It goes without saying that the most famous tale of forbidden love in the Western canon is Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. However, whether you consider it the archetype of loves self-sacrifice or a prime example of teenage hormonal idiocy is another story altogether.
Broken down, the plot is pretty simple: boy meets girl, boy woos girl, boy and girl die in a messy triple murder / suicide. Romantics (and Twilight fans) will tell you that true love is the willingness to die for someone. Nay-sayers will argue that sleeping with an impressionable thirteen-year old girl is creepy. Its a debate for the ages.
Although its hard to break away from the romantic tradition set down by
Romeo and Juliet, lets fast forward a few years to Puritan New England. Hot probably isnt the first word that comes to mind, especially considering that Puritans came to the New World because Old England was too improper. Then again, this stodginess is exactly the kind of climate that no pun intended breeds a good scandal.
The novel we had in mind is Nathaniel Hawthornes
The Scarlet Letter, which is a far more complicated love story than the three-day hormone fest in Shakespeares Verona. Everyone knows that Hester Prynne has done the deed, but what no one in Boston realizes is that the father of her child is none other than oh snap! their beloved pastor.
God pulls a fast one on pastor Dimmesdale, however, by burning a painful, scarlet A into his flesh as a gentle reminder that a confession is in order. Many of us will remember wishing that Hester and Dimmesdale would just run away together already as they so nearly do but instead, they obey the social mores of the time, live separate lives, admit their crime, and go on to die alone. God: 1; Twilight fans: 0.
Fast forwarding another few years to the New England of the 1980s will make you glad you were born in the age of computers and not public lashings. Take Bon Jovis
Livin on a Prayer, a twentieth-century approximation of Hawthornes novel. This arena rock song is an epic story of blue-collar, low-income lovin with an unplanned parenthood subplot. Not your typical rockout material.
What really gives the lyrics impact is the fact that theyre based on the story of two of Bon Jovis high-school classmates. All that stuff about working on the docks, serving diner food, and scraping by suddenly gets a lot more real when it actually, you know, is. And frankly, even if Bon Jovi didnt base the song on anyone in particular, the storys so common nowadays that he might as well have.
Although all that talk of hardship and interrupted dreams might otherwise be depressing, the anthemic chorus reinforces the idea that love (and enough money to get by) conquers all. In that sense, the song is a hopeful (if not happy) medium between the two extremes set by Romeo, Juliet, Hester, and Dimmesdale. Looks like were halfway there, after all.
