John Huston's 1941 noir masterpiece The Maltese Falcon is the story of private detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), who is investigating a case involving a quest by multiple individuals to procure a falcon statue that is encrusted with jewels. ", "And then we continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever. Sign up for the latest news and must-read features from Stylist, so you don't miss out on the conversation. ", "The eyes and faces all turned themselves towards me, and guiding myself by them, as by a magical thread, I stepped into the room. Of course, Eugenides is also echoing the end of James Joyces Ulysses, whose last extraordinary sentence is about 4,000 words long and ends with Molly Blooms boundless enthusiasm: yes I said yes I will Yes., Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell (1949). It's Life carrying on. Plays Sonnets Poems Concordance Advanced Search About OSS. The book ends with an epilogue that takes place at an academic conference in the year 2195. The miserable change now at my end. Dorothy, relieved to be away from all that drama, looks at her aunt and exclaims "Auntie Em, there's no place like home!". The bottom line, though, is that it's about the way that the desire for anything valuable, monetary or otherwise, can lead people down dark roads in their efforts to obtain it. ", "Again and again I called out for Midori from the dead centre of this place that was no place. The Finish Line - 10 questions - 3 mins. ", The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, Stieg Larsson, "Curley and Carlson looked after them. ", "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. The Extra-Terrestrial, 10 Best Comedy Movies Of 2021, According To IMDb. (Hemingway condemned this section as cheating.) But that last lonely line is pure genius. Nancy Dell'Olio v Jeremy Paxman, Quiz: match the stage directions to the play, Which Shakespeare characters speak these lines? But over the old man's head they looked at each other and smiled. The story ends with the protagonist, Neo (Keanu Reeves), destroying the evil Agent Smith and learning how to control the Matrix. The final moments find the Caped Crusader (Christian Bale) in a tough spot. "Oh, poor,. "In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me. There is an attempt to dry up land to drive orange-growers out of business. Se7en is one of the most nihilistic motion pictures ever made, and Somerset's quote reflects that. h'd. Now my spirit is going; ", The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger, "The old man was dreaming about the lions. You can feel the rawness as soon as it starts, as a. "Oh, Jake, Brett said, we could have had such a damned good time together. Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. I smoke a little dope. Caddyshack takes place at Bushwood Country Club, an establishment filled with rich uptight socialites, most notably Judge Elihu Smails (Ted Knight). "From Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. For the Olympic gymnast, success comes down to how well she sticks the landing. He twists his head from one side to the other. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. ", Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery, "And so we stayed out in the garden of the old house until we couldnt see to kick a ball, laughing in the gathering twilight, my mother and son, my wife and our daughter, making the most of the good weather and all the days that were left, our little game watched only by next doors cat, and every star in the heavens. ". Rick wants to help Ilsa and her husband escape to America. Books, poetry, etc?I always likedquote: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back. Al takes Smails on in a high-stakes golfing grudge match with an assist from caddy Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe), whose cardinal sin is coming from a working-class family. Salinger (1951). written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak (1963). His opponent duly humiliated, Al turns to the throng of spectators and gleefully announces "Hey, everybody! After ratting out Paulie and Jimmy, he enters the Witness Protection Program. He is attacked by planes circling the building, shooting at him. The last line of DFW's first novel hints at what else he had in store. And they can kiss my sharries. Best description weve ever read of rationalizing one decision over and over as you make the other decision with your body: They were frantic, calling out to him, but they were dead, as dead as the ancient dead, and he was alive, he was needed at home, it was a no-brainer, no one could possibly blame him for this one, and making a low sound of despair in his throat he kicked off his loafers and threw his long ugly body out across the water. We know, he laments, that our first dreams can never be realized, but we cant help pining for them anyhow. A flubbed dismount sullies even the most awe-inspiring routine. 01. of 10. Scholars of Elizabethan drama believe that William Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays between 1590 and 1612. Now, they are on the same side of a political cause. ", "'Rest assured, our father, rest assured. Egan's theme of using music and sounds to convey nostalgia is wrapped up neatly here, and she paints the characters' lives as cyclical, like the playing of a favorite record. Dont ever tell anybody anything. 