Fictional examples of self-deception?
November 6, 2014 6:12 PM Subscribe
My wife is working on her dissertation on the topic of self-deception and self-knowledge. She'd like to create a database of examples of self-deception from literature or film to better illustrate her work. What are some interesting or novel fictional examples of people who are (or have been) self-deceived, ignorant about themselves, or who, conversely, have unnaturally good insight into themselves?
Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night. So much of the book is watching her gradually learn to face the things she's afraid to face, and we watch her whole attitude shift with it. Honesty—to ourselves, to each other, to ideas—is a major theme of the book.
Plus it's my favorite book of all time.
posted by you're a kitty! at 6:35 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Plus it's my favorite book of all time.
posted by you're a kitty! at 6:35 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Memento is a great example. Spoiler alert: the main character has a memory problem and recreates his life story by creating his own false memories.
posted by Requiax at 6:36 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by Requiax at 6:36 PM on November 6, 2014
An interesting author is T.C. Boyle. In many of his stories the protagonist is presented as self-deluded or just self-justifying in an odd or deceptive manner.
posted by ovvl at 6:42 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by ovvl at 6:42 PM on November 6, 2014
Tom Ripley has keen insight into himself.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:00 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Ideefixe at 7:00 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Without being too specific, one of the characters in Hitchcock's Psycho is seriously self-deceived.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:07 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:07 PM on November 6, 2014
Hannibal Lecter could be an example of an unusually self-aware character.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:10 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:10 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
This raises the question of whether unreliable narrators *know* they are unreliable, I suppose.
That said, Holden Caufield.
posted by mecran01 at 7:16 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
That said, Holden Caufield.
posted by mecran01 at 7:16 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'd say Emma more than Elizabeth Bennett if I were to pick an Austen.
How about Jack Reacher? He's bizarrely self-aware, which I think is part of his appeal.
posted by small_ruminant at 7:22 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
How about Jack Reacher? He's bizarrely self-aware, which I think is part of his appeal.
posted by small_ruminant at 7:22 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
Fight Club
posted by mhum at 7:29 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by mhum at 7:29 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure if these are the same thing, but the narrator of True Grit is hilarious because of her inability to understand people, while thinking she's particularly wily. The author of The Blogess blog uses the same schtick to good effect. The narrator of Machine Man (which I recommend) has a similar sort of tunnel vision about himself and everyone else.
posted by small_ruminant at 7:34 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by small_ruminant at 7:34 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
"Stephen Colbert" vs Stephen Colbert.
posted by carmicha at 7:40 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by carmicha at 7:40 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Ignatius J Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces
Humbert Humbert from Lolita
On the other hand, Abed from Community is fantastically and even unnervingly self aware.
posted by mochapickle at 8:05 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Humbert Humbert from Lolita
On the other hand, Abed from Community is fantastically and even unnervingly self aware.
posted by mochapickle at 8:05 PM on November 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Anne Gilbert thinking she hates Gilbert Blythe.
Bertie Wooster thinking he is Jeeves's boss.
The Sealed Letter has a self-deception that is revealed toward the end.
Sixth Sense?
posted by katieanne at 8:09 PM on November 6, 2014
Bertie Wooster thinking he is Jeeves's boss.
The Sealed Letter has a self-deception that is revealed toward the end.
Sixth Sense?
posted by katieanne at 8:09 PM on November 6, 2014
Life of Pi
The Emperor's New Clothes
Michael Scott from The Office
posted by amtho at 8:12 PM on November 6, 2014
The Emperor's New Clothes
Michael Scott from The Office
posted by amtho at 8:12 PM on November 6, 2014
Virtually all of the characters in the film Boogie Nights are irretrievably self-deluded.
posted by scratch at 8:14 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by scratch at 8:14 PM on November 6, 2014
My favorite self-deceiving character is the protagonist of Geraldine McCaughrean's The White Darkness. It's about a young deaf woman who accompanies her uncle on a trip to Antarctica, and she trusts her uncle very much, and shouldn't.
posted by Jeanne at 8:23 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Jeanne at 8:23 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
Isn't Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby the ultimate example of a non-reliable narrator that lacks insight?
posted by Jewel98 at 8:26 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Jewel98 at 8:26 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
Do I need to warn about spoilers? Probably.
