For years, women have had a soft spot for bad boys. These guys can treat women any old way, and they still want them. There can be two men vying for a woman's heart. One is quiet, gentle,loving, caring, and understanding. The other is a daredevil, dark, mysterious and does not care whom he hurts. Whom, for the most part, do women choose?
In Emily Brontë's 1847 Wuthering Heights, filmed in 1939 by William Wyler, Catherine (Merle Oberon) falls for "bad boy" Heathcliff (Laurence Oliver). Catherine knows she and Heathcliff can never be together because he is "beneath" her, so she settles for Edgar Linton (David Niven). Edgar is a well-mannered gentleman. He was on Catherine's level, which made their marriage acceptable. However, Catherine loved Heathcliff until the end. Their souls were finally together when they died.
"Good girl loves bad boy" not only happens in romance novels, but is also all over the news. One example is Jennifer Lopez. She is a beautiful singer and actress. She is dating Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, a rapper and producer. "Puffy" has had several run-ins with the law and has a bad reputation, but she prefers to be with him.
One movie that stands out to me with this same story line is Legends of the Fall, directed in 1994 by Edward Zwick.. Samuel Ludlow, played by Henry Thomas, brought home his fiancée, Susanna Fincannon, portrayed by Julia Ormond. Both of the brothers, Tristan, depicted by Brad Pitt, and Alfred, acted by Aidan Quinn, loved Susannah. Samuel was killed in the war. Alfred was the clean-cut politician while Tristan was an outdoorsman with long hair and was a bit of a rebel. He was also a bootlegger. Both men wanted to take care of Susannah, but she fell for Tristan. Although Alfred could give her more, she chose Tristan. Tristan ended up hurting her; so she settled for Alfred, although her heart always belonged to Tristan.
Love can be a strange thing. It can happen when least expected and sometimes at the wrong time or place. All in all, we follow our hearts instead of our heads. Is it better to be with someone we love and get hurt or to hurt the other man by being with him when we do not really love him?