The Attractiveness and Obsession with Romantic Tragedy Genre Yasser Owino 12th Grade

As the classic film Love Story is coming to an end, Oliver (Ryan O'Neal) is next to Jenny (Ali McGraw) who is on her deathbed. Her beautiful hair is perfectly laid on the pillow and her youthful skin glowing. Surprisingly, in her last moments of life, Jenny is more beautiful than ever. Jenny is dying at a young age and at the same time in love (Miller, 1970). At this moment, the audience has been emotionally trapped in a moment of deep sorrow and sadness. This kind of cliché melodrama is arguably overwhelming by now but filmmakers cannot seem to quit the making of films about love that is ridden with the inevitability of death. This form of storytelling has been recycled for decades for its power of compelling audiences emotionally, enough to bring them into the theaters and experience it over and over again. The latest film to adapt this form of storytelling is Five Feet Apart. A film about two young people who are terminally ill and confined to the hospital. They fall deeply in love despite the fact that they literally cannot be able to touch one another, or they might die sooner than expected (Baldoni, 2019). It joins the long list of melodramas in which perfect pairs are made and separated by death.

The ‘romantic tragedy...