With the romance genre coming out on top in many best-seller lists, readers are left wondering if romance can be helpful, wholesome, or even edifying. Can there be any benefit in reading a story where Prince Charming and Snow White fall in love at first sight and finally end up with their happily ever after fairy-tale ending?
Today, I’ll be discussing the three essential elements of a good romance novel that have gradually been vanishing from mainstream romance tales, and why these three elements are necessary for a good story.
The True Meaning of Romance
If you ever use old dictionaries, then you have seen that words change meaning over time. “Romance” is one of those. Just 200 years ago, a romance was an adventure, a journey, a heroic endeavor. The “romance” genre was literally every adventurous story. Romantic readers were readers who loved adventure and drama and sacrifice.
The Greatest Romance of all time is a story of adventure and drama and danger and sacrifice. It’s the story of a Prince coming to rescue his unfaithful bride. It’s the story of her heart-wrenching failures, her fruitless struggles, and His death-defying sacrifice. It’s the story of the Gospel, and all good romance stories – all radical romance stories – will reflect this Gospel theme.
Understanding the true meaning of “romance” is one step closer to discovering the three lost pieces of a good romance novel. By redefining the romance novel, we have forgotten what a beautiful romance is. And by forgetting what beautiful romance is, we have replaced it with a cheap and false imitation.
In reading good romance stories – radical romance stories – we are faced with the negative consequences of our own weaknesses and are encouraged to strive to overcome our failures. A romance story can be wholesome and edifying and strengthening if it shows the characters’ weaknesses, their struggles, and finally their sacrifices.
Lost Piece #1: The Weakness
Every good story starts with a flawed hero. They must learn how to overcome their mistakes, fight to save the world, and rescue the damsels in distress all before the bad guys arrive and obliterate all of the beauty and goodness from the earth.
In a radical romance, the story isn’t much different. Story characters are people who bring flaws and anger management issues and relationship difficulties and secrets and struggles to the pages. It also means weaknesses. And a romance shouldn’t be devoid of these.
Prideful and Prejudiced
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, if anyone is the epitome of a weakness, it would be Mr. Darcy. (Or so, that’s what Elizabeth Bennet thinks!) He’s extremely rich, snubs anyone below his social status, and won’t dance with her (or any girl, for that matter) even if men are scarce at a ball.
If anyone else is the epitome of a weakness, then it would be Elizabeth Bennet. (Or so, that’s what Mr. Darcy thinks!) Her mother and sisters are silly fools, her father acts irresponsibly at dinner parties, and Elizabeth herself is so blinded by prejudice to see any of his good traits. She also won’t marry him, which is the biggest weakness in itself.
Both of these characters have weaknesses that they don’t see until they meet each other. When each thinks the other person is being prideful, they don’t realize that they’re doing the same thing. When each thinks the other is severely prejudiced, it’s because they’re blinded by prejudice.
A Knight in Shining Armor
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery is not your typical romance. There’s no “knight in shining armor” swooping in to save his damsel in distress. There’s only the town drunk, Barney Snaith, riding in with his Grey Slosson to save Valancy Sterling from the dark and desperate few precious days of life she has left.
Barney Snaith is not your ideal hero, but then neither is Valancy Sterling your ideal heroine. While one has the tendency to fly off the handle in a fiery temper, the other has the constant habit to bury thoughts and emotions deep within her.
A Fiesty Heroine
And then… there’s Emma Woodhouse. At first glance, she’s practically perfect. She has a successful matchmaking business up and running, she’s single (but wealthy!), and her life is generally calm and quiet.
But on a closer examination, you will see that this heroine is far from perfect. When the matchmaking goes haywire, her best friend might be getting married, and the delightful tranquility of Hartfield is threatened by matrimony and intrigue, Emma Woodhouse is just as flawed as they come.
Weaknesses are essential to any radical story. And they’re also essential to a good romance. If all we had were shallow, perfect Snow White heroines, and handsome but completely-devoid-of-any-character Prince Charming heroes, romance would cease to be edifying, strengthening, and encouraging. The weaknesses of a character are only the first step, though, in the making of a good romance. Next, the heroes must face the struggles.
Lost Piece #2: The Struggle
“Cozy romance” is a genre all in itself. It’s generally those happy Christmas stories with city girls looking for a house in the country, and Christmas tree farmers who are perfect, hardworking, and single.
But is this realistic? A good romance – a radical romance – will have characters with flaws and weakness, and characters who face trials and struggles.
Because struggles are essential to a good romance. Not only do they portray a relationship realistically and truthfully, but they also provide the reader with the courage to face their own trials and the hope to endure them.
