greatest love
- Rhea
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
When I think of my favourite love stories I’ve realised there's a common theme; love that spans over the ages and defeats the trials of time and death. Here are my favourite unions…
Dracula & Mina - Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola)
The love between Elisabeta and Vlad - later Mina and Vlad - is completely and undeniably my most favourite love story of all time.
It begins with Prince Vlad away fighting the Ottoman Turks and in retaliation they sent a letter to his wife, Elisabeta, claiming her husband had been killed in combat and she must surrender. This is obviously not the truth but the Turks knew what they were doing as the love between the Prince and his wife was renown. She had been given no other reason to not believe them so instead of surrendering she committed suicide by jumping from their castle into the river below. When Vlad returns and discovers what happened and hears the church state that she is condemned to eternal hell for committing suicide, he completely lost it, renounced God and screamed is this what he deserved after fighting in God’s name.
The movie is not exactly true to the book but in terms of the love story it rings true and I’ve always loved how even through reincarnation, he recognises her centuries after and his love never faltered for her. He held onto that love and when he first laid eyes on Mina Harker he recognised her soul as his wife.
It’s a clever story line in that you actually root for Dracula - the bad guy - and Mina. Her husband Jonathan Harker just impedes on their love story. Don’t get me wrong, for what Jonathan goes through, watching the woman he loves suddenly love someone else and being physically tortured in Dracula’s castle, you do feel sorry for him, but knowing how much Dracula hates the world yet his only sense of goodness is loving this woman is very endearing.
At the end of the film, when Dracula dies he turns to God and asks where he is and why he had been abandoned. It’s a very poignant moment and full circle in that he lost the woman he loved and finally found her again. As Vlad says at the start, why did he deserve this after fighting in God’s name? Miraculously God appears and all is forgiven. He gets to die peacefully next to the woman he loves and return to the soul of his wife at the same time. The monster ceases.
Gary Oldman, who played Dracula, famously said, “I wanted to play Dracula because I wanted to say: ‘I’ve crossed oceans of time to find you.’ It was worth playing the role just to say that line.” I think this sums up their love.
Arwen & Aragorn - Lord of the Rings
Some say it's a bit Lolita-esque with the age gap between the two characters as Arwen was already a thousand years old before Aragorn was even born. However, it’s something you only really think about if you overthink how Tolkien’s Middle-Earth works and the timelines in which it was all written. This love story is in fact about the sacrifice Arwen makes, giving up her immortality to be with the man she loves, and Aragorn ignoring his love for her just so she can actually stay immortal. He doesn’t care about his death, just as long as she can live forever.
Arwen gives up the light of the elves that exists within her, the thing that makes her immortal and very high in terms of elven hierarchy, to be with him. It’s not a case of a damsel in distress and the fair maiden falling at the prince’s feet like in all fairytales, but it’s a love that shouldn’t work, almost forbidden, as they are not of the same species - her an elf and him a man. Aragorn also gives her many chances to remain with her own kind and stay immortal, he doesn’t force her into decision making but clearly their love is more powerful than anything else.
Quite a few love stories exist within Tolkien's Middle Earth but, similar to Dracula, this one withstands the tests of time and they ultimately come out of it married, living a long life together. Again, similar to Dracula, a vampire and is looked at as the bad one, Mina’s the opposite; soft and elegant. There’s a contrast between them which attracts and this also exists between Aragorn and Arwen. Aragorn is the fighter, a strider, a man who lives off the grid and evades his fate of becoming king just to live in the wild instead, whereas Arwen is the elegant elf princess. What wouldn’t usually be paired together does and it works beautifully.
Arwen declared “I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.” It’s the sacrifices they both make that has always made me fall in love with their love.
Li Mu Bai & Yu Shu Lien - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
This love story is an aged one, not a youthful one. It’s one that should never have happened but in the end fate could not be stopped. Yu Shu Lien was once engaged to Li Mu Bai’s closest friend and fighting partner but he got killed in combat, leaving Bai and Lien as close friends. It's one of those relationships which was very brotherly/sisterly yet the whole world could see that they were clearly meant for each other.
In their story, after certain disagreements and thefts within the Empire, Bai and Lien are reunited after many years apart as he’s called in to retrieve an old weapon and she has a sticky friendship with one of the antagonists who turns out to be the thief. This reunion leads to reminiscing over their younger years and admitting that they do love each other but, until this quest is complete, Bai will not give her another lover that could possibly die during combat.
In the end he does end up dying, he gets poisoned by his arch-enemy, but you have the satisfaction as an observer that they finally admitted their love for each other and we get to see a kiss! It's a sweet story which reminds us that it's never too late for love. There's also a very high possibility that the person you will end up with has always been in your life, you just never realised it.
In his last moments he tells Lien, “I’ve already wasted my whole life. I want to tell you with my last breath that I have always loved you. I would rather be a ghost, drifting by your side as a condemned soul, than enter heaven without you. Because of your love, I will never be a lonely spirit.” I mean come on!!!
Special mention, Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)
The gentle love between Elizabeth and the Creature is so innocent and pure that it's somewhere between her being his bride and his mother, which is also reflected through Mia Goth playing Dr Frankenstein’s mother too. There’s something erotic in the simplistic and bare bodied exposure between the two, for example when they first meet and he slowly caresses her hand and pulls off her glove. That action screams eroticism but the innocence in their eyes just makes you melt. It takes us back to being human, back to the basics of patience, love and respect.
Rhéa x
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