in the attic. At the end of the novel, after a series of plot twists, Jane
happily marries Mr. Rochester.
o Most readers accept this ending, given the narrative
conventions of the time and because Jane is such an admirable
character that we want her to be happy. Still, it’s possible to
imagine a reader who just can’t believe that someone as smart
and independent as Jane would give someone as manipulative
and self-serving as Mr. Rochester a second chance.o ,I\RXEHOLHYHWKDWFKDUDFWHULVPRUHIXQGDPHQWDOWR¿FWLRQWKDQ
plot, then the key to crafting a believable ending is staying true to
the nature of your characters. You can make an ending believable
if you can get the reader to play along with the premise and if
you play fair with the reader by obeying the rules of your own
world but especially by respecting your own characters.z Just because an ending is believable doesn’t mean it’s satisfying. In the
terminology of philosophy, believability is a necessary condition of a
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o As we’ve seen, believability isn’t an absolute quality, but
satisfaction is even more dependent on taste and personal
experience.
o We can conceivably make a case for the believability of an
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by an ending than we can make people change their minds
about foods they don’t like.Resolution
z In 7KH$UWRI)LFWLRQ, John Gardner says that there are two ways a
narrative can end: “in resolution, when no further event can take place
... or in logical exhaustion.” Of course, there are other types of endings,
EXWWKHVHWZRGH¿QLWLRQVSUREDEO\FRYHUPRVWSRVVLELOLWLHV/HW¶VVWDUW
with resolution, which is what we’ve termed a binary ending—one that
resolves an either/or situation or answers a simple question posed at the
beginning of the narrative.