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{{trope}}
{{quote|''One of them is dark and poor
''One fair with lots of money
''I don't know which one to choose
''The flower or the honey''
|'''[[Celtic Woman]]''', "At the Ceili"}}
{{quote|''Marry him, or marry me
''I'm the one who loves you baby, can't you see
''I ain't got no future or family tree
''But I know what a prince and lover ought to be''
|Spin Doctors, "Two Princes"}}
One of the most common complications in the classic [[Love Triangle]] scenario. Two men (in most cases they're
▲One of the most common complications in the classic [[Love Triangle]] scenario. Two men (in most cases they're men - probably has something to do with a woman needing a man to 'provide' for her) are vying for your affection. Who's the right one? It's hard to tell, but there's a good chance that one of them is considerably wealthier than the other, and he can provide security, glamour and the good life, while the other (who has a good chance of being an impoverished artist) can give none of the same. What are you gonna do?
Most of the time, it's going to be "go with the poor one," and the story will carry an [[Aesop]] that true love is worth more than material wealth. This makes sense if the rich suitor is a bad person or the woman is just not in love with him as she is with the poor person. When done poorly, however, the rich one often ends up as the [[Designated Villain]]. This trope overlaps considerably with [[Wrong Guy First]] and [[Disposable Fiance]], but keep in mind that the rich suitor is not ''necessarily'' wrong, first or particularly disposable.
If the suitors are also a [[Betty and Veronica]] pair, the dynamic will typically be either "[[Single Woman Seeks Good Man|poor but nice]] suitor vs. [[Rich Bitch|rich but haughty]] suitor" or "[[All Girls Want Bad Boys|poor but exciting]] suitor vs. [[Romantic Runner
Compare [[Gold Digger]], [[Meal Ticket]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'': Yusaku Godai is the poor college student, Shun Mitaka is the rich guy who only coaches tennis as a hobby. Kyoko Otonashi spent six years choosing between them, thanks to a rash of [[Status Quo Is God]]. {{spoiler|She chooses the Poor Suitor. The Rich one finds [[The Ojou|a girlfriend of his own]] and they're happy together, tho.}}
* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'': Miaka Yuuki is the Suzaku no Miko and main
** Subverted in {{spoiler|Hotohori's character novel and OAV, ''Suzaku Hi Den''. His future wife and empress Houki is in the middle of the [[Love Triangle]]; Hotohori is the rich suitor, while his long-lost brother Tendou Shu is the poor suitor. This time, Hotohori wins. And Shu actually ''dies''... in Houki and Hoto's arms.}}
* With a little bit of [[Shipping Goggles]] applied, ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' can be seen as having this in the form of aristocratic [[Kuudere|Austria]] and rough-and-tumble [[Hot
** For some fics, you can switch Prussia with Hungary's teenage-hood friend [[Wholesome Crossdresser|Poland]] and it's similar. Including the DFOS, sadly.
** The Greece/Japan/Turkey [[Love Triangle]] can also be viewed as this, considering Greece's [[Perpetual Poverty]] and Turkey's [[Bling of War]] and Greece/Japan being heavily favored in both canon and fandom.
* The [[Love Triangle]] among police officers in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' had "rich suitor" and local [[White Prince]] Ninzaburo Shiratori against "poor suitor" and middle-class [[Nice Guy]] Wataru Takagi, both pining for the local [[Action Girl]] Satou. {{spoiler|Satou ultimately chooses Takagi, after quite a while of [[Can't Spit It Out]]. Shiratori eventually finds his first love, local [[Hot Teacher]] Sumiko Kobayashi, and she becomes his [[Victorious Childhood Friend]].}}
* Rare female example in ''Kasei Yakyoku'': the noblewoman Akiko Shouda and her maid Sara Uchida are this to Taka Itou, the male lead.
