In February 2024, we featured a quiz about star-crossed lovers from literature, films, and TV, https://www.thisawfulawesomelife.com/home/2024/2/7/the-february-2024-star-crossed-lovers-quiz-by-fran-joyce?rq=Star%20Crossed%20Lovers
Our Star-crossed Lovers Quiz has been so popular, we went looking for a new assortment of tragic love affairs. Grab a box of tissues and test your knowledge of love stories without happy endings.
Can you match the couples in Column A with where you know their love story from in Column B with the clues we have provided? Good Luck!
Answers can be found in the last article of this issue, “Next Month in This Awful Awesome Life – July 2025” or you can follow this link,
https://www.thisawfulawesomelife.com/home/2025/5/31/next-month-in-this-awful-awesome-life-july-by-fran-joyce
Couples: Their Love Story Happened Here:
Jay and Daisy “The Old Age Poem” by Sappho
Eros and Psyche Of Human Bondage by W. S. Maugham
Neil and Brenda Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Rosaline The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Casper and Isabel Love in the Time of Cholera by G. G.Márquez
Harriet Smith & Mr. Elton Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth
Ellen and Newland Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
Eos and Tithonus Metamorphoses by Apuleius
Fanny, Philip, & Mildred Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Dean and Emily Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Sarah and Charles The Sorrows of Young Werther by J. Goethe
Olivia and Orsino The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
Gwendolyn and Daniel The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Florentina and Fermina The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stevens and Miss Kenton Emma by Jane Austen
Werther and Charlotte Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Severus and Lily The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Lily and Lawrence Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
Eponine and Marius The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Milly and Morton The French Lieutenant’s Woman - J. Fowles
1. This Greek goddess fell in love with a mortal and asked Zeus to make her lover immortal. However, she forgot to ask Zeus to also grant him eternal youth. He continued to age and wither away until the goddess took pity on him and turned him into a cicada.
Couple:_____________________________Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
2. A terminally ill woman receives a marriage proposal from the man of her dreams only to discover he’s been in love with someone else during their courtship.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
3. Two friends: she is secretly in love with him, but his heart belongs to Cosette.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
4. She’s considered a “fallen woman” because of an affair. He’s a respected member of society engaged to be married. They fall in love and scandal ensues.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
5. He’s a working-class Army veteran. She’s a wealthy coed from Radcliffe College. Her family has new money; his family has no money. He falls in love, but the novelty wears off for her, and she dumps him.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
6. They both work as servants for a wealthy British nobleman. She’s warm and outgoing; he’s reserved and reclusive. Over the years, they fall in love, but he can’t admit his feelings. She grows tired of waiting and marries someone else.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
7. He was the nerdy introvert, and she was the most popular girl at school. She falls for the most popular boy in school who makes his life unbearable. Though he hides his feelings well, he never stops loving her and sacrifices his life to protect her only child.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
8. She’s trapped in a loveless marriage to a cruel man and turns to a casual acquaintance for comfort. The acquaintance is on a spiritual and cultural quest after learning about his Jewish heritage. She mistakes his kindness for love and is devastated when she discovers he’s in love with a Jewish woman.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
9. He’s a god and she’s a mortal. Their love story is marked by themes of dangerous curiosity, punishments, tests, and redemption. These star-crossed lovers defy the odds and end up together.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
10. After being dumped by the love of his life who marries a rich tycoon, he reinvents himself as a wealthy man of mystery and seeks to win her away from her husband. She’s a bored socialite who enjoys his attention now that she believes he’s wealthy.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
11. A head-strong young woman decides to play matchmaker, but when she misinterprets the intentions of the local vicar, she convinces another woman he’s in love with her and she should be in love with him instead of Robert Martin, a farmer, who wants to propose because the vicar is a more suitable match. The woman is devastated when she learns the vicar’s not interested in her, but left to their own devices they all find the people they are meant to be with. Robert for the win!
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
12. A young nobleman falls in love with a girl who does not reciprocate his affections because she has decided to devote her life to the service of God. Spoiler alert – he soon forgets her when he sees another pretty face.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
13. She’s an artist who falls in love with a talented artist with a physical impairment. She dies by suicide after he rejects her. He falls in love with a waitress who rejects him because of his impairment. Karma wins this one.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
14. He declares his love. She rejects him because she’s in mourning after her brother’s death. He persists, but her heart is elsewhere. He eventually moves on, but not until some gender-bending hijinks of mistaken identity take place.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
15. She is determined to be independent and rejects a sudden marriage proposal from the neighbor of her English uncle. Then she rejects a proposal from the wealthy and charismatic heir to a Boston mill. It would be a love match, but she stubbornly clings to her independence. After inheriting her uncle’s fortune, she travels to Florence where she’s charmed by an American expatriate and agrees to marry him. Her husband is controlling and dishonest, but when the man from Boston who loves her tries to help, she sends him away again.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
16. This one is a bit creepy. A thirty-six-year-old man who is a friend of her father’s tells a twelve-year-old girl that he will wait for her. When she gets older they begin a romantic relationship, but she ultimately turns down his proposal to marry someone closer to her own age.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
17. She’s a young socialite who loses her fortune. He’s a young lawyer with no fortune. Though she loves him, she cannot marry him because of her financial problems. Her efforts to settle her debts go horribly wrong and she turns to gambling and drugs. Despite being ostracized by her peers, she works hard to get out of debt honorably. His fortunes improve, but too late to help the woman he loves.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
18. He’s a young visiting poet. She’s a poor girl engaged to an older, but financially stable man. They fall in love, but she chooses financial security over love, and his broken heart leads him to take his own life.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
19. A gentleman lawyer is engaged to a wealthy socialite named May. When he meets his fiancée’s cousin from Europe he can’t seem to get her out of his mind. The cousin is married to a Polish count, but they are estranged. To prevent the scandal of a divorce, he’s asked to persuade the countess to either reconcile with her husband or agree to stay married and live separate lives. They fall in love, but do not act on their feelings because of May. He goes through with the marriage, but is unhappy. After May becomes pregnant he and the countess don’t see each other for twenty-six years. After May’s death, he and his son go to Europe, but he remains outside while his son visits the countess.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________
20. She’s sent away by her father for falling in love. She marries a doctor and moves on with her life. He waits for her for fifty years. After her husband dies, they finally get their happy ending and are together.
Couple:_____________________________ Novel/Poem/Play_____________________________________