Litkicks Message Board Archive

happy endings as shock tactic

I recently read Rose Tremain's Music and Silence and although not without ambiguity the ending for many of the characters ties up very nicely with every jack getting his jill. Part of me initially wanted to cry 'cop-out' or 'let down' following a very complicated and meditative novel, but after discussing it with a few people the decision was reached that we expected an inconclusive at best negative ending--the happy conclusion when it came did come almost as a surprise, tremain then turning a cliche into an effective and almost shocking tactic, playing upon the lack of optimism which emerged in the wake of modernist epistemological doubt.