History AlternativeCharacterInterpretation / Literature

* In Creator/LordByron's epic poem ''Literature/DonJuan'', the author reinterprets the (in)famous {{Anti Hero}}ic TheCasanova as a CosmicPlaything who is [[SoBeautifulItsACurse so handsome, it's a curse]] and gets [[IncrediblyLamePun screwed over]] by dozens of women, some with less than admirable motives. ([[CreatorBreakdown The author could sympathize with his hero]] on that.)

** Or, perhaps since others do not "touch with the hand what they see with the eye", [[OnlySaneMan Quixote isn't mad at all,]] [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness he really is a knight,]] and [[IncrediblyLamePun They Might Actually Be Giants]].

* A good many people see Patch from ''Literature/HushHush'' as an abuser who breaks down Nora's will and mentally and spiritually rapes her with his [[MindRape hallucinations]] and [[spoiler:when he possesses her at the end]]. Similarly, there are a lot of people that argue that Nora's love for Patch is just a form of StockholmSyndrome.

* In the ''[[Literature/TheQueensThief Queen's Thief]]'' series, there are a few different views of Eugenides running around the fandom after [[spoiler:he is revealed to be in love with Irene and marries her]] in book two. Is it an egregious case of StockholmSyndrome, a pitiful and obstinate remnant of a childhood crush (“calf love”), a difficult but necessary move in his ongoing game of XanatosSpeedChess, or a shining example of unconditional true love that deserves the fans’ wholehearted {{Squee}}? Characters are even confused about it in-universe—Attolia’s Queen’s Guard debates whether Eugenides is a pitiable sap who’s just doing his duty to his queen, or a power-hungry ManipulativeBastard.

* ''Literature/TheRaven'': A man is grieving his girlfriend or wife, who was named Lenore, when a raven flies into his house. He asks it questions, including whether he'll see Lenore again in Heaven, but it only responds with "Nevermore". There are several possible interpretations: 1.) The man is [[SanitySlippage going mad]] and hallucinating, 2.) The raven is implying that the man will never die, that [[CessationOfExistence there is no afterlife]], or that either the man or Lenore is going/went to Hell, and it's right, 3.) The raven is implying one of those things, but it's wrong, or 4.) The raven is just an ordinary bird, who learnt the word "nevermore" and is mindlessly repeating it. Even Poe himself said that the poem was up to interpretation.

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

* ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'': Is Scarlett an amoral, greedy manipulator trying to steal someone else's husband and make herself rich, a pragmatic TrueNeutral willing to do anything to survive a brutal world, or a repressed, bitter-yet-generous BrokenBird who suffers constantly from trauma/unrequited love/the shock of nearly starving to death? The debate over this is one of the oldest in American literature.

** His avatar most definitely is a big trickster. So, what he did in ''Tymora's Luck'' (''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''/''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' novel) is very, very in character.

** The Shadowhunters: Guardians of humanity, or racist, elitist snobs?

** Enjolras: [[UsefulNotes/{{Asexuality}} asexual]], [[AmbiguouslyGay gay]], [[CelibateHero just focused on the revolution]] or something else entirely? And then there's the question of [[HomoeroticSubtext his opinion of/feelings towards Grantaire]]...

** Did [[BigBad Caine]] genuinely love [[DarkChick Diana]] or was he just a [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative dick ]] who used her for sex? Who knows, as it's constantly being contradicted in [[UnreliableNarrator Caine's POVS.]] one minute he's thinking about nothing but how beautiful and smart she is and how he wants to marry her, etc, etc, and the next he's dismissing her as a object or pawn, so to speak, with no interest in her emotions or well-being. Either way, it's riled many heated fan debates, especially after the elusiveness of ''Plague''...

* ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman'' can be seen as a brutal depiction of an ordinary man's struggle with bipolar disorder, or an {{Anvilicious}} attack on the American Dream.
** Bipolar disorder? Where do we infer that from? Sure, he's deluded and probably going senile, but that seems like an overspecification.
** Borderline Personality Disorder has also been suggested.
** It's probably not "against" the American dream. It's more against chasing a dream that doesn't suit you. If Willy was a ''great'' salesman, then chasing the American dream would have been the right choice. It's the fact that he rejected his true talents that make it a tragedy.
** Also, who's the real hero of the story? Willy the eponymous Salesman? Biff, the EnsembleDarkHorse? Willy's wife, who (unlike Biff and Willy) never did anything actually wrong, and gets the most tragedy in the end?

* ''[[Creator/TimDorsey Serge A. Storms]]'': Since GirlOfTheWeek Rachael spends most of ''Atomic Lobster'' high on cocaine, it can be hard to tell whether some of her angry or violent actions throughout the book, such as being eager to throw her old dealer off a bridge or [[spoiler:attacking Serge and Coleman in the climax shortly after learning that they killed her sister in debatable self-defense ten years earlier]] are a result of cocaine highs or are done consciously.

* The premise of the children's book ''Who Wet My Pants?'' is that a bear named Ruben [[PottyFailure wet his pants]] but accuses his friends of doing it and then later claims his pants are "broken" and have "sprung a leak". Is he too embarrassed to admit that he wet his pants, or does he genuinely not realise that he did?

* ''AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/{{Twilight}}''