* In ''[[Hana
* ''[[
* ''[[Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu]]'' has [[The Ojou|Nogizaka]] [[Uptown Girl|Haruka]], the [[School Idol|wealthy and popular High School student]], who is the love interest of [[Ordinary High School Student]] Ayase Yuuto, the "Poor Suitor" (actually middle-class but, if you compare him to Haruka and the "Rich Suitor"), and [[Alpha Bitch|Shute]] [[Jerkass|Sutherland]], who demeans Ayase in any given opportunity. Ayase Yuuto's self-steem issues are more of an obstacle than Sutherland, who isn't even a regular character.
* [[Played for Laughs]] in [[Dokonjo Gaeru]]. Local [[Hot Teacher]] Yoshiko Yamanaka is pursued by her co-worker Yoshio Minami (hinted to be from a rich family) and Sakakubei (Hiroshi's Big Brother Mentor who works as a sushi chef), but she ''completely'' [[Oblivious to Love|fails to notice their interest in her.]]
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== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[The Building]]'' by [[Will Eisner]], Helen had a college sweetheart poet who loves her, but instead chose to marry the more stable, richer dentist - but ends up having an affair with the Poet because the marriage was ultimately loveless.
* In the early years of ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', [[Heroes Want Redheads|Jean Grey]] had to choose between Warren Worthington, who was incredibly rich, handsome, charming and athletic, and had [[But Your Wings Are Beautiful|wings]], and Scott Summers, who was a penniless orphan, skinny, massively introverted, and always wore giant nerd glasses lest he [[Blessed
** An issue of ''[[What If]]'' showed what would have happened if she did choose Warren over Scott. Basically, Scott's edges would have been even harder had she not been there to soften them, and he was an even bigger antisocial [[Jerkass]] than he is in the normal continuity. So much, that Professor X named Beast as the leader of the X-Men since he had compassion and actually cared to endear himself to his teammates. This caused Cyclops to storm off and [[Face Heel Turn|join the Brotherhood]].
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== Film ==
* Johnny and Neil in ''[[Dirty Dancing]].'' Provided, it doesn't hurt that Johnny is incredibly attractive and an extremely good dancer, whereas Neil is more or less a [[Jerkass]] loser.
* ''[[A
* ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'': Satine must choose between the rich Duke ([[Only One Name|that's his only name]]) and the young bohemian playwright
* ''[[
* ''[[Reality Bites]]'': Lelaina must choose between successful businessman Michael and slacker/philosopher/asshole Troy.
** Michael is a particular case of Designated Villain. He treats her well and uses his influence to try to start her career, but because that career may involve making compromises rather than just letting her Dad pay for things the movie tells us that [[Values Dissonance|the guy who treats her badly but never asks her to grow up is the one to go with.]]
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* ''[[Spartacus]]'': Slave girl Varinia (and, in a way, slave boy Antoninus) must choose between high-ranking Roman general Crassus and rebel slave leader Spartacus.
* ''[[Titanic]]'': Rose must choose between the wealthy businessman Cal and impoverished artist Jack. Leonardo Dicaprio won.
* ''[[
** ''[[
* ''Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day'' calls this trope boring, and gives Delissia [[Le Fosse]] a choice between ''three'' suitors: charming club owner Nick, eager young Phil, or poor but passionate Michael.
* ''[[Sweet Home Alabama]]'': Kind of.
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* Played with in ''[[Coming to America]],'' where Prince Akeem portrays himself as poor so that his future queen will love him for who he is, rather than how much money he has. In his fight for Lisa, he is up against Daryl, the money-rich but personality-poor heir to the Soul Glo fortune. Of course, it comes out that Akeem is really a prince. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* Subverted in ''[[The Notebook]]'' as the rich guy is decent and very lovely.
* Played with in ''[[Just Friends (
* [[Gender
* Given a bit of a twist in ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', where Jasmine falls in love with "street rat" Aladdin and doesn't much care for this Prince Ali who comes parading down the streets with an ostentatious display of wealth and possessions. The twist being, of course, that [[Two
* [[The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas]]: Casino owner Chip Rockfeller and quarry employee Fred Flintstone are rivals for Wilma's affections. The movie twists the trope by having Chip ''needing'' to marry Wilma, who's from a rather affluent family as well, to be able to pay his debts and stay wealthy.
