History ItsAllAboutMe / Literature

** There's also a little character named Lockhart who had ... a big ego. His idea of a Defense Against the Dark Arts test contained only questions like "What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?" and "When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?"

** In ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Empress Jadis]], the BigBad, relates how, when she lost the planet-wide civil war to her sister, [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum she refused to accept defeat]] and spoke [[WordsCanBreakMyBones The Deplorable Word]] to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt wipe out all life]] [[MoralEventHorizon on her planet]]. She justifies her actions thus:
--->'''Jadis''': I was the queen. [[WeHaveReserves They were all]] ''[[WeHaveReserves my]]'' [[WeHaveReserves people.]] What else were they there for but to do my will? ... You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people [[AboveGoodAndEvil is not wrong in a great queen such as I]]. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. [[IronicEcho Ours is a high and lonely destiny.]]

** Uncle Andrew most certainly would count as well. The whole plot kicks off because he sends Polly to another world and then guilts Diggory to go after her. His attitude is explicitly compared to Jadis', except that his justification for harming others is ForScience; he won't risk himself, of course, because as the researcher, he's too ''important.'' When they get to Narnia he's willing to abandon the others for his own safety and is more concerned about how he could profit from this new world. His also very dismissive of Diggory's hope that Narnia's magic could heal his dying mother, who is Andrew's own sister.

** Uncle Andrew most certainly would count as well. He makes his first appearance by tricking Polly into being teleported to another world which, by his own admittance, he knows ''absolutely nothing about'', and then starts guilting Diggory into going there as well. At one point, he launches into an explanation of his experiments and is annoyed when Diggory shows concern first that Andrew didn't obey his godmother's wishes and destroy the magic powder and then over the guinea pigs used for the initial experiments (which Uncle Andrew said exploded like "little bombs"). In fact, he even says that it was fine that he killed a number of helpless animals, because "that was what they were for!" When Diggory continues to ask about where Polly went, Uncle Andrew replies "How you go on about that! As if it mattered!" When Diggory asks why Andrew didn't just send himself to this other world to see what it was like, he outright states that he doesn't want to put himself in danger. And when Diggory is afraid to send himself to an unknown place, Uncle Andrew reminds him that Polly could be starving or drowning or being killed by wild animals. By this point, Diggory wishes he were tall enough to punch his uncle. Later, an explicate parallel is drawn between Andrew and Jadis. Oh, and when they're all in Narnia, all Uncle Andrew thinks about is his own safety (willing to abandon his own nephew, Polly, and a cabbie to get home) and how he can profit from the place. When Diggory asks if Narnia might hold something that would cure his mother, Andrew rudely replies that it's not a pharmacy.

** Theon Greyjoy is nearly in Viserys' boat for grating inconsequentialness: getting him to consider the needs of others is uphill work. He uses his relationships with women as if they're disposable toys fit only for his fleeting sexual amusement, for one thing. It... doesn't go well. He has [[FreudianExcuse many explanations]] for his attitude, but, they really don't excuse his both deliberate and accidentally hurtful actions towards others.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Some of the students at the evil WizardingSchool known as Myth/TheScholomance are there to learn how to TakeOverTheWorld, and some are there to become masters of the TheDarkArts so they can kill specific people upon graduating, but one rookie witch named Chosovi just wants to have fun taking on dangerous and thrilling challenges. The thing is, she doesn't care how many people she has to hurt or kill in order to have her fun and enjoy her day.

** The trendy modern witch Letice Earwig is so self-absorbed that [[TheFairFolk Fae]] {{Glamour}}, which works by preying on human insecurities, doesn't affect her at all. Other characters are able to overcome it with HeroicWillpower; Miss Earwig doesn't even notice it.

* Used in a joking manner in the Literature/TheDresdenFiles novel Literature/{{Changes}}, via this exchange between Molly and Harry:

* James Figueras from ''Literature/TheBurntOrangeHeresy'' is insanely self-centered, and blatantly doesn't give a damn about the well-being of anyone but himself. When Berenice returns and tearfully apologizes after briefly leaving him early in the novel, the only thing James can think of is that he'll force her to make him coffee afer she's calmed down. And later, when she tries to talk him out of burgling Deberiue's house:

* In Creator/EDBaker's ''Literature/TheWideAwakePrincess'' novel ''Unlocking the Curse'', the main characters are on TheQuest to find a dwarf who wanders the name and {{curse}}s anyone who thwarts him, often quite reasonably, into a BalefulPolymorph.

* In the African folk tale "Literature/AnsigeKarambaTheGlutton", Ansige never thinks of anything besides satiating his own hunger. Even his desire to bring back his wife doesn't stem from love for her; it's because in her absence, he has to rely on the servants for food, and they give him worse quality food in smaller quantities than she did.
* The heroic characters' creed in ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is "I swear -- by my life and my love of it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man ''nor ask another man to live for mine''" -- meaning, while they exempt themselves from the responsibility of caring about or helping others ([[NobleDemon which they frequently do anyway]]), they assert no one has the right to exploit others for personal gain, or obtain anything for themselves by force, fraud, or coercion. This is their definition of "selfishness" (independence + honesty).

