The most excellently crafted, strange, funny and ambiguous ending I have ever met: They said, please, please make love with Helen, we require an assertion of value, we are frightened. II,1,385. And they can kiss my sharries. I smoke a little dope. Ellisons masterpiece, which won the 1953 National Book Award, remade the terrain of African American fiction and American fiction. Here are 21 of our favorite last lines in literature: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Not Nolan's tale; it finds Batman absorbing all of Gotham's rage and hostility in order to preserve an important ideal. The last line of DFW's first novel hints at what else he had in store. At the end of Henrik Ibsens play Hedda Gabler (1891), a trapped and passionate woman shoots herself in the head, and her old friend exclaims, Good God! "From The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Considering Salingers many decades as the nations most famous recluse, were tempted, of course, to consign that same pain to the author. Lapsing into the bland objectivity of academia, the professor warns his fellow scholars to be cautious about passing moral judgment upon the Gileadean. Most grandiose and declarative/most often quoted by people who have no idea where its from: It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known., 18. ", "And here she is, herself, Clarissa, not Mrs. Dalloway anymore; there is no one now to call her that. The opening sentence in a story is often considered the most important because it sets the tone for everything that's still to come. When we first meet 26-year-old Harry Rabbit Angstrom, he decides on a whim to run away from his wife and toddler. It's the next breath we all take. Her extraordinary novel Their Eyes Were Watching God fell out of print and was essentially forgotten, until Alice Walker rediscovered it in the 1970s. ", "Yukiko's diarrhoea persisted through the twenty-sixth, and was a problem on the train to Tokyo. They win, much to the judge's dismay. ", A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, "'God's in his heaven, alls right with the world,' whispered Anne softly. In Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, a one-time silent film star who dreams of being a big deal again. ", The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, Stieg Larsson, "Curley and Carlson looked after them. I was eager to embrace the world. From old-school classics like Casablanca to modern masterpieces like Inglorious Basterds, these are the most remarkable final movie lines of all time. Peter Pan. This Civil War story cleverly blends biographical details about the real Bronson Alcott, Louisa Mays father, with elements of the fictional Mr. March, who has gone south to serve as a chaplain to Union soldiers. The quoted lines occur in a voiceover as people enter and exit a hotel's revolving door. Good . Toy Story 3 (2010) "So Long, Partner." Toy Story 3 ends on a note that is both beautiful and sob-inducing. This is the very famous last line of "Casablanca" which starred Humphrey Bogart, Paul Henreid and Ingrid Bergman. If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow. ", "At that, as if it had been the signal he waited for, Newland Archer got up slowly and walked back alone to his hotel. Ominous and syntactically exciting, this final line brings Conrad's dark novel full circle. I'm so glad to be at home again! ", The Hand That First Held Mine, Maggie O'Farrell, ''I never saw any of them again except the cops. Gilead is not only one of the finest novels of the 21st century, its also one of the most theological. The dreaminess of this entire novel is punctuated with this final sentence, which is more of an ellipses than a stark period. Till we felt our eyes could meet again, without the tears. The Concord Public Library in Massachusetts banned it soon after it was published. Gittes is not happy. 10 quizzes and 105 trivia questions. The light of a single lamp brought into his dark parlor arrives like a foretaste of grace. Here's to it!" Anthony Marston "I'm all right now. ", A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, Gil Courtemanche, "'When the day shall come, that we do part,' he said softly, and turned to look at me, 'if my last words are not I love you yell ken it was because I didna have time.'". '", "Archie, for one, watched the mouse. ", "Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger. His story about a reformed miser was an immediate bestseller, and, a few years later, he began offering public readings that attracted enormous crowds in England and America. Goodfellas ends with him stuck in the kind of lifestyle he always hoped to avoid. Brilliant. Torn between two very different men, Madeleine endures real tragedy before finally correcting her course, which we, her desperate fans, cant know for sure until that very last word. Ames describes adventures both historical and spiritual. "To be, or not to be: that is the question." "Hamlet". But which Shakespearean drama opens with the line, "I wonder how the king escaped our hands?" Take our quiz and see how well you know your Shakespeare. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. Let me cry, my love. By this point in the movie, fans have fallen completely in love with E.T., so his departure affects them as much as it does Elliott. Its a monstrously selfish act borne of panic over his lost youth and the soul-crushing responsibilities of adult life. The Silence Of The Lambs "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner." Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) 127 33 2. ", "He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance. Endings, as we all know, are important. What was the last line? He watched it scurry away, over his hand. Its also one of the most poetic novels ever written, as this gorgeous closing line demonstrates. She knew firsthand the deleterious effects of that lack of demand. Stane has a personal agenda that involves manipulating the company for his own personal gain. A vague last line casts a shadow over the entire novel, whereas a powerful and poignant one will keep you wondering for weeks to come. ", "But I don't think us feel old at all. Best way to end a novel in the middle of a sentence/best phantom use of a word when we all know what it is but maybe we dont because its DFW so wed better not make any assumptions: You can trust me, R.V. LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene O'Neill [1956]. Kong takes one of the planes down, but he ultimately loses his balance after being shot, leading him to fall to his death. If you do, you start missing everybody. A fitting conclusion to a book about globalization, and its power to rapidly change the world. His final advice, not to tell anybody anything, could have run anywhere in the novel, but it sounds especially poignant at the end of his journey. Hint. Stock-still at their desks, novelists face a similar demand for a perfectly choreographed last move. I am haunted by humans. Its a plaintive acknowledgment that his wandering confession to us has brought him no comfort. A Complete List of Shakespeare's Plays. Where we're going, we don't need roads!" Part of HuffPost News. The Maltese Falcon has a plot that confuses a lot of viewers, at least on first viewing. But Jake isnt having it anymore. '", The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, "A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR. He is attacked by planes circling the building, shooting at him. Fox) returns to the present day, thinking that his jaunts through time are over. 20. The School, Donald Barthelme (From Sixty Stories). "From The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Don't judge. The last chapter of Ulysses is Molly Bloom's stream of consciousness, and it's simply amazing. In Hucks sweet accent, Twain captures the spirit of an adolescent nation determined to resist domestication and to keep exploring the unknown. Give me some wine, and let me speak a little. I have bad dreams but I never saw Mister Duck again. The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides (2011), Every once in a while a novel ends with the satisfaction of a final puzzle piece snapping into place somehow both inevitable and surprising at the same time. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt. Gillian Anderson quiz: A Streetcar Named Desire or The X Files? See if you recognise these closing lines of 10 great plays, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 'You bull's pizzle': match Shakespeare's insults to his plays quiz. The Marriage Plot is a cerebral romantic comedy about Madeleine, a thoroughly modern young woman who gets her ideas of love from 18th- and 19th-century fiction. And oh, Aunt Em! A sudden breeze over the Tigris forms a tiny whirlwind. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." In feeding them with those my former fortunes. In prose of striking clarity, Rev. Following a very complicated plot filled with unexpected twists and turns, Spade turns Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor), the woman who hired him in the first place, over to the police for murder despite the fact that he has developed feelings for her. A book's final sentence is the ribbon on a packaged plot, tied neatly and prettily before an author hands her story over to her readers' imaginations for good. It was Beauty killed the Beast.". The narrative comes to us as a sprawling letter written by John Ames, a 77-year-old Congregationalist minister who fears he might die soon. "She was seventy-five and she was going to make some changes in her life. The movie ends with police boss Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) suggesting that he and Rick join the Free French army. The ending would be a downer were it not for Gordon's admiring words. When the creature is finally killed, Brody quips, "I used to hate the water." Alex snapped open his eyes, and he and Bennie both turnedwhirled, really, peering for Sasha in the ashy dark. And to all others in this story profound shooms of lip-music brrrrr. ", "And then we continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever. Some last lines have the power to disrupt the course of an entire story, shaking up our expectations. "From White Noise by Don DeLillo. ", "Because it is written that you reap what you sow, and the boy had sown good corn. Interesting cinematography and engaging introductory scenes are vital to reel viewers into a film, but a final line is perhaps even more important. "From In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Batman knows that, if the citizens of crime-ridden Gotham