History ButtMonkey / Literature

** Percy, Filch, Umbridge, Lockhart, and Draco also have their share in this trope, but they almost always deserve it. Although Percy wasn't a ''bad'' guy like the others, [[InsufferableGenius just annoying]] and the constant disrespect from his siblings [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal led him to betray his family and the Order of the Phoenix]].

* In Lawrence Block's Literature/MatthewScudder novel ''The Sins of the Fathers'', a young woman is raped and murdered by her male roommate, who is then immediately caught (covered in blood) by the police and hangs himself in his cell a day later. The woman's stepfather, who had been out of touch with her for a few years, hires Scudder to look into her life because he needs to understand how the crime happened (and the police, with such an open-and-shut case, have no reason to look into the circumstances any further). Scudder talks with a friend in the police department, and they both agree the stepfather is a "poor bastard." The cop points out how, even though a long police investigation and trial can be hard on a murder victim's family, it also gives them something to focus on while they adjust to the idea that their loved one is gone. But this stepfather just has everything -- his stepdaughter is dead, the killer is caught, and the killer is now dead too -- dumped on him all at once and has no idea how to deal with any of it.

** Lupin literally couldn't catch a break in the course of his life.

*** Note that very few people manage to even momentarily confuse the Patrician. Rincewind is a sort of singularity. (The Patrician seems rather off his game generally in ''The Last Hero''; he does a couple of other things that are not quite in line with the CrazyPrepared MagnificentBastard we've come to know and love. The world ''is'' about to end, so he's got some excuse for being distracted.)

** Tyrion's sister, Cersei, is also this. She's beautiful, tough, resilient, brave, it's impossible not to like her. However, she's sort of trying to be a MagnificentBitch but [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain failing miserably]]. She's spent her life living in fear of a prophecy that one day her life would basically fall apart and then she'd be ignominiously killed so all of her efforts are dedicated to protecting her children and escaping this prophecy through manipulative attempts at power-grabbing that inevitably blow up in her face. As Petyr Baelish points out, while Cersei desires power, she has no idea how to wield it and while she thinks she is a player in the Game of Thrones, she usually just ends up being a pawn. However, she does now have Gregor Clegane on her side, so things should start looking up for her.

* Halkara in ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesFor300YearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' seems to exist solely to suffer in comedic fashion, cause trouble to Azusa and the others, and suffer even more as a result. Her lack of tact and sensibility, her alcoholism, and generally impulsive nature only make it worse.

** No one respects the {{Divination}} teacher, Professor Trelawney. Even Dumbledore jumps in on the snark fest when she’s not around. He tells Harry in the sixth book that he personally thinks all of Divination is a bunch of hooey but keeps her at Hogwarts partially because parents want it taught and partially to protect her from Voldemort.

** Neville Longbottom was very much the Butt Monkey for the first four books, being there mainly just as a source of comic relief. However he TookALevelInBadass in the fifth book and if you're laughing at him by the seventh book, you have a very weird sense of humour.
** Peter Pettigrew took away Neville's title ever since the third book was released. Mostly because of the snark delivered his way by people from his ex-friends like Lupin and Sirius, to Voldemort himself. And all verbally assaulted him and gave him crappy jobs for the mere pleasure in seeing him squirm. But then again, when you decide to do a FaceHeelTurn on your best friends knowing it'll lead them to death [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]], then spend twelve years as ''a rat'', you kind of deserve the title of Butt Monkey.
*** Even while he [[spoiler: still was a rat, he was a Butt Monkey -- it was repeatedly pointed out how shabby Scabbers (MeaningfulName) looked, and Ron, despite loving his pet rat, was also a bit ashamed of him]]. And in the third book Hermione got the big cat Crookshanks, which made life difficult for Scabbers.

** Percy, Filch, Umbridge, Lockhart, and Draco also have their share in this trope, but they almost always deserve it.
** No one respects the Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney. Even Dumbledore jumps in on the snark fest when she’s not around. He tells Harry in the sixth book that he personally thinks all of Divination is a bunch of hooey but keeps her at Hogwarts partially because parents want it taught and partially to protect her from Voldemort.
*** Umbridge gets a strong dose in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' courtesy of the Weasley twins, who support other students' attempts to annoy and harass her even after they drop out.

* Halkara in ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' seems to exist solely to suffer in comedic fashion, cause trouble to Azusa and the others, and suffer even more as a result. Her lack of tact and sensibility, her alcoholism, and generally impulsive nature only make it worse.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Cleges'', the impoverished Sir Cleges received miraclous cherries at Christmas and went to give them to the king to mend his fortunes. Three royal officials each demand a third of his reward to let him in. When he does so, the king wishes to reward him. He tells the king that the proper reward is thirty blows, and then explains. The king gives his officials the blows and then rewards Cleges's wife for being so faithful to him in his poverty. Porters and other offficials that could keep ministrels from the court are often treated like this in romance -- given that MostWritersAreWriters.

* Penlan, aka "Jinxie", from the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' series. Her bad luck hasn't killed her yet, heck, she even got promoted. Addtionally, she's rather popular with the rest of the 597th as it's believed that all the bad luck in her squad gets attracted to her and leaves everyone else alone. From the [[OverlyLongGag what Cain has said]], it really does work out for her.

* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Because of his stupidity, Vlok is a frequent object of jokes, particularly from Purple-Green.

