Power of Idealism Month

Power of Idealism characters believe that life and love should involve a grand passion. They see the world in terms of sweeping epic poetry or as a struggle of operatic proportions.

Intensity of feeling (good or bad) makes this character’s life worth living. Power of Idealism characters feel it is better to be in pain than to be content or complacent.

These characters are willing to suffer for their art, their iconoclasm, or their noble or romantic gestures.
They believe that what is perfect but unavailable or unattainable is infinitely more desirable than what is flawed but possible or achievable.

“I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.” Shelby Eatenton Latcherie (Julia Roberts) in Steel Magnolias

Throughout April, we will look at epic heroes, separated lovers and those coming of age. These are dramatic characters who are passionate, intense, and will never settle for anything less than perfection.

Separated Lovers

One of the three Power of Idealism kind or stories is are Separated Lovers- the romantics who are separated from one true love.

This character’s love is destined not to be joined in a lasting physical union on this mortal earth. Instead, theirs is a love that transcends time, distance, age, or death.

Nicholas Sparks is a pop culture master of this romance and tragedy form. His best-reviewed film, The Notebook, is a sweeping love story read from a faded notebook by a man to a woman in a nursing home, The story follows the lives of two North Carolina teens from very different worlds who spend a magical summer together before they are separated, first by her parents, and then by WWII.

Other classic examples are:

Romeo + Juliet (Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) is the quintessential story of star-crossed romance. The teenaged lovers from warring families take their own lives to be together in death.

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca. Rick, send his lover away to continue their separate roles
in the resistance movement during the most desperate days of World War II.

Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) in Out of Africa, sends her lover away in order not to trap or cage his wild and free spirit.

Zhivago (Omar Sharif) in Doctor Zhivago, sends his lover away in order to save her life and the life of her child.

In each case,  love is transcendent because it will always live in their hearts— neither time, distance, or death will diminish it.

A darker take on ill-fated romance is Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) in Natural Born Killers.

Mickey and Mallory rebel against what they believe is a morally bankrupt society and the rapacious celebrity-crazed media which created them (and which they taunt and scorn). As the pair continue their killing spree, they always leave one witness to “tell the tale” of Mickey and Mallory Knox to the rest of the world. They know they only have a future together in legend and death.

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