History JerkassWoobie / Literature

** Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, protagonist of [[Creator/FyodorDostoevsky Dostoevsky's]] ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment''. He's malnourished and lives in squallor -- but mostly because of his sense of self-aggrandizement, because he won't "lower himself" to getting a job. He spends most of the novel bedridden with a fever--brought on by his guilt over the double-murder he commits in Part 1 and his anxiety over getting caught, and which he keeps exacerbating by getting up and wandering through the streets of Petersbug. His best friend, his sister, and his mother all try to help and support him, but he petulantly tells them to get lost and leave him alone. He even sadistically taunts the HookerWithAHeartOfGold, even after [[spoiler: she follows him to Siberia to support and be near him after he confesses to the murders.]]

* Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, protagonist of [[Creator/FyodorDostoevsky Dostoevsky's]] ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment''. He's malnourished and lives in squallor -- but mostly because of his sense of self-aggrandizement, because he won't "lower himself" to getting a job. He spends most of the novel bedridden with a fever--brought on by his guilt over the double-murder he commits in Part 1 and his anxiety over getting caught, and which he keeps exacerbating by getting up and wandering through the streets of Petersbug. His best friend, his sister, and his mother all try to help and support him, but he petulantly tells them to get lost and leave him alone. He even sadistically taunts the HookerWithAHeartOfGold, even after [[spoiler: she follows him to Siberia to support and be near him after he confesses to the murders.]]
** Creator/FyodorDostoevsky's novels and stories are filled with this type of character, such as (for different reasons) both Ivan and Dmitri in Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov and the narrator of Literature/NotesFromTheUnderground.

* VillainProtagonist Lucrezia Borgia from ''Literature/MirrorMirror'' is a rare example of this as the BigBad. She's a child-killing, vain, promiscuous, manipulative, and inconstant jerk, yet between her character exposition and [[FreudianExcuse messed-up backstory]] (plus the SelfInflictedHell she puts herself through), she's not entirely unsympathetic.

''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'':

** [[DarkChick Diana Ladris]]. She may have supposedly pushed her mother down the stairs and framed her father for it, she may have lied to every friend she had, she may have spied and betrayed every alliance she's been on for the sake of self preservation but the plot ''really'' makes her suffer for it, particularly in ''FEAR'' when she [[spoiler: is forced to give birth age 15 in a pitch black, smoldering hot mine. She is also being tortured down there, and it's implied that she's suffering from post partum depression. Quite understandably.]]

''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'': Rachael from ''Atomic Lobster'' has an "obnoxious and morally reprehensible" characterization, but can still feel pitiable. She is living in dreary circumstances (she is a drug addict and mentions she sometimes does sex work to pay her electric bill) and otherwise minding her own business until she threatens Serge in an argument over an {{Asshole Victim}}'s money and ends up cajoled into becoming Serge’s companion. Not once in 2-5 months does Serge seriously try to intervene with her pitifully desperate cocaine addiction. He only keeps her around for hate-fueled sex while [[DomesticAbuse giving her no respect (although she is just as vitriolic to him, if not more so) and constantly twisting her arm behind her back during arguments]]. She shows [[EveryoneHasStandards some standards]] by slapping groom-to-be Trevor for propositioning her on his wedding night. Finally, she only snaps and attacks her companions with a knife after she discovers that the people she's been having such a toxic relationship with killed her beloved sister Sharon ten years earlier, with Serge not showing any willingness to go easy on her despite the justifiable trauma of that revelation and how she is clearly "wired out of her head" at the time.

* VillainProtagonist Lucrezia Borgia from ''Literature/MirrorMirror'' is a rare example of this as the BigBad. She's a [[AndYourLittleDogToo child-killing]], [[RichBitch vain]], [[AnythingThatMoves promiscuous]], [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]], and [[ILied inconstant]] jerk, yet between her character exposition and [[FreudianExcuse messed-up backstory]] (plus the SelfInflictedHell she puts herself through), she's not entirely unsympathetic.

