Trope Tuesday: Forbidden love

Welcome to the trope writing series, where I’ll be sharing different tropes present in fiction books on Tuesdays! We’ll cover what these tropes are, how to write them effectively yourself, and some examples of books that include them. We’ll be looking at all kinds of tropes from a variety of genres, from romance and thrillers to fantasy.

There will be at least one – possibly two – Trope Tuesdays per month. If there are any tropes you’re keen for me to cover, let me know by leaving a comment!

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The forbidden love trope

You’re probably familiar with the forbidden love trope if you were ever forced to read Romeo and Juliet at school – it’s one of the most famous works of literature that contains a forbidden love element.

As you can imagine by the name, this trope is prevalent in the romance genre.

This trope is characterised by a love that is not allowed, is frowned upon, or would make our characters’ lives very difficult if they were to enter into a relationship. The love is usually “forbidden” by strong outside forces such as societal or cultural norms.

Take Romeo and Juliet, for example. Their families have a vendetta against one another, and yet the two fall for one another. They try to be together – but feuding and bloodshed and their own families get in the way. A plan is concocted for Juliet to fake her own death – but Romeo doesn’t get the message about the plan, and takes his own life when he finds her “dead”. When Juliet wakes and find Romeo deceased, she also takes her own life. The fighting between the families ends in the wake of these events.

Clearly, this particular story didn’t have a happy ending. It’s a tragedy with a moral message, not a romance.

The forbidden love trope isn’t to be confused with the star-crossed lovers trope, which we also see in Romeo and Juliet. This is more about a couple who are being kept apart in a fated way – that is, their destiny is to be kept apart. This term comes from a belief that the stars can rule over people’s fates. Traditionally, the outcome for star-crossed lovers is not a good one.

In the romance genre, though, a happy ending is standard. So even if we have a forbidden love trope and the couple are being kept apart for the duration of the novel, they should get their happily ever after (or “happy for now”) – more on this later.

Where the forbidden love trope appears, we can often find other tropes existing alongside it. One is the “secret relationship“. The couple may try to be together without anyone knowing about it, bringing about all sorts of challenges.

There might also be a love triangle – for instance, if one person is being forced into a marriage they don’t want when really, they love the one they can’t have.

Books featuring the forbidden love trope

Writing the forbidden romance trope effectively

Include plenty of obstacles and challenges

A forbidden romance is all about the couple being kept apart, usually by external forces or “rules”. You want to make sure the reasons that the romance is forbidden are strong enough to sustain an entire novel. This will largely depend on your genre.

If you’re writing a fantasy romance, a strong enough rule might be that humans and vampires simply aren’t compatible, and that the Big Vampire Council forbids vampires from entering into romantic relationships with humans.

In a contemporary, the reason might be more about cultural or societal expectations, or there might be a more niche angle (kpop bands or idols not being allowed to date – or at the very least, rabid fans making this extremely difficult).

You also want to ensure there are plenty of obstacles standing in the way of your characters, stopping them from being together. Don’t make it easy for them!

Some of these obstacles and challenges might be:

Family members, friends, or business colleagues sabotaging them
The Internet getting wind of a “secret relationship”
Negative press/media coverage
Arranged marriages
Supernatural powers (her touch might turn him to stone!)
Disasters caused by the relationship (deaths, violence, etc)
Internal flaws (do they care too much about what everyone else thinks?)

The happily ever after (or happy for now)

If you’re writing in the romance genre, whether it be contemporary romance or fantasy romance, readers will expect a happily ever after – or a happy for now.

What do these terms mean? A happily ever after (or HEA) simply means that your characters get their happy ending together.

A happy for now (HFN) means things round off happily for the couple generally… but this might be temporary. This is usually done in series books. For instance, your characters might have fought against the villain in a fantasy romance and finally have some time to be together. But the villain isn’t gone for good… They will be back, and soon. In a contemporary series, maybe the book ends happily with your characters sharing a kiss. But we know a character’s father who does not approve of the relationship is due to come to town…

If you’re writing a standalone, it’s extremely important to give your characters a happily ever after when you’re primarily writing a romance. Otherwise, it won’t be a romance!

Readers of certain tropes – including the forbidden romance trope – will be expecting this. So make sure you meet their expectations and don’t break away from those genre conventions during your ending.

For a forbidden romance, this will mean making sure all those obstacles and challenges are dealt with and resolved by the end – so your characters can be together in peace!

I hope this post helped you understand the forbidden romance trope and gave you some ideas for writing it yourself! The next Trope Tuesday will be in September.

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