History JerkassWoobie / Literature

* Alex Fierro from ''Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard''. Very much a case of SourOutsideSadInside. Alex is [[HairTriggerTemper angry,]] condescending, and [[DisproportionateRetribution threatens violence on anyone who misgenders her, even by accident]], which really isn't okay. But many people can't help but feel for her when you see the trash life she had during the third book, losing the most important person in her life and kicked out of her home. Magnus certainly did, since that's what he had to go through.
* [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist Greg Heffley]] from ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid''. He's lazy, self-centered, a mild example of a SmallNameBigEgo and [[WithFriendsLikeThese a bad friend to Rowley]]... but he suffers from MiddleChildSyndrome, gets picked on by bullies at school and Rodrick at home, and Rowley's parents consider him to be a bad influence on their son (though it's true). It's really easy to see why he's prone to {{Jerkass}} moments.
* TheEmperor in ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''. He keeps moaning and groaning until you just want to slap him in his exalted face a few times.
** Not to mention [[TheHero Liu Bei]], who spends far more time bursting into tears than fighting, and actually spends most of the novel getting his ass handed to him.

* Senna Wales from the ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' series. Once you read her [[VillainEpisode POV book]] and learn about her FreudianExcuse, it's very hard not to pity her.
* Erik, ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. MadArtist, unrepentant murderer, StalkerWithACrush extraordinaire...yet almost everyone gets just a little misty-eyed over what happens to him at the end. Gaston Leroux even [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that being born with an absolutely brilliant mind and a deformity which prevented him from using it in any constructive manner was a pretty raw deal for "poor, unhappy Erik".
* [[TheScrooge Ebenezer Scrooge]] of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' is one of these. He's initially seen as a gruff, penny-pinching old man who doesn't care about people, content to live alone in the truest sense of the word. However, as we see his past, we come to understand that [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild his father hated him when his mother died giving birth to him]], and stuffed him in a boarding school, not even bringing him home when school was out of session. He watched the other children go home to their families as he stayed there alone. The only one who truly ever loved him was his sister, Fan. Without learning how to put love before reason, he continually put off his marriage to the woman he loved until he could amass enough wealth to ensure that they would be financially safe. She leaves him. Also, Fan dies. To make matters worse, all of these tragedies had strong ties to Christmas, often happening on Christmas or Christmas Eve, justifying his disdain for that time of the year. Needless to say, all of this causes him to become a bitter man -- the one we see at the opening of the story. Scrooge even gets to see his fiancée with her husband and children, seeing what he lost when he didn't fight to keep her.
* ''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/HeartwarmingMoments genuinely touching]] scenes.
* Elphaba in the novel ''Literature/{{Wicked}}''. From her ''conception'' onwards, her life's been one big TraumaCongaLine. Her mom was a drugged up mess who dropped her knickers for anyone. Her legal father was a religious nut, and lavished affection on Nessarose, who grew up to be even crazier and more dangerous. Sure, she gets something of a break when she heads to Shiz, but Glinda's more absorbed with social climbing than anything. Sure, there's Fieryo, but he's no prize - using her for sex while neglecting his wife and kids. Oz itself is a CrapsackWorld tearing itself to bits over religious fervor and political unrest, the Wizard is a MagnificentBastard by any definition, and the Animals make lovely targets for every side to vent their frustrations on. Elphaba chooses to side with the Animals, as she knows all too well what a raw deal they're getting. Yet, she ends up completely alone. What allies don't stab her in the back to save their butts end up dead. By the third act, she is completely around the bend nuts. She ''knows'' that Dorothy is a political pawn in the Wizard's scheme and has zero clues about what's really going on. She's convinced that the Scarecrow is her dead lover reincarnated (the musical plays this straight). She still sends out her armies of Crows, Wolves, and Bees to destroy them, and still tries to bully a clueless farmgirl over a pair of enchanted shoes that she knows might not even work...by the time the water hits her, it's almost a relief.
