A happy ending is an ending of the
plot
Plot or Plotting may refer to:
Art, media and entertainment
* Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction
Music
* ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava
* The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003
Other
* ''Plot' ...
of a work of
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
in which almost everything turns out for the best for the main
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
s and their
sidekick
A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague (not necessarily in fiction) who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to the one they accompany.
Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, ...
s, while the main
villain
A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...
s/
antagonist
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist.
Etymology
The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...
s are dead/defeated.
In storylines where the protagonists are in physical
danger
Danger is a lack of safety and may refer to:
Places
* Danger Cave, an archaeological site in Utah
* Danger Island, Great Chagos Bank, Indian Ocean
* Danger Island, alternate name of Pukapuka Atoll in the Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean
* Danger Isla ...
, a happy ending mainly consists of their survival and successful completion of the
quest or mission; where there is no physical danger, a happy ending may be lovers
consummating their love despite various factors which might have thwarted it. A considerable number of storylines combine both situations. In
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
's version of "
War of the Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was i ...
", the happy ending consists of three distinct elements: The protagonists all survive the countless perils of their journey; humanity as a whole survives the alien invasion; ''and'' the protagonist father regains the respect of his estranged children. The plot is so constructed that all three are needed for the audience's feeling of satisfaction in the end.
A happy ending is epitomized in the standard
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
ending phrase, "happily ever after" or "and they lived happily ever after". (''
One Thousand and One Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
'' has the more restrained formula "they lived happily until there came to them the One who Destroys all Happiness" (i.e. Death); likewise, the Russian versions of fairy tales typically end with "they lived long and happily, and died together on the same day".) Satisfactory happy endings are happy for the reader as well, in that the characters they sympathize with are rewarded. However, this can also serve as an open path for a possible sequel. For example, in the 1977 film ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'',
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the protagonist of the original film trilogy of the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke first appeared in ''Star Wars'' (1977), and he returned in ''The ...
defeats the
Galactic Empire
Galactic empires are a common trope used in science fantasy and science fiction, particularly in works known as 'space operas'. Many authors have either used a galaxy-spanning empire as background or written about the growth and/or decline of s ...
by destroying the
Death Star
The Death Star is a fictional space station and Weapon of mass destruction, superweapon featured in the ''Star Wars'' Space opera, space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire (Star Wars), Galactic Empire, the Death Star ...
; however, the story's happy ending has consequences that follow in 1980's ''
The Empire Strikes Back
''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a stor ...
'' that are reversed in 1983's ''
Return of the Jedi
''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who ...
''. The concept of a permanent happy ending is specifically brought up in the
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
fantasy/fairy tale novel ''
The Eyes of the Dragon
''The Eyes of the Dragon'' is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, first published as a limited edition slipcased hardcover by Philtrum Press in 1984, illustrated by Kenneth R. Linkhauser. The novel would later be published for th ...
'' which has a standard good ending for the genre, but simply states that "there were good days and bad days" afterwards.
Features
A happy ending only requires that the main characters be all right. Millions of innocent background characters can die, but as long as the characters that the reader/viewer/audience cares about survive, it can still be a happy ending.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
comments in his review of
Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich (; born 10 November 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the industry. His films, most of wh ...
's ''
The Day After Tomorrow
''The Day After Tomorrow'' is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Roland Emmerich. Based on the 1999 book '' The Coming Global Superstorm'' by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, the film stars De ...
'': "Billions of people may have died, but at least the major characters have survived. Los Angeles is leveled by multiple tornadoes, New York is buried under ice and snow, the United Kingdom is flash-frozen, and much of the Northern Hemisphere is wiped out for good measure. Thank god that Jack, Sam, Laura, Jason and Dr. Lucy Hall survive, along with Dr. Hall's little
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
patient."
Examples
William Shakespeare
The presence of a happy ending is one of the key points that distinguish
melodrama from
tragedy
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...
. In certain periods, the endings of traditional tragedies such as ''
Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...
'' or ''
Oedipus Rex
''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...
'', in which most of the major characters end up dead, disfigured, or discountenanced, have been actively disliked. In the seventeenth century, the Irish author
Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate ( ; 1652 – 30 July 1715) was an Irish poet, hymnist and lyricist, who became Poet Laureate in 1692. Tate is best known for ''The History of King Lear'', his 1681 adaptation of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', and for his libretto for ...
sought to improve
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
King Lear
''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...
