television, this is emphatically not true.
    • The loser behind the problem in the wishing well episode says something to the effect of them having it easy with their great looks and cool car, and they assure him in deadpan that they are absolutely miserable. This is a little surreal, in that it's true, but they say it like they're remarking on the weather. On the other hand, Sam lies to the asthmatic warlock kid in 'Swap Meat' that he'd love to have his life without the demon bounty hunters and blood addiction problems and responsibility for the Apocalypse and all that. Actually, he'll take all that rather than be that kid with the collegiate future locked in stone by his asshole family, and a no-good body. Probably the most significant factor being that by season five Sam has long since grown uncomfortable with restrictions on his ability to kill the fuck out of his problems, and is not actually fit to live in society anymore, even if he is wearing a white hat again.
  • John spends the entirety of "A Scandal in Belgravia" reveling in barely-concealed jealousy over how much attention Sherlock awards Irene, to the point where his girlfriend of the minute breaks up with him for being a better boyfriend to Sherlock than he is to her. John becomes completely incensed after the first time Irene fakes her own death, threatening to attack her if she doesn't tell Sherlock she's still alive. The Green-Eyed Monster doesn't stop him from feeling sorry for her apparent death at the end of the episode. Sherlock himself suffers from the Green-Eyed Monster whenever something other than himself and whatever case he's working on distracts John. Occasionally it gets Played for Laughs.


Music

"Make way for monster jealousy"

  • The Killers' song MrBrightside has become a theme song for jealousy, and the name is frequentely used as alternative name for the Green Eyed Monster.
  • Narmiest one is "Envy" by Ash, the chorus of which goes "Envy, envy, ennnnnnnvy".
  • My Jealousy by Celebrate The Nun, which is about the protagonist being envious of the new boyfriend of the ex-girlfriend he still loves.
  • First by Lindsay Lohan invokes this.
  • The Seven Deadly Sins series by Vocaloid producer Akuno P aka Mothy. Envy's song is Tailor Shop on Enbizaka by Luka Megurine. She's shown to be a hard working tailor, constantly thinking about her "lovely person". This gets more twisted as the song goes on.
  • "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield probably deserves mention here.
  • There is a song by Darren Criss that is creatively titled "Jealousy".


Mythology and Religion

  • Aphrodite, Eros' mother, because she was jealous of the beautiful Psyche, asked Eros to shoot her with an arrow so that she would fall in love with someone repulsive at first sight, but Eros ended up falling in Love At First Sight with Psyche. And then Psyche's sisters persuaded her to peek at Cupid because they were jealous of her gorgeous home.
  • Hera, Zeus' wife, was jealous of all of his numerous conquests. Hence why anyone that slept with or had any romantic contact with Zeus (including the ones he raped) would suffer horrible deaths at her hand. It doesn't exactly help that she's the Goddess of Marriage and Family, as well. It also doesn't help that he would shag anything with legs.
  • Loki's motive for murdering Baldur included envy.
  • Cain couldn't stand the fact that his brother Abel's sacrifices were accepted by God and his weren't, leading him to commit the first murder. Since God accepted the blood offering his brother gave of a new lamb and rejected his crops (and hadn't got around to saying murder was bad yet), Cain may have just been confused. The story doesn't really give Cain or God clear reasons for their actions. One common interpretation is that Cain gave grudgingly while Abel gave willingly.


Radio

  • In Old Harrys Game, this really seems to be Satan's preeminent sin. At least Once Per Episode, to the point of Catch Phrase, the Professor alleges that Satan hates and corrupts various aspects of human life because, "You're just jealous." This accusation is born out by the fact that Satan is clearly very self-loathing. Also interesting is that while Satan's Fall was mostly God just being a dick, it's indicated that he wanted to be top Angel and was jealous of any others being put above him. Finally, we're told (since it's a radio show) that Satan has green eyes.


