Jealousy In Bernice Bobs Her Hair

“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is a short story about a girl named Bernice and her cousin Marjorie. During her visit, Bernice overhears Marjorie tell her mother how she doesn’t like Bernice because she is dull and Bernice confronts her the next morning. After fighting, Bernice later that night agrees to let Marjorie help her not be boring. Marjorie helps Bernice gain some popularity, where Bernice lying that she was going to bob her hair was one thing that majorly helped her quick popularity. After a few short days, Marjorie starts to become jealous of Bernice because she has become too popular for her liking especially with Warren, one of Marjorie’s previous suitors.
Jealousy has a strange way of creeping up on people, especially when people
are not expecting it. At first Marjorie tried to play if off as if she was not jealous and was happy Warren had found someone else to swoon over. “She said she was mighty glad that Warren has at last found someone who appreciated him.” (1469) Marjorie acted as if she did not care at all so others believed she really did not care, including Bernice. Bernice continued seeing Warren without a care in the world until Marjorie’s jealousy started to take over.
Once jealousy starts to take over, people’s actions become ugly.
Marjorie’s jealousy first started to really show when Bernice was waiting for Warren to go to a bridge party. Marjorie decided to quietly sneak a quick jab in at Bernice telling her to forget about Warren saying “‘You may as well stop making a fool of yourself over Warren McIntyre. He doesn’t care a snap of his fingers about you.’”(1470) Marjorie did not know whether or not Warren truly did care about Bernice or not but she did know that her saying he did not would hurt Bernice which it did. Unfortunately, Marjorie’s jealousy did not stop at her snide remarks because her jealousy had completely taken
over.
People’s actions become unpredictable once jealousy has taken over.
At the bridge game, people kept asking Bernice when she was going bob her hair and Marjorie took that opportunity to embarrass her cousin by calling her out and saying she won’t bob her hair. Bernice, taken aback by her cousin’s actions, gets defensive and embarrassed and then agrees to bob her hair right then and there. At the barber Marjorie calls her out again by saying “give up and get down! You tried to buck me and I called your bluff. You see you haven’t got a prayer.” (1472) which pushed Bernice to tell the barber to bob it. Bernice looked horrible with her hair bobbed and everyone even Warren and her Aunt Josephine had a hard time pretending that they liked it, which Marjorie had known would happen. “Bernice did not fully realize the outrageous trap that had been set for her until she met her aunt’s amazed glance…” (1472) At dinner, Bernice learned that the dance she was supposed to attend the next day was being hosted by a woman who’s “pet abomination” (1472) was bobbed hair. Marjorie pretended that she had forgotten about the party and half-heartedly apologized while trying to say that her hair didn’t look bad and was becoming of her. Marjorie successfully tricked and betrayed Bernice into something she knew would negatively affect her but did not care because of her
jealousy.
Some victims of betrayal can be the bigger person and walk away from the situation, while others may turn to betrayal of their own in order to retaliate. Once Marjorie said good night to Bernice, “something snapped within Bernice” (1473) and she went to pack her things to leave but not until she did one last thing to say goodbye to Marjorie. “Suddenly she drew in her breath sharply and an expression flashed into her eyes that a practiced character reader might have connected vaguely with the set look she had worn in the barber's chair-- somehow a development of it. It was quite a new look for Bernice and it carried consequences.” (1474) Bernice snuck into Marjorie’s room and cut both of Marjorie’s pigtails off and when she left she threw the cut pigtails onto Warren’s front porch. Bernice decided to retaliate against the betrayal of her cousin instead of just leaving quietly, which one may say was either justice or just as wrong.
People could argue Bernice’s betrayal was fueled by Marjorie’s initial jealousy and betrayal and others could argue Bernice was the one to betray Marjorie in the first place with Warren. Everyone has their own opinion, however, whichever way one looks at it the ugly side of both of these pretty girls came out through jealousy and betrayal. “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows jealousy can cause some people to do the most horrible things that they would not normally do had they not been jealous, like knowingly betray and hurt another person.