Why Period Romances Work

Happy New Year besties! 

I've been dead for about a month now but I return! After having absolutely nothing of much regard to babble about I had, quite sadly retired to my sad corner and watched stuff and held my opinions o myself (and my family). I found that though some were interesting, there wasn't much to be said that hadn't already been...said. 

That is...until I saw Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995) and immediately fell in love with it. I mean, it's Jane Austen. What's shocking there. 

The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that I hadn't felt so occupied and invested in a romance story as much as I had been while watching the film. Period films and shows held my undivided attention like nothing else in the romance genre. And this is coming from a self-proclaimed romance connoisseur. 

There's just something within them that connects with people (and me) that the average romance can't do as well with certain exceptions of course. 

Now, me being a curious person, decided to do some research into why it is that these works hold such an important role in people's hearts. 

The first was of course, the aesthetics. And great period film which is also a masterclass in aesthetics would be Autumn de Wilde's Emma (2020). It also does help that even the poorer characters (i.e, the Bennetts, the Dashwoods) live in homes that are still considerable beautiful and cozy. When you're shown beauty in both rural and town areas, you're bound to feel as though you too would love to live there. Also, people are very much like crows in the sense that we are attracted to shiny, pretty things. You see pretty people in pretty houses? Yeah, you're gonna like that.

The second would be that we don't see any real hardships. Sometimes, for the sake of the plot, we might see the main characters going through some struggles but overall, they live simple and organized lives. Lives when compared to modern hustle culture, sounds like the dream. They don't linger on the societal issues of the time and focus more on the romanticization of...well the more romantic things of the time period. 

The third would be the romance. A no-brainer, really. Put a good-looking British man, give him some real good dialogue and boom, he's dreamy. Compared to the real men in the real world, period drama men are chivalrous, polite, awkward and capable of composing the most romantic declarations of love possible. Unless you're watching a Bronte adaptation, in which case happiness is never promised.

The fourth one which slightly contradicts the second one is that we see realistic and relatable relationships, actions and troubles. Maybe not to the same degree as the folks on the 18th century but humanity hasn't progressed enough to call it totally fictitious. We see lovable familial bonds and interesting leads. 

It's not high-stakes. Just simple, well-written escapism with good acting and a great score. What's not to love really?

Personally, the thing I love about them is that their society is structured in such a way where everyone is painfully polite and honorable. This is obviously exaggerated for us to point out why the characters are restricted from just hanging out and go on a date like people do now. This causes so much drama and tension. So much hostility and yearning. The way the speak is so poetic and the way they behave is so refined yet even then they cannot hold back their true feelings. It's in their eyes. Romance is always, at it's best when we have obstacles because then the ending is a reward for the audience and as a writer it is earned. Conflict and stakes makes it a more enjoyable viewing experience and the setting is perfect for creating such conflicts. Literally just existing in that time period is a conflict in and of itself. 

Anyways, I didn't actually have much to say but I wanted to update and watching a period drama gave me so much serotonin that I figured why not kill a bird with two stones?

🐄