Theater

  • The page pic and caption about the Green Eyed Monster come from William Shakespeare's Othello, also the Trope Namer. The tragedy of the play comes about because of misplaced jealousy on the part of the title character because of a horrible lie about his wife Desdemona told by Manipulative Bastard Iago, who many say was himself motivated by envy toward Cassio, who Othello promoted instead of him.
    • Shakespeare was fond of this one. Envy is the primary motivation driving many of his characters, including Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing and Leontes in The Winters Tale.
    • In A Midsummer Nights Tale, Titania accuses Oberon of this, and Helena's got it, in spades.
  • The hashihime, sometimes translated as "bridge princess", is a figure from Noh theater who either committed suicide or openly cursed her cheating husband, and was turned into a bridge-haunting spirit.


Video Games

  • In The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker, it turns out that Ganondorf was motivated to World Domination by envy of the lush, fertile climate of Hyrule.
    • Which makes perfect sense, since Ganondorf was born and raised in a harsh desert hell.
  • Parsee Mizuhashi from the Touhou series gained the ability to manipulate jealousy after she became envious of the travelers on the bridge to the underground, of which she was the guardian. Her boss theme, signature spellcard, and Double Spoiler title all make reference to the Green-Eyed Monster. And yes, she does have green eyes.
    • Parsee is allegedly a bridge princess, mentioned above.
    • While this is Fanon only, Sakuya Izayoi has been leering to this after so many times not included as a main character in Touhou games, directing her jealousy at Sanae Kotiya (playable in Unidentified Fantastic Object) and Youmu Konpaku (returns in Ten Desires)
  • In Tales of Symphonia, the Pope apparently hates half-elves simply for their long lifespans. Ironically, some half-elves hate their long lifespans, because it means that while their non half-elf friends/comrades/lovers die, they'll still be alive, leaving them alone. Genis is initially troubled by this realization, but Regal reminds him that his friends can live on in his memories, comforting him slightly.
  • In Haunting Ground, the maid, Daniella, was created to be the perfect woman. But then Fiona is brought to the castle. Daniella is jealous of her because of the "attention" Riccardo gives to her. Fiona is "complete" and has the azoth ( which is probably the womb and the ability to give birth). So she grabs a piece of glass and hunts Fiona, thinking that killing the girl will make her the most beautiful again, or she actually rips Fiona's womb out, as heard in the game over screen.
  • Jewel the Thief of Overlord is the Fallen Hero of envy who desires only what other people have.
  • One community adjustment to the Neverwinter Nights 2 official and Mask of the Betrayer campaigns has a line of dialogue in which a female PC asks Gann if he remembers all of the random farmgirls he seduced; and his response is "Is the green-eyed monster chewing on your toes?"
  • Turns out this was the real underlying problem for Sakura in Fate/stay night. Actually, it was really obvious considering about 3/4 of the scenes involving her and quite a few about Tohsaka were exacerbating the problem, but the buildup had always been about Zouken Matou.
    • No, the real problem was Zouken. Not only was he responsible for putting the worms into her (without which she wouldn't have had the connection to Angra Mainyu), he was also responsible for activating her jealousy (and fear of what Rin might do to Shirou) in the first place. He was also (initially, at least) controlling the shadow, which did most of the damage. Her jealousy was the trigger for the connection to Angra Mainyu, and the darkness from the connection (together with Rin's apparent lack of care, and Shirou's total obliviousness) fuelled her jealousy, in turn making her connection stronger. But, without the worms there to make the initial link, and without Zouken to plant the seed, she'd have been perfectly fine.
    • Also Shinji to Shirou and Sakura for their ability to use magic.
  • In Final Fantasy XII, if you watch expression on Balthier's face after Al-cid finishes flirting with Ashe during one of the later cutscenes it seems an awful lot like a romantic version of the Green-Eyed Monster.
