Jerk with a Heart of Gold/Literature

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Jerk with a Heart of Gold in Literature include:

  • Sherlock Holmes, making this Older Than Radio.
  • Commander Sam Vimes, of the Discworld City Watch, is reputed as a hard-faced, hardheaded, cynical, foul-tempered, arrogant thug. Yet even the most dangerous mob boss in the city respects him as a straight-arrow, unbribeable (and though this is helped by his being the wealthiest man in the city, he was giving half his pay before that to the widows and orphans of the Watch), almost painfully-upright man who always does the right thing and never lets the Watch overstep its authority. He is, in fact, one of the most powerful authorities in the city, who hates and distrusts authority -- as the Patrician says, "practically Zen".
    • Invoked and demolished with regards to Albert, Death's manservant. "And it's no good thinking you can appeal to my better nature under this here crusty exterior, 'cos my interior's pretty damn crusty as well." He was the head of Unseen University at its most cutthroat, after all.
    • Despite her intimidating demeanor, Granny Weatherwax is a good witch, albeit with much reluctance. She's hard and sharp as flint, but that's because she likes to test people; as Tiffany Aching notes in A Hat Full of Sky, witches do their hardest work on "the edge" (between life and death, right and wrong, and so on), and "the edge is no place for people to break."
      • In Wintersmith, Granny makes very, very sure that Tiffany is out of sight before she takes in the kitten Tiffany left on her doorstep. She has a reputation to maintain.
    • Moist von Lipwig fits this to a degree (though he is more of a reformed Gentleman Thief), in that all his plans are self-serving, but he usually manages to do a ton of good deeds along the way. In Making Money, he reflect: "Am I really a bastard or am I just really good at thinking like one?"
  • There are many, many world-weary, cynical characters in Boris Strugatsky's The Powerless Ones of this World. While one of them is a genuine Jerkass, the others, despite having grown to be nasty old men that had explicitly given up on trying to achieve anything good or worthwhile with their superpowers, do at least come through to rescue the main character Vadim (a fellow pupil of "the Sensei") from a tight spot.
  • Zaphod in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- literally. He's a jerk, and he has the Heart of Gold.
    • Ford Prefect veers in and out of this trope - he's something of an asshole, but he did save Arthur from certain death and is passionately opposed to cruelty to any animal but geese.
    • Despite this, he did at one point (while trapped on Earth thousands of years in the past) take up cruelty to animals as a hobby, and has hinted that he is responsible for the shape of the giraffe's neck.
  • In William King's Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolf novel Ragnar's Claw, after the inquisitor tells the injured Ragnor that other Marines have repaired his gear, she tells him that one, Sven, said that he's not an armorer and Ragnar can do it himself next time, whatever the sergeant said. Ragnar laughs and assures her that Sven has a good heart under his harsh manner.
  • Mat Cauthon in The Wheel of Time. Also, everyone else to a lesser extent.
  • Severus Snape of the Harry Potter series perhaps walks the line between this and all out Jerkass. He's ridiculously biased towards Slytherin, he has a particularly nasty grudge against Harry Potter and his associates due to the actions of Harry's father, and holds a nearly-homicidal grudge against Sirius Black for his childhood antics. And yet, in the end, he was in fact fanatically devoted to Dumbledore, saving Harry's life and eventually getting himself killed by Voldemort.
    • Speaking of which, Sirius Black himself fits this trope, as well as his best friend, James Potter.
    • While not a jerk, Horace Slughorn seems to be rather more concerned about his influence and knowing famous people than being a decent person, as well as being a bit 'old fashioned' (He seems to find the idea of muggle-borns being really good witches novel but to his credit doesn't hold it against said witches and seems to like such a surprise). However, his terrible guilt over what he revealed to the young Tom Riddle as well as his willingness to personally fight Voldemort in the final book show that there's more to him than connections and influence.
  • Artemis Fowl. He successfully manages to extort a metric ton of gold from the fairies, and he gives up half of it to help his clinically depressed mother recover from the apparent death of his father.
    • Possible inversion- The LEP files of the time specifically state that Artemis case file was being investigated by social services, possibly just a case of misinformation by the propaganda machine
    • He also kept half...making his heart pretty low-carat at best.
    • But definitely played straight from the second book onwards, where Artemis has moments of genuine concern for his allies, and the fairies go from being Enemy Mine to being friends.
    • Commander Root also fits the trope really well.
  • Vidia from the Disney Fairies series is usually described as the nastiest fairy, and has been shown time and again to be condescending to others, and only care about herself. Yet in Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg, she shared the last of her dust to save Neverland, and has occasionally shown a soft spot for Prilla.
  • Captain Flint spends most of the first Swallows and Amazons book as an antagonist. Then the Swallows figure out who stole his manuscript (in the process clearing their own name) and he warms up to them considerably.
  • Brendan Sealock, in William Barton and Michael Capobianco's collab novel Iris, is a crude, cocky, snarky, and rather brutal Genius Bruiser...who occasionally displays a hint of a softer side. ("Occasionally" being the operating word.)
