It’s Bridgerton season. The second instalment of Season 4 releases in a few hours. Time for Benedict and Sophie’s story. If you haven’t read the books or seen the series let me just sum it up for you:
Bridgerton is a Regency drama book/TV series telling the stories (love stories) of eight Bridgeton siblings – four boys and four girls. Each book/season is devoted to one sibling.
This is the fourth season telling the story of Benedict and Sophie. Simply put, it’s a Cinderella story – Sophie is the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, forced to work as a maid who crashes a masquerade ball which is where Benedict spots her and falls in love.
Of course, this is a fantasy. And so of course the couple find enduring love and move to the country to safely have their happily ever after.
Long ago I watched a film on Netflix called Sir, on a somewhat similar idea. Not same at all, but it also talks of class differences. Set in a modern-day Indian metro (Mumbai, if I remember correctly) it has a man falling in love with his house-help. This much-lauded film brought into focus the stark class differences.
It was hard to find it convincing. No matter that the man and woman were both intelligent and in love. She was ambitious, he supportive, they definitely seemed compatible.
And yet, they are separated by a class divide, just like Benedict and Sophie, so absolute that it is almost unbridgeable. It’s like two starkly different worlds existing in their own parallel spaces. Do you think they can come together? Ever?
It’s not just about money. Their lifestyles, their thought processes, their attitudes towards life, their very identity is conditioned by their upbringing and hence, completely different.
Is it possible for two people from such diametrically different classes to fall in love? Specially if one class is so definitely far ‘above’ the other?
Would the partners be capable of separating love from gratitude? Or empathy? Or worse, pity?
Marriage is hard even when people from similar backgrounds come together. Small daily irritants drive partners up the wall.
Can true love exist between two such unequal partners? Even if it could exist, would it last? Also, will there be continued mutual respect? If not, will love be enough to see them through a life-time of happiness?
The most important game changer here is society. The answer to all of those questions, in the absence of society, might be ‘yes’. If the couple leads a life in isolation, perhaps it would be possible
Long back I read a book by Coleen McCullough called Tim. It is the love story of Tim – a mentally challenged young man with Greek god looks and a rich middle-aged woman, Mary. Another marriage of differences.
Their relationship works because it unfolds largely away from society’s gaze. McCullough makes it clear that the partnership survives not because society learns to accept it, but because both Mary and Tim have small social circles, where their loved ones learn to understand and accept their choice.
When society intrudes, it exposes how fragile even the most sincere love can be when caught in the web of external judgement, how glaring the unequal power structures.
Benedict and Sophie’s love story is not just romantic, it is carefully insulated. Society is obligingly flexible.
Perhaps that is the real fantasy of Bridgerton. Perhaps that’s what makes it so enchanting. Not the gowns or the balls, but the idea that society will step aside when love asks for space. In real life, it rarely does.
Editing to add: Reading this back, I realise I’ve let my practical side take over, the part of me that worries about power equations, social conditioning and all of the not-so-good things. But in truth I love to believe that love can outgrow its circumstances. Which is why stories like Bridgerton enchant me despite my skepticism.
I do believe that beneath all our cynicism, all of us are just a little bit in love with the idea of love.
I think after a certain age, we all turn into no-nonsense, practical people who find the idea of love very romantic but totally untenable! Nowadays, I watch movies imagining that it’s all happening in fantasy where true love will definitely win over every obstacle and the characters will enjoy their happily ever after. Just that it’s a fantasy and I know that. I did watch Sir ad while I found it to be a nice, sensitively-handled love story, it was simply not a real story. The stories do enchant me, nonetheless! Maybe, somewhere deep down, I’m still a die-hard romantic. 🙂
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It’s rather sad, isn’t it? As we grow older love comes to mean many more things than romance, which is how it should be. However, I do believe all of us are a little bit romantic, or at least we have been at some point in our lives.
That’s a valid question. How will I be judging a couple in such a scenario, I wonder. I think since I don’t like to follow societal rules just because this is how everyone is supposed to do, I would let the couple decide what they want to do perhaps.
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I wondered too, how I would react. I hope I’m able to accept people simply for who they are.
Such a beautiful and honest write-up. I know of a man who was an Engineer who fell in love with a woman who worked as a labourer in a construction site. They got married but lived ostracised all their life. It is honestly not easy.
That must have been a huge deal. I envy people with that kind of conviction – that they can commit to such a relationship and see it through. I envy them their love too.