'' in
his own heavily modified version in which Lear survives and Cordelia marries Edgar. Tate's version dominated performances for a century and a half and Shakespeare's original was nearly forgotten. Both
David Garrick
David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...
and
John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble (1 February 1757 – 26 February 1823) was a British actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him o ...
, while taking up some of Shakespeare's original text, kept Tate's happy ending.
Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean (4 November 178715 May 1833) was a celebrated British Shakespearean stage actor born in England, who performed, among other places, in London, Belfast, New York, Quebec, and Paris. He was known for his short stature, tumultuo ...
played ''King Lear'' with its tragic ending in 1823, but failed and reverted to Tate's crowd-pleaser after only three performances. Only in 1838 did
William Macready
William Charles Macready (3 March 179327 April 1873) was an English actor.
Life
He was born in London the son of William Macready the elder, and actress Christina Ann Birch. Educated at Rugby School where he became headboy, and where now the t ...
at Covent Garden successfully restore Shakespeare's original tragic end –
Helen Faucit
Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress.
Early life
Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents separated when she was a g ...
's final appearance as Cordelia, dead in her father's arms, became one of the most iconic of Victorian images and the play's tragic end was finally accepted by the general public. Most subsequent critics have not found Tate's amendments an improvement, and welcomed the restoration of Shakespeare's original. Happy endings have also been fastened – equally, with no lasting success – to ''
Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
'' and ''
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
''.
There is no universally accepted definition of what a happy ending is; such definitions can considerably vary with time and cultural differences. An interpretation of ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
Although classified as ...
''s forced conversion of
Shylock to Christianity is that it was intended as a happy ending. As a Christian, Shylock could no longer impose interest, undoing his schemes in the play and ending the rivalry between him and Antonio, but more important, contemporary audiences would see becoming a Christian as a means to save his soul (cf.
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
11:15). In later times, Jews (and non-Jewish opponents of anti-Semitism) strongly objected to that ending, regarding it as depicting a victory for injustice and oppression and as pandering to the audience's prejudices.
Similarly, for Sixteenth Century audiences, the ending of ''
The Taming of the Shrew
''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...
'' - a formerly independent and assertive woman being broken and becoming totally submissive to her husband - might have counted as a happy ending, which it would not under present-day standards of women's place in society (see
The Taming of the Shrew#Sexism controversy).
Don Juan
Most interpretations of the
legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
of
Don Juan
Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, ''El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...
end with the protagonist
rake being dragged off to
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, in just retribution for his many sins (for example, the ending of
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
's ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...
''). However,
José Zorrilla
José Zorrilla y Moral () was a Spanish poet and dramatist, who became National Laureate.
Biography
Zorrilla was born in Valladolid to a magistrate in whom Ferdinand VII placed special confidence. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Real Se ...
—whose 1844
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* Pla ...
''
Don Juan Tenorio
''Don Juan Tenorio: Drama religioso-fantástico en dos partes'' (Don Juan Tenorio: Religious-Fantasy Drama in Two Parts) is a play written in 1844 by José Zorrilla. It is the more romantic of the two principal Spanish-language literary interpr ...
'' is the version most well-known in the Spanish-speaking world—believed that a story should never end sadly, and must always have a happy ending. In Zorrilla's depiction, Don Juan is saved at the last moment from the flames of Hell by the selfless pure love of Doña Inés, a woman whom he wronged but who forgave him; she had made a deal with God to offer her own blameless soul on behalf of Don Juan's, thus redeeming Don Juan and taking him with her to
Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...
.
The Octoroon
''
The Octoroon
''The Octoroon'' is a play by Dion Boucicault that opened in 1859 at The Winter Garden Theatre, New York City. Extremely popular, the play was kept running continuously for years by seven road companies. Among antebellum melodramas, it was con ...
'', an 1859 anti-slavery play by
Dion Boucicault
Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...
, focuses on the tragic love between the white George Peyton and the
Octoroon
In the colonial societies of the Americas and Australia, a quadroon or quarteron was a person with one quarter African/ Aboriginal and three quarters European ancestry.
Similar classifications were octoroon for one-eighth black (Latin root ''oc ...
girl Zoe. Her one-eighth Black ancestry is enough to prevent their marrying. In the American society of the time, it would have been unacceptable to present a play ending with a
mixed-race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...
couple consummating their love. Rather, the play ends with Zoe taking poison and dying, the grief-stricken George at her side. However, when the play was performed in England, where prejudice was less strong, it was given a happy ending, culminating with the young lovers happily getting together against all odds.
