The Other Side of Love: Exploring the Tragic Romance Stories this Valentine’s Day
Despite what many fairy tales might tell you, not all stories end with a Happily Ever After. In fiction and reality, finding love (let alone the mythologised True Love) is much harder than simply going into the woods and finding a long-lost princess. Even outside of this genre, love conquering all and saving the day is a common trope, but what happens to those for whom love proves too weak a force against the overwhelming power of tragedy? From star-crossed lovers to those doomed by the gods and cursed by fate, this article will look at several romances that ended with funeral bells rather than wedding ones.
1. Swan Lake
Starting with a story that is performed rather than read might seem unusual, but Tchaikovsky’s tale of magic and mistaken identity more than earns its place amongst the greatest romance tragedies. When Prince Siegfried finds the cursed maiden Odette (a swan by day and a woman by night), he swears that he will earn her love and break the spell she has been placed under by the evil sorcerer Rothbart. However, he is soon deceived by Rothbart and his daughter Odile, who make Siegfried believe she is Odette. This tale has several different endings, with the most famous having the two lovers choosing to drown themselves in the lake so that they may remain together in death. Love was not enough to save either of them in life, but it was powerful enough to ensure their deaths.
2. Wuthering Heights
This record of Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s toxic love (which toes the line between affection and obsession) has been a source of inspiration and intrigue for centuries. Emily Bronte presents Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s story backward, showing the results of their relationship: a bitter man set on revenge, a woman married for spite, and several cousins unknowingly forced to reenact their parent’s tale. We are then introduced to Heathcliff and Catherine, two wild children who spend all their time roaming the moors until Catherine moves away from savagery to civility. Heathcliff then leaves before mysteriously returning with a fortune to begin his campaign of torment against those he feels have wronged him. When Catherine marries another and soon dies from childbirth, he only falls deeper into madness. Heathcliff doesn’t take his life when Catherine dies, but he loses his soul, and that is a fate worse than death. The tragedy in this story is not that they didn’t love each other enough, but that they loved each other too much, so it turned rotten.
3. The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue
A more recent addition to the genre, this novel highlights the importance of memory and how it links to love. Addie La Rue was a girl who made a deal with a devil (who goes by the name Luc); she would gain eternal life but would instantly be forgotten when no one was looking at her. Luc has a one-sided love for Addie and pursues her across continents to claim her soul. Centuries pass, and she meets Henry, a man who can remember her. However, it is revealed that this is because he also made a deal with Luc, who comes to collect Henry’s soul per an agreement Henry doesn’t remember making. Addie goes with Luc to save Henry, but he retains his memory of her. Henry then anonymously publishes her life as she told it to him so that she can be known and remembered. Whilst the tragedy of their parting is not quite as bombastic as some of the entries on this list, Henry and Addie’s relationship is one that many today can recognise. One that lives on in our memories because we can never see the other person again, whether that’s due to time, distance, or something more complicated than that.
4. Orpheus and Eurydice
This pair of ill-fated lovers has gained great recognition through the hit musical based on their myth, Hadestown. Orpheus is a skilled musician who marries Eurydice, but the two are separated when Eurydice dies shortly afterward. Orpheus then journeys to the underworld to get her back. Hades allows the lovers to leave unhindered, but only if Orpheus doesn’t look back. In every version of the story, Orpheus looks back. Sometimes he fears he’s been tricked; other times he hears her stumble, but the outcome is always the same. He loves her enough to save her, but the tragedy is that he loves her so much that he could never have succeeded. Orpheus tried, however, and sometimes in life and love, that’s all we can do, regardless of success or failure.
Tragedies are one of the oldest genres of story, dating back thousands of years to Ancient Greece; since then, countless doomed lovers have loved and lost on both the stage and the page. These couples can reveal and explore the negative aspects of love that their more light-hearted equivalents fail to, such as pain, fickleness, jealousy, possessiveness, impermanence, and the fine line between love, passion, and obsession.
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