8 Quotes From Famous Plays March 27, 2019 March 27 is World Theatre Day. I have bad dreams but I never saw Mister Duck again. ", "It's funny. 12. The Falls, George Saunders (From Pastoralia ). The father of the four March sisters is just a minor character in Louisa May Alcotts beloved Little Women (1868), but Geraldine Brooks put him at the center of her historical novel March, which won a Pulitzer Prize. In Hucks sweet accent, Twain captures the spirit of an adolescent nation determined to resist domestication and to keep exploring the unknown. Ending an entire book in the middle of a sentence is a bold and playful choice. Often called England's 'national poet', his work consists of about 38 . ", RELATED: 10 Unpopular Opinions About E.T. It pulls together elements from a lot of disparate influences to ask what reality is and how anyone could really know if what they are experiencing is real. From old-school classics like Casablanca to modern masterpieces like Inglorious Basterds, these are the most remarkable final movie lines of all time. He announces his arrival . The Broom of the System, David Foster Wallace. 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. Even today, millions of people think of the ravages of the Great Depression through the lens of Steinbecks story. ", Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak, "I wrote at the start that this was a record of hate, and walking there beside Henry towards the evening glass of beer, I found the one prayer that seemed to serve the winter mood: O God, You've done enough, You've robbed me of enough, I'm too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone forever. Such is the effect of the last line of Eugenidess most recent novel, which seems in retrospect constructed to bring us directly to these three letters. 6 on PBSs Great American Reads. But like several of our most popular books Im looking at you, To Kill a Mockingbird its immortality has been buttressed by an exceptionally memorable film adaptation. Wake up to the day's most important news. 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. TV, Film & Music. "From My Antonia by Willa Cather. "'Excellently observed,' answered Candide; 'but we must cultivate our garden. The elitist snobs are no longer in charge. In that haunting last line, we see the ultimate success of Big Brothers deception, and we feel the full atrocity of whats been done to Winston. Hooper plays along with the joke, and the audience gets a laugh that breaks the tension before the credits roll. The great thing about this final line is that it finds Tony Stark doing something few superheroes ever do, which publicly identifying himself. Henry wanted to become a mobster specifically so he wouldn't have to live life as an average Joe. The last words of some of Shakespeare's characters are not only among the most famous last words but the most quoted lines of all time. ", "It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan. A beautiful, or at least effective, final sentence anchors a story in a reader's mind long after the book is finished. "From The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Brilliant. "And she comes to you, and she does not speak, and the others do not notice her, and she takes your hand, and you ready yourself to die, eyes open, aware this is all an illusion, a last aroma cast up by the chemical stew that is your brain, which will soon cease to function, and there will be nothing, and you are ready, ready to die well, ready to die like a man, like a woman, like a human, for despite all else you have loved, you have loved your father and your mother and your brother and your sister and your son and yes, your ex-wife, and you have loved the pretty girl, you have been beyond yourself, and so you have courage, and you have dignity, and you have calmness in the face of terror, and awe, and the pretty girl holds your hand, and you contain her, and this book, and me writing it, and I too contain you, who may not yet even be born, you inside me inside you, though not in a creepy way, and so may you, may I, may we, so may we all of us confront the end. 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. If he ever had a reason to hate the water, it would be after the harrowing experience he's just had. I been there before. He no longer needs them and decides to leave them in the hands of a child who will love them the way he did. The strains of the piano and violin rose up weakly from below. ", "Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for himand it was still hot. Angsty teens everywhere can relate to Holden's desire to quell his heightened emotions. quiz. I agree with the second part.". Inglourious Basterds remains one of Quentin Tarantino's most celebrated films, and that is undoubtedly due to its satisfying third act. He wants Mills (Brad Pitt) to kill him so that he can finish his series of murders based on the seven deadly sins. Gittes is not happy. What was the last line? Not so Gilead, the first book in Robinsons Pulitzer Prize-winning trilogy about two families in Iowa. In prose of striking clarity, Rev. That this time the wind will not hear. Most Beckettian closing to a Beckett novel: Perhaps its done already, perhaps they have said me already, perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, it will be the silence, where I am, I dont know, Ill never know, in the silence you dont know, you must go on, I cant go on, Ill go on. Inside, the agent comes to the shocking realization that he just let the real Keyser Soze get away. