2007-04-16 10:36:40 · 9 answers · asked by natalia 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
This has a lot to do with the idea of perfection.
Let's face it: real life is messy. Nobody can do the best things all the time. Mistakes happen, even if they are later recovered from.
This means that PERFECT love can only exist in the mind. Once a romance leaves the mind and becomes reality, it becomes in some ways less than it was (even if it is also in many ways much more for being real instead of imaginary). This is why a 'courtly' unfulfilled love is still considered by some to be the purest and truest form of love.
This is also why many authors kill one or both involved characters at the end of a love story. It's not to make their love impossible. It's to keep their love forever pure, even after being realized. Juliet doesn't have to worry about Romeo drinking too much and doing something foolish, and Romeo doesn't have to worry about that cousin who's making eyes at his wife. They're both dead.
Of course, in some ways that is less satisfying than saying, "And they lived happily ever after." But that classic benediction also has its faults... it is kind of like saying, "And remember, this is a complete fairy tale." At least with death we have an air of reality. So it goes.
2007-04-16 11:34:31 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That actually bugs the heck out of me, because it so rarely happens in real life and what we want out of a love story is to see that love is real and love is possible, not that it fails. I remember the quote from Edith Wharton: "For love to be love, it must be forbidden, it must fail, it must carry the doomed lovers down with it" ... that sort of attitude makes me crazy!
I'd much prefer a love story of average people (not the super wealthy as the romance novels usually have) who struggle and then find love and share love in terrific and creative ways, something I might also do within my own life.
2007-04-16 17:45:34 · answer #2 · answered by John B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, that's hard for me to answer... I guess all kinds are good.
I'm not optimistic, so I don't always want a happy ending.
I'm not pessimistic, so I don't always want a sad ending.
I am a realistic person though, so I like stories that vary. Some happy, some sad, some tragic, some go neither way...It just makes it all more real to me when it's not like a fairy tale, and not like a depressed journal.
2007-04-16 18:01:43 · answer #3 · answered by Bunny Slippers 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In reality, most "love" don't stand the test of time. So, you rather one died at the height of the moment.
Otherwise, very likely the story end in the attorney office for divorce and alimony paper signing.
2007-04-16 19:48:37 · answer #4 · answered by Just_curious 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Romeo and Juliet is the best of the tragic love stories. they both die, thinking of how desolate life without their love would be... So very touching. William Shakespear was a goth and didn't know it!
2007-04-16 19:23:49 · answer #5 · answered by sjsosullivan 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as we have the Good, the Bad and the Ugly living alongside each other people will continue to die. Otherwise, if you minus the bad and the ugly.... hey presto!!! what peace!!
2007-04-16 17:47:49 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i mostly prefer happy endings, which are rare in real life.
2007-04-16 17:46:11 · answer #7 · answered by ironic 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the end, everyone dies in meaninglessness in EVERY story .
2007-04-16 17:43:09 · answer #8 · answered by Tor Hershman 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
NO no and no!
2007-04-18 13:53:30 · answer #9 · answered by Friend 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