Some of the elements in the love story have changed over time. In the ancient world and during the Middle Ages, love stories did not have happy endings, and they focused on love outside of social and economic status. This was an innovation at that time, because most marriages were arranged and the partners were of the same social class. Beginning in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, love stories began to have happy endings, because marriage was coming to be rooted in feelings of truelove and couples came together by personal choice.
Modern love stories are influenced by Hollywood, and often feature pre-marital and extra-marital sexual relationships, and single parents with children. Over the years, a conventional format was followed. As entertainment and moral values changed, however, the distinction between convention and innovation became blurred.
The conventional love story formula has several elements:
The couple wants to be together. Often it is love at first sight.
There’s an obstacle for the couple to overcome. Those obstacles are usually:
lack of communication
noble or innocent actions are wrongly perceived
other people come between the lovers
At the beginning, the couple is neither rich nor poor.
There is superficial glamour surrounding the main characters.
Fate is used to justify unlikely coincidences.
Some outside force brings the couple together.
The story has a happy ending (Jensen 75-96)
There’s always some convention and some innovation in any given love story; for example, the movieSleepless in Seattle features both. The conventions in Sleepless include superficial glamour. Both Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are very attractive. Theirs is a love at first sight. The innocent action wrongly perceived comes about when Meg Ryan sees Tom Hanks hugging his sister. They are neither nor poor, and fate has Tom Hanks at the airport when Meg Ryan arrives. Of course, the couple meets at the top of the Sears Tower, and, presumably, lives happily together.
The innovation is Sleepless is the way the couple gets together. They have never met each other. They are brought together by Tom Hanks’ young son, who calls a radio show for lonely hearts.
Of course, all love stories don’t end as happily as Sleepless in Seattle. William Shakespeare’s tragic love story Romeo and Juliet was updated and made into a movie staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Clair Danes. Romeo and Juliet is conventional in some respects: the good looks of the leading actors, they fall in love at first sight, and the obstacle they must overcome is the longstanding feud between their families.
Romeo and Juliet is innovative because the couple falls in love without realizing they are supposed to be enemies. Both families are wealthy, and the leading characters are very young. The tragic ending is innovative because Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, when, in fact, she isn’t. He then takes his own life.
Many love stories are straightforward, and focus mostly on the romance of the couple involved. Butany kind of story can be a love story. The Romantic era produced many supernatural tales; one of the most enduring is Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven. Poe, like most writers of that era, used certain images to add to the drama of his work:
Strong emotions, especially feelings of the sublime and eternal.
Imagination and originality.
The remote, the exotic, the medieval, the strange (including strange, warped, or dreamlike emotional states).
Stylistically, Romanticism prefers lush exuberance. Romantic prose is often rich with description.
The ideal, imaginary, and visionary are more important and real than the mundane facts of every day life (Baldwin 1145-1146).
The conventions in The Raven include an obstacle to love – Lenore is dead. In true romantic style, she isn’t just dead she’s lost (an appeal to emotion). Another convention is superficial glamour. Lenore is described as "a rare and radiant maiden." The richness of the room is shown in great detail: the soft curtains, the bust of Pallas, and the velvet chair (the Romantic ideal of lush exuberance).
The Raven is also very innovative. The story does not have a happy ending, because Lenore is lost, forever: when her lover asks the raven if he’ll be reunited with her in Aidenn (Eden), the raven promptly tells him "nevermore!" (Romantic stories often focused on eternity.) Another innovation in Raven is that it’s the man who’s the emotional wreck. Poe paints a haunting picture of Lenore’s bereaved lover. He’s "weak and weary." In the midnight hours, he’s reading old books in a vain attempt to forget his pain. He hears the curtain rustle and he’s terrified. (Romantic stories are often told from the perspective of a person who’s in an uncertain psychological state).
All supernatural stories aren’t as dark and brooding as The Raven. A supernatural tale can also be light and humorous, as the movie Ghost shows. Conventions in Ghost are the obstacle to love – death: Patrick Swayze dies and leaves Demi Moore to grieve. However, the loving couple is reunited with the help of psychic Whoopi Goldberg. Of course, the superficial glamour is provided by Swayze and Moore.
The innovation in Ghost is the blending of humor and the supernatural. When psychic Goldberg goes to a bank to withdraw money, ghost Swayze goes with her. The humor lies in the fact that she is the only one who can see him.
As the social climate changes, literature changes right along with it. One of the biggest changes in the last century is role of women. The role has changed because society is changing the way it feels about women, and women are changing the ways they feel about themselves.
Anton Chekhov’s story Lady with the Pet Dog tells the story of Anna and Gurov, and it doesn’t quite fit the traditional love story formula. Of course, there are always conventions, even in innovative stories.The convention here is that Anna and Gurov want to be together, but of course, there’s an obstacle: they’re both married. Lady with the Dog depicts superficial glamour. Anna is a wealthy woman who lives a comfortable life. Her class is emphasized throughout the story. The innovation in this story is the relationship itself. Anna and Gurov are not in love for the sake of being in love; they both have other needs manifesting themselves as love. It seems unlikely that theirs will be a lasting relationship. Also innovative is the idea that Anna can be the "other woman" and still be a lady. She has class and morals: she’s not a "loose woman."
Of course, a loose woman can be the leading lady in a love story. The movie Pretty Woman, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, tells the story of a prostitute looking for happiness. The conventional glamour is provided by Roberts and Gere, who are extremely attractive. There’s also an obstacle to their love, mainly that she’s a prostitute.
The innovation in Pretty Woman is Roberts’ occupation. She’s shown to be a likeable woman; she’s not a drug user or a psychopath, as prostitutes are often portrayed. The movie makes it plain that Roberts is ready to walk out of the relationship when she feels Gere isn’t giving her proper respect.
The love story doesn’t have to be just a love story. It can be told in many ways, from traditional tragedies, like Romeo and Juliet, to tales of the supernatural, detective and adventures stories. No matter what kind of story it is, love is often the glue that holds it together.