I’ve always loved romantic comedies, it started as a guilty pleasure in my teens and became a guiltier pleasure in my twenties and my thirties. Now, in my forties, I have no shame at all. Structurally, the romantic comedy has its origins in Shakespeare’s Comedies that, although romantic, were not exclusively about romance. In fact, these classic plays reflect our social anxieties and provide vicarious relief by resolving all the narrative tension at the end.
In this article I want to spend some time thinking about the nature of the rom-com, what deeper needs they tap into, and how Scripture itself serves a kind of ‘comic’ function that is all the more heart-warming for its heavenly truthfulness.
The Origins of the Romantic Comedy
The situational premises for Shakespeare’s Comedies bear a striking similarity to more modern romantic comedies. That is, many of them begin with some kind of misfortune or disillusionment:
- In Twelfth Night (1623) Viola is shipwrecked and cast alone onto a strange shore, separated from her twin brother Sebastien.
- In The Proposal (2009) Margaret faces deportation for failing to renew her American Visa.
- In As You Like It (1599) Rosalind’s father has been usurped at court and flees to the forest.
- In Legally Blonde (2001) Elle Woods is dumped by her boyfriend and loses the associated success and security of marrying a man with high prospects.
To offset the stress of misfortune there needs to be hijinks. There is cross-dressing in Twelfth Night and As You Like It; comedic wordplay of a donkey (“ass”) called Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1596); razor-sharp repartee between Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1598). Comic relief is included in the very name of the modern day rom-com genre. When Harry Met Sally (1989) has its well-known restaurant scene, where Meg Ryan really enjoys her salad, and Billy Crystal is caught in the act, by his ex-girlfriend and her new partner, of singing “Surrey with a Fringe on Top” on a karaoke machine in an electronics store.
Alongside misfortune and comedic relief, there needs to be drama or confusion.
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream centres on the disruption of the harmony of two sets of lovers.
- Much Ado About Nothing includes a smear campaign against Hero, and her chaste reputation.
- In Notting Hill (1999), Will’s roommate Spike tips the media about movie star Anna’s sleepover at his house to intense results.
- In Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) the stale marriage of the protagonists hides the fact that they are both spies, working for opposite sides.
A Grander Narrative
Beyond these very broad genre tropes, comedies reflect our deepest social and financial anxieties; will someone love me? Will I have enough money? Will I be happy? Can I trust others? What will happen if some aspect of society changes around me?
The concerns of the genre go back even earlier than Shakespeare’s day. Shakespeare’s grasp of history, Scripture and poetry shaped his crowd-pleasing stories. Both the phraseology and the stories of the Bible had more than a literary influence on his stories, narrative tropes and characters than we may have noticed. The Bible continues to shapes the ethics and aspirations of many of our modern day narratives, too.
For example, In the Bible book of Ruth, a middle-aged Jewish mother of two, called Naomi, loses her husband and adult sons in a famine. Her non-Jewish daughter-in-law, Ruth, insists on accompanying Naomi home. Ruth’s ingenuity amidst truly terrible circumstances is surpassed by God’s provision of a restored inheritance, a new husband and a grandchild for Naomi.
Ruth’s story bears great similarity to Sweet Home Alabama (2002), in which Reese Witherspoon’s character must return to her hometown, where she discovers a more satisfying life, love and a community that embraces her. I could also mention Runaway Bride (1999), Doc Hollywood (1991) (and other films where coming home is a catalyst for profound character development and an opportunity to find joy and community.
The New Love: A Girl and Her Job?
Modern rom-coms also reflect anxieties unencountered in Shakespeare’s day, such as female success in the workplace. Although women are witty, intelligent and articulate in the Shakespearean comedy, they are seldom financially independent. Portia moonlights as a lawyer to save the day in The Merchant of Venice (1597) but quickly assumes the role of wife at the end of the play, Rosalind and Viola dress as men to enjoy safety or anonymity but willingly return to their “women’s weeds” at the end when they are married and protected.
By contrast:
- In Picture Perfect (1997) Kate fakes a fiancé to advance her advertising executive career path.
- In The Proposal Margaret is willing to retain her executive role at any cost, even if it means marrying her hapless male assistant. Elle Woods casts off her aspirations to be a politician’s wife and becomes a talented lawyer in her own right in Legally Blonde.
