Tropes and Cliches

Love Triangles: Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor

This by far is one of the...how to put this gently....well it's not my favorite.For many reasons. It's normally two guys fighting over a girl and at least one of the persons in the triangle is in so well off that their great times 12 grandchild is taken care of for their entire life. Now if the girl is also well off that she doesn't need to work a normal 9-5 job, the that means there's  a chance that the poor guy might not get the girl, due to the fact he may not be able to provide a life that at the standards that she was raised in. The best example is the story of the Titanic, Rose has a rich suitor, but Jack comes along and steals her heart....before he dies and stuff.

his trope is most often "two men and one women" because of a sense that woman needs someone to 'provide for her'. This sort of logic ties into Unable to Support a Wife and generates part of this trope's conflict. The trope can sometimes even be two girls fighting over a guy, but it normally goes along the line of the guy also being rich and one of the girls being working class/a servant...that or Betty and Veronica( which is  a love triangle trope all on its own.)

 Now the dynamic will typically be either "poor but nice suitor vs. rich but haughty suitor" or "poor but exciting suitor vs. rich but boring suitor", being obviously slanted toward the poor suitor in both cases. In fact, having the rich suitor win or even be a decent, likeable person is a rare variation of this trope. There are other tropes and cliches that enter (Gold Digger, Meal Ticket, and Uptown Girl.) and the very rare male gold digger enters. 

In Full House: Donna Jo aka D.J. must choose between the abnormally rich Nelson and the flaky but sensitive guitarist Viper. She eventually chooses neither, which is a trope in its own way. 

High School Musical offers a rare gender-flipped, modern example. The second film has Sharpay using her social connections and scholarship opportunities to lure Troy away from his ordinary, middle-class girlfriend Gabriella. (Who is working with him at Sharpay's parents country club.) Troy is only ever interested in Gabriella, but Sharpay's interference does eventually break them up. But don't worry they do get back together. 

Now there are some exceptions to this trope that makes little sense. The cliche of "I want them to be happy , so choose the rich guy." comes into play. There is also the mean poor guy that's angry at the world and somehow convinces the rich girl to marry him just for her wealth and then kills her off. And my ever favorite "everyone marries someone else and is happy ". This is normally a thing to prevent all out wars.One example is in Greek mythology with Aphrodite, they marry her off to Hephaestus so the other gods won't kill each other.