Two characters named Harriet!
For self-deception: the protagonist of Donna Tartt's The Little Friend convinces herself of the identity of her brother's killer on wafer-thin evidence.
For self-knowledge: The subject of The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt. Actually, all of Hustvedt's books feature incredibly self-aware protagonists with major blind spots about some aspect of themselves or someone else. One of my absolute favorites that deals with the latter is her earlier book, What I Loved.
Also, Sam from Kavalier and Clay spends most of the book not realizing he's gay (and kind of in love with his cousin.)
posted by prewar lemonade at 8:33 PM on November 6, 2014
Two characters named Harriet!
For self-deception: the protagonist of Donna Tartt's The Little Friend convinces herself of the identity of her brother's killer on wafer-thin evidence.
For self-knowledge: The subject of The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt. Actually, all of Hustvedt's books feature incredibly self-aware protagonists with major blind spots about some aspect of themselves or someone else. One of my absolute favorites that deals with the latter is her earlier book, What I Loved.
Also, Sam from Kavalier and Clay spends most of the book not realizing he's gay (and kind of in love with his cousin.)
posted by prewar lemonade at 8:33 PM on November 6, 2014
On the topic of people who are ignorant of their true nature, Philip K. Dick's story "The Imposter" covers that territory. I'll give you the Wikipedia summary:
Spence Olham is confronted by a colleague and accused of being an android impostor designed to sabotage Earth's defences. The impostor's ship was damaged and has crashed just outside the city. The android is supposed to detonate a planet destroying bomb on the utterance of a deadly code phrase. Olham must escape and prove his innocence, providing he is actually Spence Olham. Olham tries to prove he is the real Olham by finding the crashed spaceship and recovering the android's body.
Spoiler: instead of finding the android, he finds a dead human Spence Oldham. This realization, that he really is the android, triggers the bomb within. (Or something like that-- read it a million years ago.)
This was made into a Gary Sinise movie "Imposter." In that case, however, it turned out that the movie was a bomb. (wakka wakka)
Star Trek has done this plot as well: in the DS9 episode Whispers, Chief O'Brien has Olham's paranoid experience.
Speaking of Trek, TNG episode Inheritance features a woman who was once married to the scientist who built Data, Noonian Soong. She is unaware that she is actually a simulacrum of Soong's wife, an android built by him following her death in the terrible event that befell the colony where they lived. Data discovers this and has to decide whether he should tell her.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:38 PM on November 6, 2014
Spence Olham is confronted by a colleague and accused of being an android impostor designed to sabotage Earth's defences. The impostor's ship was damaged and has crashed just outside the city. The android is supposed to detonate a planet destroying bomb on the utterance of a deadly code phrase. Olham must escape and prove his innocence, providing he is actually Spence Olham. Olham tries to prove he is the real Olham by finding the crashed spaceship and recovering the android's body.
Spoiler: instead of finding the android, he finds a dead human Spence Oldham. This realization, that he really is the android, triggers the bomb within. (Or something like that-- read it a million years ago.)
This was made into a Gary Sinise movie "Imposter." In that case, however, it turned out that the movie was a bomb. (wakka wakka)
Star Trek has done this plot as well: in the DS9 episode Whispers, Chief O'Brien has Olham's paranoid experience.
Speaking of Trek, TNG episode Inheritance features a woman who was once married to the scientist who built Data, Noonian Soong. She is unaware that she is actually a simulacrum of Soong's wife, an android built by him following her death in the terrible event that befell the colony where they lived. Data discovers this and has to decide whether he should tell her.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:38 PM on November 6, 2014
Nabokov's Despair is a wonderfully extreme version of the concept.
posted by neroli at 8:42 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by neroli at 8:42 PM on November 6, 2014 [2 favorites]
The novels of Kazuo Ishiguro have many examples of characters who lack awareness. Remains of the Day, An Artist of the Floating World, Never Let Me Go.
posted by matildaben at 8:43 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by matildaben at 8:43 PM on November 6, 2014
One more, also spoileriffic.
