The Timeline of Love: How Does Love Change Throughout the Genre?

Kayleigh Winter

Romantic Comedies 

Professor Sinowitz

13 May 2020

The Timeline of Love: How Does Love Change Throughout the Genre? 

Throughout our journey of romantic comedy, we have witnessed the continuous transformation of the genre beginning with Shakespeare to Austen, and from Austen to Hollywood’s interpretation of the form. Despite the drastic changes, one thing that remains prominent is the focus on the romantic rollercoaster between the central heterosexual couple. The work of both Tamar Jeffers McDonald and Wesley Morris are major components in our study of Romantic Comedy because they form an imaginary timeline to exemplify how the genres’ depiction of love has conformed to the structure of the current culture while still maintaining the happily ever after love story. This raises the question as to whether Romantic Comedies depict love in a way that is universal or as a social construction that changes with society by examining the different types of love seen within various works in this genre? 

According to J. Hillis Miller’s discussion of storytelling, stories are supposed to satisfy and fulfill the audiences’ drive for love, yet they rarely do. In order to satisfy this hunger, the audience gobbles up the same stories because the audience is a sucker for happy endings and romantic comedies convince us that love is destined for all of us. Unfortunately, I have come to learn that this is just not the case because love is a messy, roller coaster ride that leaves you breathless and bruised. Romantic comedies even go so far as to create the allusion that love is often the same in many relationships, in which two well-matched lovers are joined together or reunited. Before embarking upon our journey of romantic comedy, I already had a sense that love was a complicated and universal construct, but being exposed to various perceptions leads me to conclude that love is what you make of it. Everyone has their own perception of what love means to them based off of their own experiences and heartbreaks. For example, some people may believe in love at first sight, highschool sweethearts, and the like, while others may contend that not everyone is destined for love or that men and women can’t be friends as depicted in the film When Harry Met Sally. 

Similar to how love is personal and can change from individual to individual, the love depicted in romantic comedies has changed throughout time by emphasizing a new expression of love in each subgenre and illustrates the ideal characteristics we should look for in a mate. In the pre-code era of the genre, the ideal man would be a businessman of the sorts, who is well groomed and asserts his dominance over women. The ideal woman is a classic damsel in distress, relying on the man to save her or knock her off her pedestal in order to get on the same level as society. Clearly, love seems to have a socially constructed definition, but it is crucial that we examine the ways in which the genre has generated unique ideals of love throughout different time periods before drawing any conclusions.

The Beginning of the Romantic Comedy: Shakespearean Love

 Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing sets the stage for how love can be different among couples and how it causes people to do some crazy things. Most romantic comedies deem that love follows McDonald’s construction of the romantic comedy: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, with the female forgiving the male and living happily ever after, but this formula may not work the same way for every relationship. In Shakespeare's early romantic comedy, there are two different concepts of love: love at first sight and falling in love with an unlikely suitor. For example, Claudio and Hero’s relationship is rooted in the form of “love at first sight.”

In his play, Shakespeare demonstrates how quickly Clauido and Hero’s form of love can be shattered. From the moment Claudio sees Hero, he declares that he is going to marry her because his perception of love is superficial. According to Claudio’s perspective, love is an intense infatuation with someone you just meet. He doesn’t need to say one word to her, he just knows she is the one for him. Because Claudio fell in love with Hero so quickly, it isn’t surprising to see how fast he falls out of love with her. The notion of love at first sight becomes problematic because Clauido doesn’t really know Hero, and therefore he is quick to accuse her of being unfaithful. He destroys his relationship before he finds out the truth because Claudio has fallen into the trap of confusing storytelling with reality, yet when the truth is revealed to him, he expects Hero to forgive him.

On the other hand, Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship represents falling in love with an unlikely suitor. Both Benedick and Beatrice are against marriage entirely and are at odds with one another, but their striking similarities and the strong tension between them only makes their potential for love even stronger. Throughout much of the play they claim they will never get married, yet hearing stories of how they secretly love each other convinces them to view one another more affectionately. Loving each other out of pity may not be the ideal way to love someone, but if Benedick and Beatrice are dedicated and willing to make their relationship work, they may end up falling in real love. By the end of the play, they decide to put their feelings about marriage aside and get married in a double wedding with Hero and Claudio.

