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Article published In: Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 24:1 (2014) ► pp.175–180

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“Happily ever after”

Are traditional scripts just for fairy tales?

Published online: 28 October 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.24.1.09pur
The domination of a happy narrative frame has gradually broadened to include different kinds of endings, but a positive resolution is still often expected. Do narratives need an optimistic ending? Do hopeful endings begin to loose their credibility? Should we buy into the Hollywood scripts presenting an ending that solves or completes the plot by the end of its telling? Endings point to a potential future, and culturally we have been conditioned to write this future optimistically. Not everything ends well, however. Sometimes, things just end. Narrative conclusions can be optimistic and have catharsis, but not end with a “happily ever after” (Purnell, 2013).
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Pedro, Dina
2024. Subverting Traditional Representations of White Masculinity in Fairy-Tale Narratives: The Case of Carnival Row (2019–2023). In Gender and the Male Character in 21st Century Fairy Tale Narratives, ► pp. 165 ff. DOI logo
Gonot-Schoupinsky, Freda, Mark Weeks & Jerome Carson
2023. “You can end up in a happy place” (Voyce): a role for positive autoethnography. Mental Health and Social Inclusion 27:4 ► pp. 380 ff. DOI logo
Soler, Gabriel, David F. Purnell & Daniel W. Clarke
2021. Facing Father Absences and Troubling Memories of Our Fathers. International Review of Qualitative Research 14:3 ► pp. 510 ff. DOI logo

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