Victor and Emily are both kind-hearted romantics. Thus, they like the idea of marrying for love. The two are also passionate about the arts, specifically music. Victor and Emily are skilled at playing the piano. Both even seem to like animals, especially dogs; as Victor and Victoria adore Scraps. Despite how much the couple have in common, he can't bring himself to love her romantically because she's dead. Instead, Victor grows to platonically care for Emily as a friend. Meanwhile, she loves him wholeheartedly.

Had Emily lived, she could have met Victor as a twenty-eight to twenty-nine-year-old woman. In fact, had she remained unmarried for the nine years it would have taken for him to be of marital age at nineteen to twenty-years-old, she could have married Victor. The average age for an upper class woman in the Victorian era was eighteen to twenty five. But the average marriage age was rising, with some women marrying in their late twenties or even early thirties by the end of the century.

Due to this, in addition to the 'what ifs' of the narrative, makes this fairy tale a tragic love story. However, it's highly unlikely Victor and Emily would have married with her aristocratic background. This is why Emily's parents rejected Barkis, unless her parents were under the assumption the Van Dorts were wealthy as the Everglots believed. Overall, these two could have been perfect couple in life, but ultimately ended up being perfect for each other in death.