Screwball Comedy: Love is a Struggle for Equality

By the mid to late 1930’s, pre-code films such as It Happened One Night and Libeled Lady began to deal with love through the lense of gender inequality and the birth of the drawbridge that Wesley Morris discusses in his article “Rom-Coms Were Corny and Retrograde. Why Do I Miss Them So Much?” Morris mentioned that “Romantic comedies from the 1930’s and 40’s possess a certain parity of the sexes which balances the story between a man and a woman by making the woman formidable, remarkable, and alive.” Capra’s film It Happened One Night is a prime example of gender inequality because the film follows the basic formula McDonald mentions in her discussion of screwball comedy: “rich woman meeting, being tamed, and helped to mature by a poorer or seemingly socially inferior man…” (McDonald, 19). Peter and Ellie’s relationship epitomizes this formula because Ellie (Claudette Colbert) is a spoiled social elite who is frivolous with the little money she has and doesn’t understand the concept of struggle prevalent during the Great Depression. Peter Warne (Clark Gable), on the other hand, is an arrogant and self-assured reporter who seeks to knock Ellie off her pedestal and teaches her how to follow a budget. 

As they go through several adventures together, Ellie begins to fall in love with Peter, but this doesn’t happen until one or both of them changes. I think Ellie undergoes the most change in the film because she begins to appreciate the finer things in life and no longer fits the mold of the social elite. At the same time, she challenges Peter to change during the hitchhiking scene, in which she lifts up her skirt to show off her shapely leg and catches them a ride. In order to match Ellie, Peter must realize that he and Ellie are equals. After Peter fails to pull over a car, Ellie convinces him to let her try, but he doesn’t seem to have much faith in her. This scene is significant because it demonstrates that Ellie is capable of doing things on her own. As both characters complete their transformation and “lower their bridges to match each other,” the drawbridge reaches its full effect when Westley (Jameson Thomas) settles for the annulment and the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. 

Capra’s film examines how love challenges the main characters to make personal changes in order to be together. Without these changes, the relationship will not work because the couple remains unequal and certain characteristics may end up being problematic in the future. Also, visually expressing these changes is crucial because the film needs to make the happily ending believable. If the internal or external barriers that produced conflict between the couple remain, the audience will struggle to believe that the couple will end happily together. According to Hillis Miller’s article, “people seek out romantic comedies for the purpose of watching a happy ending” because we want the same type of love and passion in our own relationships. The reality of happily ever after in the real world is only an illusion because certain types of love in romantic comedies produce an ill-conceived version of love that is unrealistic and incompatible with certain types of relationships today. 

Sex Comedies: Love is Physical

There is a noticeable shift in romantic comedies produced in the 1950’s and 1960’s when the screwball subgenre transitioned into colored sex comedies. McDonald defines the sex comedy as “pitting the women against the man in an elemental battle of wits, in which the goal of both is sex…with women wanting sex after, and men before or without, marriage” (McDonald, 38). The sex comedy clearly differs from the classic romantic comedy and screwball subgenre because it is more direct and open with sex, rather than avoiding it at all costs. According to Morris, “sex was rarely far from the surface, but in the ’50s and ’60s it really started to announce itself” (Morris, 3). During this time period, the sex comedy manipulated the Hays Code by being more open with the concept and female sexuality. For example, in Shakespeare’s time sex was not spoken of becasue engaging in premarital sex was frowned upon. This explains why Claudio was so quick to publicly denounce Hero in front of her friends and family because women shouldn’t be sexually promiscuous. 

