“Star crossed lovers” is an expression meaning that for whatever reasons, the two lovers will never be able to become one together, to live as one in bliss and happiness….We see it every day in our own lives, and it is a very popular literary theme in movies, novels and even soap operas…People that try to bond together across economic, racial or religious lines, but are always doomed to failure… Sad, but an all too often true tale!

No matter how strong, how all encompassing, how passionate their love between them is, they are inevitably doomed to failure, to have their epic romances shot down in flames, to have their hearts, their souls, their very essence ripped apart from each other, their love never to be fully realized…

The original expression is believed to have originated from Shakespeare’s famous play, Romeo and Juliet, where the two young lovers from warring, feuding families are forbidden by their families to ever be able to be together…. They are doomed from the start, because the two families, the Capulets and the Montagues, have been locked in a bitter blood feud, a vendetta that has lasted for generations …

It is considered not only beyond foolish, but completely unthinkable by all their relatives that any two members of their families could ever hook up….It is also thought that Shakespeare got his inspiration due to the strong belief in astrology in ancient times, where the real reason for the two lovers doomed romance is caused by the position of the stars at their birth….

The fact that it is “written in the stars” is both a strong attraction and an inevitable conclusion of their love…. There is always a strong compulsion between the two lovers to forever be together, to be in each others arms for all eternity, to love and be loved by each other, to shut out the outside world….But alas, it is never to be…

Because the outside world, other people, usually family members but often political rivals, or even forces of nature always intervene, always crushes the star crossed lovers fragile, tender, emotional bonding, for these and various other reasons throughout the centuries….

Through no fault of their own, they are doomed to forever be denied their satisfaction…It is a misalignment of the stars on a cosmic basis that both forges their attraction and then cruelly denies it’s fulfillment….Almost always, they are thwarted by others, by outside forces that have a vested interest in keeping the love struck desperate couple apart from each other….

It is also deemed impossible that their fate can ever be altered, that they can ever defy the odds, because it is after all, “written in the stars”….Nobody can defy these odds because the cosmic deck of cards is stacked against them from the very start, no matter how true and pure their love for each other may be…

Examples abound throughout history and literature dating back centuries….Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, best portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in their version of the epic love story, are perhaps the most famous examples of star crossed lovers, because the imperial might of Rome and the personal hatred and vindictiveness of the Roman Emperor Octavius, the nephew of Julius Caesar, would not allow their love to flourish and their alliance to be forged in defiance of the geopolitical prominence and manifest destiny of the Roman Empire…

On a more modern note, Kate Winslett and Leonardo de Caprio were star crossed lovers in the famous movie, “The Titanic”….Although they dared to cross rigid class lines to pursue and ultimately consummate their true love for each other, even so they too were doomed to be shot down, their love affair also doomed to failure…

It is perhaps this sense of tragic inevitability that entrances us so much, their individual stories may differ in the details but it always comes back to the same preordained conclusion….In their case, it was actually a force of nature that ultimately ruined their romance, the well documented collision with the iceberg, and doomed them too to ultimate failure…..

The theme has been a popular one throughout literature, spanning different cultures and societies…..Being an American, I am most familiar with Western themed stories of classic doomed, star crossed lovers, the list is a long one, and includes Queen Guinevere and Lancelot from Arthurian days, and Helen of Troy and Paris, whose grandiose epic love story launched the Trojan War and inspired the inspirational ballads of the Greek author Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey.…

As i have said in earlier blogs, the concept of romantic love for the common people was a late medieval concept introduced only in the the 17th century, but there have always been exceptions for the rich and famous even back in those days….

And today the theme is stronger than ever, from “Gone With The Wind” to “West Side Story,””Leaving Las Vegas,” “Broke Back Mountain,” “Boys Don’t Cry,”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “The French Lieutenants Woman,” “Cold Mountain”…The list is heartbreakingly endless…

It is a credit to the resiliency and indomitable human spirit that we are both involved in or entranced by these stories, that within each of us lies the firm belief that we are different, that we can defy the odds, that we can triumph where so many others have failed…

The passion and the pathos of star crossed lovers will always be a recurring theme of human nature, and for as long as we are humans, we will be comforted by the thought that hope springs eternal….

Even for star crossed lovers…..