Opera
In 17th Century Italy,
Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque music, Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverd ...
wrote the
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
''
Didone'', based on
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...
'' (Book 4 in particular) and set to a
libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
by
Giovanni Francesco Busenello
Giovanni Francesco Busenello (24 September 1598 – 27 October 1659) was an Italian lawyer, librettist and poet of the 17th century.
Biography
Born to a low-class family of Venice, it is thought that he studied at the University of Oberhausen a ...
. However, Busenello's libretto changed the tragic ending provided by Virgil, in which
Dido
Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC.
In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...
commits suicide after
Aeneas
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons ...
abandons her. In Busenello's version Iarbas, King of the Getuli, shows up in the nick of time to save Dido from herself, and she ends up happily marrying him.
Fifty years later,
Tomaso Albinoni
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas. While famous in his day as an opera comp ...
wrote the opera ''
Zenobia, regina de’ Palmireni'' (Zenobia, Queen of the Palmyrans) - loosely based on the historical life of the Third-Century Queen
Zenobia
Septimia Zenobia ( Palmyrene Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; AD 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the city ...
of
Palmyra
Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...
, who for many years defied the might of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
until finally overcome by the armies of the Roman Emperor
Aurelian. She was overthrown and taken captive to Rome, and her kingdom summarily annexed to the Roman Empire. However, Albinoni changed the historical ending of Zenobia's drama. In Albinoni' ending, after various plot twists the magnanimous Aurelian becomes impressed with Zenobia's honesty and integrity, and restores her to her throne.
Ballet
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's ballet ''
Swan Lake
''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...
'', as originally presented in 1895, ends tragically with the lovers Odette and Siegfried dying together, vowing fidelity unto death to each other. However, under the Soviet regime, in 1950
Konstantin Sergeyev
Konstantin Mikhaylovich Sergeyev (russian: Константин Михайлович Сергеев; 5 March 1910 (20 February Old Style) – 1 April 1992) was a Russian danseur, artistic director and choreographer for the Kirov Theatre. When th ...
, who staged a new ''Swan Lake'' for the
Mariinsky Ballet (then the Kirov), replaced the tragic ending with a happy one, letting the lovers survive and live happily ever after. Similar changes to the ending of ''Swan Lake'' were also made in various other times and places where it was presented (see
Swan Lake#Alternative endings).
Novels
A ''
Times
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems.
Time or times may also refer to:
Temporal measurement
* Time in physics, defined by its measurement
* Time standard, civil time speci ...
'' review of ''
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' strongly criticized
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
for failing to provide a happy ending, and gave unequivocal reasons why in the reviewer's opinion (shared by many others) such an ending is needed: "''The hero must triumph over his enemies, as surely as
Jack
Jack may refer to:
Places
* Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community
* Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community
* Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA
People and fictional characters
* Jack (given name), a male given name, ...
must kill the giant in the nursery tale. If the giant kills Jack, we have missed the whole point of the story.''"
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
had to wage an uphill struggle against audiences, as well as some critics, persistently demanding that his ''
Pygmalion
Pygmalion or Pigmalion may refer to:
Mythology
* Pygmalion (mythology), a sculptor who fell in love with his statue
Stage
* ''Pigmalion'' (opera), a 1745 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau
* ''Pygmalion'' (Rousseau), a 1762 melodrama by Jean-Jacques ...
'' have a happy ending, i.e. that Professor Higgins and
Eliza Doolittle
Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character and the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play ''Pygmalion'' (1913) and its 1956 musical adaptation, ''My Fair Lady''.
Eliza (from Lisson Grove, London) is a Cockney flower woman, who comes to Profe ...
would ultimately marry. To Shaw's great chagrin,
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager.
Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progr ...
who presented the play in London's
West End in 1914 had sweetened the ending and told Shaw: "My ending makes money; you ought to be grateful. Your ending is damnable; you ought to be shot." The irritated Shaw added a postscript essay, "'What Happened Afterwards", to the 1916 print edition, for inclusion with subsequent editions, in which he explained precisely why in his view it was impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza marrying. Nevertheless, audiences continued wanting a happy ending also for later adaptations such as the musical and film ''
My Fair Lady
''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...
''. As seen in one of his preserved notes, Shaw wanted the play to end with Eliza becoming independent and assertive and shaking off Higgins' tutelage: "When Eliza emancipates herself – when Galatea comes to life – she must not relapse". This might have made it a happy ending from the point of view of present day
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
. In 1938, Shaw sent
Gabriel Pascal
Gabriel Pascal (born Gábor Lehel; 4 June 1894 – 6 July 1954) was a Hungarian film producer and director whose best-known films were made in the United Kingdom.