* Christian Grey in ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey''. He's a dominant who stalks Anastasia and uses BDSM as a way of satisfying his sadistic pleasure. He at one point rapes Anastasia in her apartment in response to a message that she sent that sounded like a breakup. However, his twisted personality is apparently justified since he had an equally abusive childhood at the hands of his father and he doesn't know how to love.
* 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 kills everyone.
** To name a few: Jaime Lannister, who consistently does horrible things to protect his family, but [[NeverLiveItDown who is widely despised]] for the ''best'' thing he ever did; Tyrion Lannister, who somehow has even worse publicity than his brother does, and responds by [[SnarkKnight acting like a jerk despite having good intentions]]; Arya Stark, a bitter girl with increasingly [[ShellShockedVeteran disjointed emotional reactions]] [[spoiler:following the murder of her family]] and harrowing, war-torn journey through the Riverlands; Sansa Stark starts out as quite the naïve (and [[LovableAlphaBitch usually unintentional]]) [[AlphaBitch little Libby]] on bad days, until [[RoyalBrat Joffrey]] and King's Landing knock that out of her and she ''really'' starts having to [[BastardUnderstudy pay attention]] to the darker side simply just to survive; Sandor Clegane, a ruthless killer who turns out to be a conflicted [[TheWoobie Woobie]]; Daenerys Targaryen, a ruthless warlord whose brother deliberately put her through hell well before she took up fire and blood (not that Viserys' life was a bed of roses, either -- he basically used her as, alternatively, a safety blanket and a stress ball... [[TheChainOfHarm because he was going through hell]]); Theon Greyjoy, whose [[spoiler:treason]] and {{Jerkass}} tendencies arise from [[WellDoneSonGuy a need for acceptance]] and who has recently undergone [[spoiler:ColdBloodedTorture]]...yep, the list goes on. TheChainOfHarm looms over the characters like a mushroom cloud.
** One who bucks the trend is Cersei Lannister: at first, you can picture her as being quite the LoveToHate, Jerkass Woobie who really couldn't help but turn out the way she is thanks to the [[DysfunctionJunction family background]], not to mention the cultural tendency to shove women aside ratcheting up her problems. That is, until you really get inside her head via a few [=POVs=]. [[spoiler: From then on, you just want to [[HateSink strangle her]]: she's all [[TheMillstone incompetent]], {{Jerkass}}, SmugSnake, hold the Woobie. No amount of FreudianExcuse is enough to offset her complete adherence to the Stupid in StupidEvil.]]
* ''Literature/MirrorMirror2003'': The VillainProtagonist Lucrezia Borgia 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.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''
** Gollum is a vengeful, AxCrazy creature who's done more than his fair share of awful things both under and independent of [[ArtifactOfDoom the Ring's]] influence, but ultimately, he's presented as a broken, pitiable figure rather than an object of hate or fear.
** Oddly enough, the orcs and the ringwraiths have occasional moments of pity given them. Or as Gandalf says, "I pity even his slaves..."
*** In [[Literature/TheSilmarillion The Silmarillion]] it is claimed the Orcs really hate [[GodOfEvil Melkor]] and serve him out of fear.
* The fat kid from ''Literature/AmericanGods'' is an arrogant prick to anyone who doesn't think that he's the way to the future, but in the middle of nowhere, no reception, and nobody to talk to, he breaks down completely. Later, it's revealed that he's being manipulated by Mr World, who considers him utterly expendable.
* [[Creator/Fyodor Dostoevsky Dostoevsky's]] novels and stories are invariably populated by these type of characters - both hateful and pathetic.
** Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, protagonist of ''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.]]
** The narrator of ''Notes From the Underground'' is a similar social outcast and pseudo-intellectual living in squalor, who admits that spite towards others are his chief motivation in life.
