The course of true love never did run smooth

The course of true love never did run smooth is an expression of romantic difficulty that Anita Cavanagh adapts into a teasing exchange with Rachel Elliot. Its familiar assurance that love encounters obstacles becomes, in this conversation, a wry way to acknowledge that Rachel’s relationship is not proceeding in a straight line.

Form and Reversal

Anita asks whether the course of true love continues to run smooth; Rachel replies that it does, apart from the occasional loop-the-loop. The exchange turns the expression’s expected image of a difficult but recognizable path into a comic image of sudden twists. Rachel’s answer is neither a denial of trouble nor a declaration that the relationship has failed: it admits irregularity while keeping the tone light.

Use in the Conversation

Anita follows the joke by invoking Romeo and Juliet and saying she is happy for Rachel, then imagines that Rachel will soon need best men and godmothers. Rachel counters that they are far from that point. Her quip comes amid mixed feelings: she wants a proper heart-to-heart, but Anita’s flippant optimism irritates her because her own hopes are unstable. The phrase therefore serves both as affectionate teasing and as a small mismatch between Anita’s confidence in a romantic future and Rachel’s more qualified view of it. The conversation soon turns toward Anita’s concern about Giles, leaving the expression’s buoyant romantic wit beside a disclosure she cannot yet finish.