THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF HOLLYWOOD ROMANTICISM (THE TWILIGHT SAGA) ON THE YOUTH IN MUMBAI

Abstract

Collins Dictionary describes romantic love as "an intensity and idealization of a love relationship, in which the other is imbued with extraordinary virtue, beauty, etc., so that the relationship overrides all other considerations, including material ones."[1] Over the years, films have succeeded in creating a loopy concept of this ‘romance’ which relies heavily on stereotypical situations and even on various occasions, purely sexualized content. Ranging from the quintessential Prince Charming to the Bad boy meets Good girl, most romance stories present rose-coloured imagery and conceal the harsh realities of relationships. This distortion tremendously impacts the mass notion of the concept of ‘love’. The purpose of this research paper is to study the impact of Hollywood’s take on romanticism on the youth in the city of Mumbai, India. The case under study is the franchise of movie adaptations of one of the phenomenal best-selling novel series, ‘The Twilight Saga’. The approach I have employed in the study is a theoretical analysis of the Twilight Saga’s romance component, underpinned by a quantitative study. To carry out the theoretical analysis, the Cultivation Theory will be applied to the movie’s content, followed by a quantitative summary through a survey of 113 participants.