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Sophia Schultz
Mrs. Mary Martin
Advanced Composition
11 March 2015
Is Envy the Deadliest Sin?
In Edith Whartons Roman Fever and Tobias Wolffs Smokers
Envy is the deadliest sin. Why? It is deceitful and can disguise itself as jealousy or anger.
Humans accept jealousy and is a big part of our drive to improve ourselves. Yet it still hinders us
from moving forward. Envy allows us to drive ourselves to improve in areas of our life, own
more and things and eventually compete with others. While these may seem like some positive
points, one must also look at the reason we strive to improve ourselves or own more and better
things. These needs are a result of hatred of another person for what they have.
In Edith Whartons Roman Fever, Mrs. Slade is tortured by the envy she has regarding
Mrs. Ansley. Her envy is developed and stretched over many years, without her ever resolving it,
until the two are in Rome the last time. Mrs. Slade chooses to use the envy, though, to drive
herself to have a picture perfect relationship with Delphin. She had the knowledge that Grace
tried to meet with Delphin when they were younger, so from then on, Mrs. Slade used this
knowledge to hurt Mrs. Ansley the best way she could. This was to be happy and raise a life with
Delphin, and for everyone else to agree. She made sure that she was always vibrant, bold, and
lively to the public eye, so that she could completely offset the Good looking, irreproachable,
and exemplary. Mrs. Ansley (48). Envy drove her to the need to feel better and be accepted by

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the public, and private relationships more than Mrs. Ansley. Mrs. Slade would always subtlety
aim passive aggressive comments at Mrs. Ansley, just to try to put her down to where she thinks
she belongs. Because of Mrs. Slades lifelong determination to best Mrs. Ansley and somehow
get revenge, or at least get equal, caused her to improve herself by becoming more sociable and
friendly, but also caused her to somehow miss parts of her life. She is so caught up in envy and
revenge that she didnt take time to really enjoy life. She acted as if she did, but it was all a show
for the cameras and newspapers. She didnt enjoy her daughter, because she saw too much of
Grace in her. She did enjoy Delphin though, or enjoyed his fame and the fact that if she was with
him, then Mrs. Ansley couldnt be. That might have been the only reason she actually stayed
with Delphin, was so that Grace couldnt have him or enjoy him, and Mrs. Slade knew that Mrs.
Ansley and Delphin had something stronger than what she had, but Mrs. Slade couldnt stand to
be outdone by her friend, so she began to resent her and envied her until the day she confronted
her in Rome.
There is a similar situation in Smokers by Tobias Wolff. The narrator is envious of
Eugene, because he is able to fit in at Choate, despite being so different. Eugene gets a good
roommate and the narrator is jealous at first, and he doesnt become aware that his jealousy
quickly became envy. He only knew that Eugene was a better friend with Talbot than he was and
he didnt think that Eugene deserved Talbots friendship because he was too obnoxious and
didnt attempt to try to act like everyone else at Choate. This is what sparks the narrators envy.
The fact that Eugene isnt trying at all and the narrator is breaking his back to try to fit in and
find the right friends. At first it was mere jealousy that Eugene had more friends than him, but
when the narrator wasnt accepted it swiftly turned to resentment as in Roman Fever with Mrs.
Slade. The narrator went to further lengths to get rid of Eugene than Mrs. Slade did to get rid of

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Mrs. Ansley. This is because the narrator didnt need Eugene there to change his position at
Choate, but Mrs. Slade did need Mrs. Ansley with her so that she could see how successful Mrs.
Slade was with Delphin. In Smokers, the deadliness of envy is portrayed by the narrator still not
being able to make friends even after Eugene has been kicked out. He goes to great lengths to get
rid of the threat and then it doesnt even help him. This shows that envy is more
psychologically deadly. You blame others for your downfalls and incompetency, but its really
just you lacking most of the time. It is easier to blame than to accept failure.
The characters of these stories blamed others for their shortcomings. The narrator in
Smokers says, However conspicuous Eugene may have been, he was not unpopular. I never
heard anything worse about him than that he was weird. (70) Here the narrator only has a
distaste for Eugenes flamboyancy but he soon he says, He told me Eugene had spoiled his
stepmothers Christmas by leaning back in an antique chair and breaking it. Thereafter I thought
of Mrs. Nevin as a friend. (72) The narrator quickly transitions from distaste to resentment and
hostility as well as wishing the worst for Eugene. This was because he felt threatened and
unwanted when Eugene got to stay with Talbot for Christmas.
Envy is the deadliest sin because of how it changes you. It is hard to return to a humble
state of mind when you constantly are comparing yourself with others and wishing them not to
have the things you desire. Envy is psychologically deadly. It taints your vision and keeps your
eyes trained to see the worst in others. This leads to a depressing and infuriating life, thus killing
your spirit and mind, making envy deadly.

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Works Cited
Wharton, Edith. Roman Fever. The Seven Deadly Sins. Ed. Daniel Born, Mike Levine, Donald
H. Whitfield. Chicago: The Great Books Foundation, 2007. 45-60. Print.
Wolff, Tobias. Smokers. The Seven Deadly Sins. Ed. Daniel Born, Mike Levine, Donald H.
Whitfield. Chicago: The Great Books Foundation, 2007. 63-80. Print.