Pascal was the first film producer to successfully bring the plays of Georg ...
, who produced
that year's film version, a concluding sequence which he felt offered a fair compromise: a tender farewell scene between Higgins and Eliza, followed by one showing Freddy and Eliza happy in their greengrocery-flower shop; this would have been a happy end from the point of view of Freddy, who in other versions is left trapped in hopeless unrequited love for her. However, Pascal did not use Shaw's proposed ending, opting for a slightly ambiguous final scene in which Eliza returns to Higgins' home, leaving open how their relationship would develop further. Several decades later, ''
My Fair Lady
''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...
'' had a similar ending.
Sherlock Holmes
The
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
novel ''
The Sign of Four
''The Sign of the Four'' (1890), also called ''The Sign of Four'', is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective.
Pl ...
'' included, in addition to the normal detective plot, also an important romantic plot line. While investigating the book's mystery,
Dr. Watson
John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). The last work by Doyle f ...
- Holmes' faithful companion - falls in love with the client,
Mary Morstan
This article describes minor characters from the ''Sherlock Holmes'' stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and from non-canonical derived works. The list excludes the titular character as well as Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty, Inspector Lestrade, M ...
, and by the ending she consents to marry him. A fairly conventional and satisfying happy ending, which worked well for ''The Sign of Four''. However, Watson getting into matrimonial bliss with his Mary proved cumbersome for the normal format of the Sherlock Holmes stories in general, which involved Holmes and Watson setting out on a new adventure at a moment's notice. With Watson no longer sharing quarters with Holmes on Baker Street but having his own married home, a new adventure needed to begin with Holmes barging into the Watson family home and taking Watson off to an adventure after apologizing to Mrs. Watson for "borrowing" her husband. Rather than having to regularly initiate stories with such scenes, Conan Doyle summarily killed off Watson's wife. In ''
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the second tale from ''The Return of Sherlock Holmes''. The story was first published in ''Collier's'' (US) on 31 October 1 ...
'' Watson is seen back in his old Baker Street quarters and the readers are told that his wife had died some time before; the circumstances of her death were never told, nor were readers given a chance to share the widowed Watson's grief in the direct aftermath. Readers accepted Mary's death without serious demur, though in ''Sign of Four'' she had been a sympathetic and likeable character. In Sherlock Holmes stories, a happy ending usually consisted of Holmes solving the mystery with Watson's help and the criminal turned over to the police (or, in some cases, Holmes magnanimously lets him go), and readers were satisfied with that. However, when Conan Doyle attempted to kill off Homes himself, at the tragic ending of ''
The Final Problem
"The Final Problem" is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in ''The Strand Magazine'' in the United Kingdom, and ''McClure's'' in the United States, under the title ...
'', readers refused to accept this ending, made strong and vociferous protests, and eventually forced the author to bring Holmes back to life.
Science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
writer
Robert Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
published the ''
Future History
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, whil ...
'', a series of stories attempting to depict the future of humanity (particularly, of the United States). Heinlein's plan included the writing of two interlinked novellas set in the Twenty-First Century (then a distant future time). The first would have depicted a charismatic preacher named Nehemiah Scudder getting himself elected President of The United States, seizing dictatorial power and establishing a tyrannical theocracy which would last to the end of his life and several generations after; the second - depicting the successful revolution which finally brings down the theocracy and restores democracy. In fact, as Heinlein explained to his readers, he found himself unable to write in full the first part - which would have been "too depressing", ending as it had to with the villain's total victory. Rather, Heinlein contented himself with a brief summary describing Scudder's rise, prefacing the novella
If This Goes On— which ends happily with the overthrow of the theocracy and the restoration of a democratic regime.
In another Heinlein work,
Podkayne of Mars
''Podkayne of Mars'' is a science-fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialised in '' Worlds of If'' (November 1962, January, March 1963), and published in hardcover in 1963. The novel features a teenage girl name ...
, the author's original text ended tragically. The book's eponymous protagonist, an interplanetary adventuring teenage girl, flees the scene of an impending nuclear blast in the swamps of Venus, only to remember that an extraterrestrial baby was left behind. She goes back and gets killed in the blast, saving the baby by shielding it with her own body. This ending did not please Heinlein's publisher, who demanded and got a rewrite over the author's bitter objections. In a letter to
Lurton Blassingame Lurton Blassingame (February 10, 1904 – April 1988) was an American literary agent.
