The Disease Within
Envy and the soul of a man

Elizabeth George
Feb 18, 2026

In Shakespeare's Othello the master villain Iago is malignity made flesh: he sets out to destroy the eponymous hero of the play because he—Iago—has been passed over for promotion in favor of Cassio. Iago recognizes in Othello a vulnerability that remains obscure to others who interact with him. As an outsider in Venetian society (Othello is a Moor, which meant at the time of Shakespeare’s writing that he was North African in origin), Othello is admired and respected for his military prowess, but admiration and respect do not equate to being culturally and socially equal to those who are Venetian by birth. In addition to this, he is racially different to everyone else within his military, social, political, and cultural circle. Because of this, when he secretly marries Desdemona against her father’s wishes, the various reactions—fury and outrage from her nobleman father, shock and suspicion and discomfort from Venetian society, mixed acceptance from military associates—the logical insecurities that one would feel in his position as an outsider act as triggers that Iago not only recognizes but also uses to awaken in him “the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”: jealousy. The seed of jealousy in Othello grows from his fear that somehow he is going to lose that which he already has: the love of Desdemona. They are, after all, so completely different outwardly, and in the world of Shakespearean tragedies, love does not conquer all. Othello’s fear of losing Desdemona—fanned at every opportunity by Iago’s sly manipulations—ultimately makes the loss of her a reality that destroys both of them.

Envy, however, is what drives Iago. He isn’t consumed by the fear that he might lose to someone else something dear to him, someone loved by him, something treasured by him, or merely a valuable object possessed by him. He instead is consumed by envy. He wants what is not his but is already in the possession of others. This insidious passion drives his behavior, and he indulges it. He resents in others their successes. He takes pleasure in their pain. He delights in their subsequent falls. Iago makes no attempt to control his envy because he believes he actually should have what others have earned: promotion, respect, admiration, esteem, trust. He has done nothing that might result in any of this being directed toward him. But the envy within him that he will not control encourages him to believe that what others have attained or been awarded should be directed toward him by virtue of…? Well, that’s the problem. That sentence cannot be completed because there is no rationality involved in envy. There is no plumbing the depths to reach self-awareness and understanding. There is merely envy, and it can be mastered only through self-control.

Uncontrolled, irrational envy rots the soul as it fights to maintain its existence. It renders those suffering from it virtually incapable of seeing or understanding that entertaining it eats away at their dignity, distorts their perception, diminishes their ability to feel honest emotions, and isolates those who give it suzerainty over their lives.

We in the United States right now can, if we wish, see what envy has done and is continuing to do to Donald Trump as he allows his envy of Barack Obama to devour him. While it’s been made fairly clear that Donald Trump is a racist, it isn’t the fact that Barack Obama is the first Black American to be elected President that is eating away at Donald Trump. It is what President Obama achieved; it is the awards President Obama has been given; it is the esteem in which foreign leaders held and continue to hold President Obama; it is the more-than-a-million people who showed up on the National Mall to witness President Obama’s inauguration; it is the laughter President Obama encouraged; it is the joy and the warmth he brought to individuals who suffered personal tragedy; it is the manner in which people quite literally embraced him. Even in his acknowledgment of the death of Civil Rights icon the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Donald Trump managed to denigrate President Obama.

Donald Trump’s envy of Barack Obama has made it impossible for him to hang Obama’s official portrait in the White House, despite every other President’s portrait hanging there; it has driven him to demand recognition from everyone and every political body and organization, from the Nobel Peace Prize committee to John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts. Donald Trump’s envy of President Obama has pushed him to put his own name wherever it might be seen, to demand military parades, to demand birthday parades, to suggest or request or demand that airports and train stations be named after him, and to accept ludicrous honors and awards invented solely to bolster his fragile sense of self.

This failing in any human being, this lack of control over a base passion, this public flaunting of personal failures by dressing them in the guise of successes are as disturbing as they are sad. They demonstrate a degree of human ugliness that no one in America should embrace and no one in the world should witness. The fact that millions continue to believe that Donald Trump is showing the world the very best that America has to offer is absolutely crushing to contemplate. But here we are. And here we remain unless we make some hard decisions about how we are going to move forward into the future as Americans.


© 2026 Elizabeth George
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