History UnintentionallySympathetic / Literature

* Whatever you think of female clergy, ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' opens to a female bishop being burned at the stake rather than renounce her faith or position, a powerful image of moral courage. She is meant to be part of the destruction of society by accepting multiculturalism though she comes off far better than the protagonist who in the same chapter pitches a fit over female Marines existing.

** Sirius's treatment of Kreacher is cruel and [[spoiler:the main reason he ends up dead]], but does Sirius have a lot of reasons to be nice to him? Keep in mind that Kreacher treats him like dirt, has always been loyal only to the rest of Sirius's family (who also treated him like dirt and as an outcast), calls Hermione (who actually does try to be nice to him) racial slurs, and generally does his best to be as horrible to him and his friends as he can be. For example, Sirius' [[spoiler:fatal]] last command to Kreacher ("Out!") was in response in Kreacher mocking the Weasley kids over [[spoiler:the near fatal attack on their father.]] It's not hard to see why Sirius isn't exactly showering him with affection.

** Through most of the series, Leah is meant to be seen as a heartless bitch who didn't bow graciously out for Sam hooking up with Emily, uses the pack mind to think of various scandals, and tell Jacob he's being overly angsty about Bella. Thing is, with all of the shit that Leah goes through (her fiance is essentially brainwashed into loving her cousin, her father dies of a heart attack at the sight of her and her brother turning into werewolves, she's the only girl ever to become a werewolf, heavily implied to be infertile due to her powers stopping her monthly courses (and she believes it’s one of the reasons why Sam dumped her for Emily), the entire pack thinks she's bitter and weak, her own brother says that she ruins everything, etc), she comes across as an IronWoobie. She comes across as this even more so when one considers that the same people who call her selfish and whiny all coddle Jacob for being even more self-centered and whiny over Bella, who he was involved with far less than Leah was with Sam.

** Sirius's treatment of Kreacher is cruel and [[spoiler:the main reason he ends up dead]], but does Sirius have a lot of reasons to be nice to him? Keep in mind that Kreacher treats him like dirt, has always been loyal only to the rest of Sirius's family (who also treated him like dirt and as an outcast), calls Hermione (who actually does try to be nice to him) racial slurs, and generally does his best to be as horrible to him and his friends as he can be. Plus Sirius' [[spoiler:fatal]] last command to Kreacher ("Out!") was in response in Kreacher mocking the Weasley kids over [[spoiler:the near fatal attack on their father.]] It's not hard to see why Sirius isn't exactly showering him with affection.

* In the Literature/JeevesAndWooster novel ''Literature/RightHoJeeves'', Bertie is depicted as a vain and incompetent UpperClassTwit who bites off more than he can chew when he tries to help his friends and relatives solve their various issues, even though they had actually wanted to ask [[HypercompetentSidekick Jeeves]] for help. When Bertie's advice inevitable makes things worse, the people he attempted to help blames him for the disaster and harshly chews him out for it (his Aunt even tells him ''to kill himself'' for driving her chef to quit). The book seems to treat their behaviour as a justified response to Bertie's poorly thought-out interference, and the story ends with Bertie acknowledging Jeeves's superiority and vows to let the valet do what he does best the next time. Many readers find that the book's treatment of Bertie is disproportionately cruel, especially since he means no harm, and that his friends and family never face consequences for ''their'' flaws that instigated the problems Bertie needed to solve in the first place.

* In ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'', Brother Bear in ''The Trouble With School'' gets ''pretty'' sick and has to miss school for at least a week if not two. During which, his math class learns how to divide.... except Brother is expected to learn to do this on his own without the input of a teacher. When he returns, he is then made to take a test on it - when a ''decent'' teacher would have either excused him from it (to make sure he is fully caught up since learning to divide is a pretty major part of arithmetic.) Sure enough, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he fails the test]]. If anything, Brother's teacher ''and'' his parents all are to blame here.
** Another example is the book ''No Girls Allowed'', where Brother and his guy friends are portrayed as [[IWasBeatenByAGirl sexist jerks]] for kicking Sister out of their club [[DisproportionateRetribution because Sister was outdoing them in every activity she participated in with them]]. However, [[SubvertedTrope that isn't the reason they kicked her out]]. The real reason was [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating the way Sister celebrated every time she won]], which got on Brother and the other guys' nerves so much that they just decided to not want anything to do with Sister at this point. It doesn't help that not only did Sister do the same thing after discovering their club, when she tells her parents about it, Papa actually declares that he's going to ''make'' Brother and his friends let Sister join their club under a threat of tearing the club apart limb from limb, which only gives the readers an even bigger reason to take Brother and the other guys' side. Mama even lampshades this by pointing out that while she doesn't endorse Brother and his friends' decision, she does understand why they did what they did and puts the blame more on Sister for her frequent gloating.

* ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'': Mary Bennet is supposed to be, in her own way, just as annoying as Lydia and Kitty due to her preachiness, KnowNothingKnowItAll pretensions, and refusal to socialize. ValuesDissonance comes into play here: in the time and place in which the book is set, there was little to no way other than marriage for a woman to be assured of having a home and a means to live, and socializing at balls and parties was practically the only way of meeting and getting to know prospective husbands. In this context, Mary's unsociable behavior could easily have serious negative repercussions on her future. However, the fact that she's the "plain" one who avoids going out because she doesn't want to be unfavorably compared to her sisters makes her an underdog from the start, and modern readers are likely to sympathize with her as an insecure, bookish introvert much more than Austen intended.[[note]]In a similarly-situated family in Spain or Italy, Mary would have entered a convent where she would have played the organ in the chapel and taught in the girl's school, and been very busy and happy. Protestant England at the time had no place for someone like her (a generation or so later, she might have become a missionary and traveled to far-off lands).[[/note]]

* Mary Bennett in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' is supposed to be, in her own way, just as annoying as Lydia and Kitty due to her preachiness, KnowNothingKnowItAll pretensions, and refusal to socialize. ValuesDissonance comes into play here: in the time and place in which the book is set, there was little to no way other than marriage for a woman to be assured of having a home and a means to live, and socializing at balls and parties was practically the only way of meeting and getting to know prospective husbands. In this context, Mary's unsociable behavior could easily have serious negative repercussions on her future. However, the fact that she's the "plain" one who avoids going out because she doesn't want to be unfavorably compared to her sisters makes her an underdog from the start, and modern readers are likely to sympathize with her as an insecure, bookish introvert much more than Austen intended.
** In a similarly-situated family in Spain or Italy, Mary would have entered a convent where she would have played the organ in the chapel and taught in the girl's school, and been very busy and happy. Protestant England at the time had no place for someone like her. (A generation or so later, she might have become a missionary and traveled to far-off lands.)

* It's hard to find the villains in ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' threatening when they [[http://www.boredpanda.com/cute-pet-rat-photos/ look]] [[http://www.boredpanda.com/cute-pet-ferrets/ like]] [[https://www.buzzfeed.com/kaelintully/its-a-woodland-critter-christmas?utm_term=.acYoBBREEe#.wlMqvveNN6 this]].

* ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha'': ** Though the main character is sympathetic herself, [[spoiler: Pumpkin's]] revenge against Sayuri is meant to be a major KickTheDog, but as she points out to Sayuri, Sayuri took her life goal of becoming officially adopted by the okiya and becoming one of the most successful geisha in Gion, and she ''didn't really even want that;'' it was all just "a stepping stone" to get to the Chairman. Under those circumstances, it's easy to feel like [[spoiler: Pumpkin's]] revenge was justified, even if Sayuri hadn't ''meant'' to do that and was manipulated into it by Mameha and [[spoiler: The Chairman]].