Star-crossed

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"Star-crossed" or "star-crossed lovers" is a phrase describing a pair of lovers whose

relationship is said to be doomed from the start. The phrase is astrological in origin,
stemming from the belief that the positions of the stars ruled over people's fates. To
describe a relationship as "star-crossed" is to say that it is "thwarted by a malign star",
[1]
or that the stars are working against the relationship. The phrase is best known from
the play Romeo and Juliet by the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare.

The most famous star-crossed couple, Romeo and Juliet

Contents
[hide]

 1 Star-crossed in Shakespeare
 2 Famous examples of "star-crossed lovers"
o 2.1 Modern examples
 3 See also
 4 References

[edit] Star-crossed in Shakespeare

The phrase was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:
"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, / a pair of star-cross'd lovers, take their
life."[2]

It also refers to destiny and the inevitability of the two characters' paths crossing each
other. It usually means unlucky, since Romeo and Juliet's affair ended tragically.
Further, it connotes that the lovers entered into their union without sufficient
forethought or preparation; that the lovers may not have had adequate knowledge of
each other or that they were not thinking rationally.

[edit] Famous examples of "star-crossed lovers"

Tristan and Isolde

Examples of famous star-crossed lovers vary in written work. Pyramus and Thisbe are
usually regarded as the source for Romeo and Juliet, featured in A Midsummer Night's
Dream. Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights are considered
one of the greatest love stories in literary works.[3] The narrative tells the tale of the
all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine
Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many
around them.

Lancelot and Guinevere are often remembered for their affair. In some adaptations,
she is the daughter of King Leodegrance and is betrothed to King Arthur early in his
career, while he is garnering support. When Lancelot arrives later, she is instantly
smitten, and they soon consummate the adultery that will bring about Arthur's fall.

The legend of Tristan and Iseult (also known as Tristan and Isolde) is an influential
romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic
story is of the adulterous love between the lovers. The narrative predates and most
likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, and has had a
substantial impact on Western art and literature since it first appeared in the 12th
century. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall
plot structure remains much the same.

Hero and Leander is a Greek myth, relating the story of Hero (Greek: Ἡρώ), a
priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos, at the edge of the Hellespont,
and Leander (Greek: Λέανδρος, Leandros), a young man from Abydos on the other
side of the strait. Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across
the Hellespont to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide
his way.

Pelléas and Mélisande (French: Pelléas et Mélisande) is a Symbolist play by Maurice

Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. A classical
myth, was a common subject for art during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by Shakespeare, believed to have been written in

1602. The play (also described as one of Shakespeare's problem plays) is not a
conventional tragedy, since its protagonist (Troilus) does not die. The play ends
instead on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction
of the love between Troilus and Cressida.

Venus and Adonis is classical myth during the Renaissance. Heer Ranjha is one of the
four popular tragic romances of the Punjab.

Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl refers to a number of mythical and folkloric

explanations of the origins of the volcanoes Popocatépetl ("the Smoking Mountain")
and Iztaccíhuatl ("white woman" in Nahuatl, sometimes called the Mujer Dormida
"sleeping woman" in Spanish)[4] which overlook the Valley of Mexico.

Layla and Majnun is a classical Arabian love story. It is based on the real story of a
young man called Qays ibn al-Mulawwah from the northern Arabian Peninsula,[5] in
the Umayyad era during the 7th century. There were two Arabic versions of the story
at the time.[6] In one version, he spent his youth together with Layla, tending their
flocks. In the other version, upon seeing Layla he fell passionately in love with her. In
both versions, however, he went mad when her father prevented him from marrying
her; for that reason he came to be called Majnun Layla, which means "Driven mad by
Layla". To him were attributed a variety of incredibly passionate romantic Arabic
poems, considered among the foremost examples of the Udhari school.

The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend about the tragic romance between two
lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The legend is sometimes regarded as the
Chinese equivalent to Romeo and Juliet.[7][8]

Other classic star-crossed lovers include Devdas and Paro (Parvati) in Devdas, Paris
of Troy and Helen of Sparta in The Iliad, Oedipus and Jocasta in Oedipus the King,
Mark Antony and Cleopatra during the time of the Roman Empire, Count Dracula and
Mina Harker by Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, Heloise and Peter Abelard during the
Middle Ages, and Emperor Jahangir and Anarkali, and Cyrano and Roxane in Cyrano
de Bergerac, and Hagbard and Signy.

[edit] Modern examples

In soap opera, modern examples of star-crossed lovers have included couples such as
Cliff Warner and Nina Cortlandt and Bianca Montgomery and Maggie Stone from All
My Children.[9][10]
Prime time has had various star-crossed lovers labeled as notable and "unforgettable"
love stories. IGN considers Buffy Summers and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
to be one of the genre's most tragic and notable star-crossed pairings.[11] Cole Turner
and Phoebe Halliwell from Charmed, Michael and Nikita from La Femme Nikita,
Kara Thrace and Lee Adama from Battlestar Galactica, and Clark Kent and Lana
Lang from Smallville are other star-crossed couples from the genre.[12][13][14][15]

With film or within modern novels and books, such star-crossed couples as Jack
Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater from Titanic, Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan
from "A Walk to Remember", Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala from the Star
Wars saga, and Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist from Brokeback Mountain have been
included.[16][17][18][19]

Anime has had its star-crossed couples as well. Gennosuke Kouga and Oboro Iga
from Basilisk is one example.[20]

Role-playing video games have particularly featured star-crossed couples. Cloud

Strife and Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII have been called video
games' greatest, as well as its most tragic, star-crossed love story.[21][22][23] The couple
is one of the most well-known video game couples in the history of video gaming.[21]
[22][23]
Zero and Iris from Mega Man X4 are another well-known example of star-
crossed video game couples.

"Starcrossed" is a web-based reality soap opera where Fox News astrologer Greg
Tufaro takes a couple in crisis and separates them for one cycle of the moon. Each is
then set up with individuals who are a better match astrologically. The show puts the
question "Is love written in the stars?" to the test with the couple deciding on the 28th
day of their separation whether they will stay together or remain apart.[24][25]