Secretly Wealthy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In fiction, it's apparently very hard for the wealthy to avoid being either a [[Rich Bitch]] or [[Spoiled Sweet]], both are scorned by the average man. Many [[Genre Savvy]] characters spot this trend and hide their wealth. For some they've even been separated from the family, and are wealthy in name only. Expect these characters to be kind, caring and generally the opposite of a [[Rich Bitch]], so that the reveal of their wealth is more shocking.

* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' has Lucy, who ran away from home to get away from her overbearing father, whose thoughts were only about profit.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Vivi fell under this trope before her [[Heel Face Turn]].

* Yuuichiro Kumada from the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' anime.

* Sayako in ''[[Mahoraba]]'' lives in near poverty with her daughter. She makes plastic flowers and such for money and often needs help from Ryushi to complete whatever junk she and her daughter are making to survive. Their furniture and bedding are the cardboard boxes for shipping the flowers. Turns out she ran away from home to marry someone her father disapproved of. She comes from an extraordinarily wealthy family and she and her father appear to make up their differences though she continues to live with her daughter in poverty.

* {{spoiler|Jimmy}} from ''[[Thoroughly Modern Millie]]''.

* {{spoiler|Godfrey}} in ''[[My Man Godfrey]]''.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Discworld]]'':

** A minor [[Running Gag]] in Discworld is that the ''really'' rich can afford to act poor. Those who are only pretty rich will buy fancy clothes and jewelry and homes to try to make themselves seem much richer, but those who are supremely wealthy don't need to. Why buy new furniture when the stuff your grandparents bought was so good that it has lasted all these years? Why dress nicely when you don't need to work so you can devote all your time to messy hobbies like raising swamp dragons? And ironically, this allows them to ''stay'' rich. Sybil Ramkin is the best example, but Lady Margolotta and the Dowager Duchess of Quirm also qualify. And Sybil's husband Sam Vimes was born poor, but is now the richest man in the city. So naturally he prefers dented armor and cheap boots to the finery his station allows.

* In ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'', [[Full-Name Basis|Rachel Elizabeth Dare]] is pretty much an enigma, but one time she walks up to a random chauffeur, says a few things, and suddenly he ditches his customer and takes the Olympians where they want to go. Turns out she's this trope

* In ''Fear Nothing and Seize The Night'' by [[Dean Koontz]], Christopher Snow's best friend Bobby is this.

* This genre convention was mocked in ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]''. Two Okies discuss a Broadway play about a rich man and a rich woman who pretend to be poor in order to find true love. The entire premise confuses the heck out of the second Okie, who doesn't understand why a rich person would screw out with such a ridiculous [[Zany Scheme]]. There's a depression going on, and the Okies are standing in line hoping to get work so they don't starve to death. The second Okie explains, very annoyed, that if he were rich he'd just sit in his penthouse eating steaks all day and he's incredulous that an actual rich person would do anything different.

 

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

{{quote|'''Accounting''': This is accounting. I have encountered an oddity. Florence Ambrose has a substantial credit in the robot community.

'''Rover17''': Is it enough to repair or replace their reactor?