* A rare male version in [[Tyler Perry]]'s ''Good Deeds''. Wesley Deeds has to choose between his fiancee Natalie (rich) or a down-on-her-luck single mother who is a janitor in his office building.
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== Literature ==
* "[http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-choice/ The Choice]" by Dorothy Parker is a poem about a woman who has a choice between a man who offers her lands and fine things and a man who charms her with his singing alone. She chooses the latter without a second
* In the book ''[[Holes]]'', during Stanley Yelnats' great-great-grandfather's story, Elya (the grandpa) is the poor one and he's up against a fat slob rich guy [[Old Man Marrying a Child|who's significantly older]]. In a subversion, Elya loses and leaves the country for America.
** He actually doesn't lose. When he and the other guy both manage to bring an identical [[Bride Price]], the girl's father decides to just let her choose which man she wants to marry. However, when she can't decide, it suddenly hits Elya that she doesn't care about him ''at all'' and he surrenders in depression.
** Even Elya faces this choice, sort of. In the old country, the girl he pursued was richer than he was but dumb as a brick. The one he ended up marrying in America, however, was a smart and capable farm girl.
* Deconstructed in James Thurber's fairy-tale parody short story "[
* In ''[[Many Waters]]'', a sequel to ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]],'' by [[Madeleine L
* In ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', the backstory had Daisy being torn between common soldier Jay who's away at war and wealthy [[Jerk Jock]] Tom. She chose Tom, but it's implied that she regretted not waiting for Jay and loved him more than she loved Tom. And then this trope is deconstructed every which way when Jay returns even richer than Tom and begins successfully courting Daisy, only for Daisy to be ultimately too weak-willed and shallow to choose him over Tom and {{spoiler|Jay to get shot for trying to cover up a death Daisy accidentally caused}}.
* In ''The Premature Burial'' by [[Edgar Allan Poe]], there is a mention of a wealthy young woman named Victorine LaFourcade, who was involved with a poor journalist named Julien Bossuet. She caved under pressure from her family, though, and married a prominent banker, who [[Domestic Abuse|abused her]] until she fell ill and (apparently) died. Julien comes to her grave with the intention of taking a piece of her hair as a memento of her...only to find that she had been [[Buried Alive]]! [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|He took her home and nursed her back to health, and they left France for America together.]] Later, when they return to France and he's challenged by the banker, Julien legally gets to keep her as his wife, because of the unusual circumstances and the decades that had passed.
* In [[
** ''Death on the Nile'' also has a [[Beta Couple|"beta" case of "rich suitor, poor suitor."]] Cornelia Robinson, the poor relation of a rich woman on the boat, is being courted by both the scraggly Communist agitator Mr. Ferguson and the successful, famous Dr. Bessner. She chooses the poor suitor {{spoiler|which turns out to be the doctor, who is comfortably well-off, but not spectacularly wealthy. Ferguson was actually a wealthy Lord, but Cornelia didn't care. She thought he was just as much of a [[Jerkass]] as an aristocrat as he was as a commoner.}}
* The second and third books in the ''[[Twilight (
** Which is actually a subversion, since {{spoiler|Edward}} is the insanely rich, refined one, but he still wins. No opinions on which is the "nicer" one, please.
* The knight Palamon and the commoner Arcite for Emily in "The Knight's Tale" of ''[[
* Interestingly, one of the best-known classic romances is a deliberate and ruthless subversion of this trope with the heroine initially despising the rich [[Jerkass]] who calls her not pretty enough to dance with and liking the poor but charming suitor who treats her like a lady. The rich guy turns out to be a [[Defrosting Ice Queen]] who has a [[Jerk
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* ''[[Full House]]'': Donna Jo aka D.J. must choose between the abnormally rich Nelson and the flaky but sensitive guitarist Viper. She eventually chooses [[Take a Third Option|neither]].
* Happens all the damn time in soap operas, usually with a [[Salaryman|blue collar]] [[Leather Man|leather-jacket wearing]] [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|bad boy]] [[Hidden Heart of Gold|with a heart of gold]] vs. a [[Smug Snake|smug]], [[Jerkass|arrogant]], [[Magnificent Bastard|suit-wearing bastard]]. The Poor Suitor almost exclusively wins.