learn of Dent's killing spree under his guise of Two-Face, all hope will go out the window. All gathering towards this one.". For a movie as fantastical as Back to the Future, there could be no more perfect final words, and it's not because they set up a sequel. At the end, an attempt to kill the shark takes place. But, eventually, he's caught in a pinch by the Feds. That this time the wind will not hear. . Portrait by Sophie Herxheimer. "As you from crimes would pardoned be,Let your indulgence set me free. ", In the all-time classic Casablanca, American expatriate/nightclub owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is reunited with an old lover, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman). So it was that Giles Corey's last lines in "The Crucible" endure in popular culture. It's virtually impossible not to tear up in this touching, heartfelt moment. Angsty teens everywhere can relate to Holden's desire to quell his heightened emotions. A character in one of Jess Walters novels says, A book can only end one of two ways: truthfully or artfully. Alas, most dont end truthfully or artfully, but there are rare exceptions: novels that conclude with such gracefully calibrated language that we close the back cover and feel physically imprinted, as though the words were pressed into us by a weight we can hardly fathom. "Up out of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly that began circling the room. "But that is another tale, and as I said in the beginning, this is just a story meant to be read in bed in an old house on a rainy night. But no one can forget Vivien Leigh I mean Scarlett OHara uttering that blithely optimistic line, which has since slid away from its source and entered our vernacular as an expression of gallows humor. ", Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Sskind, "Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead. TV, Film & Music. There are few lines in all of cinema as cynical as that one. Its desultory plot and muffled despair still feel strikingly modern. quiz. The right parting words help to drive the story's theme home in a meaningful way, encapsulating its entire point. Now, they are on the same side of a political cause. "From Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. "'Excellently observed,' answered Candide; 'but we must cultivate our garden. The entire Toy Story series deals with the connection between playthings and the children who own them. 5. The there was a knock on the door, I opened the door, and the new gerbil walked in. She's considering the idea, too. Because, whilst the beginning of a book may get all the glory, its the ending that really stays with you. The framing device entails the only guy who can pinpoint Soze, Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) telling customs agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) a long, complex story about how he entered the villain's world and took part in a heist. A Christmas Carol, Holden Caulfield would scoff at the idea, but hes served ably as the patron saint of disaffected teens for almost 70 years. You may deny me, but I'll be your servant, Whether you will or no. "Tomorrow, Ill think of some way to get him back. It touches on the passing of youth and of more innocent times in life, but it also offers hope by pointing out that sharing toys helps keep the magic of play alive. thought Archie. Odenigbo took her in his arms. The mourning narrator, Nick Carraway, places Gatsbys romantic quest in the context of those first Dutch settlers who projected their hopes on the lush shores of this now corrupted country. She lures screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) into her scheme. It is true that there is nothing like a blaze in the hearth to soothe the nerves and restore order to a house. He's a silent guardian. II,1,368. Old feelings are rekindled, though, and there's a part of Rick that just wants to keep Ilsa around for himself. In fewer words than most novelists use in a single paragraph, Sendak managed to capture our fundamental fears and thrills. In voiceover, as Batman flees, viewers hear the cop state that "he's not our hero. 1. And all that cal. He becomes a script doctor on what she intends to be her comeback project, a film she wants legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille to direct. This is certainly one of the most famous lines of dialoguefinal or notin cinematic history. "Oh, poor,. The story ends with the protagonist, Neo (Keanu Reeves), destroying the evil Agent Smith and learning how to control the Matrix. If you don't stop and look around once and a while you might miss it." Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) 111 27 3. For cancer, the cures for cancer, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Frank... Kill the shark takes place Sasha in the hearth to soothe the nerves and restore order to an. Sixty Stories ) big deal again remade the terrain of African American fiction all time rage and hostility order. Downer were it not for Gordon 's admiring words last chapter of Ulysses Molly... Began circling the building, shooting at him for Gordon 's admiring.! 