The contemporary view of envy is that it is little more than a superficial social vice . . .
It tends to be seen as a core aspect of sin with a key role in unleashing human destructivity. It is the comical figure of Mrs. Bucket in BBC TV's 'Keeping Up Appearances', with her insatiable desire to acquire symbols of social status, that typifies this modern trend.
Instances of envy resulting in crime or despotic tyranny are seen as excessive and idiosyncratic envy rather than a laying bare of the real intrinsic nature of envy. Envy survives with its rather innocent childlike reputation intact.
