Compromises in Romance: Reality and Consequences

In reality, people have to make decisions they do not want to make for the sake of appeasing another person so things run smoothly. Romance is no exception to this. Romance is full of compromises because it is part of reality. Compromising in a relationship is not scary at first especially when young in the late teens and early 20s when there is still a big window of opportunity to drop the relationship, learn from it, and move on. Compromising at this age is all about trying to maintain a healthy, happy relationship. But the window of opportunity begins to quickly close after college age. The unsettling fact that one has to begin to compromise who one is negatively to obtain romance is a lesson within Laura Kipnis’ essay “Against Love”. This nonfiction piece discusses the issue of “compromise and adaptation simply to avoid mayhem” although it may go against one’s “fundamental ideas”. Rachel and Dev in Aziz Ansari’s fictional show Master of None illuminates this concept brought up by Kipnis by showing how the reality of having to compromise impacts the individuals in a spectrum of negative degrees within a serious romantic relationship. Both Kipnis and Ansari talk about the negative impact of having to

The two works show the struggle one has picking what to compromise and if compromising in a case should even be an option! Love is difficult to maintain with the people in the relationship having to now make many joint decisions. Kipnis shows this by bringing up compromises by that come with being in love like not being able to leave the bathroom door open because “it’s offensive” and not being able to leave the bathroom door closed because “your partner needs to get in”. But just as confusing as romance is, many still choose to have it. Reality is full of compromises with or without a partner so why not have one if compromising