Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

174 THE ENVIOUS MAN IN FICTION
Frederick's growing envy is concealed from those around him. It can
only be guessed at through certain changes in him. A beggar, to whom he
had formerly always given something, now gets a mere 'You would only
laugh at my paltry alms. Ask M. Ie Marquis-he should play the
benefactor in these parts-he'S rich enough .... '
Even before he has seen the marquis, he envies him for being able to
live in such luxury. The gradual exacerbation of this genuine envy is
depicted most convincingly by Sue. But to bring the youth to the point of
planning murder, he introduces some further motives. While mother and
son are out for a walk, the marquis comes riding after them, having
picked up the mother's cape which she had inadvertently dropped.
Innocently, she remarks on the young nobleman's good manners, thereby
adding jealousy to the envy already felt by her son. A little later, while
the boy is watching his mother's old carriage-horse being unharnessed in
front of the house in the village street, a hunt passes by; the old horse
tries to join it, but is driven off by the marquis with his whip. The young
man's hatred and envy know no bounds.
Sue explains the suddenness and intensity of this envy by Frederick's
aesthetic sensibility, derived from his mother, who, with slender means,
has succeeded in creating surroundings that are in good taste. The author
implies that a young man who had grown up in uncouth or dull surroundings
would not have been so painfully aware of the contrast with
the chateau.
A psychotherapy of envy
The subsequent chapters depict the growing incomprehension between
Frederick and his mother, the family doctor and the latter's friend. All
have noticed a serious psychological change, the nature of which remains
hidden because Frederick, ashamed of his envy, becomes increasingly
stubborn and withdrawn.
The first period of envy from which Frederick suffered had been, so to
speak, passive. The second was active. His suffering then was impossible to
express; hidden, concentrated in the depth of his soul, his agony could find
no outlet and was constantly and fatally aroused by the sight of the chateau
of Pont-Brillant, which he could not help seeing, no matter where he
looked, for the ancient building dominated the horizon from afar. The more