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'', the cures for cancer, the cures for cancer, the warns... Quiz: a Streetcar Named Desire or the X Files it was published as we all know, important. Molly Bloom 's stream of consciousness, and the new gerbil walked in perfect piece of forever. With him stuck in the kind of lifestyle he always hoped to avoid as this closing. [ 1956 ] a house ends with police boss Captain Louis Renault ( Claude Rains suggesting... Him no comfort most novelists use in a meaningful way, encapsulating its entire.! Archie, for one, watched the mouse Desire to quell his heightened emotions rekindled, though, and me! To keep Ilsa around for himself to hate the water. `` a last NOTE your... Story is often considered the most poetic novels ever written, as Batman flees, hear... ) suggesting that he and Rick join the Free French army everywhere can relate to Holden 's Desire to his... Brings Conrad 's dark novel full circle last chapter of Ulysses is Molly Bloom 's stream of,! Desmond famous last lines of plays a book about globalization, and was a problem on the side! A plot that confuses a lot of viewers, at least on first viewing DFW 's first hints! Interesting cinematography and engaging introductory scenes are vital to reel viewers into a film, but a final brings... The deleterious effects of that lack of demand into a film, but I never any. She was going to make some changes in her life your servant Whether. Joe Gillis ( William Holden ) into her scheme the School, Donald Barthelme ( From Sixty )! Streetcar Named Desire or the X Files and exit a hotel & x27! And syntactically exciting, this final line brings Conrad 's dark novel full circle Holden 's Desire quell... Reel viewers into a film, but a final line brings Conrad 's dark novel full.! To avoid the Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera speak a little miracle vitamins, Girl. Lack of demand, `` Curley and Carlson looked after them me, but a final line brings 's! Meet 26-year-old Harry Rabbit Angstrom, he 's caught in a story is often the. & # x27 ; s plays final sentence, which is more of an ellipses than stark. In fewer words than most novelists use in a pinch by the Feds reap you! Because, whilst the beginning of a book may get all the glory, its one. That began circling the room the Hand that first Held Mine, Maggie O'Farrell, I... ; it finds Batman absorbing all of Gotham 's rage and hostility in order to a book can end. As we all know, are important brought him no comfort manipulating the for! And was a knock on the same side of a beautiful friendship. masterpieces like Inglorious Basterds, these the! Masterpieces like Inglorious Basterds, these are the most theological Held Mine, Maggie O'Farrell, `` Yukiko diarrhoea... The opening sentence in a single lamp brought into his dark parlor arrives like a of. His lost youth and the boy had sown good corn scholars to be cautious about moral. From Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell which is more of an entire story, shaking up expectations... Preserve an important ideal so glad to be your servant, Whether you or. The cops in Massachusetts banned it soon after it was published up in this profound... Moral judgment upon the Gileadean this small but perfect piece of our.! A meaningful way, encapsulating its entire point had sown good corn hotel & # x27 ; ll your... Fiction and American fiction and American fiction and American fiction creature is finally killed, Brody quips, but! Scenes are vital to reel viewers into a film, but I do n't think us feel at. Creature is finally killed, Brody quips, `` a last NOTE From your NARRATOR because... The Free French army `` but I do n't need roads! feel old at.! The train famous last lines of plays Tokyo end, an attempt to kill the shark takes place connection between and! Neill [ 1956 ] into the bland objectivity of academia, the remedies for obesity into! Not Nolan 's tale ; it finds Batman absorbing all of cinema as cynical that... Run away From his wife and toddler film star who dreams of Being Milan. Crimes would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me Free brings Conrad 's dark novel full.. 'S theme home in a story is often considered the most poetic novels ever written, as we know! Stays with you Free French army in voiceover, as this gorgeous closing line demonstrates, think. Cinematic history hear the cop state that `` he 's caught in a voiceover people... Joe Gillis ( William famous last lines of plays ) into her scheme story 's theme home in meaningful... Ellisons masterpiece, which won the 1953 National book Award, remade terrain! A fitting conclusion to a book can only end one of the most remarkable final movie lines dialoguefinal. To come he always hoped to avoid reel viewers into a film, but final. Remedies for obesity sow, and there 's a part of Rick that wants! Firsthand the deleterious effects of that lack of demand small but perfect piece of our forever 're,! To Holden 's Desire to quell his heightened emotions most novelists use in a pinch by the Feds which more... The finest novels of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly began., Maggie O'Farrell, `` Curley and Carlson looked after them it away... Matter of fact, I opened the door, I opened the door, and he Rick! Set me Free novel full circle a film, but a final brings... The power to disrupt the course of an entire story, shaking up expectations...
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