Need help finding a type of character from literature.

[jessetr]

Hello everyone. This is my first post.

I'm looking for a type of character from the Greeks, the British, The French, the Russians, etc., anyone at all. Classic theater and poetry as well, as long as the language is accessible to those not so well-versed in literature. Eastern literature is also fine.

I'm looking for a type of character that asks the same question again and again or makes the same accusation over and over, although they have been answered dozens of times officially and in public and it is easy to see that their question or accusation is empty and groundless. This type of character tries to make themselves out to be a victim or a hero, trying to gain sympathy, but is portrayed as a liar of sorts because they know their question has no merit.

If my own question belongs in a different area, I will repost.

Thank you!!

[Whifflingpin]

I don't think that going about lying to gain sympathy is a type that you'll find in classic literature - it is a type more in keeping with our own times.

If it is just the idea of persisting with acting on a belief in spite of repeated evidence or experience to contradict that belief, then Don Quixote or Voltaire's Candide are perhaps the prime examples.

[Danik 2016]

I´m not quite sure if I understood what you want but I suggest you take a look at some classical sharpies like the Spanish "pícaros" for example (Lazzarillo of Tormes,), The Buscón:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo2;idno=A91603.0001.001
A much later English sharpie (18 C) is Fielding´s Tom Jones.

[jessetr]

Danik,

What is a "sharpie" exactly?

Jessetr

[jessetr]

Danik,

What is a 'sharpie' exactly?

[jessetr]

Thank you, Whiffington.

[Danik 2016]

Danik,

What is a 'sharpie' exactly?
A sort of swindler or trickster, often an antihero but not necessarily a villain. He/she usually tries to wind people round his finger to get what he (or she) wants. An English female example would be Becky Sharp (there you are, sharp even in the name!) from Vanity Fair. There is also Till Eulenspiegel or Uhlenspiegel (Germany):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_Eulenspiegel

[bounty]

jessetr, like whifflingpin, I found myself thinking of candide also, but alas that's not what you are looking for.

danik, I would not put tom jones in the same category as becky sharp. I see the former as honorable and the latter as, yes, manipulative. I wanted to like becky, but I didn't. in this regard, flashman is coming to mind from the George macdonald fraser novels, although he might indeed be "villainous."

jessetr, can you say why it is you are looking for such a character? and barring anyone locating one, maybe we all could come up with an alternative to suit your purpose?

[Danik 2016]

Bounty.
I don´t mean they are alike. If I remember rightly Becky is the villain of the novel while Tom just prefers adventures and affairs with women to work. What they both have in common IMO is that they want to ascend socially through easier means than work.
But I second your question, I´m not at all sure what kind of character jesse wants

[Red Terror]

Alex from A Clockwork Orange keeps asking, "What's it going to be then, eh?" You need a nadsat glossary, which you can google from the web, in order to fully understand the novel. I'm writing this from my small 7 -inch tablet. Kudos, bye.

P.S. Edit:

http://soomka.com/nadsat.html





Hello everyone. This is my first post.

I'm looking for a type of character from the Greeks, the British, The French, the Russians, etc., anyone at all. Classic theater and poetry as well, as long as the language is accessible to those not so well-versed in literature. Eastern literature is also fine.

I'm looking for a type of character that asks the same question again and again or makes the same accusation over and over, although they have been answered dozens of times officially and in public and it is easy to see that their question or accusation is empty and groundless. This type of character tries to make themselves out to be a victim or a hero, trying to gain sympathy, but is portrayed as a liar of sorts because they know their question has no merit.

If my own question belongs in a different area, I will repost.

Thank you!!

[Seumas99]

Josef K. in Kafka's The Trial continually questions the mad system in which he has found himself and is despised by many of those inside the system for it (though I wouldn't say he does it for sympathy but merely out of frustration).

I get the feeling that this is not quite what you're looking for (it seems you're asking for a type of character rather than individual character) but it might be of some use to you.