The idea of two people who seemingly hate each other being in love is perhaps one of media’s most endearing tropes. Across film, television, literature, and music, we are constantly attracted and attached to stories of people whose main conflict is finding a way to mask their feelings behind the guise of frustration, banter, and even hatred. But why do we love these stories so much?
After all, it’s nothing new. Shakespearean comedies such as Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew feature love stories between stubborn, witty characters that have difficulty expressing their feelings for one another. Even for those averse to parsing through pages on pages of Elizabethan English, modern adaptations of these stories translate this trope into the modern era while retaining the spark that attracted audiences centuries ago. Anyone who’s ever seen 10 Things I Hate About You, a loose-ish modern adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, knows just how neatly these Shakespearean romances fit into the modern world, with Julia Stiles’s Kat Stratford being somewhat of a recent cultural icon in her own right.
About two centuries later, Jane Austen adopted a similar literary model for many of her most famous romances. Both Elizabeth and Darcy and Mr. Knightley and Emma rely on interactions that range from playful banter and exchanges of wit to scathing streams of contempt as they try to make sense of their complicated feelings for one another. Notably, Jane Austen is another writer whose work is almost always being re-adapted into the modern age, with the most recent (and arguably most beautiful) adaptation of Emma being not yet three years old. It would be sacrilegious not to mention the prolific 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with its iconic performances from Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen as well as its captivating set and costume design. Also like Shakespeare, Austen’s work is often re-interpreted across time and culture, with Clueless, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Fire Island modernizing these stories to fit an ever-changing and broadening cultural sphere.
In recent years, this trope seems to be literally everywhere. In film, When Harry Met Sally and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days have become cornerstones of the rom-com genre due in part to their reliance on the enemies-to-lovers trope. In modern literature, this trope has become quintessential to crafting a successful romance. One of the most beautiful and engaging recent instances can be found in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and The Six, wherein the titular songstress falls in love with a bandmate that initially despises her. It seems that part of the eternal appeal of this trope is its ability to carefully build romantic and sexual tension to create a slow-burn narrative that keeps its audience engaged. After all, we all prefer a will-they-won’t-they story that keeps our eyes glued to the screen to a love story that immediately resolves itself with little to no conflict.
It also proves the utter resilience and force of love. Often, characters within these tropes attempt to resist their love for one another all they can, with their efforts often proving fruitless. While discussions of the power of love require much more nuance that I can provide for you here, it is inspiring and resonant to read stories wherein love cracks even the hardest shell and finds even the hardest heart. These stories are a panacea for every hopeless romantic who waits for their own Darcy or Billy Dunne or Harry Burns, and they don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Until they do, read (or watch) on.