Tech weekend at the theatre has killed me more than once -- this could be partly due to the fact my character dies at the end of "Antigone."
The final scene:
King Creon collapses by three corpses, the bleeding bodies oozing on the stage. Creon has lost everything: his wife, two sons, two nephews, and his niece. His face, his will, his everything shatters as he crumbles to his knees. The cast members wail and weep. Blackout.
The Greeks really knew how to put on a happy ending, right? I can just hear a musical number breeding.
After every time we run this scene, my heart tangles in knots in my chest. Several cast members had to run four miles or take a walk around campus in order to relief the tension hammering in their chests. We crack jokes. We scream, "He's alive! She's alive" when the scene ends, and the "dead" bodies sit up. We pretend my stretcher is a boat and pile in to row toward River Styx.
We make happy endings happen even though the play ended on a bitter note. Why? We can't handle sad endings.
A class for my major, professional writing, this semester focuses on short stories. Out of the ten stories we have read so far, none had a happy ending. Even one titled "Happy Endings," finished morosely. Every time my professor assigns a reading, I want to chuck the brick-like book against a brick wall.
Why did Dexter's "Winter Dreams" turn into nightmares? Why didn't Peyton escape his hanging? Why did the hunger artist starve himself to death?
Why can't these stories have happy endings?
As these questions spun frenzies in my mind, I wondered every short story had to end morbidly. After consulting a friend in my major, I reached a few conclusions.
Short stories awaken us
If we're honest with ourselves, whenever a comedy satirizes a social issue we'll laugh and say, "Very true!" But the issue only merits a laugh. Comedy deadens the senses. Satire seldom accomplishes anything and tends to come across as condescending or misleading.
Short stories, on the other hand, present the truth and nothing but the truth. They have the courage to show us a candid picture of humanity. Comedy amuses us to death. Short stories, on the other hand, awaken us before we die.
Short stories serve as precautionary tales
"The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Things They Carried" give practical life examples of what NOT to do. For example, the former appeals to audiences not to kill. The latter stresses the importance of focusing on the task at hand instead of drifting off into imagination.
Short stories are not cop outs
Whenever I wake up from a nightmare, I tend to change the ending in my mind. I take the Disney movie route, and instead of having the little mermaid dissolve into sea foam, her husband destroys the villain for her. Short stories don't do that. They do not revert to a default happy ending.
Granted, I still struggle when I read these tortuous, short literary works. But I can appreciate a sad ending because it makes the happy endings so much sweeter.