To Love and To Cherish
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is dark, gothic fiction, mystery, and romance all wound up in one. Jane Eyre is single, young, and the governess to a little girl in a large mansion. When she meets the child’s father, Mr. Rochester, the romance portion of the story begins.
But this romance isn’t sunshine, lollipops, or rainbows. It ends with painful decisions, heartbreaking realizations, and Jane leaving the mansion.
Jane Eyre is fraught with struggles. And that’s what makes the end so rewarding.
Enemies to Lovers
Eighteen year old Mara didn’t know what was coming to her when she agreed to be a spy for two different sides of a battle. Not only did it mean certain pain, hardship, and (almost certain) death, but it also meant a conflicted battle over who she loved.
Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw is a masterpiece of a romance. And it’s all due to the 276 pages of heart wrenching betrayals, victories, and sheer determination that make the final pages so thrilling. The book is fraught with tension, pain, and anger. The struggles are real even amidst the romance.
Love At First Sight
Of all the stories in the Bible, the story of Ruth and Boaz doesn’t jump out as a riveting adventure. But it’s the truthful story of two individuals thrown together by famine, the need to survive, and the tragic deaths of a husband and two sons. And then there’s the need for a willing redeemer who will marry Ruth at a cost to himself. The struggles are real and costly and heart wrenching.
The book of Ruth might not be categorized as a fast-paced, action-packed romance story. But it’s beautiful and true and a good romance because of the struggles, the pain, and the heartache.
Lost Piece #3: The Sacrifice
At a specific point in a story, everything goes wrong. Most writers calls it the “All is Lost” moment. At this point or this scene, something dies. Something always dies. It might not be a literal death of a loved one or a pet, but it’s a death nonetheless. The death of one’s pride, the death of one’s future dreams, the death of one’s last chances. All is lost. The future is grim.
Every good story will have the sacrifice moment. Every good romance should too.
For Better, For Worse
One of my favorite romance stories in the Bible is the story of Mary and Joseph. When you hear their names, you probably think of the nativity, but not of their relationship.
Joseph’s biggest sacrifice is his reputation. Not only is he risking his own name and respect by taking Mary as his wife, but he’s also going to be looked on with distrust and contempt. Being betrothed to Mary meant potentially sacrificing his own social status for her and for Christ.
A Match Made in Heaven
Northanger Abbey is another of Jane Austen’s novels, though lesser known than her more famous works. In it, the main character, Catherine Morland, is rejected by her potential father-in-law because of her money and social status. But Henry Tilney, a man in love with Catherine, will sacrifice his own societal status and family relationships for her.
Till Death Do Us Part
The greatest sacrifice in romance novels is usually one’s life, and in the musical, Beauty and the Beast, this price is paid. From the weaknesses of each character come the struggles they each face, and the final battle will be where the final sacrifice is paid as the Beast risks himself for Belle one last time.
Our culture has gradually been turning away from heroes who fight for truth and justice and towards the “bad” boy or girl. Sacrifical heroes have often become tropes of the past, sometimes looked down on for their piety and charity. Culture celebrates the rebel and cheers on rebellious romance.
Just as all heroes should sharpen each other and learn from each other, they also should sharpen each other’s strengths and learn how to fight one’s weaknesses. “The knight in shining armor” isn’t and shouldn’t be regarded as something from the past. It’s the ultimate place we want our heroes to end – strengthened by the hardship they have just endured.
The Romantic Reader
A good romance story is a radical romance story. Weaknesses, struggles, sacrifices and all. How many popular romance novels take place in a quaint little town where nothing much ever happens and nobody gets hurt and the damages aren’t all that damaging and the stakes are never that high?
Radical stories contain captivating plots. The hero runs away from a marriage (Jane Eyre), a famine throws two unsuspecting individuals together (the book of Ruth), a girl diagnosed with a fatal heart disease proposes marriage to the town drunk (The Blue Castle). The best stories are stories of heroism and adventure and sacrifice.
In an interesting side note, we almost always associate romance novels as targeted towards girls or women. But a “romance” (according to the older definition of the word) is an adventure that should be enjoyed by boys and girls, men and women alike. A radical story will contain a captivating plot that appeals to all readers. A good romance – a radical romance – will as well.
In Conclusion
Read radical romantic novels. Read novels of heroism and strength and love. A romantic reader (according to the older definition of the word) is really no different than a radical reader. Both love heroism and adventure and sacrifice.
So read good romance novels. Read radical romance novels, those with characters who fail and fight and sacrifice and win. Because that’s the story of the Greatest Romance, and all radical stories will reflect the Greatest Story.