Themes of Love and Desire in Margaret Atwoods Happy Endings - Essay Example

Themes of Love and Desire in Margaret Atwood's "Happy Endings" How easy it is to get fascinated by the happy endings of the bedtime stories cherished in one's nascent years, where the two lovers eventually end up getting access to the cherished socio-economic aspirations and "live happily ever after." The notions of love conveyed by these over-simplistic narrations, exalt them to the purity and glimmer of almost biblical proportions. People more than often grow up with a deep-seated desire to perpetuate such ideas about love in their personal lives and relationships.

The intention of the writer seems to be to boldly jolt her readers out of their crumpling perceptions about love, which instead of bolstering human relationships, abandon them in a bog of disillusionment and frustrations.

Though initially feeling disoriented after going through this seemingly simple work, the reader ultimately emerges with a more thorough and pragmatic grasp over the emotions of love and desire, that is not childishly black and white but grounded in an adult atmosphere, dominated by shades of grey. Love is a noble emotion that imbues any relationship with bliss and happiness. Though it is a different thing that many times people fail to fulfill the conservative claims of love, going by the frailty and imperfection inherent in human life.

'Happy Endings' astonishingly unravels this inevitable dilemma of love through a variety of relationships considered in the narrative. Desire is an aspect of love that if exercised in isolation, degenerates into a selfish and blind quest for self-gratification. In a practical scenario, human relationships vacillate between a nebulous mix of love and desire. The unique mix of love and desire in a relationship endows it with its peculiar nature and framework. The extremely short snippets in 'Happy Endings' though always hover around the familiar characters of John and Mary, present the relationship between them extended over a range of possibilities and outcomes, each having its shades of love and desire mixed with the accompanying emotions of confusion, selfishness, lust, despondency, abuse, and avarice. 

By doing so, the writer ultimately succeeds in her coveted objective of portraying contemporary society with all its variegations and complexities, thus coming down heavily on the stereotypical societal norms about love and desire.