Love and Crime in the Penny Press

             It was very clear, in the Dr. Elizabeth Burt’s lecture, “Love and Desire in the Penny Press”, as well as the reading, that the Penny Press and other newspapers did not hesitate to reveal the love in its most unfortunate forms. With headlines pairing the words love and murder, I couldn't help but wonder how this wave of gossip articles would affect the society around it. When we watch romantic movies today or when we read harlequin books, we can't help but think about how our lives would be different if we had a love like that.
            I asked if Dr. Burt thought that people acted out or committed crimes in order to appear in these newspapers because I couldn't help but wonder if these stories were seen as cautionary tales or as a window into fame. Today we have shows that are very similar to the stories in the Penny Press. There are reality TV shows where people fight over gossip and there are shows like 16 & Pregnant. These shows don't necessarily put those unfortunate situations into a positive light, but because the people in these shows become common household names, we see it as a quick way to fame if you are willing to sacrifice pride and dignity.
           These crimes of passion seem to have been facilitated by the possibility of being included in the ever popular newspapers. Perhaps the love was something that happened naturally, but the downfall of the relationship might have happened because of how conscious everyone in society was about relationship, or more specifically, the end of relationships. Similar to how people today are very concerned with starting relationships so that they can either live out the fairytale that they see in movies or on television, or they can imitate the chaos that makes other people famous. .