Myth
Analysis on Romance
Mona
J. Barnes
Popular
Culture
Instructor
Jenifer Garey
April
12, 2015
My
myth is about romance. The myth of
romance in days of old to current times has certainly changed. In earlier times, when a guy walked you home
or carried your books, it was sweet and innocent and a way for a guy to show a
gal he was interested. If he was very
bold, he may even try to put his arm around you in a movie. Now fast forward to today, there is groping,
partial nudity, people walking right up to each other and kissing them just for
notoriety or shock value; quite a difference.
There are many types of myths; some based on
truth to some extent, and some based on tales.
When I was in Scotland, my honey and I took a ride on Loch Ness and
heard stories about the professed but fake monster. Currently there are still people who hold
onto this belief and still search the Loch for such a creature. There are myths regarding religion, as some
people believe that Jesus really turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, some
others believe it was a parable to make a point. Some atheists’ believe that the whole story
of God and Jesus is a myth. Others
believe that Scientology is a myth but many who are considered educated and
intelligent believe that it is real and seek out this “religion” as their
own. I think the more “bigger than life”
the story is, the easier chance it has in becoming a myth. Myths are everywhere and true or not, have
captured our imaginations and/or hearts throughout time.
I
am currently watching on TV the Starz channel, a series based on books by Diana
Gabaldon, titled Outlander. I have read all of the books in this series
over and over in the past years and I find it to be the epitome of romance, as
I perceive it to be. The myth that
romance is all stars and unicorns and everything is always wonderful is not
true romance to me. However, many
stories and movies portray that as a fact.
I believe that this is a disservice to our youth as well as us to
believe that a romance is like the Cinderella story.
Many myths are used as fairytales
with heroes and Gods and good and evil.
However, when young people see these things when it is in regard to
romance, they believe these things to be real and put these misconceptions on
any potential mates that come along.
Micheal
Novak (2014) writes, “Westerners have come to think that the central fire of
human happiness is romantic love, love forever and ever (love “happily ever
after”). Imagination ends with the
romantic couple walking hand in hand across the fields toward the
sunlight. Many people spend their entire
lives looking for such love, wanting to feel such love, wondering, when they
are first attracted to another, if that’s
what they’re now feeling. Above all,
most people love being in love, love the feeling of loving,
love even the mad passion of being in love.
Now
obviously, there are flowers, sunshine, and uncontrollable flutters when it
comes to romance in the beginning.
However, the myth of the happily ever after does not include how there
are so many obstacles along the way.
There are changes that couple go through. I don’t mean the metamorphosis like
Cinderella changing from a house grunt to a princess through the meeting of a
rich and wonderful partner. I am talking
about realities of how sweet it is in the beginning, the process of setting up
house, the introduction of babies and the hardships and tests that come along
with living a long happily married life.
I
always told my daughters that you may always love the person you are with but
you darn sure don’t like them all of the time!
I have been married since I was seventeen (17) years old and am now soon
to be fifty-four (54). My hubby and I
have been through many changes in our thirty-six (36) years together and not
all of them have been glitter and rainbows.
The person you fell in love with at a young age may become a completely
different person through the years and you may too. It is important to change together and go
through the hard times as well as the good.
I think the myth of romance, while wonderful, needs the added ingredient
of reality versus fiction. Too many
people think that romance is like it is in the books and movies and then when
it isn’t they assume they are with the wrong person and give up.
Often
times, there is no one rushing in to save the day, they don’t have a lot of
money just laying around to fix anything that needs fixed and they get mad at
each other and have opposing viewpoints on things that maybe were not important
to you at twenty but at thirty have become very important. I don’t want to dispel the myth of romance,
as it is there and wonderful, just not always in the form that is presented in
the media and stories.
To
get to the story I mentioned earlier, a woman travels back in time
inadvertently and is forced to marry another man even though in current times
she is already married. There is no
romance at the beginning other than a mutual attraction and the circumstances
are far from romantic as to how they get together. The story, like the Star Wars reference made
in the class notes regarding Joseph Campbell’s monomyth components, has a story
of how the main character is initially separated from a world she has known and
a husband she is just getting to know again due to the war having separated
them. She is initiated into life in the
1700’s in the Scottish Highlands, and at one point during a famous battle that
basically ended the clan ruling in the Highlands, she was sent back to here own
time again to face a husband who thinks she left him on purpose and to whom she
has to tell she is pregnant.
I
believe that romance is still and will always be alive but in stories,
especially fairy tales, although striving for magic, the writers have set up an
impossible act to follow when it comes to real life. I think the dichotomy for those kids who read
those things and then see such fighting and horror in their homes must
certainly be scarred for life at the contrast.
For escapism, I adore these
movies and stories but that is never stressed to anyone, that they are stories;
based on wishes and hopes. Those are
wonderful things but they send out a message that is untrue and make it too
easy for people to give up on when it doesn’t turn out the way they think it should,
like the movies and books and love songs.
References
Balnicke,J., Free, W., Kennard, D. (1987). Monomyth. Documentary Movie.
United
States.
Gabaldon, Diana (1991) Outlander. New York, NY: Delacorte Book
Novak, Michael (February 14, 2011): The Myth of Romantic
Love retrieved from
www.firstthings.com/web-exlcusives/2011/02
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