The Real Story Behind "Pretty Woman"

We all know the story of "Pretty Woman", a woman with few resources and a hard life falls into a career of prostitution. Then she meets a man who not only desires her body but also desires her as a person and longs to be with her not just for a night but forever. The story melts out hearts and makes us believe that no matter where we are in life we can all be saved and changed by the love of a man. I guess the last part is the synopsis of every romantic movie: the idea that the love of a man can completely change your life. The truth is it can but not in the way the movies portray it.

The story of Vivian (Julia Roberts) and Edward (Richard Geere) also includes one vital aspect of the story that seems to be true in most cases. The woman becomes and insecure and feels unworthy of the man’s love and runs away for a short time until the man comes running after her. She allows her past, her present and the shameful things she’s been doing to hinder their relationship until he comes and reminds her that he loves her in spite of all of those things. The story seems too good to be true but the reality is the story in “Pretty Woman” wasn’t that creative after all. Almost every aspect of the plot mirrors the Bible story of Hosea.

Hosea feels called to marry a prostitute. Hosea chooses to marry Gomer and then the two of them start a family together. After a while Gomer returns to her old lifestyle, the Bible does not explain why but it can be understood that a woman who lived a terrible life selling her body to survive would have a hard time accepting that she is worthy of having a loving husband and children. At first, Hosea is angry and wants nothing to do with her but he quickly changes his mind and runs after his wife. He plans to make her fall in love with him all over again. The story continues and Gomer runs away several times only to be found again by the man who deeply loves and cherishes her.

The stories of Hosea and “Pretty Woman” are both beautiful and captivating but they are not new stories. It is the same old story that we fall for over and over again and it is merely a glimpse of the love God has for humanity. We all want this beautiful Cinderella story. We come from nothing and sell ourselves to things that are less that what we are capable of but God swoops in time and time again to tell us He doesn’t care about the past, the present or the things we are ashamed of He loves us in spite of all those things and our lives can be saved and changed by His love.