History StepfordSmiler / Literature

** [[Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsStudents Luna Lovegood]] is Depressed played straight. She's an IronWoobie who is bullied viciously for her eccentric personality, and she didn't have any friends until she was a teenager. But despite this pain she is still happy and cheerful...''[[BeneathTheMask on the outside]]''. She drops hints occasionally, in a purposefully serene, conversational manner, and this makes the other characters feel uncomfortable. There's a good glimpse of what's going on behind the scenes in the 7th book, when [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Harry discovers a mural that she painted in her room, depicting all her friends, Harry included]]]].

* Literature/CiaphasCain is supposed to be a fearless [[BadassLongcoat Imperial commissar]] who is willing to lay down his life to destroy the enemies of the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} God-Emperor of Mankind]]. [[DirtyCoward He]] [[FakeUltimateHero isn't]], although that doesn't stop him from [[AccidentalHero accidentally bumbling into]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]] time and again.

* The title character in Edward Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" is a male Stepford Smiler, a rich, elegant, successful man who is envied by everyone around him. His secret unhappiness isn't revealed until the last lines: "And Richard Cory, one calm summer's night / Went home and put a bullet through his head."

** The first appearance of Ysabell, in ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'', is when with a fixed manic smile on her face, she explains what it is to be Death's adopted daughter - stuck, never dying, in the house of Death forever, having been fifteen for nearly fifty years in a place where Time does not apply, with no mortal human beings to talk to - well, not for very long, anyway - and (with a long sharp blade in her hands) explaining how ''nice'' it would be if Rincewind stayed for a little while longer...[[note]]It is possible that this is another underlying reason why Death chooses to take ''Discworld/{{Mort}} as an apprentice in a later novel - to restore Ysabell to the world in a halfway sane state[[note]].

** [[Characters/HarryPotterMinistryOfMagic Dolores Umbridge]]. Part of the reason this character is so effective is that she wraps her sadism and violence in an unnerving Stepford mask.

* Lots of characters in Creator/BretEastonEllis works, particularly ''Literature/LunarPark''.

* Aaron Armstrong being this is the whole point of "Three Tools of Death" by [[Creator/GKChesterton G.K.Chesterton]]. Discussed in-Universe by [[Literature/FatherBrown Father Brown]]: "Why couldn’t they let him weep a little, like his fathers before him? His plans stiffened, his views grew cold; behind that merry mask was the empty mind of the atheist." [[spoiler: He committed suicide.]]

* Many of the characters from ''Literature/LunarPark'', by Creator/BretEastonEllis.

* Early on in ''Literature/RedeemingLove'', Angel acts like her [[GildedCage cushy life]] as the city’s highest-end prostitute is all she could ever want, flippantly [[DontYouDarePityMe laughing off]] the hero’s suggestions that she might want to escape it—when in fact she has no control over her own life, is deeply lonely, and loathes every minute of her work. As the novel progresses and she is taken out of her “comfort zone", it becomes obvious that she’s really a deeply bitter and cynical BrokenBird.
* The narrator of Langston Hughes' poem "Minstrel Man" is Depressed.

* Todd Bowden from Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/AptPupil'' maintains the image of a cheery all-American golden boy even while he's blackmailing the neighborhood [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi-in-hiding]] into telling gruesome concentration camp stories. It's all downhill from there.

* ''Literature/ADeadlyPresence'': Jean loses her husband and becomes depressed, but she doesn't allow anyone to see her weakness.

* Creator/CSLewis' short story "The Shoddy Lands" also has its protagonist experience a telepathic vision of a StepfordSmiler's mental landscape.

* [[Creator/TSEliot J Alfred Prufrock]] attends parties and formal events to try to be accepted by his peer group but ultimately feels dead inside, and that he has never done anything significant with his life.

* Frank Chalmers in ''Literature/{{Red Mars|Trilogy}}'' is somewhere between Depressed and Empty. Coming from a poor family, he's almost entirely consumed by his ambition to succeed. At one point he looks at his life and realizes that all of it is an facade created to impress his superiors, and that he doesn't really have a self.
* Telemachon from ''Literature/BlackLegion'' is mostly the Depressed kind. To the outsiders, including emotion-reading Khayon, he's your typical Emperor's Child - indulgent, full of contempt and with no standards. Inside, however, he's DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife and has a soul of a poet. When Abaddon proposes him to join the Legion, he promptly [[HeelFaceTurn jumps ship]].

