Valentine's Couples

It's Valentine's Day--one of the most loved and/or hated days of the year. This year, I'm celebrating with a list of five of my favorite fictional couples. These lovers and their stories are guaranteed to produce an "awwww" from you romantic types!

*George and Mary Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life: As a little girl at the drugstore, Mary Hatch looks admiringly at George and says, "George Bailey, I'm going to marry you someday." And she does. Even though she goes away to college and is admired by other suitors, Mary holds firm. When George uses their honeymoon money to salvage the building and loan, she uses the time and her creativity to create the most romantic honeymoon suite ever in the rundown old house that eventually becomes their family home. At the end of the movie, she rallies the town to financially bail her man out. And George realizes what he has in Mary. His restless heart calms down when he gives it to his girl.

*Belle and the Beast from Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Belle is the Disney princess that I've always held up as a role model for Katie (because every little girl wants to be a Disney princess--so you better choose one). Beautiful and smart, Belle is not satisfied to settle for the boorish Gaston, even if he is the most handsome man in her little provincial town. Possessing a heart as big as her brain, she sacrifices herself for her father, taking his place at the Beast's castle; when the Beast smartens up and realizes this could be his ticket out of the enchanted curse he lives under, what does he do to win her heart? Offer Belle the best of the crown jewels? A vacation house by the sea? No--he introduces her to his library--and it works! The Beast is smart enough to realize it will take a smart woman to see through his gruff exterior, and, of course, Belle does. And in the end, the smart girl wins!

*Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice: Again, the smart girl sees past the exterior and wins the prize! (Is there a theme emerging here?) Elizabeth, who is not as desperate to be married as her mother is desperate to have her married, is not impressed when the wealthy Darcy arrives at his friend's summer home. Her initial impression: He is arrogant and proud--and he is. His first impression: Elizabeth comes from a lower-class dysfunctional family and really isn't even all that pretty. But in the end, both Elizabeth and Darcy look beyond what appears on the surface, recognize their own pride and prejudices, and find true love-with each other. And definitely read the novel if you haven't, but the final scene of the recent movie version with Keira Knightley deserves at least a 20-second "awwww."

*Kate and Petruchio from The Taming of the Shrew: Spoiled and, well, shrewish, Kate is having a little trouble finding a husband. The older of two sisters, Kate needs to be married off before her younger sister can be married to her suitor. Enter Petruchio. Here is a man who can tame a shrew! He steps in, takes control, and kindly and lovingly shows Kate who is boss. He's the first person brave enough to stand up to her and command her respect, so by the end of the play, Kate is chastising the rest of the women at her sister's wedding celebration for not being as obedient to and appreciative of their husbands as they should be. Talk about character development! And at the end of the play, when Petruchio says, "Come, kiss me, Kate," we all coming running--whether our name is Kate or not.

*Harry and Sally from When Harry Met Sally: Harry and Sally meet when she gives him a ride to New York after they both graduate from the University of Chicago. Both quirky, Harry earns Sally's contempt when he tells her that men and women can't be just friends--because the sex part gets in the way (in the broadest sense of that word). And we all know he's right. Of course Harry and Sally do become friends and eventually fall in love. Harry knows that Sally is the worst kind--"high maintenance who thinks she's low maintenance." And Sally understands Harry, scolding him through meaningless relationship after meaningless relationship. Sally sums it up at the end of the movie: "First we hated each other, then we were friends, then we fell in love, and then we got married." All as it should be (except, maybe, for the hate part--but it makes for a more interesting story). And it all takes only a little more than twelve years for the two of them to discover each other.

Happy Valentine's Day! May your love story be as exciting and awwww-invoking as these great couples'! (Feel free to add to this list in your comments.)