Narcissists in Fiction

So, I got into Fifty Shades of Grey a few months ago, and like millions of women, was intrigued by the main character, Christian Grey. Then I recently got into that show Mad Men, and again became intrigued by the main character, Don Draper. They both kind of reminded me of the Jay Gatsby from the Great Gatsby. They're all intriguing because of their attractiveness, power, status, and wealth, but I recently realized that all those qualities were given to these characters just to mask the ugliness of their narcissistic tendencies. The characters themselves are not narcissists. If they overtly were, no one would like them. Instead they are superficially polished and given unrealistic redeemable qualities in order to make narcissism subliminally sexy.

I googled to see if anyone else made the same connections and oddly enough found a New York Times article about this exact topic. The author of the article, like most people, seems enamored by these characters, and sees them as complex, tormented, heroes. People are so drawn to the fantasy of a lost man in need of a savior. The author never mentions narcissism, but her take on elusive "happiness" is what narcissistic supply is all about...

"Rather than a tale of greed, the history of luxury could more accurately be read as a record of emotional trauma,” writes Alain de Botton in his book, “Status Anxiety,” efficiently summing up Draper and Grey in one blow. “It is the legacy of those who have felt pressured by the disdain of others to add an extraordinary amount to their bare selves in order to signal that they too may lay a claim to love.” Love, or lust, secured through such means can be somewhat dissatisfying, though, so these ambitious, upwardly mobile characters are forced to forge on in search of a new fix — or, as the philosopher Alan Watts puts it in “The Book,” “When the outcome of a game is certain, we call it quits and begin another.” Don Draper sums up this process late in the fifth season when he tells some Dow executives: “You’re happy because you’re successful, for now. But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness.” This sentiment echoes the darkness at the center of “The Great Gatsby,” in which Fitzgerald makes it clear that most ambition is driven by a mirage, a focus on “the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms out farther. . . .” \

Here's the full link
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/magazine/what-don-draper-and-christian...