** Three of the four brothers (including the bastard Smerdyakov) in ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'' are this trope. Ivan's cynical and nihilistic philosophy leads him to be cold and callous to most other people, including his family members, but lives a life of despair because of his worldview. Dmitri is rash, violent, and hot-blooded, which leads him to be (unjustly) the prime suspect in his hated father's murder, thus ruining his life. The actual murderer is the bastard brother Smerdyakov, whose being a bastard and epilepsy have made him an outcast from the beginning.
* ''Outcast of Literature/{{Redwall}}'''s Veil Sixclaw was a CreepyChild in infancy and progressed to attempted murder by the time he hit puberty. However, with his life, you can hardly blame him; his mother suffered DeathByChildbirth, his father never even bothered to name him, then he was dropped by the side of the road and forgotten about in a battle and picked up by the Abbeydwellers. Being mice, they were naturally creeped out by adopting an AlwaysChaoticEvil [[CarnivoreConfusion ferret]], but they took it a bit far, [[TheUnfavorite constantly treating him like a criminal even when he hasn't done anything]] and saddling him with the name "Veil" in the first place (it's an anagram of "evil" and "vile").
* Isaac Nettle from the ''Literature/DeptfordMice'' trilogy is a [[TheFundamentalist religious fanatic]] who [[AbusiveParents abuses his son Jenkin]] and [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild blames him for the death of his wife]], who died while giving birth to him. It can easily be gathered that the loss of Isaac's wife was a CynicismCatalyst that soured his entire outlook on life. Also, it is made clear that deep down he does truly love his son... but then [[spoiler:Jenkin is carried off by an owl and eaten. The situation is made all the more traumatic when Isaac ''finds the owl pellet containing his son's mousebrass''.]] Poor guy.
* 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 [[DelicateAndSickly 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.
* Mayella Ewell from ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''. She willfully accuses a black man of raping her. She knows damn well that this could easily lead to his imprisonment and execution. She is not sorry. And yet --! She harbored an unrequited crush on Tom Robinson, the only man who was ever nice to her, and amidst being [[PromotionToParent Promoted to Parent]] around her uncontrollable siblings, she tried to keep a patch of flowers alive in her sad little yard. And it's implied that her father sexually abuses her -- no ''wonder'' she acts out.
* Anne Rice's ''[[Literature/TheVampireChronicles Vampire Chronicles]]'' has some of these. Lestat de Lioncourt is definitely one of these. He's not called the Brat Prince for nothing,. The guy started off as the youngest son of a broke aristocratic family (how does that happen), his mother was sickly and dying (prior to become a vampire), his older brothers and father hated him for wanting to be a free spirit, he was kidnapped by Magnus to be turned into a vampire, only to be abandoned by his maker (granted, he did get a large fortune of treasure), and almost all of his fledglings abandon him. But then again, the one women he loved ended up with stigmata (she was a nun) and he was a pawn for a megalomaniac wannabe goddess, and, to top it all off, even when he isn't being a jerk, his fledglings still look down on him, but then again, he is reckless.
** Well, he gets better. At least one of his fledglings, Louis, actually does love him. ''A lot''. Though he himself is not quite sure why, apparently.

* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Clarisse [=LaRue=] has this trope going for her. Granted, she's a bully and is very nasty, but being Ares' favorite daughter isn't easy, especially when you are clearly scared to death of your dad.
* Inquisitor Sand dan Glokta of ''Literature/TheFirstLaw''. Once a famous soldier, now a crippled loner who tortures people for a living. Still an incredibly sympathetic character; the reader sees a lot of his bitterness and self-loathing as the novels go on.
* Novinha from the ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', so, so much. When she was orphaned as a child, her parents were celebrated as martyrs, but she just missed her mom and dad. This drove a wedge between her and the community. She [[DefrostingIceQueen learned to love again]] as Pipo and Libo became like family to her, but after Pipo died, she became more of a mess than ever before. During her life, she suffers abuse and the loss of many loved ones. She also hides important information from people in a misguided attempt to protect them, [[spoiler:chooses to marry someone she doesn't love, cheats on him]], neglects her children, blames people for things beyond their control, and in other ways behaves as if she's trying to drive away the very people she's afraid of losing.
