Obnoxious In-Laws in Literature.
- Ascendance of a Bookworm: Veronica has an extreme case of Thicker Than Water that causes her to dote on her blood relatives regardless of their morals and act hostile to family members who don't share any blood ties with her. This includes her son's wife.
- In the Aubrey-Maturin series, Mrs Williams is this for Jack Aubrey: greedy, smothering, judgmental, manipulative, and unkind to everyone except her grandchildren.
- Older Than Feudalism: In The Bible, Rebekah is "vexed" by the wives of Esau. It seems to be mostly because they are Canaanites, and follow Canaanite traditions and customs, worshiping their gods instead of the God of Abraham.
- In the seventh book of the The Black Company, the annalist, Murgen, gets married. His mother-in-law, Ki Gota, seems to have been specifically crafted to amplify the horrors of the siege conditions the book takes place under. In the following book, it's noted that her own people refer to her as "the troll" behind her back.
- In A Brother's Price, Princess Ren is friends with one of her sisters-in-law, Kij Porter, but doesn't like her snobbish mothers-in-law. As her husband (who was a jerk) is dead, and there were never any children, Ren hopes that she won't have much to do with the Porters in the future, when she and her sisters have remarried. (As all sisters in a family marry one husband, and are considered mothers of all the children of that marriage, there's usually lots of mothers-in-law.) Keifer Porter, the princesses' late husband, poisoned their father, making him the worst son-in-law ever.
- The Buccaneers: The Dowager Duchess Tintagel is extremely stifling towards her new daughter-in-law Nan, and is one of the reasons why Nan begins to seek happiness elsewhere.
- In the Discworld novels, Nanny Ogg is this towards her daughters-in-law, but not her sons-in-law.
- Earth's Children: In The Mammoth Hunters, Crozie and her son-in-law Frebec are both often at each others throats, with Crozie especially constantly arguing with Frebec and criticizing him. She makes it plain she views him as being 'beneath' her daughter. However, they get on better by the end.
- In Emma, John Knightly (husband to Emma's sister, Isabella) is always ready to be cross whenever Emma sees him because he hates traveling. He'll do his duty and visit his father-in-law, Mr. Woodhouse, but his impatience for Mr. Woodhouse's hypochondria and stream of unsolicited medical advice usually results in John getting sarcastic and unpleasant. To Daddy's Girl Emma, who manages her father's worries much more kindly, this is intolerable—and even when John doesn't lose his temper, waiting to see if he's going to still adds an unpleasant tension when he visits.
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
- Molly and her daughter Ginny don't approve Bill's (Molly's first-born) marriage to Fleur Delacour. At the end, when Bill's battle scars didn't make Fleur like Bill any less, Molly and (presumably) Ginny warmed up to her.Ginny: I suppose I'm just going to have to accept that he really is going to marry her.
Harry: She's all right. (hastily) Ugly, though. - Subverted in the seventh book, where Fleur's parents show up and get along with the Weasleys wonderfully.
- Also Played Straight with the Dursleys, as Vernon Dursley hated magic and everything magic-related thus hated his sister-in-law Lily and her husband James Potter, Harry's dad.
- Molly and her daughter Ginny don't approve Bill's (Molly's first-born) marriage to Fleur Delacour. At the end, when Bill's battle scars didn't make Fleur like Bill any less, Molly and (presumably) Ginny warmed up to her.
- Help I Am Being Held Prisoner: One of the bank employees is accused of making excuses to avoid a dinner with his wife's family when he's forced to call and say he's working late. He hotly denies this but is smiling a little bit, in spite of the circumstances, as he hangs up.
- Horatio Hornblower has his mother-in-law from his first marriage, Mrs. Mason. When she visits them to help Maria recover from giving birth, Hornblower goes back to the habits he developed to survive under the insane Captain Sawyer from Lieutenant. In his second marriage, his brother-in-law is the Duke of Wellington—while they're only shown speaking once, he needles and out-snarks Hornblower.
- I Heard That Song Before:
- Elaine is a rather overbearing stepmother-in-law to Kay, who gets the sense she resents that Kay has replaced her as the lady of the Carrington estate. She also voiced reservations about the marriage, insinuating that Kay was a Gold Digger (not unlike Elaine herself, then?), which automatically made things awkward; the revelation that Elaine made a pass at Kay's father and him rejecting her was probably the real reason he was fired doesn't help. However, they do try to get along for Peter's sake. Then Elaine reveals she has the missing, bloodstained dress shirt Peter wore the night Susan disappeared and tries to blackmail Kay for it, and things really go to hell.
- Maggie makes it quite clear she doesn't approve of Peter as a grandson-in-law; she supports Kay but thinks she's married a serial killer. After Peter is exonerated, the two become good friends and, much to Kay's amusement, Maggie insists she always knew he was innocent deep down.
- Richard Walker is in the running for worst stepbrother-in-law ever; he murdered his first stepsister-in-law and tries to murder his second stepsister-in-law when they uncover his crimes. He also killed Kay's father and let her and her grandmother believe he'd committed suicide for two decades.
- In P. G. Wodehouse's book The Indiscretions Of Archie, Englishman Archie Moffam and Hotel Cosmopolis owner Daniel Brewster get into a nasty spat thanks to Culture Clash and Brewster's pride in his hotel. When Archie turns up again having married Brewster's beloved daughter Lucille things get even more awkward and Brewster spends the rest of the book at odds with Archie who keeps trying and failing to make amends. The news of Brewster's impending grandfatherhood at the book's close finally smooths things over between the two men.
