Romance, Money and Social Status

University of Toronto anthropologist Ivan Kalmar teaches a course that includes a unit on romance novels. The class learns the relationship between everyday life and fantasy. They read romance novels to see how we consume fantasies that are commercially produced.

Kalmar believes that the two most enduring themes in a romance novel are Beauty and the Beast and Pride & Prejudice. He goes on to say:

“There used to another theme that you only rarely see now. A lot of romance novels used to be about very poor women — sometimes they were driven to prostitution, like in Alexander Dumas’s Lady of the Camellias. This was an oft-repeated theme in operas and, later, movies. A well-situated man falls in love with a prostitute and things work out and they get married. There was a recent movie, Maid in Manhattan, that had this theme. But in general it’s not a major theme anymore. Fortunately, prostitution is not nearly as prevalent today as it was a century ago or so. So this kind of story does not really happen in real life, nor do we care really to make sure that it happens. “

I agree that Beauty and the Beast and the Pride & Prejudice themes have endured, but I still find books that have the theme where a “well-situated man” falls in love with a very poor woman. In the past couple of years I’ve read heroines who are underpaid waitresses, maids, farm hands, etc.

Granted, I haven’t read any heroines who are prostitutes. There are quite a few stories where the woman is mistaken as a mistress, good-time girl, or simply for hire. Does that count? Probably not.

Kalmar goes on to say that “romance has something to do with money and social status.”

I disagree. Marriage had once been all about money and social status, especially the arranged variety. Romance? No.

In the romances of a rich man, poor woman, the hero gradually values the heroine and sees her as his equal even when her financial and social status hasn’t changed. Like the Beauty and the Beast scenario when the man goes from unattractive to attractive, the heroine in this scenario is first seen as unworthy and eventually is seen as someone of the highest quality. That has little to do with money and more to do with respect, trust and love.

You can read the full article here.

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