** Marcao, posthumously, from the same book. He's an abusive drunk whose kids prayed for him to die and were pleased when he did. Then, at his Speaking, Ender describes how the community bullied and rejected him as a child, so that the closest thing he had to a friend was Novinha, who couldn't stand him, and reveals that [[spoiler:he knew about Novinha's cheating and took every new child (all biologically Libo's, Marcao was infertile) as proof that she still didn't think he was good enough for her]]. You feel really bad for him until you remember the obvious fear and hatred with which his kids viewed him.
* The [[WickedWitch Ilse Witch]] in ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheJerleShannara'' lost her parents at an early age and was raised by The Morgawr to be his BastardUnderstudy. She's convinced that Walker, TheHero's {{Mentor}}, is the one who arranged for the deaths of her parents and her younger brother Bek, and wants to pay him back for this (the real culprit was [[TheUntwist The Morgawr]]). She's more or less a lost, scared DarkMagicalGirl, who has no idea about what's really going on around her, and is being played for a fool by one of the few people she [[EvilMentor sort-of trusts]]. She's also a [[{{Jerkass}} nasty]], [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] bitch, prone to {{Bad Boss}}ing those who [[YouHaveFailedMe fail or rebel against her]], and who is so caught up in her own angst that she's [[MoralMyopia overlooking the damage she inflicts on those around her]]. Her transition into TheAtoner is ''the'' key part of her story arc.
* Brukeval from Jean Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' - a hybrid of Cro-Magnon and Neandertal who hates himself and the Neanders because of the way his looks have gotten him treated, and both loves and hates Ayla.
* Thero from Lynn Flewelling's Literature/{{Nightrunner}}, who is an unbelievably power obsessed prick of a wizard apprentice in the beginning, always snickering about his rival Seregil's bad luck when it comes to magic. Plus, he probably has a stick in his arse. And he has an affair with his master's mistress. And then you gradually notice that a good deal of this attitude is to cover his inferior complex to Seregil, who was a former (unsuccessfull) appentice of his own master, Nysander, who still loves Seregil like a son. Thero himself wants this kind of attention and kindness from Nysander (although Nysander remarks that he probably wouldn't know what to do with it) and covers his frustration up with arrogance. Seregil often enough provokes him. And then we start seeing Thero as a JerkassWithAHeartOfGold...and then [[FromBadToWorse ''Stalking Darkness'' kicked in.]] You can't help but pitying the guy.
* Blanche Dubois in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire''. She's very harsh towards Stanley (who she sees as a 'Polack' and an 'ape'), and she isn't particularly nice in general, but once you find out about her past, it's very hard not to feel sorry for her... and she's raped by her sister's husband and, in the original play, her sister doesn't do a thing about it after the rape, like, say, leave Stanley or confront Stanley about the rape. Or the fact that she ends up becoming flat out insane and sent to a mental institution.
* Merrin Meredith from ''Literature/SeptimusHeap''. After having been nurtured and mistreated in his entire youth by [=DomDaniel=], you'd hardly expect him to be a nice person in most of the books.

* In ''Literature/ThePerksOfBeingAWallflower'' [[spoiler: Charlie's aunt was raped as a young girl, which led to her having serious psychological issues, which is why she herself molested Charlie.]]
** Brad, the star football jock, is in an secret relationship with Patrick, an openly gay boy. Brad's father, an abusive homophobic man, finds out, and beats Brad. Brad however, gets in a fight with Patrick when the latter calls him out for ignoring him. Later, when Patrick and Charlie are at a location where men go to hook up, Charlie sees Brad with another person.
