Happy Endings

“Happy Endings” is a short story by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. After the story’s trio of opening lines, the narrative is divided into five sections, labeled A-F. The story’s opening lines are: “John and Mary meet. What happens next? If you want a happy ending, try A” (43).

The story then moves into Section A, in which John and Mary “fall in love and get married…have jobs they find “stimulating and challenging…buy a house…have two children…who turn out well…retire…[and] die” (43). Atwood concludes this section with the sentence, “This is the end of the story” (43).

Section B—which theoretically could be skipped to straight from the story’s opening three lines—also feature characters named John and Mary, though it is left somewhat ambiguous as to whether or not these two characters are the same John and Mary found in Section A. Mary falls in love with John, but John only uses Mary for sex. When Mary finds out from friends that John is seeing another woman, Madge, Mary commits suicide, though leaves a suicide note for John and hopes he will find her and save her life. Mary dies, and John marries Madge.