Enduring Love Double Ending Analysis
The emotional effect of this double ending varies from sadness to happiness. The ending shows nothing ever ends how it should, life is not perfect. This is evident when we read Briony’s alternate ending where Cecilia and Robbie live happily ever after versus the alternative ending in which Cecilia and Robbie never get to fulfill their true love and spend the rest of their lives together. When you expect a story to end one way and it ends another it really brings you to think about why things happen the way they do, consider the events that ultimately led to the final outcomes. The ending makes one wonder why can’t everyone live happily ever after? This is a question everyone has asked at one point or another, wishing things never went wrong
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Briony is right when she says “it isn’t weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair, to let my lovers live and to unite them at the end” (McEwan, pg. 351). Briony wants to see her sister and Robbie together as said earlier, creating the ideal ending. She sends letters to Cecilia, where Cecilia brings up the letters in there meeting, “It’s not straightforward, unless there’s hard new evidence. Your change of heart won’t be enough. Lola will go on saying she doesn’t know….” (McEwan, pg. 316), they discuss how it would be difficult to reverse the damage that was done due to Lola’s response. Also with Lola being married to Paul, he prevents her from telling the truth, resulting in Cecilia and Briony not being about to change how things played out for Robbie. That is why Briony ends her novel with Cecilia and Robbie together, as it is a way for her to bring peace in her mind as she knew she did wrong to Robbie. This ending completes Briony’s novel in the way that it shows that real love exists. Briony’s level of guilt regarding her own actions directed her to create the fantasy story ending of true love, however, in reality Briony was never able to tell her sister and Robbie how sorry she was for falsely accusing Robbie and denying them of their love for each
Briony is right when she says “it isn’t weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair, to let my lovers live and to unite them at the end” (McEwan, pg. 351). Briony wants to see her sister and Robbie together as said earlier, creating the ideal ending. She sends letters to Cecilia, where Cecilia brings up the letters in there meeting, “It’s not straightforward, unless there’s hard new evidence. Your change of heart won’t be enough. Lola will go on saying she doesn’t know….” (McEwan, pg. 316), they discuss how it would be difficult to reverse the damage that was done due to Lola’s response. Also with Lola being married to Paul, he prevents her from telling the truth, resulting in Cecilia and Briony not being about to change how things played out for Robbie. That is why Briony ends her novel with Cecilia and Robbie together, as it is a way for her to bring peace in her mind as she knew she did wrong to Robbie. This ending completes Briony’s novel in the way that it shows that real love exists. Briony’s level of guilt regarding her own actions directed her to create the fantasy story ending of true love, however, in reality Briony was never able to tell her sister and Robbie how sorry she was for falsely accusing Robbie and denying them of their love for each