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Love Stories: The Titanic

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Love Stories: The Titanic

One of the classic films of all time, the Titanic, is an instance of how attraction begins

and love develops. The nuances of this film can be explored from the psychology to depict how

the two characters in the film were attracted to one another. According to Branscombe and Baron

(2017), love is an interpersonal attraction where a person develops a positive feeling towards

another person. The love between Rose DeWitt and Jack Dawson develops over scenes of few

encounters and deepens throughout the film. The psychological concept of familiarity, proximity,

emotions, repeated exposure, psychical beauty and similarity can explain why they are attracted

to one another.

During their first encounter, Jack found Rose attempting to commit suicide by throwing

herself off the ship to avoid the forced marriage to her fiancé, Hockley. When Jack attempted to

help her back, she slipped and fell on the railing making her dangle adversely above the sea.

When Cal and Titanic’s crew ran over, Rose explained how Jack rescued her life. Viewers are

directed to another encounter where Rose searched Jack to thank him for what he did. Although

Jack felt attracted to Rose on their first contact, Rose took several faces to face exposure to

develop a feeling of love towards Jack. Both these encounters happen in line with the

psychological concept of emotional effect which argues that people’s mood plays a significant

role in whether a relationship develops upon meeting (Branscombe & Baron, 2017). Besides,

these encounters can be related to the psychological concept of familiarity. The concept of

familiarity is depicted through repeated face to face exposure between partners which allows

them to feel confident and comfortable with one another. Specifically, this concept allows the

partners to become friendly which triggers a positive stimulus that may lead to love.
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Proximity is also a significant contributor to the pairing between the two characters as

Rose and Jack share a physical space on the same ship. The two are provided with a chance to

interact on the same ship, which during this age without social media, was their only way to

develop a relationship. The attraction between Jack and Rose seem to oppose the odds as only

Jack fall in love at first sight while Rose has to interact with him several times. Notably, the

repeated exposure contributed significantly to the development of the attraction as Jack could

occasionally sneak out into the first class where he would interact with Rose. Branscombe and

Baron (2017) agree that interacting with someone on several occasions mostly increases the

positive attraction towards them. Repeated exposure developed a perception of familiarity

between the lovers which concluded into a positive relationship.

Both characters in the film are extremely good looking which greatly contributed to their

immediate attraction. Individuals will likely respond in a positive way to good looking people

and attractive appearance will trigger the initial positive relation such as goodness and kindness

(Branscombe & Baron, 2017). As attractive characters, Jack and Rose, understanding nothing

about each other, feel into the stereotypes of relating attractiveness to the sweetness. In the case

of Titanic, it can be argued that Rose’s physical beauty propelled Jack to pursue have after the

suicide incident. Rose noticed Jack’s physical beauty which resulted to love. The physical

beauty in a romantic context has a significant influence on the level of attraction.

Besides the physical attraction, Jack and Rose appear not have any similarities at the start

of the film as they from different classes. As the film proceeds, it becomes evident that Rose and

Jack are longing for something and both consider that they have found it in each other. Based on

similarity argument, similarity develops attraction and neither character of this love narrative

knows other’s name at the onset of attraction. Both Rose and Jack seem to search for freedom
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and their similar views on music finally propels them together. Heyes (2013) contends that the

more important an issue is to a person, the more propelled they will be to the other person who

has the same values and believes.

All in all, love stories have been transferred through generation with a focus on love

rather the situation around the characters. The significance of these classical narratives is to

demonstrate how two main characters fight for the love they share. Although the narratives

appear to be between two individual, different circumstances contribute to the love story. The

concepts of familiarity, proximity, emotions, repeated exposure, psychical beauty, and similarity

are all essential in developing the attraction between lovers and Rose and Jack fulfilled all the

criteria. Their development of love occurs because of their proximity, develops due to their

physical attraction, and escalate because of their similarities. Although most love films begin

with love at first sight, their repeated exposure to one another made them fall in love.
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References

Branscombe, N. & Baron, R. (2017). Social psychology. (Fourteenth edition). New York, NY:

Hayes, N. (2013). Principles of Social Psychology. Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?id=rc7YAQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA1&ots=zniEetAiJ9&dq=

social%20psychology%20proximity%20and%20attraction&lr&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q

=social%20psychology%20proximity%20and%20attraction&f=false