No Love Lost

From the week of September 16 I'm feeling a bit sympathetic for Tess tonight. I also feel like I am beating a dead horse by saying this, or even bringing Tess up for that matter, but its literature and it relates to my feelings at this very moment. That poor dead horse. And I'm not talking about Prince. I used to think Tess just needed to get over herself. Now, however, I'm starting to wonder if things would have been different for her if she had done something about her predicament sooner. What if she had stood up for herself when Alec kept hitting on her? What if she had never gotten involved with him, knowing what a player he is? Oh the things we think about after the fact. Why do girls always fall for the bad boys first? Its a classic theme in life. Girl meets boy, boy is bad for girl, girl is stupid and falls for boy, and then boy is stupid and doesn't fall for girl. So then when the girl tries to get herself back on track, other boys are like "Psht, no.". Like in The Princess Diaries (the books, not the movie), Mia falls for Josh (Josh is the bad boy), but when she figures out that she really should be with Michael, Michael is already going out with fruit-fly girl (she has a name, I just fail to remember it). The Lars, Mia’s bodyguard, has to drag Michael out to the dance and be all “Dance with her. NOW” and Lilly (still Michael’s sister and Mia’s best friend) has to help Lars, and after multiple trials and tribulations, Michael breaks up with Judith (that was her name!) and goes out with Mia. Yeah, I’m lost too and I’ve read the books about 10 times each. Why can't people just fall in love and be happy? Does everything really have to be the trial that we put ourselves through each time? Or is it just girls that are this insanely complicated?

If love was not so tragic and confusing, however, many of the greatest novels would never have been written. Tuck Everlasting, Ella Enchanted, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Romeo and Juliet, and Candide would not be around for us to read. We would not be able to enjoy the satisfaction in the end of the novel when the hero and heroin finally get to be together, or the burning disappointment and dissatisfaction we feel when we realize that they will never be together. Its disappointing, frustrating, aggravating, and irksome. But at the same time, that nagging feeling reminds us that loss is ok and that there must be someone out there that is better for us or them (depending on whether the situation applies to your real life or you are reading about it in a novel). I think tragic love in novels prepares us for real life in a way by letting us know that its all going to be ok in the end.

That and its good angst reading if you happen to be feeling that way in real life.