* Reed Brennan from the ''Literature/{{Private}}'' books. Reed constantly criticizes everyone at her school for being ruthless and ambitious, but she herself acts the same way, even taking delight in hurting people she doesn't like. However, she's been stalked, harrassed, and near-murdered by more than a few people. She comes from a dysfunctional family, she's one of the few scholarship students at her school, [[spoiler: she is very well cursed (thus bringing bad luck to everyone else), and is the product of an affair her mother had with her best friend's father]].
* 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 worries in adult readers. Few readers can imagine being a real villain; plenty can imagine being a failure as a spouse.
* By the end, [[Literature/TalesOfKolmar Marik of Gundar]], even in-story. Lanen hates him but doesn't think he deserved [[spoiler: to be stabbed, kept on the painful edge of death until he consented to SharingABody with the Demonlord, and then absorbed into its molten stone body.]] Though once that had finished he seemed less distressed.

* Mary Bennet from ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' is an insufferable know-it-all who never misses an opportunity to lecture her siblings on the finer points of morality and virtue. However, she is also the plainest of the 5 girls and the most overlooked, being TheUnfavorite to both of her parents and actively ignored by everyone around her. Also, despite her technically skilled but emotionally stunted musical talents, she is said to be constantly working to improve herself, while her more attractive siblings rest on their laurels.
* [[Literature/TheHungerGames Katniss Everdeen]]. Living in dire poverty, her father is dead, forced into an arena where the only way to survive is to kill everyone else not once, but twice, forced into being in love with someone who she barely knows, caught up in the middle of a war between EvilVersusEvil, and the leader of her side is trying to kill her and does [[spoiler: kill her little sister]], and she knows it. However, she has is often prickly and judgmental towards people and pushes them away.
** Katniss and Peeta's District 12 mentor, Haymitch Abernathy. Known as the town drunk, Haymitch is surly and often mean-tempered. He lost his entire family after exposing a fluke in a Hunger Games arena to an entire audience, he watched his partner in this Hunger Games, Maysilee Donner, die. He is plagued with survivor's guilt to the point of having nightmares and sleeping with a knife, and had to watch as all his tributes, except for Katniss and Peeta die. He resorts to alcoholism to [[DrowningMySorrows drown his sorrows]]

* In ''Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths'', Felix Harrowgate constantly belittles Mildmay's speech impediment, [[MindRape mind rapes]] his own brother (and tries to do it again), beats an anonymous sex partner nearly to death during a rage blackout, and gloats over the Cabal's [[KillItWithFire burning]] of a harmless heretic. Still, he also saves his country from both a likely invasion and a coup backed by a [[BloodMagic blood wizard]], risks his own life to put tormented spirits to rest, and nearly gets himself killed during desperate attempts to save sometimes-ungrateful people from an insane Magitek [[AIIsACrapshoot robot]] and a weaponized [[spoiler: [[ClockPunk clock]]]], all of which keeps him out of the "villain" category. And his personal story definitely qualifies him for Woobie status-- [[HarmfulToMinors sold]] as a slave to a thief-keeper when he was a toddler, forced into prostitution by age eleven, seduced, tortured, raped, and mind-raped by an evil sorcerer, driven completely insane by the mind rape, [[ComeToGawk dragged]] through a gauntlet in one of Melusine's main plazas, [[FrameUp framed]] for numerous crimes he didn't commit, incarcerated in both a dungeon ([[spoiler: twice]]) and a BedlamHouse, abandoned by one lover, traumatized by [[spoiler: the murder of another lover]], [[spoiler: [[PersonaNonGrata exiled]]]], subjected to more rape and magical rape, pursued by malevolent ghosts that want to posess him, and [[spoiler: fired from one of the few jobs he can actually hold down]]. His life is one long HumiliationConga.

* Scott from ''Literature/ThePowerOfFive'', especially after the abuse he goes through at the hands of Susan Mortlake.