  • In Luminous Arc 2, Steiner's displeasure over Roland becoming the Rune Knight (with the Runic Engine he develops!) is the basis for his Heel Face Turn and fuel to make the improved Runic Engine for him and his Stinger Squad. They do get get strong, at the risk of their body crystalising.
    • In Fatima's Route, Althea's jealousy over the closeness between Roland and Fatima, combined with the taint from the Conclusion Gate, creates and unleashed her Superpower Evil Side.
  • Kain in Final Fantasy IV is easily brainwashed into betraying his friend and ally Cecil due to their shared love for Rosa, who chooses Cecil over Kain.
  • In BlazBlue, This is the eventual fate of Tsubaki Yayoi after being Trolled with some horrible truth from Terumi. See, she likes Jin Kisaragi, and originally she was to be Jin's secretary. Terumi then reveals that due to the existence of her best friend Noel Vermillion, she never became Jin's secretary (Noel got that position instead) and was instead relegated to a squad no one likes. Since Terumi told her that during the worst timing possible (Tsubaki was slowly going blind due to usage of Izayoi) and convinced her that she wouldn't suffer like this if Noel didn't exist... Tsubaki gave in to evil and continued to serve NOL despite knowing that it's an evil organization... all for killing Noel. Best part is that the guy she loves so much isn't even siding with the NOL anymore. Not to mention the fact that in the other timeline, she would've died anyway...
    • It gets worse, alright. In said timeline, Tsubaki was kept to her desk job and not allowed to leave headquarters. When Jin Kisaragi headed out to Kagutsuchi in pursuit of Ragna the Bloodedge, she was desperate enough to move over to the Zero Squadron - the aforementioned squad nobody likes - all for the sake of bringing Jin back. So in that timeline, she still died in the Zero Squadron, suffering in that fashion for Jin's sake, just like in this timeline. Terumi is aware that spilling this truth to Tsubaki would compromise his plans for her and Hakumen, and refuses to do so. He is also aware that Makoto Nanaya, the third wheel in Tsubaki and Noel's relationship, also knows, and is willing to take extreme measures to keep her lips shut.
    • In Rachel's Normal Ending, she trolls Terumi by claiming that he envies Ragna; for all of Ragna's flaws he is still a better and more interesting man than Terumi.
    • Rachel herself is envious of girls who get to hang out with Ragna in casual settings. She isn't happy to see Ragna eating with Platinum (the Joke Ending that follows should she decide to confront him confirms her feelings of jealousy). In episode 5 of "Teach Me Miss Litchi Reloaded", she agrees to teach Taokaka just to keep Taokaka from having dinner with Ragna.
  • In flashback, we learn that this was what prompted Don Paolo's rivalry with Professor Layton: jealousy over Layton's relationship with Claire.
    • Also, in Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Anton duels with Layton over his granddaughter Katia, thinking that she's his late wife, Sophia, and that Layton is trying to keep her from him for his own.
  • The reason why Yanagi stole Hiroki's painting in Canvas 2, which is apparently rather out of character for him.
  • In Monster Rancher 4, Phayne eventually discovers that his friend Wit is insanely jealous of him, and that this is what drove him to increasingly risky measures to prove he was the better trainer.
  • In Tekken, Heihachi favours his adopted son Lee over his biological son Kazuya which causes them to have a bitter rivalry. However, Lee eventually turns his back on Heihachi partly because of the way Heihachi has abused Kazuya (namely, throwing him into a volcano).
  • Braig in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and thus logically also his Nobody Xigbar in Kingdom Hearts II, is driven towards the darkness by his envy of the Keyblade wielders and desire for a Keyblade of his own- becoming The Dragon to the Obviously Evil Big Bad because said Big Bad promised to give him a Keyblade in exchange for service..
  • In Adventure Quest Worlds, Artix becomes this at the end of the ending cutscene of the second birthday event because he can't believe he missed the battle with Undead Artix.