Sarah Waters' Affinity. It's about a psychological and emotional con, in a dusty gray area where a woman's self-deception is deliberately cultivated to brutal effect.
posted by prewar lemonade at 8:47 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Sarah Waters' Affinity. It's about a psychological and emotional con, in a dusty gray area where a woman's self-deception is deliberately cultivated to brutal effect.
posted by prewar lemonade at 8:47 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
I read it a long time ago but I remember that An Instance of the Fingerpost was chock full of self-deluded characters.
I also think that Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford is pretty insightful into himself, both his strengths and his failings. This is often in contrast to his offsider, Mike Burden, who frequently thinks he's worked it all out and is usually leading himself up the garden path. You could argue that something of the same thing is going on with Holmes and Watson (at least as Conan Doyle portrayed them, not so much in various reinventions).
posted by Athanassiel at 8:55 PM on November 6, 2014
I also think that Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford is pretty insightful into himself, both his strengths and his failings. This is often in contrast to his offsider, Mike Burden, who frequently thinks he's worked it all out and is usually leading himself up the garden path. You could argue that something of the same thing is going on with Holmes and Watson (at least as Conan Doyle portrayed them, not so much in various reinventions).
posted by Athanassiel at 8:55 PM on November 6, 2014
The Director's cut of Bladerunner qualifies: there's a huge reveal about Deckard at the end. (The studio didn't like it, and forced the director to change it for the original release.) This one counts as "ignorant about himself".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:11 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:11 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Oh yeah, definitely Deckard. Just watched that again the other night for the first time in about 15 years and was horrified.
Also, you may have some luck doing some searches for "unreliable narrators". This isn't always the same thing as a character who lacks self-awareness - sometimes they are completely aware of lying and deceiving and the joke is on the reader who believes their version of events - but many of the examples here (Humbert Humbert, Nick Carraway, Holden Caulfield, the guy from Fight Club) come up time and time again along with heaps of others. This list on Goodreads is a good start, even just the first page of it.
posted by Athanassiel at 9:18 PM on November 6, 2014
Also, you may have some luck doing some searches for "unreliable narrators". This isn't always the same thing as a character who lacks self-awareness - sometimes they are completely aware of lying and deceiving and the joke is on the reader who believes their version of events - but many of the examples here (Humbert Humbert, Nick Carraway, Holden Caulfield, the guy from Fight Club) come up time and time again along with heaps of others. This list on Goodreads is a good start, even just the first page of it.
posted by Athanassiel at 9:18 PM on November 6, 2014
Self-deceptive / rationalizing:
Jason and Caroline in The Sound and the Fury
Humbert Humbert in Lolita
posted by shivohum at 9:20 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Jason and Caroline in The Sound and the Fury
Humbert Humbert in Lolita
posted by shivohum at 9:20 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Cassandra at the Wedding. By turns self-aware and self-deceiving, and very fun reading.
posted by stellaluna at 9:37 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by stellaluna at 9:37 PM on November 6, 2014
And Oblomov in Oblomov.
posted by small_ruminant at 9:51 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by small_ruminant at 9:51 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Self-deception and ignorance are great themes in comedy. On the gentle side, there's Bertie Wooster thinking he's capable of solving his friend's relationship problems, and on the cruel side there are John Self and Richard Tull in Martin Amis' Money and The Information respectively.
posted by betweenthebars at 10:14 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by betweenthebars at 10:14 PM on November 6, 2014
The titular character from Jane Austen's Emma. She spends most of the book in one self-deception or another, mostly to great comic effect. Ultimately her self-deception lies in thinking that her superior intellect and social position mean that she knows more about love/people than she really does.
posted by katyggls at 10:20 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by katyggls at 10:20 PM on November 6, 2014
Two characters in HMS Pinafore are seriously ignorant about themselves; it's the comedic point of the operetta.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:34 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:34 PM on November 6, 2014
Rose, the mother in the musical Gypsy, is pathologically self-deceived.
posted by argybarg at 10:48 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by argybarg at 10:48 PM on November 6, 2014
Breaking Bad. So much!
posted by misterdaniel at 10:54 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by misterdaniel at 10:54 PM on November 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
A Member Of The Wedding
Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow
posted by daisystomper at 11:10 PM on November 6, 2014
Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow
posted by daisystomper at 11:10 PM on November 6, 2014
All of Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann, Proust, and Robert Musil? Granted, it's not always on the character level, but all of these authors basically wrote about their characters and situations on a microsurgical level of precision. Musil's The Man Without Qualities must be the ultimate pinnacle of the form.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 12:43 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by Pyrogenesis at 12:43 AM on November 7, 2014
I just read How to be a Good Wife. Some self deception going on there!