* Charlotte of ''Literature/TheRubyRedTrilogy'' isn't very nice, but you really do feel sorry for her after everything she's wanted is taken from her.
* Marvin the Paranoid Android from ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is this, big time. He is [[TheEeyore manically depressed,]] SurroundedByIdiots, and his "brain the size of a planet" is ignored by the whole cast, who instead make him open doors and pick up papers. Not only that, but he's watched his only friend, a small rat, crawl into his knee cavity and die (he's afraid to this day that it's still in there); been left in a parking lot, all alone, for 576,000,003,579 years; left to die in a ship flying into a sun immediately afterwords; stuck walking in a circle for 1.5 billion years with no one to talk to but a living mattress who has the same conversation with him everyday due to it being so stupid; hooked up to a war computer and used as the target for bowling practice by the Krikkit robots; as well as being 37 times older than the universe itself thanks to TimeTravel and TheSlowPath, having all of his parts replaced over fifty times each, except for [[AndIMustScream the diodes that have been giving him pain all these years.]] [[spoiler: [[TearJerker He finally dies happily after reading God's Final Message to his creation.]] [[YankTheDogsChain Only to be brought back to life since his warranty hadn't expired yet.]]]] You can't help but want to hug the poor guy, even if you know he's just going to insult you anyway.
* Paaker, the antagonist in ''Literature/{{Uarda}}'' is an early and classic example. A better looking guy steals his girl, practically ''everybody'' thinks he's unworthy of his noble father and the only person who seems to like him at all is his mother.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Warden Donald Morgan. Presented throughout the series as an InspectorJavert out to frame the protagonist, and being an all-round unpleasant bastard, he was very easy to hate. Then, as the series moves on, the main character (and through him, the reader) finds out more about Morgan's background, to the extent that, by the end, even the main character, who has lived his entire life with Morgan as the ever-present embodiment of a system that hates him and literally wants him dead, and the noose around his neck, can bring himself to shed a few tears of sympathy. Morgan's TraumaCongaLine began with four years on the Western Front of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. After that, he spent a century walking the toughest beat of any police officer in existence, forever cut off from the person he loved more than anything, killing black magicians (many of whom were relatively innocent, but had to die due to the seductive nature of black magic) with very little in the way of respect or appreciation coming his way.

* Van Houten from ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars''. Yes, he's a drunk asshat, but you have to admit he is sort of a tragic character. [[spoiler:His daughter died of cancer, and he's been a depressed alcoholic ever since]].
* Ignatius J. Reilly from ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'' is a thoroughly disgusting and borderline-damaged human being who leaches off his mom and alienates everybody with his rudeness. [[spoiler: His own disgruntled neighbor reveals to Mr. Levy that his emotional problems stem from the death of his pet dog, and Irene berating him for trying to give the dog a funeral. Essentially, his horrible behavior is him still crying out over his dog]]. Mr. Levy after seeing Irene berate Ignatius [[spoiler: concludes that the dog was the only thing that ever brought him joy]].
* Rachel in ''Literature/PracticalDemonkeeping'' is a self-righteous StrawFeminist and clueless occult dabbler, so obnoxious that Travis claims that she's the only person he's ever met who he'd wish the fate on of being saddled with Catch. But given her backstory, which involves being used, abused and betrayed by just about everyone she's ever loved, you can't help but sympathise with her. She also genuinely seems to be [[WellIntentionedExtremist trying to do good]], she's just got [[BlueAndOrangeMorality her own idiosyncratic definition]] of what "good" is.
* ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun'' has the murder victim, fantasy author Appin Dungannon, who's shown to be a short-tempered, perverted, weasel who acts like a ''prima donna'' just to screw with convention organizers and is openly contemptuous of his fans[[note]]Put simply, plenty of readers come away from ''Bimbos'' thinking he's a TakeThat to Creator/HarlanEllison[[/note]]. However, the story also shows that he's suffering from severe ArtistDisillusionment, since he's quite passionate about Myth/CelticMythology and wants to write serious fantasy stories, but can't because his publishers and fans are only interested in the schlocky ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian''-esque series that made him famous (which is a large part of the reason he's so venomous towards his readers). There's also a bit where he {{Troll}}s a fan in the autograph line as payback for his bringing a stack of books to be signed, which as Dungannon points out is incredibly inconsiderate to everyone else in line.