In contrast with the title of this subgenre, McDonald notes that the sex comedy “chose to tease and then lead on the audience with the promise of sex and then refuse to deliver until the end-reel marriage” (McDonald, 42). These films portray love as a “battle of the sexes” in which women want sex too, but are expected to wait until marriage, while at the same, the male will disguise himself and pretend to be shy in order to get the woman into bed. In this case, marriage is no longer as much a necessity to confirm a couple’s love for one another, rather “the films tend to present the marriage only within the last few minutes of the film, so that maximum time can be given to resistance to it and only very minimum to its celebration” (McDonald, 47). It is during this time that the concept of love began to conform with the times as society gradually shyed away from marriage completely by neglecting to picture the ceremony and alluding to the couple having sex without showing it. In fact, Professor Sinowitz and Professor Ronay discuss how divorce and objections from the Catholic Church were integral to the development of this genre. For instance, the virginal persona of Doris Day was overshadowed by the mature couple having sex. Also, with the invention of the birth control pill couples no longer had the pressure to have a family because having children out-of-wedlock no longer served as a viable excuse to avoid having sex. 

Radical Romantic Comedies: Love is Uncertain and Self-absorbed

By the 1970’s, with the radical romantic comedy in full force, love and marriage seemed to be completly detached as sex was explicly shown as a mode of recreationnal activity, rather than an ultimate expression of love. Morris emphasizes this primitive change by mentioning that “some of these movies may have been better but their approach to relationships was cockeyed. The people in them seemed to have soured on love stories, and on one another'' (Morris, 3). The radical romantic comedy was comfortable with portraying love as ambiguous and uncertain. The goal was not to focus on the happily ever after, but instead demonstrates that the Hays Code era ended and that sex could be openly discussed in popular cuture. A prime example of Morris’ claim is encompassed in Mike Nichols’ film The Graduate because the sexual affair between Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) is portrayed as a hindrance to his relationship with Elaine (Katharine Ross). This is crucial because it expresses the changing definition of love in our culture. 

 In earlier forms of romantic comedy, the central couple is at odds, begins to undergo personal changes, and then fall in love, living happily ever after. The 1970’s sets the tone for the romantic comedies in the future because it initiates the resistance against marriage. According to McDonald, “the radical romantic comedy is often willing to abandon the emphasis on making sure the couple ends up together...instead striving to interrogate the ideology of romance” (McDonald, 59). The explicit representation of sex in this subgenre leads to the evolution of love in which marriage was no longer necessary for love, with the characters openly questioning and answering why sex didn’t happen. This new concept also emphasizes the “Me” culture of the 1970’s, which focuses on the concept of self love, rather than solely focusing on the central couple. For example, in the podcast for Nichols’ film, Professor Glausser mentions that “Ben is like Berkley; he is stuck in the 50’s, while trying to change” (The Best of What’s Still Around, 2020). Glausser’s claim ties with McDonald’s analysis of Nichols’ film because she describes how The Graduate doesn’t seem to be a romantic comedy at all because the story is more about Ben’s inability to fit in society, instead of his relationship with Elaine. This explains why the audience is unsure where Ben and Elaine’s relationship stands at the end of the film.

The ending of The Graduate is one of the most important aspects of Nichols’ film because it exposes the uncertainty of love. Unlike most romantic comedies, Nichols unleashes the possibility of the central couple breaking up and going their separate ways in the future. This is apparent in the final shot of the film, in which the camera focuses on Ben and Elaine sitting in the back of the bus. As they sit down, Ben and Elaine’s mood shifts dramatically as they appear to be separated and their faces express “where do we go from here.” This scene is very awkward because it echoes the runaway bride scene in It Happened One Night, but this time the bride is seen running away with another man after the marriage is complete. Their relationship is clearly up in the air, but the uncertainty that the audience is left with exposes a more realistic version of relationships. The Graduate also severs the relationship between love and marriage as Nichols exposes a new form of love that reveals the possibility of pursuing relationships without settling for marriage. 

The Impostor Romantic Comedy: Love in the Workplace

Romantic comedy took an interesting turn in the late 1980’s as Mike Nichols’ Working Girl equated love with the corporate business world. In this new rendition of love, Nichols emphasizes an 80’s ambition with a vagueness about the business culture. With the hustle and bustle of the New York City setting, the film expresses that there is no room for love in the business world if it remains a male dominated institution. What makes Working Girl so unique is that it allows for love and business to compliment one another, but largely focuses on women like Tess (Melanie Griffith) becoming acquainted with a man’s world. Women were no longer pictured as damsels in distress, rather Tess represents the face of a strong, independent woman in the workplace. Despite the obstacles of sexism and her socioeconomic class, Tess is able to “make it happen,” while also falling in love with Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford). 

