My next set of stories are those love stories which include this delightful plotline: everybody except the actual couple can recognize that they are in love!
They say that love is blind, which is usually said to mean that when you are madly in love with someone, you are blind to their flaws.
Well another way that love is blind, as shown in many satisfying romantic comedy stories, is that the two people who are in love have no idea about that condition. They are definitely aroused in the presence of the other, but they express this with angry arguments, sharp retorts and insults and dirty looks, stomping off in a huff and all other such forms of passionate relational intercourse (all except sex)! They are often couples who are very self-confident about how they view themselves, the world and this other person who is a burr in their side at the moment. They appear slightly ridiculous to the ones around them who see that love is in the air, who also see that it is a matter of time before the sharp-tongued self-assurance of those two arguing love-birds will give way to a stammering shyness and a new sense of perplexity about their own deepest feelings.
My favorite couple who spend most of the story in this state are the Much Ado About Nothing couple called Beatrice and Benedick. Hero and Claudio, the other main couple in this play, supposedly fell in love at first sight, but had some difficulties with misunderstanding and jumping to conclusions later. Beatrice and Benedick have known each other for a long time and have a habit of constantly swapping insults. Their best friends see the relationship for what it really is and decide to help things along by "accidently" having fake conversations in the hearing of each B. about how much the other B. is swooning with love and just can't get up the courage to confess it. The dynamics between Beatrice and Benedick are wonderfully played by Kenneth Branaugh and Emma Thompson in the movie version of this great comedy. It is possible that all the verbal sparring and hiding behind witty retorts may have come out of a former history of being a couple and failing at it and feeling too vulnerable to try again. There is a ShakespeaRetold version of this story set in the present day at a British newsroom studio and Damian Lewis plays Benedick. This is also a fun way to enjoy the story.
When Benedick and Beatrice finally get to the point where they can acknowledge their love for each other, they still are able to keep up the banter and the witty conversation and the swift replies, though it is now more in a delightful kind of interaction than to wound the other with jesting insults. You can just tell they are going to have a good time continuing on in this relationship. Benedick had vowed over and over to his friend Don Pedro in the beginning of the play that he would always remain a contented bachelor. His tune has much changed by the closing lines of the play as he encourages Don Pedro to find himself a wife, and does not seem to be ashamed for such a drastic change of perspective. Then he insists that it is time for everyone to start dancing and no other activity (not solemn ceremony at church, nor retributive punishment upon the villain) should put a delay on the celebrative dancing. It is time to celebrate, now that Hero's innocence has been vindicated and the authenticity of Benedick's love has been tested and proved. "Strike up, pipers!" are the final words of the play as the main characters dance off the stage.
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