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* Creator/IsaacAsimov: ''Literature/FoundationSeries''' "Literature/TheMule": Magnifico Giganticus willingly tells Bayta and Toran about the various indignities that the Mule has subjected him to for entertainment, such as being held upside-down by his ankle while reciting poetry. [[spoiler:Subverted, as Magnifico ''is'' the Mule, and the story is made up to gain their sympathy.]]

* ''Literature/TheGreatControversy'':
** Anyone who's got the Seal of God and must either go through the Great Tribulation or be killed during it to get to Heaven. Many of the Protestant reformers are this too, for they often suffered humiliating deaths at the hands of the Papacy.

* Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Literature/Carrie}}'': Carrie White is described as both heavily abused at home, school, and summer camp, as well as a perpetual screw-up.

* Creator/DerekLandy's ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'':
** Tanith Low was meant to be killed off in the first book but the publishers said it was too depressing so Landy was forced to keep her in. He wasn't pleased about that. Now as punishment for surviving, in every book she gets tortured in some way. Now she's possessed by an evil spirit and has eloped with a psychopathic hitman. She hasn't been seen since.
** Fletcher Renn is traditionally on the receiving end of insults and jibes and got dumped by his beloved girlfriend, Valkyrie Cain, in book 6 though he did get a BigDamnHeroes moment at the end of the book, saving her from the clutches of a {{Yandere}} vampire.
** [[PluckyComicRelief Vaurien Scapegrace and his minion Thrasher]] are nothing but this. They don't actually affect the plot in any way, and keep showing up just to get humiliated by the heroes, or other villains. [[ThrowTheDogABone Things do start to go their way though in the final book.]]

* The cast of Daniel Handler's ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''.

** Tyrion's sister, Cersei, is also this. She's beautiful, tough, resilient, brave, it's impossible not to like her. However she's sort of trying to be a MagnificentBitch but [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain failing miserably]]. She's spent her life living in fear of a prophecy that one day her life would basically fall apart and then she'd be ignominiously killed so all of her efforts are dedicated to protecting her children and escaping this prophecy through manipulative attempts at power-grabbing that ineveriably blow up in her face. As Petyr Baelish points out, while Cersei desires power, she has no idea how to wield it and while she thinks she is a player in the Game of Thrones, she usually just ends up being a pawn. However she does now have Gregor Clegane on her side so things should start looking up for her.

** Theon Greyjoy. He gets ''no'' respect, not even from his own kinsmen. the universe just seems to twist itself into knots in a deliberate effort to ruin Theon's life. On the other hand, he's such a massive jerk that even most of the other men in Westeros don't like him.

** The people of the Riverlands suffer the most in the war. Their lands have been ravaged by the Lannisters who had House Clegane and the [[PsychoForHire Bloody Mummers]] pillage every settlement in their path, leaving the Riverlands into a corpse filled wasteland.

* Creator/FranzKafka: every protagonist of his ever written, every one, and he often put his characters out of their misery in the end.
* Justine, the title character of one of the Creator/MarquisDeSade's (in)famous works, is the ultimate embodiment of this trope. At every turn, she's subjected to abuse hidden under a mask of virtue. She is forced to become a sex-slave to monks, is locked up in a cave and abused, publicly humiliated and raped numerous times. And just when things begin to look up for Justine, she gets struck by lightening and killed. Butt Monkey indeed.
** This is, of course, a reflection of the philosophy of Sade's that [[CrapsackWorld virtuous people finish last]]. Every virtuous character in a story of Sade's is a complete Butt Monkey.
** A critic once remarked that De Sade's novels have a kind of inverted karma: ''good'' acts end up hurting the actor. For instance, Justine's sister Juliette has no scruples whatsoever, and the one time she refuses to commit a crime it is because she is afraid of the consequences, not from any moral considerations. Nevertheless, by refusing to commit the crime she loses her favored place at court and spends much of the rest of the novel in poverty and misery, until by a long series of evil acts she finally regains her power and luxury. (What really clinches it is betraying her sister Justine, of course.)
* Many a Thomas Hardy protagonist, particularly Jude of ''Literature/JudeTheObscure'' and Tess in ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles''. Jude and Tess both begin as wholesome, virtuous innocents until about the fourth page of their respective books, in which a endless series of escalating tragedies designed to rob them of all hope begin because GodIsEvil and [[InherentInTheSystem Victorian morality stifles any hope of a freethinking life]]. When things do improve in some minor fashion, it is only to make the next tragedy all the more poignant. Thomas Hardy biographers have tried and failed to come up with a reason for his unrelenting grimness; perhaps a contemporary review of ''Jude the Obscure'' sums the case up best by saying that, "He is depressing because he himself is somewhat depressed."
* Most Creator/TomHolt main characters have things go hideously wrong for them more or less nonstop. Everything from jackass parents to being a pawn in century-old {{GambitRoulette}}s to [[spoiler: ''having the Queen of the Fey wipe your girlfriend's memory of you''.]] At the end of the story, they are usually given a lot of money and/or a vast region of land somewhere on the other side of the world as a karmic payoff for putting up with vast amounts of misery.
* Creator/PGWodehouse's ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'': Bertie Wooster could easily be classed a Butt Monkey. He's forever insulted by everyone he knows, berated by his aunts, and is made to perform degrading errands by people who lean on ties of family or friendship to make him do those hideous tasks. Even Jeeves called him "mentally negligible". However, in the end he always avoids the worst, such as marrying girls he dreads and or getting beaten up by jealous guys, and returns to his comfortable IdleRich life.