pleasure in the misfortune of another theme
A character feels pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another character.
Notes
To apply, it should be clear that the feeling is inspired solely by the other's misfortune, and is not the result of some secondary advantage gained by the first character. For example, if an enemy or competitor suffers misfortune it may be quite natural to feel joy because of the personal advantage this entails. This theme, then, does not apply.
Examples
tz1959e2x12 "Dust", the rather odious conman Sykes was gleeful at the prospect of Gallegos getting hanged, and tormented him relentlessly.
6 total · 2 major · 4 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| rbt1985e1x03 | major | The members of the enigmatic crowd were strangely drawn to the sites of severe automobile, apparently accidents to gawk at the misfortune of victims therein for reasons that went unexplained. |
| tz1959e5x26 | major | Charlie complained about gawkers getting a kick out of seeing a man hang. The crowd was later berated for being hateful. |
| ahp4x31 | minor | Babcock was delighted to withhold his testimony regarding this incident, as Arnold had ruined Babcock's reputation in court the very same day. |
| movie: Eliminators (1986) | minor | The Mandroid, Nora, and Kuji shared a laugh once it became apparent that the power hungry Abbot Reeves had not succeeded in sending himself back in time to rule over ancient Rome as a god-king, but rather had ended up being sent back over 400 million years into Earth's past, where he would rule over nothing. |
| play: King Lear (1606) | minor | Edgar noted that when poor people see their betters in hardship, their own hardship seems less |
| tz1959e2x12 | minor | The conman Sykes was gleeful at the prospect of Gallegos getting hanged. |