A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost
everything turns out for the best for the protagonists, their sidekicks, and
almost everyone except the villains. In storylines where the protagonists are
in physical danger, a happy ending mainly consists in their surviving and
successfully concluding their quest or mission. Where there is no physical
danger, a happy ending is often defined as lovers consummating their love
despite various factors which may have thwarted it. A considerable number of
storylines combine both situations. A happy ending is epitomized in the
standard fairy tale ending phrase, "happily ever after" or "and they lived
happily ever after."; 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 he or she sympathizes with are rewarded. However, this can
also serve as an open path for a possible sequel. For example, in the
1977 film Star Wars, Luke Skywalker defeats the Galactic Empire by
destroying the Death Star, however the story's happy ending has consequences
that follow in The Empire Strikes Back. The concept of a permanent happy ending
is specifically brought up in the Stephen King fantasy/fairy tale novel
The Eyes of the Dragon 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 readeraudience cares about survive,
it can still be a happy ending. Roger Ebert comments ironically in his review
of Roland Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow: "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 lots 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 patient."
Examples = Shakespeare=
The presence of a happy ending is one of the key points that distinguishes
melodrama from tragedy. In certain periods, the endings of traditional
tragedies such as Macbeth or Oedipus Rex, in which most of the major
characters end up dead, disfigured, or discountenanced, have been actively
disliked. In the eighteenth century, the Irish author Nahum Tate sought to
improve Shakespeare's King Lear in his own heavily modified version in which
Lear survives and Cordelia marries Edgar. Most subsequent critics have not
found Tate's amendments an improvement. Happy endings have also been fastened to
Romeo and Juliet and Othello. Not everybody agrees on what a happy ending
is. An interpretation of The Merchant of
Venice’s forced conversion of Shylock to Christianity is that it was intended as
a happy ending. As a Christian, he could no longer impose interest, undoing his
schemes in the play and ending the rivalry between him and Antonio, but
more importantly, contemporary audiences would see becoming a Christian as a
means to save his soul. Similarly, based on the assumptions
about women's role in society prevalent at the time of writing, The Taming of
the Shrew's concluding with the complete breaking of Kate's rebelliousness and
her transformation into an obedient wife counted as a happy ending.
= Novels= A Times review of The Spy Who Came in
from the Cold strongly criticized John le Carré for failing to provide a happy
ending, and gave unequivocal reasons why in the reviewer's opinion such an ending
is needed: "The hero must triumph over his enemies, as surely as Jack 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 had to wage an
uphill struggle against audiences, as well as some critics, persistently
demanding that his "Pygmalion" have a happy ending, i.e. that Professor
Higgins and Eliza Doolitle would ultimately get married. To Shaw's great
chagrin, Herbert Beerbohm Tree who presented the play 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 getting
married. Nevertheless, audiences continued wanting a happy ending also
for later adaptations such as the musical and film "My Fair Lady".
See also Eucatastrophe
Once upon a time References