* Mr. Happy was like that at, at least the start of ''Literature/MrMen A Christmas Carol'' to help and keep Mr. Mean happy. Ironically, this book was made shorty before ''WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow'' came on air...

* Kiina in the {{Novelization}} of ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn''. In the animated movie, she's a GenkiGirl, even though the prequel book depicted her as a mean and argumentative person who got into {{bar brawl}}s, barely had any friends and would have loved nothing more than to leave the planet. In ''TLR'', when the appearance of Mata Nui presents an opportunity to do so, he adopts a friendly and cheerful persona to get close to him, fearing that if Mata Nui knew what life on her planet was like, he'd give up all hope and never try to help them.

* Ira Levin's book ''TheStepfordWives'', the TropeNamer.

* Countess Rostov from ''WarAndPeace'' is very much like this except when she's talking with her daughters. Pierre Bezukhov's wife Helene would be a subversion in that she goes from having no role in society except being beautiful (and smiling a lot) to one of the eminent hostesses on the Moscow and St. Petersburg scene after getting married.

* Felicity in ''TheIdeaOfPerfection'' by Kate Grenville is obsessed with appearance, to the point of avoiding frowning or smiling out of fear of developing wrinkles. More-or-less Empty, since there's nothing of substance underneath her immaculately groomed and beautiful appearance, and contrasting brilliantly with the much more [[{{Woobie}} flawed, but likable protagonists]], who, along with the flaws, also have goals, interests, and drives, and who actually get things done in the end.

* Many of the characters from ''Literature/LunarPark'', by BretEastonEllis.

* Kiina in the {{Novelization}} of ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn''. In the animated movie, she's a GenkiGirl, even though the prequel book depicted her as a mean and argumentative person who got into {{bar brawl}}s, barely had any friends and would have loved nothing more than to leave the planet. In ''TLR'', when the appearance of Mata Nui presents an opportunity to do so, he adopts a friendly and cheerful persona to get close to him, fearing that if Mata Nui knew what life on her planet was like, he'd give up all hope and never try to help them.

* Audrey Armat and her father Emilio in the BaseBreaker mystery novel ''The Total Zone.''

* ''InDeath'': Allika Straffo from ''Innocent In Death'' is either Depressed or Unstable. [[spoiler: That's because she knows her daughter Rayleen Straffo killed her baby brother Trevor. She tries to act like everything's fine and okay, because she's afraid of Rayleen and what she might do]].

* Stoner's wife, Edith, in "Literature/Stoner" by John Williams, goes through a phase of embodying this trope perfectly.

* The titular character of ''Literature/{{Stargirl}}'', of all people has a tendency to become Depressed when she's sad. She is normally an upbeat BlytheSpirit.

* The Other Mother from ''Literature/{{Coraline}}''.

* Glinda from ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' is essentially this. As such a high and mighty political figure she must keep a happy facade. Made even worse when her best friend, who happens to be the person she loves, is killed. She must act as if she ''hates'' her and tell pitiful lies about her. It's debatable if the musical or book version has it worse.

* ''Literature/{{Stargirl}}'', of all people has a tendency to become Depressed when she's sad.

* The title character in Edward Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" is a male Stepford Smiler whose secret unhappiness isn't revealed until the last lines: "And Richard Cory, one calm summer's night,/Went home and put a bullet through his head."

* ''TheWestingGame'' has two female examples:

* Paddy's mother in '''Literature/PaddyClarkeHaHaHa''', especially around his abusive father

* Frank Chalmers in ''{{Red Mars|Trilogy}}'' is somewhere between Depressed and Empty. Coming from a poor family, he's almost entirely consumed by his ambition to succeed. At one point he looks at his life and realizes that all of it is an facade created to impress his superiors, and that he doesn't really have a self.

* Shallan Davar of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' is revealed in ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' as a combination of Depressed and Unstable. Due to her DarkAndTroubledPast, she must use Lightweaving to repress her true feelings in order to function.