Happy and Unhappy Endings

Muhimmah Hudhriyati (13020117130034)

Maulinda Maudy 

(13020117130036)

Dian Rahmawti 

(13020117130038)

Dhea Savira 

(13020117130044)

Arlunanin Pudyaasih 

(13020117130053)

We know that fairly bad things happen, all of the time, to people outside the text but we recognise that the main focus of Pride and Prejudice ,for example, is on the ways in which things can sometimes go right for some people. 

There are conflicts along the way, but things turn out well in the end for the characters upon whom we have been asked to concentrate. In that sense, the plot of this novel is both romantic and comic. That does not necessarily mean that it makes us laugh (although it may do), but ratherthat it tends to a positive and happy resolution at least for somebody. 

Other types of plot also show conflicts along the way, but the general trajectory is the reverse : from a fairly good state to a much worse one. This gives us an unhappy ending, or when the the end result involves the destruction of one or more characters whom we have been persuaded to value a tragic plot.

You may see reffered to as the 'polyvocality' or 'heteroglossia' (meaning 'different tongues') of the fictional narrative, especially the novel. These terms come from narrative theory (especially the work of the Russian critic, Mikhail Bakhtin), but, of course, they describe something that authors have put into practice for centuries, without necessarily having a special word for it. 

This reminds us that there are other voices, and other ways of seeing, momentarily de-focusing Elizabeth and exposing the contingent nature of what we could call the novel's 'fairytale' ending. It shifts attention from individuals to the social structures the determine the life chances of 'most people'.

In fact, much of the points (and comedy) of Austen's fiction is about the relations between the individual and the group. Similar points can be made about many other narrative fictions that seem, at first glance, to be solely interested in one or two people, e.g : Things Fall Apart.