“Happily ever after”: Are traditional scripts just for fairy tales?

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).