The Notebook

The notebook is the first movie that comes to mind when I hear the word romance. This movie follows the cliche Romeo/Juliet Love archetype. It has an incredible ability to make every viewer cry and fall in love at the same time. The two main characters, Noah and Allie, fall in love at first sight and are immediately so deep in love that their ability to rationalize is lost(which is known by society to happen in young love) Allie disobeys her parents and continues to see Noah even though he is not good enough for her because she is so overcome by this feeling of love for him. The conflict of distance throughout this movie is also a common archetype in love films to display the immense passion in their love- even if your lover is far away, our love is too strong to die blah blah. The director uses many scenes where the couple is in a "natural, uncivilized place" to show the growing of their love. This is seen in the scene where the two are alone on the lake and magically kiss as it coincidentally begins to rain, the scene where they are about to have sex for the first time alone in an abandoned house, and the scene where they are "birds" by the ocean. The director is creating this idea of romantic places where the couple escapes from humanity in order to fall deeper in love. Another archetype the director uses is the money issue. Allie, being wealthy and from an elite family, should not logically be with someone like Noah, but ONCE AGAIN their love prevails. Allie doesn't care about money if it means she can be happily in love. There is also one particular scene where the mother of Allie is arguing about her being with Noah and saying that he isn't good enough for her and that she is too young to know what is best for her. This is another cliche issue seen in young love- we don't have any experience combining feeling with being rational because we are innocent and naive. The Notebook is the female American teens goal in relationships and even is desired by some males. Love trumps everything in life, so once you find it don't ever let it go. This movie serves as many peoples sole image of love and from this movie many viewers created this idea of love that has to be JUST like the notebook. Directors leave out the negative and undesired things that come with love because that doesn't apply to their idea of the perfect romance. Film is a perfect way to manipulate structure of feeling, especially non-fiction film because directors can pick and choose characters, settings and a plot that they know viewers will be drawn to. We feel the need to have this perfect storyline in our relationships and because of this, we are ultimately setting ourselves up for disappointment. We learn from this to give up if we aren't madly in love at first sight. We learn love is everything and that when we have it, nothing else matters. We are taught that if its not perfect, its not worth it. This, I believe, is the cause of so many divorces in society today. We are swept away by the first sign of love that resembles the love in the notebook and we marry because if it worked for them, it will work for everyone. But when we leave the infatuation stage (the only stage shown throughout the movie) we are married to this person that wasn't the right fit, after all. It is good to feel this emotion when watching The Notebook, and it's good to desire that incredible infatuation, but viewers need to also be taught of the hard work a relationship requires.