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Click through for 20 of our favorite endings from our bookshelf of classic and contemporary greats, and let us know your own picks for best last lines in the comments. ", In the all-time classic Casablanca, American expatriate/nightclub owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is reunited with an old lover, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman). In the final pages, the narrator knows some readers will continue to ignore the relevance of his life: Youll fail to see how any principle that applies to you could apply to me. But he knows thats not true. Ron Charles writes about books for The Washington Post. ", "She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously. We're all gonna get laid!". O, let me cry. the heroines decision to walk into the sea and drown herself. 'Everything's ready. He watched it leap off the end and disappear through an air vent. Quiz: whose review is it anyway? He may have been a beast, but he was a beast with heart. 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. The Catcher in the Rye, Most last minute revelation for a previously utterly stubborn, unchanging character, finally accepting the facts of the universe in the face of his execution: As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the benign indifference of the world. We can stop at Mancini's and have a little dinner on the way. The there was a knock on the door, I opened the door, and the new gerbil walked in. While nowhere close to historically accurate, it's a fine example of cinematic wish fulfillment. Overcome with grief and a thirst for vengeance, Mills shoots him anyway. Tortured by loneliness, the monster ultimately flees to the North Pole, and the doctor dies in pursuit. She knew firsthand the deleterious effects of that lack of demand. This writers personal favorite. . Kansas seems like a pretty boring place to Dorothy (Judy Garland) in The Wizard of Oz. For films, we offer Citizen Kane to the world.For TV shows, Breaking Bad . Advertisement. "As you from crimes would pardoned be,Let your indulgence set me free. During its initial release in 1999, Fight Club was widely misunderstood. This is certainly one of the most famous lines of dialoguefinal or notin cinematic history. There are few lines in all of cinema as cynical as that one. Here are a few examples. THE 101 GREATEST PLAYS FROM THE PAST 100 YEARS (1920-2020} 1. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Most visually representative ending to a novel: this way this way this way this way this way this way this way out this way out O, 17. The chaos and disappointments of the preceding months have cured him of pointless fantasies, and he dismisses Bretts romantic speculation with this bitter rhetorical question. Beloved.. After so much trauma and the exhausting exorcism that concludes the novel, what other ending would do but a final invocation of that child who represents so many snuffed out by our nations foundational sin? Roman Polanski's Chinatown provides Jack Nicholson with one of his most iconic roles, that of private investigator Jake Gittis. Into this upper-crust club comes condo developer Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield). The last bit of spoken dialogue is what's most likely to stick with audiences, and, if it's particularly poignant, it can seriously boost a film's reputation. In the end, though, he puts her on a plane to safety. Here she is with another hour before her. For generations of us, this is the first final line that knocked our booties off. The lines belong to Lily Briscoe, the novel's resident artist, but could just as easily describe the work of art that Woolf has just concluded. While the line can certainly be taken literally, this could also be interpreted as the director inserting a comment about the film. From classics such as George Orwells Animal Farm to L. Frank Baums The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Jung Changs Wild Swans, weve scoured the Stylist book shelf for the best closing lines (or, in some cases to give context, the best final few lines) ever written. 