Artix: Greetings and saluUUWHAT!... Un. Dead. Artix? And you did not take me to fight him? I want to fight Undead Artix!!!!! (kneels down in a defeated manner) I am so jealous of you!!!!!!!

  • Liquid of Metal Gear Solid is an interesting case. His envy of Snake for his having the dominant genes (however that was supposed to work) is peripheral to his real envy of Snake: that he got to kill Big Boss and in doing so deprived Liquid of what he believed to be his one way of validating his worth.
  • In the Fallout: New Vegas DLC Dead Money, Dean Domino was envious of the happiness that Fredrick Sinclair, founder of the Sierra Madre, had. Because of this, he planned to rob his vault in an attempt to break his spirit. Even after the bombs fell and everyone else was either dead or turned into one of the Ghost People he still remained as a Ghoul, plotting his heist. In the end, he doesn't succeed, since he ends up either killed by the Courier or decides to help him/her into the vault instead, later going through a Heel Realization in the epilogue and decide to let go.
  • In the Captivate 2011 trailer for Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Frank West sounds quite jealous of Chuck Greene as he explains that he was the one that received the credit and fame for breaking the Fortune City story instead of him.
  • In Solatorobo, Elh gets a case of jealousy during the Prairie Kingdom Cup when Red gets too much attention from Princess Theria, Alicia, and Toffee.
  • Lt. Carter Blake in Heavy Rain towards Norman Jayden, his temporary partner from the FBI, particularly in regards to the ARI. Many of Blake's comments towards Jayden are equal parts disdain and envy; he has no respect for Jayden's strict adherence to procedure, but is shown to have some interest in the ARI. Particularly evident in one of Jayden's epilogues, in which Blake decides to try out the recently-deceased Jayden's ARI. It doesn't go well.


Visual Novels

  • Miou in A Profile is extremely jealous of Masayuki's stepsister Rizu after Masayuki broke up with her to repair his relationship with said sister. How she reacts varies by route, but the story goes out of its way to show that she does have a point due to the circumstances involved.
  • School Days: Sekai and Kotonoha. VERY jealous of each other because they both like Makoto.
  • Umineko no Naku Koro ni features Leviathan, the second of the Stakes of Purgatory. She's a whiny crybaby who envied her sisters for seven days. However, not even her envy is a match for Kyrie who envied Asumu for eighteen years. Leviathan develops a bit of a crush on her after that.
  • In one of the bad endings for Bionic Heart, the main character's new android love interest murders his ex-girlfriend when she becomes jealous of all of the time that the protagonist spends with his ex.


Web Comics


Web Original

  • In one Mario animated video online called "The Color of Envy", Luigi, jealous of Princess Toadstool favoring Mario, frees Wario from the dungeon, kills all the guards who oppose him, and throws Mario in the dungeon.
  • Dr. Horrible's envy of Captain Hammer fuels everything he does. It starts out with perpetual envy and disgust of Hammer's success and the (arguably undeserved) worship the city gives him, but what really drives him over the edge is envy/jealousy over Hammer dating the girl he's had his eye on, and Hammer gloating about it to rub it in his face, to boot. It doesn't end well. At all.
  • Part of why The Nostalgia Critic's a Bad Boss. Reviewing is the only thing he has so he's freaked out by people going into his territory and doing it better than him (or so he thinks).
  • The Nostalgia Chick and Obscurus Lupa are friendly at first (or as friendly as the Chick can be), but when Chick discovers Lupa has Todd's affections but doesn't want them, she's so jealous that she tries to kill the redhead.