He was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas and went to Columbia University where he studied writing. His Master's thesis was based on the history of pulp fiction.
His ...
, his
literary agent, Heinlein complained that it would be like "revising Romeo and Juliet to let the young lovers live happily ever after." He also declared that changing the end "isn't real life, because in real life, not everything ends happily." Despite his objections, Heinlein had to give in and when first published in 1963, the book had an amended ending, in which Podkayne survives though needing prolonged hospitalization. Heinlein, however, did not give up. At his insistence, the 1993 Baen edition included both endings (which differ only on the last page) and featured a "pick the ending" contest, in which readers were asked to submit essays on which ending they preferred. The 1995 edition included both endings,
Jim Baen
James Patrick Baen (, beɪn , ; October 22, 1943 – June 28, 2006) was a U.S. science fiction publisher and editor. In 1983, he founded his own publishing house, Baen Books, specializing in the adventure, fantasy, military science fiction, an ...
's own postlude to the story, and twenty-five of the essays. The ending in which Podkayne dies was declared the winner. Among the reasons why readers favored this ending were that they felt Heinlein should have been free to create his own story, and also that they believed the changed ending turned a tragedy into a mere adventure, and not a very well constructed one at that. This restored tragic ending has appeared in all subsequent editions.
A basic theme of
Joe Haldeman
Joe William Haldeman (born June 9, 1943) is an American science fiction author. He is best known for his novel '' The Forever War'' (1974). That novel and other works, including '' The Hemingway Hoax'' (1991) and '' Forever Peace'' (1997), hav ...
's ''
The Forever War
''The Forever War'' (1974) is a military science fiction novel by American author Joe Haldeman, telling the contemplative story about human soldiers fighting an interstellar war against an alien civilization known as the Taurans. It won the Nebu ...
'' is the protagonist being trapped in a centuries-long, futile space war. While remaining young due to traveling at
relativistic speeds, he feels a growing alienation as human society is changing and becoming increasingly strange and incomprehensible to him. For example, he is appointed as the commanding officer of a "strike force" whose soldiers are exclusively homosexual, and who resent being commanded by a heterosexual. Later in the book, he finds that while he was fighting in space, humanity has begun to clone itself, resulting in a new, collective species calling itself simply ''Man''. Luckily for the protagonist, ''Man'' has established several colonies of old-style, heterosexual humans, just in case the evolutionary change proves to be a mistake. In one of these colonies, the protagonist is happily reunited with his long-lost beloved and they embark upon monogamous marriage and on having children through sexual reproduction and female pregnancy – an incredibly archaic and old-fashioned way of life for most of that time's humanity, but very satisfying for that couple.
Fantasy
A central element in The Black Magician trilogy by
Trudi Canavan
Trudi Canavan (born 23 October 1969) is an Australian writer of fantasy novels, best known for her best-selling fantasy trilogies ''The Black Magician (novel series), The Black Magician'' and ''Age of the Five''. While establishing her writing ...
is the developing relations of protagonist Sonea with the powerful magician Akkarin. At first she is frightened and distrustful of him, then she grows to understand his motivations and share his difficult and dangerous struggle - culminating with the two of them falling very deeply in love with each other. However, at the end of the final part, The High Lord, Akkarin sacrifices himself, giving all his power to Sonea and dying so that she could defeat their enemies, the evil Ichani. The grieving Sonea is left to bear Akkarin's child and carry on his magical work as best she can. Many readers were shocked by this ending. To repeated queries on why Akkarin had to die, Canavan answered "When the idea came to me for this final scene I knew I had a story worth giving up full time work to write, because at the time I was utterly sick of books where all the characters are alive and happily shacked up with a love interest by the end. If characters died it was in some expected way that left you feeling warm and fuzzy about their ‘sacrifice’. Death shouldn't leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Akkarin was a casualty of war. War is a cruel and random killer. It doesn't kill based on who deserves it more or less. And, hey, you're never going to forget that ending!". However, many of the fans refused to accept Akkarin's death as final. A fan identifying herself as ''RobinGabriella'' wrote and posted an alternate ending letting Akkarin live: "The ending I really wanted but never got. Akkarin lives! This is for all you people who wanted Sonea to be happy at long last , wanted a happy ending, or just wanted Akkarin for yourselves. Enjoy!"