It could be argued that in some rom-coms, the love between a girl and her job replaces the need for a romantic partner. In Morning Glory (2010), Becky becomes the producer of a sub-standard morning show and gains the loyalty and respect of the show’s warring co-anchors. The romance is relegated to the B or C plot. In The Intern (2015) Jules comes to terms with her success as the CEO of a fashion start-up despite her family issues. Jules’ happy ending comes not from resolving the issues in her marriage, but in finding confidence through the support of a retiree mentor who recognises her professional skills. Thus, her OTP (“One True Pairing”) is not romantic at all.
These rom-coms reflect changes in our society, whereas earlier rom-coms “punished” women for being successful, recent films increasingly present women finding balance between achieving at work and their romantic lives.[1]
The Therapeutic Value of a Happy Ending
The rom-com is more than a frothy escape from the real world. There is a kind of fairy-tale quality to it, in which all the threads are tied neatly and snipped at the end, giving a sense of order, peace and satisfaction, with some laughs along the way. The cadences of a romantic comedy are pleasing to humans, who are raised on story but surrounded by confusion, conflict and disorder.
Researchers in education, public health, the social sciences and so on, use narrative methodology to analyse and “make sense” of information. Story reduces our anxiety and overload by making sense of seemingly meaningless and uncomfortable life events. Romantic comedy is a kind of narrative therapy, giving us at least temporary relief from our struggles.
The promise of a cohesive and reassuring “meta-narrative” speaks to our need as creatures to know the purpose for our daily struggles, fears and disappointments. It reassures us that a happy ending might be possible and hints at what it might look like.
The Comic Genius of Scripture
Like many stories, the biblical stories share features in common with Shakespearean Comedies and modern rom-coms. In Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy-Tale, (1977) Buechner retells biblical stories as modern genre. Translating the story of Sarah and Abraham he writes:
They put the house on the market and gave the colour tv [sic] to the hospital and got a good price for the crib and the bassinet because they had never been used … Abraham wrote an eloquent letter of resignation to the president of the company and got an equally eloquent one in reply, assuring him there would always be a job waiting for him if he changed his mind and came back. “If he ever regained his senses and came back” was the way the president in his first draft because though he thought religion was a good thing, like social security and regular exercise, he didn’t think it was something to go overboard about. (p. 51)
In the Bible book of Genesis, Sarah laughs when the angel says she will have a son. Abraham bungles the opportunity not once, but twice, to own Sarah as his wife. And yet all ends well, not as an inevitable consequence of the genre, but due to the guiding of an omnipotent power. Sold by his brothers in slavery to Egypt, Joseph, Abraham’s great-grandson, is wrongly accused of sexual assault, goes to prison, helps the wine-bearer of the king from behind bars and rises to be second in command, saving his family from starvation in the process.
Centuries after these events in Genesis, Jesus endures shameful betrayal, painful death and bears the sins of humanity, before rising to glory. Afterwards, Jesus’ friends are walking to a village with an apparent stranger, who listens with interest to their sorrow and grief at losing a man named Jesus. When this stranger unveils himself as the resurrected Jesus, their wonder and delight is all the more intense for believing he was lost forever. It is a deeply comic moment in that grief gives way to joy, the stranger is their friend, what was lost was found and he who was dead has been made alive again.
Where Is Your Happy Ending?
The delightful dalliances of romantic comedies, while not as prominent or lucrative for film studios as they once were, provide a deep narrative reassurance to a chaotic and uncertain culture. In our days of job market ambiguity, the insistent march of technology, the cost of living and the threat of housing shortages, comedies, both the traditional Shakespearean form and modern film, provide a story arc that has a clear beginning, middle and end.
People living in a world made by God can also enjoy the same reassuring order. They were made by a loving God, who orders our days from start to finish. Whatever part of the story your life is in right now, there is a greater story in which you belong, and it ends well.
[1] The theme of women in romantic comedies being “punished” or at least “disciplined” for “having it all” could sometimes be seen to be a moralising literary technique for correcting shallowness or greed or putting one’s careers before personal relationships. The Devil Wears Prada (2006), which explores Andy’s exchange of her values for the promise of success could be one example of this. The Proposal’s foundations in The Taming of the Shrew (1590) means that Margaret’s character is punished for mistreating her male-assistant-turned-fake-fiancé.
