Oliver and Felicity Compared to the Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet: A Classic Romance

            I love classic literature; it was my double major in college.  I thought the other evening about the classic romances that I've read from classic literature.  Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet  and Mr. Knightly and Emma all came to mind as I thought of Oliver and Felicity.  Perhaps I'm just suffering from Arrow withdrawals, but I think these great romances have something in common with Oliver and Felicity and that is why the viewers love this  couple so much.  They fit the classic romance type.

Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, and Emma Woodhouse were strong willed women who spoke their minds and were not intimated my men.  They risked losing the loves of their lives by standing up for what they valued, even if sometimes they were wrong to do so.  In the same  way, Felicity speaks her mind to Oliver.  She holds nothing back and isn't afraid to tell him the truth even when it hurts.  She risked losing Oliver, when she told him about his mother.  She wasn't afraid to lock the door the lair on  him, when she thought she needed to make a point.  It's these qualities that drew Oliver to her.

Mr. Rochester, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightly were equally strong willed an opinionated, but they weren't afraid to change when proved that change was necessary.  We see all of that in Oliver, and they welcomed strong willed opinionated women in their lives, even when they didn't appear to like it.

              The viewers didn't create Olicity, the writers wrote Olicity and because the themes were classic the viewers gravitated towards them.  That's what was missing in Laurel.  Yes, she had a long history with Oliver, but she wasn't a strong willed character.  She always seemed a weak femme fatal to me. Laurel seemed to manipulate Oliver in their past.  I think she grew into a stronger  person as she became the Black Canary, but she always wanted something from Oliver that he could never really give.  Felicity didn't want anything from Oliver.  She accepted him for who he was, and tried to give me some balance.  That's why the viewers never took to Oliver and Laurel the way they did with Felicity.  The authors  wrote then that way.  What has the viewers frustrated now is that writers appeared to change  the narrative in the story after building it up for 4 seasons.

So we need to trust the writers  that they have a plan for this love story that they built.   Be  prepared for a lot of Oliver and Susan, but also be prepared for Felicity to respond to it, and she will.  I know there are some who hope that Oliver and Felicity will be together by the end of season 5.  I am not sure that will happen.  I'm not being Debbie Downer, but I think of the story as I would a novel.   Emma had 55 chapters and she and Mr. Knightly didn't get together until the last few chapters.  If I think of Arrow in terms of a novel, then we are about half way done, if Arrow can go ten seasons.  We may not see them together until the end of season 6.  I hope  I am surprised and we see them together at the end of 5, but if not, I'm thinking it will be worth the wait.