posted by mibo at 4:00 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by mibo at 4:00 AM on November 7, 2014
To the surprise of nobody, I am going to suggest seasons 1 and 2 of NBC Hannibal. It's a major theme of the show.
posted by tel3path at 4:08 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by tel3path at 4:08 AM on November 7, 2014
I would say that the classic example from literature is Don Quixote. The whole book is about self-deception. Also, maybe to a certain extent, Catcher in the Rye, where he envisions himself as a savior, of sorts, who prevents children from falling off a cliff. (Catcher might be more of a stretch, though.)
posted by alex1965 at 5:00 AM on November 7, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by alex1965 at 5:00 AM on November 7, 2014 [3 favorites]
In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, doublethink is the term for a sort of intentional (or perhaps enforced) self-deception within the oppressive totalitarian society, enabling the reconciliation of contradictory rhetoric and reality.
posted by XMLicious at 5:08 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by XMLicious at 5:08 AM on November 7, 2014
Walter White (Breaking Bad) is a great example of a character who starts out completely in denial about himself, and by the end he has completely transformed and is utterly honest with himself.
And there is no character more self-aware and at home with himself than Sherlock Holmes.
posted by jbickers at 5:19 AM on November 7, 2014
And there is no character more self-aware and at home with himself than Sherlock Holmes.
posted by jbickers at 5:19 AM on November 7, 2014
Even yet more still Nabokov, but Charles Kinbote in Pale Fire is just a brilliant portrait in complete and utter narcissistic self-deception.
On the other side of the coin, Magdalen Vanstone in Wilkie Collins's No Name seems to have unique insight into her own character flaws. She knows, even though she is extremely young, that she is essentially a sociopath, and she uses her ability to lie and deceive others to effect the book's revenge plot.
posted by Sonny Jim at 5:38 AM on November 7, 2014 [5 favorites]
On the other side of the coin, Magdalen Vanstone in Wilkie Collins's No Name seems to have unique insight into her own character flaws. She knows, even though she is extremely young, that she is essentially a sociopath, and she uses her ability to lie and deceive others to effect the book's revenge plot.
posted by Sonny Jim at 5:38 AM on November 7, 2014 [5 favorites]
The main character(s) in pretty much anything by Satoshi Kon!
The guy in the first story of The King In Yellow.
posted by Drexen at 6:02 AM on November 7, 2014
The guy in the first story of The King In Yellow.
posted by Drexen at 6:02 AM on November 7, 2014
Nthing Walter White from Breaking Bad.
Also, many characters from Twin Peaks. Self-deception abounds.
posted by whoiam at 6:44 AM on November 7, 2014
Also, many characters from Twin Peaks. Self-deception abounds.
posted by whoiam at 6:44 AM on November 7, 2014
Just about any Flannery O'Connor short story would fit the bill here. I don't know anyone who writes about self-deception more ruthlessly or deliciously.
Huckleberry Finn is about the self-deception of an entire culture. Lolita has been mentioned before, but is worth mentioning again. W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz chronicles, in one scholar's words, "the eponymous character's uncanny travels from self-oblivion to problematic self-awareness." On the lighter side, there's I Am A Cat by Natsume Sōseki -- but who's really self-deceived in that novel, the cat or the humans?
Turning to film and TV (and radio), self-deception is a major theme in The Night of the Hunter, and is behind much of the comedy in Hancock's Half Hour and Fawlty Towers.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 6:44 AM on November 7, 2014
Huckleberry Finn is about the self-deception of an entire culture. Lolita has been mentioned before, but is worth mentioning again. W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz chronicles, in one scholar's words, "the eponymous character's uncanny travels from self-oblivion to problematic self-awareness." On the lighter side, there's I Am A Cat by Natsume Sōseki -- but who's really self-deceived in that novel, the cat or the humans?
