Courtship rituals in Four Weddings and a Funeral

¶ … film Four Weddings and a Funeral starring Hugh Grant as Charles and Andie McDowell as Carrie. In the film, their characters pull of a passionate love affair which will be the focus of this paper. The courtship rituals between Charles and Carrie will be analyzed against Scheflen's Stages of Courtship. We will see that they the two definitely use the stages. Indeed, the interesting thing was that the two used the social events of weddings and the funeral to flirt in a socially acceptable way and to pick up an intimate partner, even if just for one night.

Analysis-Weddings as Flirtation and Pick-Up Opportunities

In the film, Charles and Carrie use the wedding and funeral social events for opportunities to flirt with each other in an acceptable fashion (most of the time anyway). For example, this is exactly what happened at the first wedding where they initially met. They spend the night with each other having sex. Obviously, at least at this social event, the wedding event itself is a place for these two singles to casually flirt and pick each other up when the courtship mood is at its height and the hormones are flying. Indeed, Carrie uses the opportunity she has when buying a dress for her own wedding to flirt with Charles where he helps her pick out a wedding dress and makes a half-hearted effort to express his fondness for her. She even expresses to him that he had been casual conquest number thirty two. This certainly did not seem to be the basis for a serious relationship on the surface.

Conclusion

In this short essay, the author has detailed aspects of the film Four Weddings and a Funeral starring Hugh Grant as Charles and Andie McDowell as Carrie. In the film, their characters pulled off a passionate love affair which was the main focus of the paper. The courtship rituals between Charles and Carrie were analyzed against Scheflen's Stages of Courtship and the two definitely used the stages. Indeed, the interesting thing was that the two used the social events of weddings and the funeral to flirt in a socially acceptable way and to pick up an intimate partner, even if just for one night.