  • Ripred the Gnawer (read: rat) from The Underland Chronicles is this. He's an antisocial semi-loner with only a small band of outcasts around him, and doesn't respect anyone unless they earn it from him. He has his moments, such as in the first book comforting Gregor after one of the quest members dies and he feels it's his fault, but in the last book, we learn he had a family that drowned in an event described in the fourth book. He had a daughter, named Silksharp, that liked to do math puzzles and was apparently not very strong-bodied. Lizzie, the middle child of Gregor's family, reminds her of him. One of the heartwarming moments of the book is him comforting Lizzie in the middle of the night after she has a panic attack.
  • David Eddings likes this one. Silk, Belgarath and Beldin in The Belgariad, Sparhawk in The Elenium...
    • In the Belgariad, Prince Kheldar (aka, Silk) is a spy/merchant/assassin/thief (usually simultaneously), is constantly throwing smartass remarks into people's faces, and he's known to purposely needle minor characters by talking about identified weak spots--whether it's purposely getting history wrong, or just exposing them to his own memorable personality. Likewise, Beldin likes annoying Belgarath, who is also capable of messing with people. It definitely says something about the average level of personal interaction in this universe that Polgara is the Team Mom of the bunch, despite having a personality abrasive enough to strip paint. On the other hand, they do care deeply about their friends and family, and don't (usually) don't indulge in gratuitious collateral damage.
  • Henny in All of a Kind Family is devious and likes to cause trouble for people, but nonetheless cares deeply for her sisters and baby brother. She was also quick to defend Guido, a young orphan boy who was being harassed by a shopkeeper, and when she conned a doll from a charity, she ended up giving it to a homeless girl.
  • Hercule Poirot frequently comes over as a vain, arrogant, egotistical jerkass, but underneath it all has a genuinely kind, decent heart.
  • Dedicate Rosethorn from the Circle of Magic books is irritable, snarky, refuses any and all help when she desperately needs it, and constantly threatens gruesome deaths on her charges. Yet she gives a great deal of herself helping others - nursing the sick and restoring medicines in Briar's Book, leaving Summersea to save the village in Melting Stones (never mind that she's just returned from a war and is completely spiritually exhausted). She also adores her student, Briar, however much she tries not to show it.
  • Hank the Cowdog from the series of the same name isn't nearly as strong as he boasts he is, as smart as he boasts he is, or as charismatic as he boasts he is...but when the cards are down and someone's in danger, he still charges into battle as though he was.
  • Superintendent Andrew Dalziel from the Dalziel and Pascoe novels and TV series. He comes across as your typical overweight northern alcoholic bigot; but if you serve under him, despite the verbal abuse you'll get, he'll do his damndest to fight tooth and nail for you.
  • Rosa Hubermann of The Book Thief.
  • Gilbert Blythe of Anne of Green Gables starts off the series this way. He calls the girls names and pins their braids to their seats, but always apologizes for going too far (like calling a certain red-head "Carrots"). Eventually, he outgrows the jerk side.
    • In Gilbert's case this is actually something of a Subverted Trope. Among all the girls except Anne, it's widely understood that Gilbert is just a Nice Guy who likes to tease.
    • There are also Mr. Harrison and Norman Douglas.
  • Jayfeather from Warrior Cats.
  • In Claudius the God, Claudius describes his lifelong friend Herod Agrippa as "a scoundrel with a golden heart." His description of what this entails is classic Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Zig-Zagged with The Hound from A Song of Ice and Fire. He's basically a Psycho for Hire who does whatever he's told to, but he has a good Freudian Excuse and has a soft spot for the Stark sisters. But then he does something like kill a child or almost rape said Morality Pet which makes you really doubt it. Overall, he's more of a Psycho for Hire with a very, very tarnished heart of bronze.
  • Sachar in Oblomov. But he doesn't show his good side until his master, the title character, dies.
  • James Adams in the CHERUB series fits this trope nicely.
  • Time Scout's Skeeter Jackson is a thief and a Con Man who ruined people's vacations, even lives. Of course, he had a little bit of an excuse, but, in the end, he was just drifting. He stole, he gambled, he drank, and he gave most of his money to charity. Wait, charity?
  • Booster Terrik is very much this. To most people, and in most situations, he's very much a Jerkass (especially to Corran Horn). He's got a big soft spot for his daughter Mirax and adopted son Wedge, though. And generally when we see Booster, one or the other (if not both) is either present or involved in the same situation.
  • Both Florida and Tiller from Sharon Creech's Ruby Holler. They bond because of their similarity.
  • Marcia Overstrand in Septimus Heap. While most of the time she is an annoying bossy complainer, she cares deeply about Jenna and Septimus when they're in trouble.
  • Nathan Hillary in Kill Time or Die Trying is arguably this. His behaviour seem to be the result of an effort to keep things interesting rather than genuine malice.
  • Both Matteo and Asher in Someone Else's War.
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