Why the obsession with happy endings?

1 ANSWERS

1. Amit bang
   

   We're always being warned not to expect happy endings to the ecological, economic and political crises that beset the world, and yet when times are grim, these upbeat conclusions abound in the stories we seek out.
   
   Two years ago, a group called the Happy Endings Foundation momentarily came to prominence.
   
   They were demanding that authors of children's books come up with happier endings and even suggested that works with less sunny conclusions should be burnt on "bad book bonfires" held around the UK.
   
   Soon, however, bloggers had investigated the foundation and revealed it was a marketing hoax - the like of which abound on April Fools Day, although this was in October. But by that time the BBC and several national and local newspapers had carried the story.
   
   The point is that this kind of campaign doesn't seem that ridiculous. In troubled times there are plenty of people who want happy endings - an matter perhaps recognised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, last week, when he cautioned God will not intervene in climate change to supply a happy ending.
   Hepburn and Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's
   Boy very much gets girl in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's
   
   Go back to the 1930s, particularly to films of that era, and you see the process of "happyendingification" in full flow during a time of grinding poverty and uncertainty about the future.
   
   What audiences wanted on both sides of the Atlantic was a dose of escapist fun. Or so the financiers of culture thought.
   
   Classic stories ended in a much more heartening fashion when they made it to the silver screen.
   
   But before you read any further, be warned - it's impossible to discuss this subject frankly without breaking a few metaphorical eggs in the shape of plot spoilers.
   
   Now, returning to Depression era America. Take 1931's classic Frankenstein. In the book, Frankenstein marries but his wife Elizabeth is killed by the monster. Frankenstein then meets his doom in the Arctic. In the film, however, Dr Frankenstein and his wife live happily ever after.
   
   Or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In Victor Hugo's novel, the ending sees Esmeralda hanged and Quasimodo choosing to die next to her body. In the 1939 film they both survive.
   
   Even John Steinbeck's tale of misery in the dustbowl, The Grapes of Wrath, found itself with a more upbeat conclusion in the film made by John Ford and released in 1940.
   Film of the Hunchback of Notre Dame
   Book: Esmeralda and Quasimodo dead. Film: Esmeralda and Quasimodo fine
   
   "The death of central characters sent completely the wrong message at a time in American history when they were coming out of a huge depression and looking forward to a better future," says National Media Museum film historian Tony Earnshaw.
   
   "They want to send people away from a movie experiencing the idea of the hero getting the girl."
   
   It is perhaps no surprise then that the term "Hollywood happy ending" has entered the cultural lexicon in Britain, and even among some non-anglophones.
   
   Fast forward to the present day and in our current straitened times and you will again see happy endings.
   
   Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars, representing the perfect hard times blend of a grim tale with a euphoric ending.
   
   At the same time, a publishing phenomenon of recent years, autobiographies of troubled childhoods - "misery lit" - started to peter out last year.

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