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Everyone loves a happy ending, and it can be argued that the average reader or viewer of work expects everything to work out fine by the end of a story. When an author of a work of literature chooses to leave the reader with an unhappy ending, it leaves an immense impact on the unexpecting reader. For instance, after a sad movie, people are often quiet and reserved in their thoughts rather than laughing and talking like they would after a movie that ends happily. Literature with sad endings promotes deep thinking and contemplation while happier endings for the most part just bring the reader enjoyment. Considering the infrequency of completely somber or tragic endings in literature, an ending like this is something for the reader to take note of as there is likely a message the author is trying to convey. The example of pieces of literature with unhappy endings that I plan to discuss is the ancient Sumerian epic, The Epic of Gilgamesh.
I believe unhappy endings are so common in the greatest works of literature because they spark a greater debate and promote contemplation from the reader more than works that leave the reader feeling content typically do. Often times with a sad ending, there is an important lesson for the reader to learn, and, if he or she is still alive, the protagonist can learn from the disheartening finish of the story as well. This allows the protagonist to grow from his or her experiences and helps the reader to gain wisdom from those experiences. Tragic endings often have deep-rooted meanings and leave the reader pondering the underlying significance of the final scenes of the story and the message the author is trying to reveal through them.
In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh, an incredibly strong and warrior-like demigod, must come to terms with his impending death after his close companion and sidekick Enkidu falls sick and passes away. Gilgamesh possesses god-like strength and, in life, he and Enkidu had an immense love for battle. Gilgamesh is distraught by the idea of him one day having a similar fate as his close friend Enkidu, as he feels it would be more honorable to die in battle than to succumb to sickness or disease. Because of his fear, Gilgamesh seeks eternal life and goes on a long journey to find it, but once he gains a plant that grants him immortality, it is stolen from him by a serpent. Gilgamesh is left to return to his kingship back home in Uruk and face the reality that he is a mortal and will one day pass away.
I believe the epic poem ends with Gigamesh back at home without the magic plant as a final and complete humbling of Gilgamesh, who throughout the epic, and especially before Enkidu came along, was a bit of a prideful tyrant. In fact, Enkidu was sent by the gods to calm Gilgamesh’s pretension, and Enkidu is made sick by the gods because he and Gilgamesh are too strong of a pair. Gilgamesh must be broken down completely and left hopeless in order for him to gain humility. He is forced to accept his fate as a human with limited time on Earth, and he must make the most of his limited life and try to be the best possible ruler of Uruk he can be. The ending of The Epic of Gilgamesh leaves the reader sorrowful that Gilgamesh came so close to his dream and then had everything he worked for snatched away from his grasp yet hopeful that he will go on to make the most of his numbered days and choose to live a humble life as a just ruler of his domain.
The Epic of Gilgamesh ends with the reader likely feeling saddened or at least a bit discontent by the tragic outcomes. However, the ending of these two works seems to serve a justice of sorts to the characters. Gilgamesh’s greatest flaw seems to come to ease as he is constrained to the lifespan of any other human. Due to the sad ending of this work, the reader is able to take away the value of humility from The Epic of Gilgamesh. If this work had ended happily, there would not be a lesson to take away from them, and no justice would be served to the characters for their faults.
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