- In the 19th-century Ukrainian novella The Kaydash Family by Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, much of the conflict comes from the conflict between the family's matriarch Marusya Kaydash and her older son's wife Motrya. True to the trope, Marusya constantly criticizes Motrya about her cooking, cleaning, etc. Eventually, things get to the point where Marusya's husband Omel'ko steps in and strikes Motrya for talking back. Previously remaining neutral, Motrya's husband Karp eventually puts his foot down and demands that Omel'ko split his land in half, so he and Motrya can move out and build their own home. After that, Motrya is shown to be much happier, now that she's the woman of her own house. Meanwhile, Marusya switches her attention to her other daughter-in-law Melashka, who is more of a doormat than Motrya was. Eventually, Omel'ko dies of alcoholism, and his younger son Lavrin takes over as the head of the household. There's some conflict between Karp and Lavrin over the land, but Marusya's role is marginalized at this point.
- Let Me Call You Sweetheart: Dr Smith never approved of his son-in-law Skip, believing him unworthy of Suzanne (and it's implied he was jealous and resentful of him for getting to spend more time with Suzanne). He hated him so much, he was convinced right away that Skip killed Suzanne and it was largely his testimony that got Skip convicted. For his part, Skip claims his father-in-law lied about him threatening Suzanne and unjustly accusing her of infidelity. It's revealed that Smith did lie in his testimony, though he did truly believe at the time that Skip had murdered his daughter.
- Light a Penny Candle has Maureen's mother-in-law, Mrs. Daly, who is dismissive of everything Maureen does and is very possessive of her grandchildren. Subverted with Aisling's mother-in-law Mrs. Murray, who appears like this at first, but turns out to be a lonely old woman.
- The Miniaturist: Nella's new sister-in-law, Marin, acts more like a domineering mother-in-law: cold, bossy, and generally unfriendly.
- Maxim's mother Rowena spends much of The Missus criticising and looking down on her new daughter-in-law Alessia because in Rowena's mind, Alessia is 'beneath' her son for being a poor immigrant who once worked as Maxim's cleaner (Maxim himself is an earl). Rowena even attempts to pay Alessia to leave Maxim at one point. In the end she finally comes around, realising that Alessia truly cares for Maxim and is a good influence on him; she apologises for her poor treatment of her and makes it clear she now accepts her as part of her family.
- Demeter is this to Hades in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. She constantly complains to Hades about how he makes her daughter live in the Underworld for half the year, and to Persephone for marrying him in the first place.Demeter: I warned you, daughter. This scoundrel Hades is no good. You could've married the god of doctors or the god of lawyers, but noooo. You had to eat the pomegranate.
- The irony is that Demeter is also Hades' older sister and so is doubly obnoxious.
- Though they are not married, Athena condemns the romance between her daughter Annabeth and Percy, the son of her rival Poseidon. Even then, Athena is more outright threatening than obnoxious and seems willing (however reluctantly) to at least give Percy a chance. It is unknown what Poseidon thinks of the relationship.
- Neverwhere: Jessica's parents strongly hint that they don't think Richard is good enough to marry their daughter. And by "strongly hint", i mean, they outright tell him "You are not good enough to marry our daughter."
- In Maeve Binchy's Scarlet Feather, main character Cathy has a hate-filled relationship with her mother-in-law Hannah Mitchell. Mrs. Mitchell cannot stand her for two reasons: she dared to marry her son Neil, and she is the former maid's daughter so not of the same 'class'.
- Sense and Sensibility: Elinor Dashwood is charmed by Edward Ferrars and likes him a lot. However, she's not pleased to learn that he's the only nice person in his family. His mother, sister Fanny and brother Robert are all completely insufferable jerks.
- One Sherlock Holmes story revolves around a man living a happy life until his wife's sister came to visit and stayed. Once he refused her advances she was a lot worse.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, in-laws rarely get along. The best example is Cersei Lannister, who hates her new daughter-in-law Margaery Tyrell and the feeling turns out to be mutual. Cersei resents Margaery's growing influence on her son Tommen. Especially since Margaery is trying to make Tommen into a more proactive ruler and encouraging him to think for himself instead of doing everything his mommy tells him. The noble families in Westeros use marriage as a political tool to seal alliances, meaning a lot of the time the in-laws hated each other before the marriage too.
- Baratheons just have this knack: Stannis has...the whole pack of Florents to deal with. On the plus side, he doesn't have Robert's megaton issues with the crafty Lannisters. On the minus, they're more tooth-grindingly arrogant for no reason and with less financial backing to help ease the pain.
- Denth in Warbreaker started a second World War as part of a plot to capture and kill his brother-in-law. Of course, that brother-in-law had previously killed his wife (Denth's sister).
- In You Don't Own Me, Cynthia and Robert make no secret of the fact they despise their daughter-in-law; they felt Martin had made a mistake in marrying her and their opinion has only worsened following his murder, as they're fully convinced she was responsible. Kendra says they're only barely polite with her when they interact because they want to retain access to their grandchildren. They looked down on Kendra as a terrible wife and mother, dismissing as just being weak, lazy and straight-up unhinged for her mental health struggles. They also dismissed her claims of Martin emotionally abusing and cheating on her as paranoid rantings. It doesn't help that Martin exaggerated or lied about Kendra's behaviour while painting himself as the victim; they were inclined to believe their adored son over their daughter-in-law, so it didn't take much to convince them Kendra was deranged enough to have Martin killed. After they learn Kendra didn't kill Martin, Kendra says they've started being nicer to her, implying they may develop a better relationship.
