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{{quote|''"On the eighth day, God created Mankind... Why was He having such a bad day? Why did He create all of you normal, and forget so many important parts of me?"''|''[[WWF]]: The Music, Vol. 2'', "Ode to Freud (Mankind's Theme)"}}
{{quote|''"You are deformed. And you are ugly. And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity."''|'''Frollo''', ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''}}
A character that induces both [[Uncanny Valley|fear]] and [[The Woobie|pity]] in viewers because his deformities belie a perfectly normal, if not noble, personality. The pathos associated with The Grotesque is the implication that he could easily have become a well-adjusted member of society if not for the hideousness that he is powerless to remedy.
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Don't expect any of that to allow [[Beauty Equals Goodness|someone this ugly to get a happy ending]], ''especially'' if they're female. Grotesques are universally tragic characters.
Contrast [[Red Right Hand]], where the outer deformity is symbolic of an inner corruption. Not to be confused with the kind of "grotesque" that adorns old gothic
Not to be confused with mindless violence film ''Grotesque''.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Jinenji from the ''[[Inuyasha]]'' episode "Jinenji, Kind yet Sad" is a huge monster with bulging eyes, but all he wants to do is farm medicinal herbs. The episode even had a mob of villagers with [[Torches and Pitchforks]] as a [[Shout
* Oniwakamaru from the third episode of ''[[Samurai Champloo]]''. And really, he wasn't all that ugly, just had a swollen eye, liver lips, and a paunch.
** And weird rough brown skin, and he was three times the size of a normal person....
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' has a number of examples. Pretty much all of the Oniwabanshuu are this, shunned by society but taken in by Aoshi and therefore totally loyal to him. Hannya is a particularly good example, since he was partly modeled on Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man". There's also Fuji, one of Shishio's minions, who is about twenty-feet tall and has been treated his entire life like a monster or a living weapon. Yatsume, who works for Enishi also likely qualifies since for poorly justified reasons, his family [[Captain Ersatz|turned him into]] [[Spider
* Two cases pop up in ''[[Berserk]]''. First, there is the Child of Guts and Casca, who was conceived as a normal baby when {{spoiler|the two made love}}, but then everything took a tragic turn for the worse when {{spoiler|his mother was viciously raped by Griffith when he turned into Femto, thus tainting her womb with his demonic essence and turning the developing child into misshapen and deformed fetus, [[Fetus Terrible|compelling him to take up a nature of evil]] [[Touched
** ... Where we enter the second example: The Egg of the Perfect World (or the Behelit Apostle). During his life as a human, he was a nameless [[Loners Are Freaks|outcast of society]] who [[The Collector of the Strange|collected dead bodies]] at the base of the Tower of Conviction. When he came across a [[Egg MacGuffin|Behelit]] and sacrificed the world so that it may become perfected, he became the Behelit-shaped apostle that was in the present, though no one knew of his existence. The Egg of the Perfect World, though an Apostle, is one of the first to be introduced that wasn't a [[Complete Monster]] or just batshit crazy. In the final events at the Tower of Conviction, {{spoiler|he comes across the weakened Child, whom he saw as kindred for being deformed, forgotten, and unloved. As an act of pity, he consumes the Child so that he could have one moment of tenderness in his life before he and the Egg of the Perfect World were killed during the mock eclipse, when Griffith reincarnates himself into the human world.}}
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* Arseface from ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]''. After blowing the left half of his face off imitating Kurt Cobain, he realizes the error of his self-pitying ways and vows to be a good person. Once he encounters the heroes, he ends up becoming a chart-topping singer despite the fact that no one can understand a word he says outside of Jesse. [[Earn Your Happy Ending|At the end of the story he meets up with a one-eyed girl who constantly hallucinates people's appearances, and sees him as a beautiful blond man]].
** Arseface is also [[The Unintelligible]] and Lorrie Bobs is a one eyed girl due to her inbred family, and also has a visual disorder that makes her see everything as something else. They both are magnificent subversions of this trope: These two hideous beings are the only two truly decent human beings who wil [[Earn Your Happy Ending]] [[Dysfunction Junction|in pretty much all the cast]] (Jessie, Tulip and Cassidy have heavy [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]]): Arseface [[Rescue Romance|rescued Lorrie from some bullies]], and Lorrie’s visual disorder is a virtual rose colored glass (she seems Arseface as handsome) . In Preacher,[[An Aesop|everyone is a grotesque freak. Except the guy with an arse for a face and the one eyed girl]].