* In ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheBlackSun'', Brekan is completely self-centred, but thinks that he's self-sacrificing, long-suffering, and unappreciated. He goes on about his efforts on behalf of other people, but his motivation is never just "it would make them happy" -- it's about how they'll be grateful and he'll seem important. If anyone points out that his efforts have had negative, stupid repercussions for the group, his only response is bitterness that he didn't get the outcome he wanted and that people are "as usual" all against him [[NeverMyFault for no reason]].

** Heather Babcock from ''Literature/TheMirrorCrackdFromSideToSide'' is a non-villainous example of this. She isn't mean, and actually goes out of her way to do nice things for other people, like rescuing Literature/MissMarple after a nasty fall or taking in a homeless family. However, she is incapable of recognizing that her actions affect other people or that what something means to her might not be the same for other people involved. [[spoiler:The primary example of this was that when she got sick, she didn't recognize that the doctor's instructions to "Stay in bed and don't go out to meet people" might not have been just for her benefit...]]
** In ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', Anthony Marston embodies this trope, seeing a hit-and-run accident which caused the death of two young children merely in the light of losing his driver's license.

** Uncle Andrew most certainly would count as well. He makes his first appearance by tricking Polly into being teleported to another world which, by his own admittance, he knows ''absolutely nothing about'', and then starts guilting Diggory into going there as well. At one point, he launches into an explanation of his experiments and is annoyed when Diggory shows concern first that Andrew didn't obey his godmother's wishes and destroy the magic powder and then over the guinea pigs used for the initial experiments (which Uncle Andrew said exploded like "little bombs"). In fact, he even says that it was fine that he killed a number of helpless animals, because "that was what they were for!" When Diggory continues to ask about where Polly went, Uncle Andrew replies "How you go on about that! As if it mattered!" When Diggory asks why Andrew didn't just send himself to this other world to see what it was like, he outright states that he doesn't want to put himself in danger. And when Diggory is afraid to send himself to an unknown place, Uncle Andrew reminds him that Polly could be starving or drowning or being killed by wild animals. By this point, Diggory wishes he were tall enough to punch his uncle. Later, an explicate parallel is drawn between Andrew and Jadis. Oh, and when they're all in Narnia, all Uncle Andrew thinks about is his own safety (willing to abandon his own nephew, Polly and a cabbie to get home) and how he can profit from the place. When Diggory asks if Narnia might hold something that would cure his mother, Andrew rudely replies that it's not a pharmacy.
* In ''Literature/{{Colony}}'', Charles Perry Gordon tricks Eddie O'Hare into taking his role on the generation ship ''Willflower'', claiming to Eddie that he wants to enjoy the money he recently won at the casino while Eddie takes his role on the ship. In reality, Gordon intends to stage a mugging and get Eddie arrested at a point when it’s too late for Gordon to join the crew himself, allowing him to set up his perceived ‘ideal society’ on Earth, when he could have done something less violent and all Eddie asked of him in turn was to set aside a bit of money to support Eddie’s mother.

--->'''Molly''': I mean, maybe it isn't all about you. Or at least, not only about you.\\

* Christian Grey from the ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' books comes across as this. He's a very selfish lover, particularly to his subs, and only cares about his own pleasure, often ignoring discomfort about certain aspects during 'scenes'. Even things that he seems to do for the sake of other people, like sending food supplies to Darfur, is all done because ''he'' used to go hungry as a toddler. ''He'' is the one in control of his life, and of those closely associated with him, including his subs and eventual wife, Anastasia Steele. ''His'' pleasure, ''his'' job, ''his'' personal life, is what he focuses on first and foremost.

* Patrick Hockstetter in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{IT}}''. Despite being the minion to the sadistic bully, Henry Bowers, Patrick Hockstetter is so profoundly psychopathic that he murders his own baby brother by suffocating him with a pillow because he suspected that maybe... JUST MAYBE... he could be as real as him. In his [[UsefulNotes/{{Solipsism}} solipsistic]] world view, only his mind exists and everything else around him are just realistic facsimiles, and thus are merely tools to amuse him at will, however he is just SANE enough to know that bringing too much attention on himself will get him locked up in the Mental Institution (one of his few real fears) and contents himself with horrifically torturing pets and animals by locking them up in a broken refrigerator in the junkyard to watch them slowly die, among them an adorable puppy he kidnapped from a nearby family. Ironically, the chapter devoted to him is merely a dozen or so pages long before his utterly gruesome yet well deserved KarmicDeath at the hands of the titular MonsterClown. It's even called "The Death of Patrick Hockstetter".

* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'': This is Bastian's FatalFlaw and the reason why most of his wishes in Fantastica go horribly wrong. Because he starts out as a LoserProtagonist, he wishes for strength, good looks, favorable opinions, to be feared and so forth. Even when Bastian wishes for good things to happen for others, it's always about secretly getting something he wants, or increasing his own appearance of benevolence. The story even points out that the motive behind doing a good turn for someone is as important as the good turn itself. It takes all of Bastian's selfish wishes going wrong to show him how low he has sunk after morally wounding Atreyu and later seeing what becomes of the other humans who went down similar selfish paths and became trapped and mindless in Fantastica. Bastian's last remaining wish breaks this cycle for him, because it's a wish to love someone other than himself and thus put another person first before his own wants.
* In Creator/JohnHemry's ''Literature/PaulSinclair'' novel ''A Just Determination'', Sinclair's first impression of Garcia is this, but while the ship is underway, Garcia is furious while investigating a death, and Sinclair deduces that it could not reflect on Garcia personally so he must be care about something besides himself.
* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'': Arguably, everyone in the original book by Gaston Leroux, except Christine, the Persian and Madam Valerious:

* In ''Literature/ThePilgrimsRegress'': Mr. Sensible, for all his affability, is quite self-absorbed. FridgeHorror sets in when reading his line about hoping for mechanical servants and[=/=]or "a race of peons who will be psychologically incapable of [revolt]", and realizing he'd fit right in in [[Literature/TheStepfordWives Stepford]].
* In Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', Mrs. Bennet and Lydia Bennet suffer from this; while Mrs. Bennet is perceptive enough to note that without husbands her daughters face a lifetime of ruin upon the death of their father, her primary concern seems mainly to be self-involved whining about how this will affect ''her''. Similarly, her favourite daughter Lydia (who takes after her mother in many ways), on running away with Wickham, writes a giggly letter expressing how much fun she's having and what a laugh it'll be to be married to Wickham without any concern for the fact that she might be putting her family's fortunes at risk through her actions. Mr Bennet suffers from this too: his failure to keep his wife and younger daughters' behaviour in check puts Lizzy and Jane's romantic prospects in jeopardy, and creates a bit of a monster in Lydia. Also, he fails to even try to marry Mary off to Mr Collins, even though she is plainly suited to him (lampshaded in the 90s BBC adaptation and recent film), and would secure his wife's future.

* In Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', Marianne Dashwood is deeply self-absorbed, considering her feelings (whether positive or negative) absolutely irrepressible and in the process disregarding common politeness and the feelings of others; when circumstances force Elinor to confess that she too has been unhappy, Marianne breaks down in TearsOfRemorse, forcing Elinor to comfort her again, and continues to wallow in her own unhappiness -- with added guilt, now -- rather than provide emotional support for Elinor. It takes near-death to smarten her up. Granted, she's a teenager, but it's a major contrast with Elinor, who's 19 and displays more responsibility and consideration for others than many people much older than her.

* Very prevalent in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. MoralMyopia is so very common, its no surprise at all to meet its extreme expression quite regularly.

*** Her darling spawn, Joffrey, isn't far behind her; when he becomes king he feels he can do just about anything he wants to, and everyone is his to torture if he wishes to, as well.

** Renly, though charming, is also self-centered. He tries to take the crown from his older brother because he thinks he would make the best and more popular king, even it means dividing the Baratheon forces which could be used in the war against the Lannisters at a time when numbers could make all the difference in winning King's Landing. That trying to jump the queue of succession like this could also very likely lead to the death of his brother, Stannis, (and a whole lot of other people) doesn't seem to bother him all that much.

* ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'': Objectivist hero Richard Rahl becomes like this about mid-way through the series, all while apparently wearing a massive set of irony blinders.

** In Creator/GrahamMcNeill's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/{{Ultramarines}} novel ''Nightbringer'', Taloun complains to the SpaceMarine Uriel that he has lost thousands of man-hours of production owing to bombs. Uriel wonders how many men he had lost, and whether he cared.

* In ''Literature/TheWitchlands'', this is Merik's FatalFlaw. He's convinced that the navy, the country and the people of Nubrevna are doomed without him and only him sitting on the throne will save the nation from utter destruction wrought by his sister. The reality is... less dramatic.

* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'': This is Bastian's fatal flaw and the reason why most of his wishes in Fantastica go horribly wrong. Because he starts out as a LoserProtagonist, he wishes for strength, good looks, favorable opinions, to be feared and so forth. Even when Bastian wishes for good things to happen for others, it's always about secretly getting something he wants, or increasing his own appearance of benevolence. The story even points out that the motive behind doing a good turn for someone is as important as the good turn itself. It takes all of Bastian's selfish wishes going wrong to show him how low he has sunk after morally wounding Atreyu and later seeing what becomes of the other humans who went down similar selfish paths and became trapped and mindless in Fantastica. Bastian's last remaining wish breaks this cycle for him, because it's a wish to love someone other than himself and thus put another person first before his own wants.