Before this happens, Tess’s relationship with Mick (Alec Baldwin) has to come to an end if she wants to better herself and rise out of the working class. Professor Sinowitz and Professor Chiarella discuss how Nichols emphasizes that women deserve to be part of the business world by illustrating Tess at a crossroads between the working class and the elite. For example, Professor Chiarella mentions that “Tess' relationship with Mick is unconventional because Tess doesn’t belong in the working class.” It is crucial that Tess crumbles the trope of female forgiveness that was prevalent in earlier forms of the genre because Tess’s relationship with Mick bars her from leaving Staten Island (the working class) to pursue her career. 

Her relationship with Jack is different because it is not necessarily based on sex or romance, their love for each other is expressed through a strong work ethnic and playing along with dirty business schemes. In fact, the expression of love takes a similar course as The Graduate, in which love takes a back seat in order for Tess to figure out who she is without a man telling her what to do. Another similarity between Nichols’ films is that the main love interests, Jack Trainer and Elaine Robinson, don’t enter the films until halfway through. This is significant because the film focuses largely on self-discovery, portraying Tess as a class and gender hero during the second wave of feminism. Due to the cultural paradoxes exemplified in the film, Working Girl expands on McDonald’s analysis on The Graduate, which demonstrates the possibility of strong and loving relationships without the central couple getting married. That is not to say that marriage is not portrayed at all, but the central couple is not always guaranteed to be the one that gets married. 

Neo-Traditional Romantic Comedy: Love Destroys Friendships 

The final shift in the timeline of love is emphasized by the Neo-Traditional romantic comedy. This subgenre is significant because it represents a return to a more traditional form of love that exemplifies the “insurmountable odds facing the couple, only to remove them in the final reel to achieve the unlikely reconciliation” (McDonald, 85). Unlike radical romantic comedies, the neo-traditional subgenre reverts back to a more hopeful and optimistic ending with the man and the woman ending up together. These types of romantic comedies are also more open to portraying real world ideas, such as divorce, but emphasizes that some relationships are not meant to last forever and teach us valuable lessons. 

Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron’s film When Harry Met Sally portrays an interesting form of love because the film shifts back to the central focus on the couple and expresses the possibility of love rooted in friendship. Harry’s overarching quote, “A man and a woman can’t be friends because the sex gets in the way” emphasizes this new form becasue it ties with the current idea that people should marry, or want to marry their best friend. Throughout much of the film, the sexual tension between Harry and Sally is obvious, yet in order to save their friendship they try to ignore their feelings for each other. In today’s society, it seems that men and women can be temporary friends, but only for a limited time because the guy and girl inevitably end up together or drift apart. But, the film makes it obvious that Harry and Sally’s relationship is much more than a friendship because there is no room for anyone else in the film. This bolsters Harry’s ideology regarding friendships because the film expresses that a man and a woman can start out as friends, develop strong feelings for each other, and then achieve the happily ever after that so many people want. Even though Harry was correct in saying that sex destroys the possibility of male and female friendships, he and Sally are able to salvage a new relationship by the end of the film. In doing so, the audience is left with a sense of renewed hope, rather than the sense of uncertainty portrayed in romantic comedies from the 70’s. 

Turn of the Decade Romantic Comedies: Love is Changing

With the return to the traditional tropes of the genre, more recent romantic comedies such as Knocked Up and The Big Sick revisit the “drawbridge” metaphor that Morris discusses in his essay. Morris utilizes this concept in order to demonstrate that romantic comedy is at “it’s best when the couple is on the same level as each other” and that one or both go through some kind of change ala Pride and Prejudice. The necessity for change is interesting because in more recent romantic comedies, it is the male protagonist who has to change. Unlike earlier films, these types of romantic comedies conform to a modern perception of relationships, in which the female lead has it all figured out on her own, yet she is still in need of a man because women are still expected to get married and have a family. For instance, in Michael Showalter’s film The Big Sick, the story doesn't revolve around Emily’s (Zoe Kazan) road to change, rather she serves as a catalyst for Kumail’s (Kumail Nanjiani) change. 

