Top 5 Most Romantic Fictional Couples of All Time

Last week I gave my top five most romantic real life couples of all time. This week, I thought I'd list my top five most romantic fictional couples of all time. Like last week, this was a tough list to create because there are so many wonderful choices. 

#5. Romeo and Juliet – Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers whose tragic story touches the hearts of romantics worldwide are often touted as the most romantic fictional couple of all time. In the beginning Romeo is in love with the idea of love, but with Juliet’s strength and determination, he realizes how profound and intense true love really is. For her part, Juliet does not blindly fall in love with Romeo. She sees him for who he is and is able to criticize his rash decisions and over romanticism. Her ability to see him in a critical light doesn’t decrease the intensity of her love for him.

In the end, it is the intensity of their love that results in their tragic suicides.

#4. Heathcliff and Cathy – Emily Bronte created a truly flawed couple when she created Heathcliff and Cathy. The two are self-centered and often ignore the needs, feelings, and claims of others. The only thing that matters to them is their own feelings and needs. So why, you ask should such a couple make my top 5 most romantic couples? Because they find meaning in their relationship to each other; they are two halves of a soul struggling to unite.

“... he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” Catherine, CH. 9.

#3. Jane Eyre and Rochester – Another of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, also created a dark and complex couple in Jane and Rochester. The perfect example of the Byronic hero, Rochester is a passionate man, often guided by his senses rather than by his rational mind. Jane, on the other hand, is his moral compass. Raised an isolated and unloved orphan, Jane longs for love and identity. Like many heroines in modern-day romance novels, Jane is meant to tame the bad-boy Rochester. But, while Jane is the proper English governess in many ways, she is also a rebel when it comes to inequalities of class and gender.

In the end, she tames the wildly passionate, often brash Rochester. But in return, he gives her what she’s longed for — love, happiness, and independence.

#2. Emma and Knightley – Emma is one of my favorite Jane Austen novels. Emma’s willfulness is balanced by Knightley’s steady character and good sense. He is the only one strong enough to impress Emma, and his good opinion is important to her. Theirs is not the passionate, almost destructive love of Heathcliff and Cathy, nor the tumultuous love of Jane and Rochester, but it is a calm, quiet love based on a deep mutual respect that you can’t help but believe perseveres through thick and thin.

#1. Darcy and Elizabeth – Darcy and Elizabeth. I can’t think of a more romantic couple — that’s why they come in at #1 on my list. Her wit and vivacity, his smoldering good looks and aloof personality, make them the perfect combination of light and dark. I especially love their verbal sparring and the sexual tension between them. Lizzie gives as good as she gets during these decidedly heated moments. 

His comeuppance at the hands of Lizzie’s sharp tongue provides the impetus for him to become the man he was destined to be. Once shed of the bad qualities of an English gentleman, arrogance and self-importance, he matures into the ideal English gentleman. And to my mind, the ideal romantic hero.

Of all the couples in romantic literature, they are the one couple whose story I want to continue. I love to imagine their life after Pride and Prejudice, where Darcy can set his passions free and Lizzie can see the side of him I know exists only for her. Who would you include in your top five most romantic fictional couples list?