When we watch a romantic film, we’re always rooting for the guy and the girl to be together by the end of the film. Even though we often know that things are going to turn out their way, we’re on the edge of our seats whenever an obstacle appears between their love. Yet, we know that they will manage to figure a way to surpass all of the obstacles in their way, and we will effusively rejoice when we see them kiss in the final scene. It’s an effective formula that makes us as moviegoers keep spending our bucks watching repetitive films all over again. It’s always comforting to see a couple that we can relate to, get together and live through the fictional promise of “happily ever after”.
There are certain books, however, that make us feel exactly the opposite. Throughout the history of literature, the nature of the relationship of some couples is just so awful that we don’t want them to get together. Yet their on and off situation is so addictive we can’t help but be part of the experience. If we knew these people in real life, if they were our friends, we’d tell them to walk away. But through these pages we can’t help be drawn to the train wreck. We delight in the absolutely horrible situations because we see our bad choices and experiences being played out in front of us but without the pain and regret. The following books are perfect examples of why we can’t help but love for love to fail sometimes.
Wuthering Heights (1827), Emily Brontë
Although this is surely your English teacher’s favorite gothic novel, we all need to admit that the love between Heathcliff and Catherine can’t be described as anything other than haunting. Being first torn apart because of her status and how he was her father’s ward, the tormented love between these two is as stark as the cold Victorian landscape where they live. Their love for each other only torments, destroys, and hurts others. As for them, their passion only succeeds at making them equally miserable.
Le Morte D’Arthur (1495), Sir Thomas Malory
Is your forbidden tryst worth political sabotage and the death of most of your friends? Is your attraction based on the fact that you can’t be with the person? The story of Lancelot and Guinevere shows that love can be a destructive, irrational force, and that for the sake of the world should be avoided at all costs.
This is How You Lose Her (2012), Junot Diaz
If you’ve read any of the stories starring Yunior, one of Diaz’ most recurrent characters, you’ll know that he is a difficult romantic lead. It’s not that he doesn’t love the one he’s with, he just can’t seem to remain faithful to her. How can you be with someone when you yourself have yet to discover what is it that you want. Is love not meant for the naïve? Or is it possible that infatuation and sexual attraction does not imply true romance?
Revolutionary Road (1961), Richard Yates
While the story is more of a study on the American post-war mentality and how it deceived itself to search incessantly for comfort and security, his take on romance is perhaps the most painful. April and Frank Wheeler were supposed to be nonconformists, a couple with the opportunity of becoming something beyond the suburban aspirations of their peers. Yet, their love is not enough for them to surpass the expectations of their own society. External pressures lead them down a path of conceit, decay, and resentment.
High Fidelity (1995), Nick Hornby
After breaking up with his girlfriend, Rob Fleming goes on a retrospective journey to revisit his “top five” previous partners. It’s throughout this blast to the past that he realizes that perhaps he’s the one who needs to change. As he navigates love through music and pop culture references, he’s faced with the possibility that his constant romanticizing of the idea of love has made his actual chance at happiness almost impossible.
The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald
In Fitzgerald’s opulent Great Gatsby, no love affair seems to do good to anyone involved. It’s as if no one could keep an honest relationship during the roaring twenties. Tom cheats on Daisy, Daisy cheats on Tom, Myrtle cheats on George, and Nick seems to care more about Gatsby than about his girlfriend Jordan. Amidst such an entanglement, who’d be daring enough to take love’s side on anything?
Tragic love stories teach us how pushing a relationship that is not meant to be can lead to disastrous consequences. They are cathartic experiences we do not need to live to understand and learn from. Which other doomed love would you add to the list?
Sources:
Penguin Random House
Bustle
