There is an ongoing debate in the world of literature as to whether a work of fiction should have a happy ending or a sad one. I believe either type of ending can be effective. It’s all a matter of what is appropriate to the story line. A story about someone struggling against an incurable disease, for example, could not have a happy ending. If the story line has to be twisted out of the bounds of reality to produce a happy ending, then the author is not serving his reader well. To take another example, a story about an underprivileged person getting into college could well have a believable happy ending.
Having made the point about fitting the story line, I would hasten to add that happy endings have different effects on the reader compared to sad endings. Great happy endings uplift, inspire and make the reader feel good about reading the book. Charles Dickens was the master of happy endings, and I suspect that’s why his books have been so beloved by generations of readers.
I’m working my way toward the big question. Does an author have a responsibility to produce happy endings in order to inspire people in difficult times? I say “no.” The author’s only responsibility is to be as honest as possible when painting an image of our world. Villains deserve as much attention as heroes because they both inhabit the world and without villains, there are no heroes. To argue otherwise is akin to suggesting a mathematics professor should only assign easy problems to students when they are depressed, or maybe a musician should only compose happy music when the world is a mess. Great works of fiction should be timeless and not customized to fit someone’s view of politics or sociology. Times change but great books endure because they are faithful to the human soul.
Great sad endings teach us something about the world and leave us with lessons we won’t forget. One can only imagine how many great books could have been destroyed by a happy ending. Imagine if The Great Gatsby had a happy ending. Gatsby does not die, he is reunited with Daisy and recovers his youth. Boring, boring, boring. Fitzgerald set the book up for a sad ending and, as a result, he produced an iconic novel that teaches us something about the American experience. Imagine if A Farewell to Arms had a happy ending. The soldier successfully escapes the war with the nurse, and they live happily ever after. What would that teach us? Nothing. Hemingway had to give us tragedy in order to show us the effect of war on innocent human beings.
Another point is that some genres commonly have one type of ending or the other. Romance novels are expected to have happy endings. Literary novels, more often than not, have sad endings. Therefore, let the reader beware. Don’t read Tolstoy and expect to feel great about the world the next day.