Losers in literature

N.B. Within each genre, the names of the protagonists are alphabetically ordered.

Drama

• Adam in The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute
• Mr. and Mrs. Bates in Brimstone and Treacle by Dennis Potter
• Michael Cartts in Japes by Simon Gray
• Donald in The Philanthropist by Christopher Hampton
• Guy in My Night with Reg by Kevin Elyot
• Felix Humble in Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones
• Laurence in Abigail's Party by Mike Leigh
• Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• Archie Rice in The Entertainer by John Osborne
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
• Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
• Stephanie Washburn in The Eclipse by Joyce Carol Oates

Literature

• Virgil Adams in Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
• Alex in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Alice (as well as some other characters) in King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine
• Jacopo Belbo in Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
• Martin Brock in 12 Step Fandango by Chris Haslam
• Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Thomas Covenant in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
• Mark Crawley (as well as some other characters) in A Vicious Circle by Amanda Craig
• Jim Dixon in Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis
• Elric of Melniboné in stories and novels by Michael Moorcock
• Barnaby Gaitlin in A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
• Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Gollum (Sméagol) in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Peter Jernigan in Jernigan by David Gates
• Asa Leventhal in The Victim by Saul Bellow
• Victor Mancini in Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
• Walter Mitty in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber
• Felix Nasmyth in Budding Prospects by T.C. Boyle
• Alexander Portnoy in Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
• Marc Remillard in The Saga of Pliocene Exile by Julian May
• Alan Sherwood in Altered States by Anita Brookner
• Long John Silver in Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Arthur Abdel Simpson in The Light of Day (filmed as Topkapi) and Dirty Story by Eric Ambler
• Steerpike in the Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake
• Stevens in The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Gerald Tarrant in The Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman
• Luke Wakefield in Mr Wakefield's Crusade by Bernice Rubens
• John Wheelwright in A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
• Smith in The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
• Yossarian in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Billy Fisher in Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
• The narrator in Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
• Des Esseintes in Against the Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans

Poetry

• Achilles in The Illiad by Homer
• Gerontion in Gerontion by T.S. Eliot
• Warren Harding in Two Poems About President Harding by James Wright
• Henry in The Dream Songs by John Berryman
• Prufrock in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

Comic books

• Batman (DC Comics)
• Daredevil (Marvel Comics)
• Hellboy (Dark Horse)
• The Incredible Hulk (Marvel)
• The Punisher (Marvel)
• Rayek in the comic book Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini
• Spider-Man (Marvel)
• Venom (Marvel)
• Wolverine (Marvel)
• Spawn (Image Comics)

Television

• Eric Cartman (South Park)

Referenced By