In the period of realism the objective is to show true reality and the inner world of the characters with their traits that represent certain social types. These characters were often misunderstood in this time, and also appear in literature at the end of the 19th century continuing on to the end of the century formally known as „fin de siècle“, these characters were known for their decadence and pessimism which continued to dominate. In the collection of literary works analyzed in this thesis, the following titles were found: „U registraturi“, „Posljednji Stipančići“, „Sjene ljubavi“ and „Camao“. The main characters of the reviewed novels are misunderstood individuals with tragic fates who want to be part of a world to which they do not belong, and their lives are marked by a conflict between individual aspirations and social expectations with a desire for a more refined and cultured existence. Also, a common denominator that challenges the main characters of the novels „U registraturi“, „Posljednji Stipančići“, „Sjene ljubavi“ and the novella „Camao“ is love. The desire to pursue love is expressed in both the male and female characters of the selected works, and the inability to resist the desire leads them to a tragic end. Both male and female characters are shown as weak in front of the one they desire to love, but not strong enough to facilitate a relationship. The desire for love governs the lives of the characters in the literature, and in the end it set them up as exemplary figures of the theory of the American scientist Leo Bersani, who in his work „A Future for Astyanax: Character and Desire in Literature“ underlines the destructive character of desire.