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Happy Endings | Introduction

Margaret Atwood’s ‘‘Happy Endings’’ first appeared in the 1983 Canadian collection, Murder in the Dark, and it was published in 1994 for American audiences in Good Bones and Simple Murders. Subtitled ‘‘Short Fiction and Prose Poems,’’ Murder in the Dark featured four types of works: autobiographical sketches, travel notes, experimental pieces addressing the nature of writing, and short pieces dealing with typical Atwood themes, notably the relationship between the sexes. ‘‘Happy Endings,’’ which is essentially a self-referential story framework, falls into the third category.

In several thumbnail sketches of different marriages, all of which achieve a traditional ‘‘happy ending,’’ Atwood references both the mechanics of writing, most particularly plot, and the effects of gender stereotyping. In earlier works, including the novel Bodily Harm, as well as speeches, Atwood discusses the writer’s relationship to society. She defined the artist, in part, as ‘‘the guardian of the moral and ethical sense of the community.’’ In ‘‘Happy Endings,’’ Atwood fulfills this role with a challenge that she throws out to those writers who rely on the stereotypical characterization of men and women and to the reader who accepts such gender typing. At the same time, she challenges other writers to more closely examine typical literary convention.

Happy Endings Summary

At the beginning of ‘‘Happy Endings,’’ John and Mary meet. Each of the six versions of the story that follow present a different scenario of what happens to the couple.

Version A is the ‘‘happy ending’’ story. In this version, John and Mary fall in love. They get married, enjoy their jobs, buy a nice home, and start a family. All in all, they live comfortable, fulfilling lives. Eventually they retire and then die. In version B, Mary and John have an affair. Although Mary loves John, he has no special feelings for her; instead, he uses her to gratify his needs for sexual and ego fulfillment. Twice a week, John goes to Mary’s apartment, where she serves him a home-cooked meal. After dinner, John has sex with Mary and then falls asleep while she cleans up the dishes and fixes herself up. She pretends to love having sex with John, not because she actually does, but because she wants John to become so used to it that he will marry her. This strategy does not work, and Mary becomes depressed. Mary’s friends counsel her to break up with John, but she insists that a kinder, better John exists and that he will emerge. Instead, John... » Complete Happy Endings Summary