* ''Literature/InCryptid'': Jonathan Healy, while he could be rude sometimes, was overall a friendly person who loved the cryptid world and would do anything to protect it. That changed with the death of his wife Fran, murdered by unknown enemies. He blamed the cryptid world for her death, and the only reason he didn't take their daughter Alice to live somewhere far away was the risk of [[KnightTemplar the Covenant]] finding them. When Thomas moves to town, Jonathan is immediately hostile, both because he's Covenant (though all but defected like Jonathan's parents did) and because he's an OverprotectiveDad to Alice. In one of their many arguments, Thomas points out that he's only referred to Alice by name once in the conversation, the rest of the time defining her by her relationship to him ("my daughter"). He's retreated into himself in the decade since Fran's death, and built up a version of Alice in his mind that's nothing like she really is.

* ''Literature/LAConfidential'': Bud White is, well, a thug with all the strength and self-control of a rabid rhino. But his backstory is nothing short of heartbreaking and he gets surprisingly many [[SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming}} genuinely touching]] scenes.

* Vera from Creator/VCAndrews's ''Literature/MySweetAudrina''. She's a ManipulativeBastard who constantly belittles and schemes against her half-sister Audrina, tries to steal Audrina's boyfriend/husband away from her ([[TheVamp when she's not chasing after other guys]], that is), and crosses the MoralEventHorizon at least ''twice'' by [[spoiler:being heavily implied to be the one who pushed Audrina down the stairs, nearly killing her, and being revealed to be the one who set up Audrina to be raped by a pack of boys while walking home from school on her birthday, which so [[BreakTheCutie horribly traumatized]] Audrina that her father had to deliberately invoke TraumaInducedAmnesia for her to even be remotely happy again]]. And yet, the heavy implications that her being like this is mainly due to her adoptive father [[ParentalFavoritism constantly ignoring her in favor of his daughter Audrina]] and spanking her when she desperately tried everything she could think of to gain his love, plus her being [[IllGirl very prone to injury]], garners her enough Woobie points for the audience, along with Audrina herself, to constantly swing between hating her and feeling sorry for her.

** Alloran. He committed genocide on an innocent species in his attempt to stop the Yeerks from advancing further into the universe. He killed thousands of defenseless Yeerks. [[WellIntentionedExtremist He believed that everything he did was necessary if he wanted to win the war]]. And Alloran paid for all of his sins. It was made clear by just about every character that it was better to be dead than a Controller. When Alloran killed the Hork-Bajir, he prevented the Yeerks from being able to take over their bodies. Alloran himself was imprisoned for years, and forced to ''eat people'', including his former student.

* Every single character in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', save for a handful. The author has a brutal tendency to spend anywhere from a chapter to a book showing you what a vain and selfish bastard everybody but the currently-narrating character is, only to switch the narration to one of the abovementioned bastard's perspectives and suddenly make you want to [[GroinAttack punch yourself in the balls]] for having ever been so unempathic to such a tragically real human being, but they should probably still get over it already before their confused pride [[KillEmAll kills everyone]].

* Tien in ''Literature/{{Komarr}}''. He was incredibly insensitive to his wife Ekatrin. But he was himself burdened by genetic flaws and the Barrayaran prejudice that went with it. Plus he is a source of AdultFear. Few readers can imagine being a real villain; plenty can imagine being a failure as a spouse.

* [[spoiler:David]], the SixthRanger of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. He ended up [[spoiler:going SixthRangerTraitor and betraying the team]] but his entire life was torn apart through no fault of his own and the [[AndIMustScream horrifying fate]] the Animorphs subjected him to was worse than death.
** Alloran. He committed genocide on an innocent species in his attempt to stop the Yeerks from advancing further into the universe. He killed thousands of defenseless Yeerks. [[WellIntentionedExtremist He believed that everything he did was necessary if he wanted to win the war]]. And Alloran paid for all of his sins. It was made clear by just about every character that it was better to be dead than a Controller. When Alloran killed the Hork-Bajir, he prevented the Yeerks from being able to take over their bodies. Alloran himself was imprisoned for years, and forced to eat people, including his former student.