** The sequel ''Zombies of the Gene Pool'' does the same. Murder victim Pat Malone was a former member of a group of young SciFi fans in the [=1950s=] who dreamed of becoming successful writers, but the only book to his name was "The Last Fandango", a giant middle finger aimed squarely at the fandom and his former friends in particular. He shows up at a reunion of the group (after being thought dead for years) threatening to expose their dirty laundry, but the night before he's killed he has a rather mellow conversation with protagonist Jay Omega where he explains that he left the fandom precisely because he realized that it was a toxic echo chamber of childishness and hypocrisy, and that he wrote "Fandango" in the hopes that more people would realize the problems with fandom and either leave or do something about it. [[spoiler:There's also the fact that he's one of (if not the only) member of the group who didn't rape a female friend of theirs when she was passed out drunk.]]
* ''Literature/SergeStorms'':
** Johnny Vegas "the accidental virgin", with the emphasis on the Woobie part usually being more pronounced but depending on the book. The way that bizarre events keep interrupting his attempts to lose his virginity with women who are happy to spend time with him no matter how close he gets is a source of painful CringeComedy. That being said, he has little respect for many of the women he tries to bed and has occasional ItsAllAboutMe moments (just sighing and turning away when he sees his latest would-be conquest fall to her presumed death, getting rid of a homing beacon to delay rescue when he and a beautiful woman are in a lifeboat together, etc.) that cost him sympathy.
** 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 and constantly twisting her arm behind her back during arguments (although she is just as vitriolic to him, if not more so and sometimes slaps him as well as the book progresses)]]. 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.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': Crowfeather, formerly Crowpaw, is one of the cats sent by [=StarClan=] to represent [=WindClan=] on the Great Journey. He's prickly to a fault, but his troubles began when he fell in love for a [=RiverClan=] cat named Feathertail, who gave her life to protect him. After the Journey happens, he chooses his warrior name after Feathertail. After the journey, he meets Leafpool of and the two have a one night stand. Their love for each other seemed even stronger, yet Leafpool had to abandon him. By the third series, he's settled down with a third mate and had a son whom he treats [[ParentalNeglect poorly]]. After the first four series are resolved, Crowfeather breaks up with Nightcloud and vows to be a better father to Breezepelt and his [=ThunderClan=] kits. He ultimately remains AmicableExes with both Nightcloud and Leafpool.
* ''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 worried about Alice's safety. 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.
* Max Dembo from ''Literature/NoBeastSoFierce'' is a quintessential example of this. He's an ex-convict and former drug addict living in poverty who has been abused his entire life and who genuinely wants to reform, but he's also a deeply amoral and violent thug with extremely racist and homophobic views.

* The Kid from ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' has a taste for violence from a young age, being entirely willing to get into fights and kill people over slights, eventually joining a group of viscous scalp-hunters who go around killing Native Americans and Mexicans to get out of prison, but unlike pretty much everyone else in the Glanton gang, his joining up with them is more understandable because he was practically set up to go down this path from the start. His father despised him for indirectly killing his mother during childbirth and so he refused to give him an education, whatever family he might have had left weren't around, he gets roped into joining with Captain White and later Glanton as his only escape from prison life, the closest two people he has to mentor figures, Toadvine and Tobin, are also violent killers and so they can't be as helpful as they want to be, and later on he gets hounded by [[BigBad Judge Holden.]] By the end, he gets sick of this lifestyle and just wants to live in peace, but his past always catches up to him eventually.

** 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.