** Happens so much that [[The Seventies]] comic [[Mafalda]] [[Older Than They Think|was already parodying it in one of their strips]]. Susanita's mother is replying to a phone survey about telenovelas and she starts blubbering about how she finds so horrible that the lead female ([[The Ojou|"a girl from such a high-class family, you see"]]) is cheating on the rich suitor ([[Hello, Attorney!|"a lawyer]], [[Romantic Runner
** A notable exception in ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' was the creation of the quite unconventional [[Super Couple]] Jack and Jennifer. Jennifer (the classic girl-next-door type) had to choose between rich, arrogant, manipulative, snarky, corrupt, ex-rapist Jack Deveraux and sweet, caring, poor, leather jacket-wearing Emilio. Even though Jack was doing the typical Rich Suitor stuff like throwing his money around, demeaning the poor suitor and manipulating the situation to seem superior, he ''still'' got the girl and became one of the show's most popular characters for years to come while Emilio got cheated on and eventually fell off a roof and died.
* One episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' was about a woman who had to choose between a rich man she didn't love and a poor man she did love, and her future self pursued her on a horse to warn her not to choose the wrong man. The woman ultimately chooses to run off with the poor man. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, ''he'' turned out to be the wrong choice her future self had tried to warn her against. The brilliant deconstruction was that the poor guy was predictably lousy at handling money and ran the farm they depended on into the ground.}}
* The poor country vet James Harriot vs. rich Richard Edmundson for the hand of Helen Alderson in ''[[
** Happened in the book as well, and therefore, presumably, [[Truth in Television|in real life]].
* Early episodes of ''[[The OC]]'' had this in the form of Ryan (poor) vs Luke (rich) competing for Marissa's love.
* The first season of the [[Reality TV]] dating show ''Average Joe'' had a plain-looking guy who owned his own company and a good-looking guy who wasn't even out of school yet as the final two choices for the girl, and she ultimately chose the latter. In a twist, her choice of the "poor suitor" was actually ''blasted'' by most viewers who felt that she chose him solely because he was better-looking than the "average Joe".
* Subverted in ''[[Frasier]]'': Niles leaves rich plastic surgeon Mel Karnofski for poor health care worker Daphne Moon, but he's already a wealthy psychiatrist so it was more about social status than wealth. Daphne herself leaves rich lawyer Donny for the equally-rich
* In ''[[Diary of a Mad Black Woman]]'', Helen has to choose between her abusive but wealthy ex-husband Charles, who is disabled by the end of the story, and Orlando, a poor factory worker. {{spoiler|At first she chooses her husband, because he is disabled, but then decides not to and chooses Orlando}}.
* ''[[Revenge (TV series)|Revenge]]'' has the main character Emily Thorne being pursued by the wealthy Daniel Grayson and the comparatively poor Jack Porter. Though in something of a twist for this trope, while Daniel is wealthy by any objective standards, Emily is even more so and could probably equal Daniel's entire net worth with the money she loses in her couch cushions.
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* In ''[[Rent]]'', Mimi is in a triangle with broke musician Roger and rich entrepreneur Benny (it didn't seem to matter that he was already married).
* In ''[[Songs for A New World]]'' the singer of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vA2wgirBJc "Stars and the Moon"] has a choice between three suitors, two who were poor, one wealthy.
* Josephine in ''[[
* ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'': Almost all of Portia's suitors are rich (princes, dukes, barons, etc), and Bassanio, a "poor...gentlemen" is the exception. Needless to say, he's the only one she's really interested in. A lot of the plot revolves around the fact that he's borrowed money from a friend in order to woo her.
* In "Fulgens and Lucres": the noblewoman Lucres must choose between two suitors: the thrifty but honorable Gayus or the filthy rich but depraved Cornelius. She decides to marry whoever is nobler, and has them both make speeches listing why they fit that description. Needless to say, the one who kept his speech short won.
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== Western Animation ==
* In the crossover between ''[[Superman:
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Rich People]]
[[Category:Romance Novel Plots]]
[[Category:Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor]]
[[Category:
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