In this case, Emily and Kumail's relationship will never work until he is honest with himself and his family, and stands up for the love that he believes in. This emphasizes the point I made earlier that everyone has their own perception of what love means to them because the film incorporates several types of love, such as an arranged marriage or a broken and repaired marriage. For example, arranged marriage may have worked out for Kumail’s parents and his brother, but Kamail’s perception of love differs because he prefers a typical American relationship, which conforms with McDonald’s basic formula for a romantic comedy. It just so happens that Emily is “the one” for him, but until he comes to terms with who he is and lowers his bridge to match Emily’s, the film will not be able to complete the formula with the boy getting the girl back. In other words, love is not guaranteed unless one of the characters makes a change, proves to their partner that they have changed, and then the other person accepts them back into their lives.

Conclusion

After analyzing the different forms of romantic comedies, I conclude that love seems to be a socially constructed concept that conforms with the current culture and our own experiences. Despite the inevitable happy ending in earlier films, recent romantic comedies express the possibility of love not working out and create lessons for us to carry into future relationships. Although the notion of “happily ever after” is a magical and beautiful dream to have, some relationships are destined to fall apart. By rejecting this ideal, I have gained a more realistic view of what relationships look like in the real world. Relationships are not perfect and couples may feel pressured to conform with society’s standards, but true love sometimes requires a few broken hearts to get there. 

In the end, it is clear that people outside of our class should pay closer attention to this genre because these films can teach us valuable lessons about love. The earlier romantic comedies may have us believe that love always works out, ending with the couple being united or getting married, but current romantic comedies express that love is a shattered conception that doesn’t always end so happily. Also, the timeline I have examined throughout this essay demonstrates that love is a formulaic term that reflects an individual’s unique  perception of love. Some people may believe in the possibility of finding their soulmate, while others may be wary of love working out at all, but the various subgenres demonstrate that there is a romantic comedy suited for everyone. As we can see, love is the driving force that has sparked the continuous transformation of the genre beginning with Shakespeare and continuing today as the world becomes more inclusive of love stories that stray from the traditional norm.

Works Cited

Capra, Frank, Director. It Happened One Night. Columbia Pictures, 1934

McDonald, Tamar Jeffers. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. Columbia

University Press, 2007.

Morris, Wesley. “Rom-Coms Were Corny and Retrograde. Why Do I Miss Them so Much?” 

24 Apr. 2019, pp. 1–8.

Nichols, Mike, Director. The Graduate, Embassy Pictures United Artists (International), 1967.

Nichols, Mike, Director. Working Girl, 20th Century Fox, 20 Dec. 1988.

Shakespeare, William, et al. Much Ado about Nothing. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2018.

Sinowitz, Michael, and Wayne Glausser. “The Best of What's Still Around Podcast Rom Com: 

Discussion of Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1967) and McDonald's ‘The Radical 

Romantic Comedy.’” Podbean, 5 Apr. 2020.

Sinowitz, Michael, Chiarella, Thomas. “The Best of What's Still Around Podcast - Rom Com: 

Discussion of Mike Nichols' Working Girl (1988).” Podbean, 7 Apr. 2020.

Sinowitz, Michael, Glausser, Wayne. “The Best of What's Still Around Podcast - Rom Com: 

Discussion of Mike Nichols' The Graduate (1967) and McDonald's ‘The Radical 

Romantic Comedy.’” Podbean, 5 Apr. 2020.

Sinowitz, Michael, Nichols-Pethick, Jonathan. “The Best of What's Still Around Podcast - 

Rom Com: Discussion of When Harry Met Sally (1989).” Podbean 17 Apr. 2020.

Sinowitz, Michael, Nichols-Pethick, Jonathan. “The Best of What's Still Around Podcast - 

Rom Com: Discussion of The Big Sick (2017).” Podbean, 2020.