Sunday, August 19, 2012

The greatest love stories

I was scanning through TV channels and saw one channel advertising a new theme night; greatest love stories night. They then showed bits of the movies they are going to show on that night: Dr. Zhivago, Gone with the wind and Casablanca. And it got me wondering, why are all the loves stories considered great are either failed ones or immoral ones?

Dr. Zhivago, is the story of a guy cheating on his wife. Casablanca is the story of a married lady falling for another man. Gone with the wind is the story of a couple who were never able to reach to any understanding or make their relationship work.

Those are only a few but literature is filled with such stories and we all say "great love stories: Romeo and Juliette, kill themselves. Cleopatra and Mark Antony, he cheats on his wife and betrays his country, she cheats on her own country. Lancelot and Guinevere, he betrays the trust of his king and she betrays her husband. And the list goes on. Either immoral stories or failed tragic ones, or both.

Is this what makes love great. It has to be either tragic or immoral? What about the average couple who meet, fall in love, get married, build a family and survive and protect their relationship throughout time and through the difficulties of life? Is their story not great?!!

How about we start using the word Notorious instead of great. So we start calling things by their rightful names. All these love stories should be acknowledged as "The Most Notorious Love Stories" because in reality there is nothing great about them.