What’s your favorite story? What genre? Why is it your favorite? Did it move you and in what way? Regardless of the genre you are writing, whether it is set in the past, present or future, readers must be able to identify with characters through universal feelings. This is an element that helps a reader love a character. They see themselves and sympathize to make them root either for the hero, villain, or even a supporting character. Universal feelings are human emotions that pervade in any particular period. Think of a writer who writes an evergreen article for a blog or website. Readers will continue to read the article because it is timeless and useful even ten or twenty years from now. 

The same holds for universal feelings. A novel becomes a classic because of the universal themes and sentiments it relays to the reader. The reader sees an authentic experience to which they could compare their own lives or see reality depicted in fiction. Whether you are writing a novel, a play or a short story, your work will lack the ability to reach out when you fall short of stirring emotions. 

The thoughts and feelings of characters must be conveyed by whatever period they live in. Otherwise, their norms will appear anachronistic if it does not conform to the values and traditions of their time. Universal feelings, on the other hand, transcend time and ring true regardless of how many centuries or eras have passed. Ambition, greed, passion, lust, love, fear, worship, and envy in one culture is no different from that of another. They may express it in different ways, but its essence does not change. The only difference is in the way these feelings are projected and by the way circumstances bring them forth.

Example: Let’s consider jealousy as a universal feeling. Cain murdered his brother as he felt jealous that God favored Abel’s offerings. Othello fumed in anger believing that Cassio and Desdemona were having an affair. Humbert’s devastation at having been deprived of Lolita triggered him to chase Dr. Quilt in a shootout. After she had to stay home while her two oldest sisters go to the theater, the youngest of the March sisters, Amy, in a fit of jealousy, burns her sister Jo’s manuscript. Swann is so obsessed with knowing the truth if his Odette was seeing someone else that he stalked her from outside her house.

These exemplary situations of jealousy are different periods apart, but they were all committed by characters who were corrupted by jealousy. They were embroiled in different situations, but the intensity of their negative feelings is the same. It may be an odd sensation for the reader to experience a different setting that is less advanced, lacking the comforts and convenience of today’s technology, but he can relate to the character's feelings. A contemporary reader who has experienced jealousy or at some point has fallen victim to a partner’s infidelity can sympathize. A reading of history will also show us that some events that shaped the world were motivated by jealousy.