Western Animation

  • In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Princess Luna is transformed into Nightmare Moon because she is jealous of all the attention the daytime gets.
    • Rarity also suffers from this when Fluttershy becomes a famous model. In an interesting handling of this trope, Rarity is actually very disappointed in herself for being jealous of her friend's success.
    • Spike gets this toward Owlowlicious.
  • Jem is loaded with this. The Misfits want to destroy the Holograms because they're jealous of their success, Eric Raymond wants to destroy Jerrica Benton because he's jealous of her ability to run a music company better than him, and Jerrica is actually jealous of her own alter-ego because of of the attention Jem receives that Jerrica can't get for her own accomplishments.
  • Alexandra's reason for wanting to be the lead singer of Josie and the Pussy Cats was jealousy of Josie, and the fact that Alan paid her no attention.
  • An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures had this as its Aesop, but the characters don't realize that the warning about a Green-Eyed Monster isn't talking about a literal monster until the very end.
  • The two main characters in Kim Possible encounter this in the third Season and The Movie, due to a Romantic False Lead and a new friend with a kickass wheelchair and videogames. There was also Kim "jelling" over how close Yori seemed to Ron. It's kind of a coincidence considering Kim really does have green eyes.
  • Danny Phantom
    • "What You Want" showed Tucker envious of Danny's ghost powers. It's a kick in the teeth to him especially because Danny was once on equal terms with him before he got his powers, making him (in Tucker's perspective) more "superior".
    • Sam is obviously jealous of Paulina.
    • As is Vlad of Jack because he's married to the love of his life, Maddie, and they have Danny, whom Vlad desperately wants on his side as his son and heir.
    • Freakshow has what Jazz calls "Ghost envy".
  • Code Lyoko has Sissi Delmas who loves Ulrich and is jealous of the relationship between Yumi and Ulrich—so she tries to make Yumi jealous in turn (sometimes successfully). Also, when William Dunbar enters the scene in Season 2, Ulrich shows serious envy of William's easy flirting with Yumi, while he himself Cannot Spit It Out.
  • Teen Titans
    • In "Date With Destiny, Starfire becomes something of a Yandere once she finds out that Robin is taking a bratty Daddy's Girl to her prom.
    • Robin also becomes rather green-eyed over Starfire when she's getting married in "Betrothed". Cyborg explicitly teases the boy about it, saying, "You sure you're not just, y'know... jealous?"
  • Princess of The Powerpuff Girls became a supervillain because she was envious of The Powerpuff Girls ("If I can't be a Powerpuff Girl, then there won't be any Powerpuff Girls!"). In "Superfriends", she becomes jealous of Robyn, who has become the Girls' best friend, the only thing the Spoiled Brat has ever wanted but could never have. ("Why would the Powerpuff Girls want to hang out with you when they could be friends with me?!!...")
  • An episode of Disney's Hercules (called, appropiately enough, "Hercules and the Green-Eyed Monster") has Icarus being jealous that his drama teacher is marrying his father, and thus getting most of his attention, and disrupting the wedding with Pandora's box. He is then consumed by Jealousy, as in swallowed whole by an Anthropomorphic Personification who has been feeding on his envy.
  • Thrust, one of Starscream's clones in Transformers Animated, embodies his creator's envy. This is appropriate, as he's the only clone who doesn't appear in the cartoon or the toyline - he only showed up for the second Allspark Almanac.
  • Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes gets extremly hostile over Beezy's friendship with Jimmy, which often results in episodes of her doing terrible things. For that matter, any supposed instance of Jimmy showing attention to anyone but her can lead to trouble. There was even a role reversal in one episode where Helouside managed to make Jimmy Jealous, despite being Oblivious to Love.
  • Often a major reason for Bluto going after Popeye the sailor usually does a better job fixing/building something than his big rival. Occasionally inverted, but a dose of spinach always lets Popeye win the final round.
  • An episode of Three Two One Penguins is actually titled The Green Eyed Monster, and it involves a planet where a pack of sheep is jealous at another because of their pastures.
  • The Tygra from ThunderCats (2011) seems to have been suffering this for a long time, in reguards to his little brother Lion-O and the girl they both have feelings for.
  1. ↑ Is it just me, or is his armpit flipping them off?
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