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| from imdb |
A vast majority of the most popular romance stories to date involve
the centralized issue of star-crossed lovers. Stories such as the 1998 film
Titanic, and the 2004 film The Notebook are popular manifestations of the
storyline.
In
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the original tale of “star-crossed”
lovers, Romeo and Juliet were forced apart by their feuding families.
Interestingly enough, neither family had any difference in social or financial
standing in that one was higher on either scale than the other, they were
simply just enemies.
However,
in recent stories involving forbidden love, rich versus poor appears to be the
most utilized conflict. For example, in The Notebook, the only reason Allie’s
parents disapprove of Noah is because of his economic status. He doesn’t have
an entire estate, and live lavishly like Allie’s family does. This problem is
especially highlighted in the scene when Noah is invited to a luncheon hosted
by Allie’s family. The guests at the luncheon are spewing condescending
questions at Noah, clearly in disapproval of his lifestyle. If looking closely,
the viewer can see that each guest is in fact dressed in all white, whereas Noah
is wearing black, obviously emphasizing him being the outsider. This one
difference in Allie and Noah’s lives eventually completely draws the two apart
for a period of time
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| From Warner Bros |
Another
film that displays an unlikely romance is A Walk to Remember. In this story,
however, financial status is not the issue. Instead, characters Landon and
Jamie, come from two completely different social circles. Landon is embarrassed
by the fact that he enjoys himself while being around Jamie, and tries to hide
it from his friends. When they discover how close Landon is getting to Jamie, Landon’s
friends ridicule him for it, dividing the two temporarily.
Eventually
in these types of stories, the two main characters figure out that they’re
willing to be together no matter what it costs them, with the story ending on a
bittersweet note. Although most argue that the original star-crossed lovers, Romeo
and Juliet, ended “tragically”, some may refute that the ending of the story is,
in fact, bittersweet. Although Romeo and
Juliet both die in the end, they die in the arms of one another. Therefore, one could say that in
a way, the two did end up together.
I noticed that the character's name in The Notebook is named Noah. Is this a possible case of intertextuality? I can't read that name without reading in to all the baggage it comes with. I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how the name is used in the story. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what Bria says. The story of the star-crossed lovers is one that has been told throughout time. Almost every Nicholas Sparks movie has the same theme, they want to be together but can't. Some of his popular hits you have mentioned such as A Walk To Remember, the Notebook, The Last Song, and Dear John. In the end no matter what their struggle was they end up together. Whether it's by being reconnected after a long time, over coming money differences, or sadly dying they end up in what you call a bittersweet ending to a love story.
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