8. I am invisible, the unnamed narrator says at the start, simply because people refuse to see me, but by the end, no one could ever ignore him. OPTIONS: Show cue speeches Show full speeches # Act, Scene, Line (Click to see in context) Speech text: 1. A Tale of Two Cities , Charles Dickens. Filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) corrects the officer, saying "no, it wasn't the airplanes. There is no better portrayal of 20th-century white men than the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit series, which went on to include Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest and the novella Rabbit Remembered. Each book ends with an echo of the first novels last word, a subtle coda that ties together the stages of Rabbits life. Her parting words are Sunset Boulevard's stinging, darkly funny punchline. He convinces Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to let him take responsibility for the murders to avoid the dispiriting consequences. It's the choice we make to get on with it. And oh, Aunt Em! ", "But I don't think us feel old at all. Isnt it pretty to think so?From The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. This pays off in the final scene, where they're driving a yacht away from a pier. Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o' the world, The noblest; and do now not basely die, Not cowa. I don't know why mine never turn out like hers, or why my tears flow so freely when I prepare them - perhaps I am as sensitive to onions as Tita, my great-aunt, who will go on living as long as there is someone who cooks her recipes. by Charles Dickens (1843). The first lines of Leo Tolstoy's 1873 novel are some of the most famous of all time. please." Jay Gatsby, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald "Well, good-by." God, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams "Oh dear, I hadn't thought of that." Hamlet, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare For much of the film, he has been portrayed as a monster; a giant, crazed animal to be feared. Helen came and embraced me. Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. No name can be read there. Snow fell from the darkening, leaden sky. 1. What, he asks himself, must he tell his 7-year-old son before hes carried away to imperishability? Here are the 15 most highlighted Shakespeare quotes. 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. Best beautiful sum-up of the novel you just read, both in tone and in meaning, and possibly the most well-loved last line of all time: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back. Its a monstrously selfish act borne of panic over his lost youth and the soul-crushing responsibilities of adult life. It's why Batman, Spider-Man, and so many others wear masks. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway (1926). Given that Caddyshack is filled with undertones about prejudice of all stripes, Al's victory statement sends a message that a new day has dawned at Bushwood. We don't think so. ", "At that, as if it had been the signal he waited for, Newland Archer got up slowly and walked back alone to his hotel. That line has several layers, but, most prominently, it acknowledges that their relationship has changed. I got my thousand-yard stare. Toy Story 3 ends on a note that is both beautiful and sob-inducing. Everything about The Matrix is designed to make the viewer's head spin. William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest dramatist of all time. 4. His mix of treacly self-pity, witty cynicism and clinical depression speaks for millions of lonely people forced to endure a world of phonies. 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. How brilliant to end the novel with the grieving creature drifting away into the vast darkness and whiteness at the end of the world. Some of those great final lines remain markers of our favorite novels, holy relics of our most cherished reading experiences. Dickens didnt invent Christmas, as a recent movie starring Christopher Plummer claims, but the Victorian novelist certainly taught us how to celebrate it. "From A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. He witnesses suffering and pain, capped by the emotional devastation of his partner. This is the last we hear from the Bard; it's the final line of his final play, a humble request for applause before he leaves the stage. In a phone call, he promises to essentially dismantle it all, creating a new world order, free of rules and controls. The movie's suggestion that power and corruption are inextricably connected certainly gave it resonance for audiences of that era. 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. Perhaps the greatest failure of American literature, which is so bravely explicit about all other aspects of life, is its nervous avoidance of anything explicitly religious. 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. You can see in this novels last words how successfully Moore switches registers. 