Romanticism of Today

I know that when I hear the word romantic, I think of things like candlelit dinners and the movie The Notebook. I thought it would be interesting to compare the plot of The Notebook to the plot of El Estudiante de Salamanca because it is from the Romanticism era. Both stories are similar because they both have theatrical aspects (the play parts of El Estudiante and The Notebook is just the physical manifestation of a story) and both are stories of love. However, even though both are considered romantic, one has a happy ending while the other has what could be considered a sad ending. Also, The Notebook is about two people who love each other so much, they cannot stand to not be together, no matter what happens, and El Estudiante is about a horrible unrequited love, where the man has no deep feelings for the woman and she dies of a broken heart. The fact that one word, romantic, can completely change meanings in a hundred years, shows the power of language and also gives us good reason to study literary eras.

-Emily Brown