Famous Traitors?

Moving on down to research. Good luck!

Benedict Arnold is a classic case of a traitor and a good basis for any character. You might also want to look into the motivations not only of him but the people around him--his wife, the relationship with General Washington, et cetera to see how his circumstances developed his willingness to betray the cause he fought for. Good luck.

Et tu, Brute?

Try Brutus on for size. Conflicted with his love for Caesar and his love for Rome.

"The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest --
For Brutus is an honorable man..." Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

C

Can't beat Judas for a good traitor.

Shakespeare’s Othello?

Your character could quote Iago’s “divinity from hell” often

Madison said:

Ooh - good ideas! Thanks!

And just to clarify, I'm looking for fiction, not nonfiction ie Brutus... I'm onto that!

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Well, Brutus was real, as are a lot of these other people (Benedict Arnold, Judas Iscariot, and so on). I like the idea of Iago if you really really want a totally fictional character, but I think one of the others would be better. People would know them more. And you could have your character obsessed with bios of them or their portrayal in a specific fiction book (there are plenty of historical fiction novels about them each, I'm sure).

Saruman from LotR?

If you want a famous traitor who is also a character in a great book, try Tsao Tsao, who kept the last emperor of the Han locked in his palace, and ruled in his name. This is part of the book "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms," which is the most popular book in China, so I hear. (and one of my favorites) There are a number of great traitors in that book, if you prefer, there's Dong Zhou, who plundered small villages, then claimed to have defeated bandits. He also had people tortured for entertainment at his banquets.

Here are some other famous traitors I can think of:

The french have a word for 'betray' which is 'Raguser' after the Duke Marmont of Ragusa, who betrayed Napoleon.

And of course, during the middle of the 20th century 'Quisling' was widely used for a person who aids an invading power, after Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian who aided the Nazis in occupying his country.

I think the Chinese still use 'Zhao Gao' as an insult, after the 3rd (BCE) century government official of the same name, who kept the emperor in a constant state of pleasure and merrymaking while he (Zhao Gao) ran the empire for his own benefit.

There are also the Rosenbergs...ooh! what was the name of that british guy in the sixties?..arg! He'll have a book or two written about him. He and three other guys...dang it! They were named after some british school...Cambridge! Philby! Kim Philby! Here's a movie about them: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346223/

Those are the really famous ones that I know.

John Galt?

That might be a can of worms you don't want to open...

Clearly if your character is a good guy who has to pretend to be a baddie he's going to identify with Severus Snape.

Madison said:

The problem with Arnold and Iscariot (and Iago, too) is that my character isn't the villain. He's the mc's boyfriend. He's quazi-evil at first because it appears that he's on the bad side, but actually he's a double agent... However, he feels like a traitor because his family is in charge of the bad side and in the end he will have to destroy them.

I guess such a character could identify with Arnold, etc., but I'm not sure I want to draw the comparison??

Are there any famous (preferably fictional) characters who are good traitors? Or characters who struggle with betraying loved ones for a good cause?

'scuse my rambling, I just think better when I'm typing

thanks for all the help!

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Ah, I see.
Let me see... The English Patient, from the book of the same name, by Michael Ondatje?

From what I understand (and I have never read the book), The Most Dangerous Man in America tells about Ben Franklin's role as an agent, counter agent and I think it may have even been triple agent. I guess he was in the employ of the French (and possibly British) while he was becoming an American patriot. Puma

Different tangent, perhaps, but what about Inspector Javert from Les Miserables? He pursued what he thought was his duty despite all odds until he finally realized the person he thought was a villain really wasn't and killed himself. Javert does act as a double agent at one point in the story. I've only seen the musical so I'm not sure of all the details.

In Luther Blissett's novel Q, the protagonist is a radical Protestant pursued over decades by Qatafa, a spy for the Roman Catholic church. Qatafa betrays the Protestants at every opportunity and, in the end, betrays the Catholics as well.

Madison said:

Are there any famous (preferably fictional) characters who are good traitors? Or characters who struggle with betraying loved ones for a good cause?

'scuse my rambling, I just think better when I'm typing

thanks for all the help!

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Dr Yueh, from Dune betrays the Atreides' to buy death for his beloved wife, who was kidnapped and tortured by the Harkonnens.

Kim Philby was an officer in MI6 during the cold war who, over a period of years, leaked information to the Russian intelligence service. He then defected and blew the cover of dozens of MI6 officers, including John LeCarre (the novelist)

So LeCarre fictionalised the hunt for the traitor in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Good book, too.

Or you could get shakespearian.

What better traitor is there than MacBeth?

Sarpedon said:

Or you could get shakespearian.

What better traitor is there than MacBeth?

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"To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Genius.

How about mafia family members who turned informant? Here is a website with a list:
http://www.onewal.com/maf-info.html