Before studying The Great Gatsby and The Scarlet Letter this year, I always pictured Romance as two candles in the middle of a table with two glasses of red wine set next to empty china plates. After reading both of those amazing books, I realized that Romance can be so muc more than the typical American portrayal. Romance is Gatsby in the sense that he disappears frequently, he's a dreamer, and he dwells on the past. Why has this idea of Romance diminished like so many other characteristics? I feel that perhaps Romance is one of those things that is what you make it. To one person it may only be a single rose left by an anonymous lover, but to another it can mean so much more. Is this brought about by the ignorant and the scholarly? Perhaps this trivial use of "I love you" is linked to the failing capacity of Romance. This three word phrase once had the power of a giant within its meaning, but with the passage of time it has because a commonplace phrase that you hear everywhere. Do words develop new meanings? Why do they lose their old meanings? The English language, like so many things in America, has tragically lost it's magic.
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I think that Hollywood has a lot to do with individual's preconceived notions regarding romance and love. (Personally, I'm sick of the romantic comedies that are churned out one after the other). The truth is--love and romance (and those "three words" as you so nicely put it!) are about so much more than prince charming and white stallions. The beauty in love is that it's about the bad times too. I think love is often confused with lust. I think in words, in art, in music we can truly recapture what was once so special about those three words.
The Great Gatsby is such a good book!! I can tell that you are a junior in high school because you are reading gatsby and the scarlet letter.
Anyway, about the romance stuff. I think romance is different for everyone. It hasn't lost its flavor or bliss just because of America's stereotypical candlelit dinner with ambience and all that. A lot of Americans have there own imaginations about it. Maybe you first think of candles and wine glasses, while someone else might think of making love and sexual scenes.
I think the problem with romance is that it can skew someone's vision of the other person. They get so wrapped up in them that they don't notice the whole person with all flaws and everything. Teenagers like you and I often get too sexually attracted to someone but then after you break up and get over it you see that there really wasn't anything too special or different about that person anyway. I don't know if this makes sense, but basically romance can sometimes lead to a lustful, blinded perspective of the other person.
The best romance in my opinion is going to dinner and a dance with a friend you aren't sexually attracted too because you can see how romantic the situation really is, instead of with a boyfriend or crush which will make you think anything with them is romantic. Tolo is tomorrow and hopefully Alex and I will be able to connect on a more intimate level although we don't like each other as more than friends.
This is way off topic from what you really said in your post but I just though I'd get that out there for people to think about as well, at least from a teen perspective.
Has romance been diminished, or is it just that the examples of olden day romance that have been preserved to today are the more noble ones, and not truly representative of what romance used to be?
the latter, I'm sure. Romance is still very much alive for most people, whether is sounds like real romance or not.
With all of you. I think that once people realize that their perception of Romance is flawed, or really simply that they are not in love with their husband, they get divorces, and personally most of the time I don't agree with divorce (especially when kids are involved). Because of Hollywood's perception of what Romance should be so many children come up with the wrong idea regarding romance, and I think there's something serenly wrong with this.
Yeah, I am a junior... but they're both fantastic books.
Sometimes it's worse on the kids to stay together, though, because then they have to deal with the fighting more.