"The High Lord Alternate Ending - Akkarin lives" by RobinGabriella
/ref>
Hollywood films
In numerous cases, Hollywood studios adapting literary works into film added a happy ending which did not appear in the original.
* Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...
's 1818 novel, ''Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...
'', ended with the deaths of Victor Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein is a fictional character and the main protagonist and title character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''.. He is an Italians, Italian-Swiss scientist (born in Naples, Italy ...
and Elizabeth Lavenza
Elizabeth Frankenstein ( Lavenza) is a fictional character first introduced in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. In both the novel and its various film adaptations, she is the fiancée of Victor Frankenstein.
R ...
. In the 1931 film adaption they survive and marry.
* C. S. Forester's 1935 novel '' The African Queen'' has a British couple, stranded in Africa during the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, hatch a plot to sink a German gunboat; they make an enormous, dedicated struggle, with boundless effort and sacrifice, but at the last moment their quest ends with failure and futility. In the 1951 film adaptation they succeed, and get to see the German boat sink (just in time to save them from being hanged by the Germans).
* Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
's 1958 novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
'' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' ended with the main character, Holly Golightly, going her own solitary way and disappearing from the male protagonist's life. In the 1961 film made on its base she finally accepts the love he offers her and the film ends with their warmly embracing, oblivious of a pouring rain.
* Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...
's fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
''The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a ...
'' ends with the protagonist mermaid making a noble sacrifice, resigned to seeing her beloved prince marrying another woman. She is, however, unexpectedly, rewarding for the sacrifice by the chance to earn herself an immortal soul by further good deeds in air-spirit form. As written by Andersen, acquiring an immortal soul had been her main objective from the start, with the prince chiefly a means to this end, and thus Andersen may have meant this as a "spiritual happy ending". However, the 1989 Disney adaptation paid much less attention to the spiritual aspect and focused on the love interest, and they replaced Andersen's ending and presented the American public with a less subtle one and more conventional ending: the mermaid does get to happily marry her prince. Disney later added a sequel, obviously impossible for the Andersen original, focused on the child born of that marriage.
* Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk ( ; May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019) was an American author best known for historical fiction such as ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1951) for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
His other major works include ''The Winds of War'' and ...
's novel '' Marjorie Morningstar'' ends with the formerly vibrant protagonist giving up her dreams of an artistic career, marrying a mediocre middle-class man approved by her parents and becoming totally reconciled to the commonplace life of a suburban housewife and mother. In her review for Slate Magazine
''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former '' New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2 ...
, Alana Newhouse wrote that "most female readers cry when they reach the end of this book, and for good reason. Marjorie Morningstar, as they came to know her, has become another woman entirely"; Newhouse expressed the opinion that an adaptation to a film or a stage play which would keep the book's ending "would not run for a week". But the makers of the film version did change the ending, letting Marjorie end up in the loving arms of a talented, sensitive and warm-hearted playwright – whom she unwisely rejected in the book, and who in the film version can be expected to encourage and support her in launching her own artistic career.
* George Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...
'' has a particularly harsh ending, with the protagonists Winston and Julia being totally broken by the totalitarian state against which they tried to rebel, their subversive "criminal thoughts" driven out of their minds and being forced to betray each other and destroy their love for each other. The 1956 adaptation had two alternate endings made. One, faithful to the Orwell original, ended with a rehabilitated and brainwashed Winston fervently joining the crowd cheering "Long live Big Brother!". The alternate ending had Winston rebelling against his brainwashing and starting to shout, "Down with Big Brother", whereupon he is shot down. Julia runs to his aid and suffers the same fate. Clearly, the theme of two individuals waging a foredoomed rebellion against an all-powerful oppressive state effectively precluded the option of so radically changing the ending as to let them live "happily ever after". The maximum realistic change was to create a "moral happy end", letting Winston and Julia keep their integrity and dignity and die as martyrs.
See also
* Comedy (drama)
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endin ...
, which in ancient and medieval times meant a humorous play with a happy ending
* Eucatastrophe
A eucatastrophe is a sudden turn of events in a story which ensures that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and very plausible and probable doom. The writer J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix ''eu' ...
* Once upon a time
"Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in t ...
* Shai Rudin, Happily Ever After? Story Endings in Hebrew Children's Literature, New Review of Children's Literature and Librarianshiphttps://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcll20/current
References
{{Authority control
Endings
Narratology
Fiction
Plot (narrative)
Recurrent elements in fairy tales