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. Were you paying attention before the curtain fell? Image: Warner Brothers/Getty Images . For many, John Keats is the prototype of artistic genius. They show the delusions of Norma Desmond, who remains a legend in her own mind. Not so much a rollercoaster - a rollercoaster's too smooth - a yo-yo rather - a jerking, spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child, more like, trying too hard, too impatiently eager to learn how to operate his new yo-yo. A stormy wind rattled the scrap-iron in the ruins, whistling and howling through the charred cavities of the windows. Where we're going, we don't need roads!" I am haunted by humans. ", "She had started to cry softly. I ran. ", "Up out of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly that began circling the room. In feeding them with those my former fortunes. ", A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, "'God's in his heaven, alls right with the world,' whispered Anne softly. At every turn, there are bribes, lies, cover-ups, and conspiracies. He's a silent guardian. To honour it, we have curated eight thought-provoking lines from some of the world's most famous plays- from Macbeth to Harry Potter And The Cursed Child. (Hamlet) "To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the . '", The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, "A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR. How now, spirit! Speeches (Lines) for Puck in "Midsummer Night's Dream" Total: 33. print/save view. The light of a single lamp brought into his dark parlor arrives like a foretaste of grace. ", Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Sskind, "Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead. The first readers were shocked by South-south-west, south, south-east, east ", "I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. The mystery ends with a revelation of incest, the death of a major character, and a lot of bad people still left to do their thing. They win, much to the judge's dismay. Alices Adventures in Wonderland , Lewis Carroll. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. Most superhero stories end triumphantly with the good guy taking down the villain and receiving public adoration as a result. In 1816, Lord Byron suggested to friends vacationing with him in Switzerland that they each write a ghost story. 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. I took one more glance over my past life, then turned to the future. After escaping a Broadway theater, the titular ape grabs Fay Wray's Ann and climbs up the Empire State Building. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936) Set around the American Civil War, the Pulitzer-winning epic about collapsing worlds, rape and murder, slavery, starvation, war and doomed love not only gave literature the most brutal break up line in literature ("My dear, I don't give a damn"), but also one of the most hopeful final flourishes. All was well. Its no real pleasure in life., 3. It is true that there is nothing like a blaze in the hearth to soothe the nerves and restore order to a house. Not love, necessarily, but a protective form of kinship. Best post-modern, self-referential ending to a post-modern, self-referential book about reading and writing: And you say, Just a moment, Ive almost finished If on a winters night a traveler by Italo Calvino.. Tarantino is known for several stellar films, and its status as a masterpiece isn't often contested. I said that they shouldnt be frightened (although I am often frightened) and that there was value everywhere. By: Nathan Chandler. Upon being arrested, Norma, who is convinced that the newsreel cameras filming her capture are part of her movie production, exclaims, "Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.". It's an action-filled finale that leads to Neo's poignant last words. It determines if parting is such sweet sorrow or a thudding disappointment. What accounts for the power of this bleak tale to shake even the most cynical readers? The last line is so important to nail because it will send the audience out of the theater on the right emotional note. Censors objections have shifted over the years (from truancy to the n-word), but its been banned in parts of the country ever since. His days in the mob are officially over. I was eager to embrace the world. The right parting words help to drive the story's theme home in a meaningful way, encapsulating its entire point. ", "Yukiko's diarrhoea persisted through the twenty-sixth, and was a problem on the train to Tokyo. Its final scene, the culmination of a relentless series of hardships, losses and deaths, offers a moment of startling compassion and intimacy the very milk of human kindness made flesh. The dreaminess of this entire novel is punctuated with this final sentence, which is more of an ellipses than a stark period. Although two centuries have passed since Dr. Victor Frankenstein turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, his creatures plaintive cry still moves anyone who has a beating heart. As you probably guessed, the famous lines above open Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night. The king doth keep his revels . An entire novel can be ruined by a disappointing ending, but by the same token, an entire novel can be made by a wonderful one. Weve already given you a rundown of our favorite opening lines in literature, but since every beginning needs an ending (and youd be surprised at how many works with awesome first lines also have awesome last lines or perhaps you wouldnt be surprised), we feel compelled to treat you to a list of our favorite last lines as well. ", "Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. ", "Of course, it's only superstition, just for fun. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,