There are so many notable lovers in the world of literature. Ranging from the timeless Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightley in Jane Austen’s Emma to the more contemporary Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Every literary couple finds a way to capture the hearts of readers throughout the duration of the novels they appear in or are central to.
I can think of so many reasons why different literary couples have made me believe in love. All the famous literary couples I have read have shown me different ideas about love, but above all they all agree on one thing – love is a powerful force that really does bring out the best in those who embrace it.
When you think of classic literary lovers, it is obvious that the likes of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy or Heathcliff and Catherine come to mind. And yes, they are classics but other more contemporary literary lovers have become classics to readers in the 21st century, which is why I have chosen to explore the love story of the two lovers, Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring from Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper.
I think that the love story between these two young men is wholesome and realistic. Charlie and Nick face so many struggles through Oseman’s graphic novels including eating disorders, homophobia and as Nick describes “having a proper full-on gay crisis” when he explains to Charlie about questioning his sexuality. I think that I understand these characters as the feelings of young love because I was reading their story while trying to navigate a love of my own.
Nick and Charlie have taught me that no matter what gets thrown their way, they are able to come out the other side of their problems, still together and in some ways stronger. I admire Nick’s courage when helping Charlie to get help with his mental health and I find it sweet how Charlie chooses to join the school rugby team just to be around Nick. Oseman gives her readers an accurate representation of how awkward yet thrilling falling in love for the first time.
I believe that Nick and Charlie are on their way to making it into what could be called the classic literary lovers Hall of Fame that has been built up over the centuries, joining the ranks of lovers created by the likes of the older voices of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Emily Brontë to the more recent creations from Stephenie Meyer, Colleen Hoover and Cassandra Clare.
I believe that Nick and Charlie will have earned their place among the other great literary lovers who also shaped my understanding of love because they feel the same feelings as many teenagers now. The feelings that they share are real and they support each other in the way that lovers should as we see in the many other great novels, graphic novels and novellas which have a romance that is mostly at the centre of the story’s plot.