* Ephialtes from ''[[
* Ben Grimm, the Thing, from the [[Fantastic Four]] (at least at
* Vlad from [[Hack Slash]] plays with this trope, albeit with much less active persecution. (Except in Chicago, where, as the "Meat Man", he's blamed for a slasher's murders.) Most recurring characters get used to his appearance fairly quickly.
* Much of the first volume of [[Swamp Thing]] involves the [[Was Once a Man|"muck-encrusted mockery of a man"]] inspiring fear in most people, when he is a kind scientist who wanted to help end world hunger. For a long time, very few people treat him as anything but a monster even when he saves their lives.
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* ''[[Freaks]]'' mostly subverts this. We do not pity them, because they're all so damned cheerful, except for those tied up in the romantic plot (because [[Love Hurts]] ''everyone''), but even they get a happy ending.
* The title character in ''[[Edward Scissorhands]]''. A bit of a twist, though, in that - being played by [[Johnny Depp]] - he's quite handsome. He simply has [[No Social Skills]], and has the unfortunate tendency to cut things up by accident.
* Subverted in ''[[
* Jaws, from the ''[[James Bond (
** Especially when said girl saves Jaws while he was pinned by debris {{spoiler|after chasing Bond in a car that went over a cliff}}!
* Sloth in ''[[The Goonies]]'' is deformed, dimwitted, very strong, and kept as a [[Bertha in The Attic]] by his family. Once he makes friends with Chunk, however, it's clear he's a good guy.
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* [[Frankenstein's Monster]] (''not'' Frankenstein the [[Mad Scientist]]!); however, it is worth noting that in the original novel, rejection by his creator and society truly turns him into the monster he outwardly resembles, as sorrow turns to hatred and lust for vengeance.
* Quasimodo of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (
* Gwynplaine, of ''[[The Man Who Laughs]]'', was, due to a bizarre torture inflicted upon him, not so much ugly as [[Slasher Smile|unbelievably disturbing-looking.]] This being another Victor Hugo novel, he didn't end too well.
* ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]''; while he's supposed to be the villain, the book humanizes him after his act of mercy; the [[Draco in Leather Pants|increasingly sympathetic view]] of the motives behind his actions in later film adaptations has largely overridden his villainous role. It doesn't help that the transfer from book to play and movie has the level of his deformity lowered from "Skeletor" to [[Hollywood Homely|"Gerry Butler fell asleep while sunbathing, so his face is a little red"]].
** In the original book by Gaston Leroux, Erik (the titular phantom) subverts this trope in two ways: First: He is not a [[Gentle Giant]], but a as [[Psychopathic Manchild]] [[Bastard Boyfriend]]. Second: Ironically, his [[Beyond Good
** [[Discworld]]'s version of the Phantom, namely {{spoiler|Walter Plinge}} is deformed mentally, but he ends happily.
* Gollum from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', although differing in being a morally flawed character, has the pity-inducing aspect and is presented with the potential to better himself. In the end, the good in him doesn't triumph, making him a [[Tragic Hero]] of sorts.
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** Later, [[It Got Worse|it gets worse]]; he takes a sword slash across his face in the battle of King's Landing, losing a large chunk of his nose, twisting his lips, and very nearly costing him an eye. The combination of the trauma of his further disfiguration and the fact that he can't take anything to help with the pain because Cersei's trying to keep him out of commission leaves him severely depressed, to the point where {{spoiler|he barely even tries to defend himself when charged with Joffrey's murder.}}
** The Hound suffers a milder version of this trope due to his horribly scarred face; he's certainly not ''gentle'', but he's increasingly been shown to be a better person than most suppose, and he's certainly pitiable (I defy your heart not to twinge any time he cries). It's implied, however, that one of the reasons he's grown up so hard (his [[Complete Monster|brother's]] horrible presence aside) is that people would immediately be repulsed due to his burns, assuming that [[Beauty Equals Goodness|such a frightening appearance must be indicative of a bad person]]. He once remarks, "Why believe them and not me? Couldn't be my face, could it?"
** Brienne of Tarth is a female example. You won't read a chapter she's featured in without someone mentioning what an ugly freak she is. They mockingly call her [[Ironic Nickname|Brienne the Beauty]].
