What about those happy endings in novels and stories? The people involved are happy or all the problems are solved. Full resolution.
Why are they important? Google tells us: "Because happy endings provide hope, instilling the belief that obstacles can be overcome, love can last, fences can be mended, and good can triumph. "
And what classic novels have happy endings? I started to realize that happy endings are few and far between - they seem to occur in comedies to me. Like Midsummer's Nights Dream and not All's Well that Ends Well. (That one is strange.)
Finding lists of classic fiction with happy endings is a treasure hunt with surprises all along the way.
The list includes all kinds of fiction that I wouldn't consider having happy endings. My rationale is that comedies can have happy endings, but tragedies not so easy.
Can the Lord of the Rings tragic world be turned happy in the final conclusion of The Return of the King? "Not only has the War of the Ring come to an end, after Saruman is slain in the Shire, but Aragorn returns to his rightful throne, and Sam marries Rosie Cotton, who he's long had eyes for."
And listed is A Tale of Two Cities. How can this be happy? The rationale is that the novel ends with warmly positive words, as thought by Carton shortly before his execution, and gives us one of the most famous lines in Western literature: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
Even Candide is said to have a happy ending: Seeking happiness throughout the novel, it seems that because he has learned to make his own happiness that the ending is a happy ending. Candide tells his mentor that they must "cultivate their garden." The book concludes with him working on a small farm, "free of three great evils: boredom, vice and necessity."
The critic Northrop Frye has written: “Happy endings do not impress us as true, but as desirable, and they are brought about by manipulations. the watcher of death and tragedy has nothing to do but sit and wait for the inevitable end; but something gets born at the end of comedy, and the watcher is a member of a busy society.”
I found this picture of the Good Earth Restaurant and Winery. It is from 2012 or so. This section now is fully covered in wisteria so completely shaded. It is a patio with tables - no more gravel on the ground. Mind you, this is a pleasant setting. Definitely would be the place for a comedy with a happy ending.
