The love triangle is a classic narrative device in literature and film. It has been used throughout storytelling history, serving as the structural foundation for prize-winning literature, genre novels, classic films, and B-movies.
The love triangle comes pre-baked with powerful story elements such as complex human emotions, moral dilemmas, and social dynamics. Inevitably, there’s one character caught between two others, causing tension and conflict.
One of the earliest examples of the love triangle appears in Greek mythology in the story of Helen of Troy. She’s married to Menelaus, but is abducted by Paris and brought to Troy, which leads to Menelaus gathering up an army and heading to Troy to retrieve her. Result: the Trojan War.
In Leo Tolstoy’s nineteenth-century novel, Anna Karenina, Anna is torn between her duty to her husband, Alexei Karenin, and her passionate love for Count Vronsky, leading to Anna’s tragic end. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is in love with Tom Buchanan’s wife, Daisy.
One of the most iconic love triangles in film history is in Casablanca. The nightclub owner, Rick Blaine, and the resistance leader, Victor Laszlo, are both in love with Ilsa Lund. Rick must choose between his love for Ilsa and his moral duty to help her husband, escape from the Nazis.
More recently, the popular movie Challengers features two male tennis players vying for the attention of the same woman, played by Zendaya. In the young adult Twilight series by Stephanie Myer, Bella has to choose between the vampire and the werewolf. This love triangle sparked a cultural phenomenon: are you on Team Edward or Team Jacob?
What do these examples all have in common? Two men and one woman. And although the two men/one woman triangle is the most popular device in our heteronormative culture, the triangle could be two women and one man, or any other configuration of three.
One of my favorite movies is The Graduate, from 1967. College grad Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) finds himself in a sticky situation when he begins an affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the much older wife of his father’s business partner, but then Benjamin falls for Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross).
James Baldwin’s 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room tells the story of David, an American man torn between his relationship with his fiancée Hella and his love for Giovanni, an Italian bartender. The love triangle explores David’s internal struggle with his sexuality and societal expectations, leading to a tragic conclusion. It’s held up today as a foundational novel in queer literature.
An interesting love triangle concept—but one I don’t have an example for—would be not “both A and B love C,” but “A loves B and B loves C and C loves A.” By definition, there would need to be gender fluidity among the characters.
I never studied the love triangle or paid close attention to its status and importance in storytelling, until I had an uneasy epiphany recently: all of my books include a variation on a love triangle. I didn’t set out to write that way, but apparently, I’ve been writing that way from the beginning.
In Clean Break, the love triangle is more front and center. When a business executive, Jake, witnesses a struggle between Celeste and her estranged husband, Adam, he eventually gets involved with Celeste, and the love triangle plays a central role in the story.
Even in my dystopian novel, The Culling, there’s a love triangle of sorts. Ven is a mercenary hunter of fugitives who must choose between protecting his brother and his desire to save Maren, the woman he is assigned to capture.
In Flight: Robert survives a plane crash but suffers a severe dissociative episode and disappears for several days with fellow plane passenger, Nadine, which leaves Robert’s wife, Sasha, unsure of how to handle the betrayal.
Most recently, The Suitor. Not exactly a love triangle, but nonetheless a love triangle. Art is determined to protect his daughter, Anna, from her new love interest, Kyle, who Art believes is a schemer trying to gain access to Anna’s trust fund.
I had to ask myself why I’m so captivated by this triangular conflict, all of them involving some definition of love. I had to look deep within myself for the answer and go all the way back to the day I was born—and there I found the origins!
I was famous when I was born because I was my parents’ second Christmas baby in three years following my older brother, Peter. The odds of such an event were high (133,225 to 1), and the long-defunct Buffalo newspaper, The Courier Express, wrote a feature about me. Notice my father in the photograph—you might say he’s looking upon me with suspicion, perhaps giving me the evil eye. Did he sense a formidable competitor for my mother’s attention?
In high school, I coveted my friend’s girlfriend and sneakily tried to win her away from him. I failed in my quest, but took notes for the next time. In my twenties, a friend and I both wooed the same woman. This time I prevailed, although the damage to our friendship was real, and of course the relationship didn’t last. There were a few other love triangle instances in my personal history I’d rather not mention. And the most egregious example of all: I married another close friend’s former girlfriend. Sure, they’d broken up a long time before, and I hadn’t seen her in years, nor did I make any attempt to get involved when they were together, but when I ran into Harriet again, everything came together for us—and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. We’ve been married for 30 years.
So love triangles and me, we’re a natural fit, even in the face of tension and conflict. I can see now why I’ve written them into my novels. But I’m ready to move on to other storytelling devices and themes. You’ve heard of a throuple haven’t you?