* Precious in the novel ''Push'' (and [[The Movie]], which was titled ''Precious'') could be said to be this, although she is the main character. Precious is an overweight girl who was sexually abused by her father and had two kids by him. Her mother also physically abused her. She also is functionally illiterate, and is still in the 8th grade at the age of 16. But, she does show empathy for others and has a knack for poetry. Unfortunately, she also has the sad ending part. Near the end of the book, {{spoiler|Precious' father dies and she finds out that he had HIV and passed it on to her.}}
* Beldin from the ''[[Belgariad]]'' is a self-aware form of this. He's a hideously ugly hunchback, but he's also one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world. Nobody outside of his allies and enemies knows what he's capable of, though, because as he puts it, "They can't see past the hump on my back." He isn't ''nice'' by any means, being a horrifically crude and tactless jerk, but a certain percentage of that is a front, as he's firmly on the side of the heroes.
** Although in the ''Malloreon'' he breaks out of this trope by ''getting'' a happy ending. {{spoiler|''Vella'' falls in love with him because of the whole "turns into a hawk" thing, and they are last seen, as hawks, disappearing into the sky}}.
* ''[[
* {{spoiler|Grim's Grotesques}} from ''[[
* Ellie May in ''Tobacco Road'', who would be easily marriageable if not for her harelip.
* ''The Book of the Grotesque'' was the original title of, and the title of the preface to, Sherwood Anderson's ''Winesburg, Ohio''. Basically, everyone in the town takes ownership of a truth, turning them grotesque and the truths themselves into falsehoods.
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== Live Action TV ==
* The shapeshifters from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Three episodes have focused on them as the [[Monster of the Week]] ("Skin," "Nightshifter," and {{spoiler|"Monster Movie"}}) and in two of them, each shapeshifter gets a speech about why he is what he is. Most of what we know about them are implied and hinted at in these two speeches: they are born to human parents, but they are supernaturally mutated and very hideous in appearance; they face physical abuse and then run away, but of course, no one will take them in, and they're driven out of every community they go to; they then learn to harness their power of shapeshifting and take revenge upon the world, usually embodying some extreme form of a human flaw (such as aggression or greed). While they are probably the most tragic monsters on the show, the shapeshifters still [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|break the one rule]], so the [[Beauty Equals Goodness|handsome and heroic]] Winchester brothers must put a silver bullet through their hearts every time.
* Several examples in ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' TOS episodes, such as Andro the mutant in "The Man Who Was Never Born" and the scientist changed into an alien in "The Architects of Fear".
* Sharaz Jek in ''[[
* In the New Series episode 'Silence in the Library', Miss Evangelista fills this role...eventually.
* ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is about a man with two (more or less fully functional) faces, who gets treated a monster and almost lynched by the local populace. In the culmination of the episode, Mutato [[You Can Talk|suddenly]] delivers a heartfelt monologue to the [[Torches and Pitchforks|angry mob]], revealing how he lived, suffered, and longed to be with other people, prompting one of the townspeople to exclaim "He is not a monster, he is alright!"
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The Nosferatu clan of both of ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** ''Requiem'' also features the Carnival, a bloodline founded by "the Andalusan Mermaid", a circus freak who was saved from her sadistic owner by a passing vampire. Every last one of the Carnival is deformed in some way or another. The book discussing them specifically warns that they tend not to be as nice as traditional freaks were. Their clan of origin, for irony's sake, are [[The Beautiful Elite|the Daeva]].
* The ''[[Serial Killer|Slasher]]'' [[Sourcebook]] for ''[[
== Video Games ==
* Klungo, Gruntilda's henchman in ''Banjo-Kazooie''.
* Dr. Jaming from ''[[Dark Cloud
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[8-Bit Theater
== Web Original ==
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* Joseph Carey Merrick. He fits this trope to a tee, especially in [[David Lynch]]'s film adaptation of his life, ''[[The Elephant Man]]''.
{{quote|
* Rondo Hatton (April 22, 1894 – February 2, 1946) was an American actor who had a brief, but prolific career playing thuggish bit parts in many Hollywood B-movies. He was known for his brutish facial features which were the result of acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland. His primary role was 'The Creeper', a killer who crushed his victim's spines in a bearhug. However, the Creeper was played as a deformed, dim-witted character that acted as a foil to some other villain's ambitions. Some person would befriend this pathetic, angry hulk of a man, and then use him as a weapon. So partial subversion here.
** The appearance of Lothar from ''[[The Rocketeer (
* One of the better examples of the "Horrid outside, beautiful inside" would be Grace McDaniel, the "Mule Woman", so-called due to facial tumors distorting the lower half of her face into a long "muzzle". She is remembered as being one of the kindest people to ever work the carnival circuit.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Older Than Radio]]
[[Category:Tear Jerker Tropes]]
[[Category:Archetypal Character]]
[[Category:The Grotesque]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grotesque, The}}
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