Turning to film and TV (and radio), self-deception is a major theme in The Night of the Hunter, and is behind much of the comedy in Hancock's Half Hour and Fawlty Towers.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 6:44 AM on November 7, 2014
Also, don't forget Shakespeare (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear ...) and Oedipus the King.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 6:51 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by Perodicticus potto at 6:51 AM on November 7, 2014
Richard Matheson's I am Legend (story, less apparent in the movies) ends with the narrator coming to an understanding of his true place in the world, which is different than he thought.
Lots of Stanislaw Lem would qualify - Solaris for sure, but also Fiasco - all of the "team of scientists investigates mysterious phenomenon" stories feature some sort of reversal along those lines.
posted by five toed sloth at 7:29 AM on November 7, 2014
Lots of Stanislaw Lem would qualify - Solaris for sure, but also Fiasco - all of the "team of scientists investigates mysterious phenomenon" stories feature some sort of reversal along those lines.
posted by five toed sloth at 7:29 AM on November 7, 2014
Soon I will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, follows a SuperVillian and fledgling Superhero new to the team. The Supervillian exists in a blend of brilliance and self-delusion. He's even slightly aware of it, but unable to see it entirely. If you're willing to go further afield than film most of Jonathan Coulton's narrators from his songs are unreliable narrators, especially "Skullcrusher Mountain."
posted by edbles at 7:56 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by edbles at 7:56 AM on November 7, 2014
Harry Angel, in Angel Heart (movie and novel). Bron Helstrom's utter cluelessness about himself and others in Samuel R. Delaney's Triton (or Trouble On Triton) drives a great deal of that novels' plot.
posted by newmoistness at 7:56 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by newmoistness at 7:56 AM on November 7, 2014
This is a little obscure, but one of Aldous Huxley's earliest short stories, "The Farcical History of Richard Greenow," is a really weird, um, enactment of self-delusion. You can find it in Limbo.
I'm tempted to suggest Tony Last in Waugh's A Handful of Dust, but that might not quite be what you're looking for? I mean, he's definitely clueless....
And, you know, pretty much anyone in a Stephen Leacock story (like Josh Smith in Sunshine Sketches...).
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 8:48 AM on November 7, 2014
I'm tempted to suggest Tony Last in Waugh's A Handful of Dust, but that might not quite be what you're looking for? I mean, he's definitely clueless....
And, you know, pretty much anyone in a Stephen Leacock story (like Josh Smith in Sunshine Sketches...).
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 8:48 AM on November 7, 2014
I would suggest pretty much any character from anything by Richard Yates. They are all utterly deluded about themselves, about their place in the world, and about their level of understanding of both of the above.
His most famous novel is probably Revolutionary Road (made into a movie but the book is much better and clearer about the level of self deception). I would also suggest Easter Parade.
posted by Henrietta Stackpole at 8:59 AM on November 7, 2014
His most famous novel is probably Revolutionary Road (made into a movie but the book is much better and clearer about the level of self deception). I would also suggest Easter Parade.
posted by Henrietta Stackpole at 8:59 AM on November 7, 2014
Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano is essentially an extended meditation on the interior phenomenology of self-deception and dissembling. I can't recommend it highly enough.
posted by kaspen at 10:37 AM on November 7, 2014
posted by kaspen at 10:37 AM on November 7, 2014
Stephen King's Secret Window, Secret Garden
posted by cnc at 10:50 AM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by cnc at 10:50 AM on November 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
Oedipus Rex gets it coming and going.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:29 PM on November 7, 2014
posted by IndigoJones at 4:29 PM on November 7, 2014
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford is a classic case.
posted by sfkiddo at 11:30 AM on November 8, 2014
posted by sfkiddo at 11:30 AM on November 8, 2014
I'd recommend Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks for this. Possibly Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff, though it's unclear how much self-deception versus deceiving others is going on throughout the story.
posted by Margalo Epps at 12:06 PM on November 8, 2014
posted by Margalo Epps at 12:06 PM on November 8, 2014
Late to the party, but Gene in "A Separate Peace" and (spoiler alert) the fathers in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and "The Road" both seem to believe they're keeping their sons on some moral or emotional course, when in fact the opposite is true.
posted by Adrian57 at 7:50 AM on November 17, 2014
posted by Adrian57 at 7:50 AM on November 17, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Librarypt at 6:34 PM on November 6, 2014