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. See what he did there?! 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. "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. He announces his arrival . So many heroes invent personas specifically to prevent anyone from discovering their true identity. Neo's final words in the film play directly into this idea, even going so far as to suggest that reality is what people make it. Chinatown was released in 1974, when Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal were on the US's collective mind. Isnt it pretty to think so?From The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. ", "But the naming game involves only male names, because if it's a girl, Laila has already named her. So it was that Giles Corey's last lines in "The Crucible" endure in popular culture. Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (1936). "From Continental Drift by Russell Banks. While nowhere close to historically accurate, it's a fine example of cinematic wish fulfillment. "Tomorrow, Ill think of some way to get him back. '", The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, "A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR. But how painfully ironic that Americas most macho author should be remembered for a novel about an impotent man. Till we felt our eyes could meet again, without the tears. Brilliant. 4. 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. Then she feels a pressure on her hand and he speaks his first words for a week. Here are the 15 most highlighted Shakespeare quotes. James and the Giant Peach. 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 ceaselessly into the past. A Tale of Two Cities , Charles Dickens. That this time - please just this once - it will leave without us. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, From classics such as George Orwell's Animal Farm to L. Frank Baum's T he Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Stylist rounds up the most memorable 100 last lines from literature ever written. II,1,368. (Hemingway condemned this section as cheating.) But that last lonely line is pure genius. "What have you. "There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air." "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin (1899) At the end of Henrik Ibsen's play "Hedda Gabler" (1891), a trapped and passionate. 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? Its a plaintive acknowledgment that his wandering confession to us has brought him no comfort. Being burdened by heavy stones, the old man gave his last speech: "More weight". The 1933 version of King Kong is an all-time classic thanks in no small part to its dramatic ending. Her parting words are Sunset Boulevard's stinging, darkly funny punchline. Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill This autobiographical play about O'Neill's young adulthood scorches from start to finish. The light of a single lamp brought into his dark parlor arrives like a foretaste of grace. They spark interest by stating a hard truth that seemingly comes from deep within the narrator's (or writer's) soul. Advertisement. We held each other. ", "But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union. Here are 21 of our favorite last lines in literature: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." From The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Sure, Kansas feels dull to Dorothy, but it's where the people who love her are. Give me some wine, and let me speak a little. "From My Antonia by Willa Cather. 'Im a man of my'"From The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace. In response to that challenge, 18-year-old Mary Shelley conceived of the worlds most famous monster. Toy Story 3 ends on a note that is both beautiful and sob-inducing. One of the most-quoted lines from Casablanca, "Here's looking at you, kid," is one that Humphrey Bogart ad-libbed during the flashback scenes of Rick and Ilsa falling in love in Paris. Most superhero stories end triumphantly with the good guy taking down the villain and receiving public adoration as a result. I like the way that sounds. A stormy wind rattled the scrap-iron in the ruins, whistling and howling through the charred cavities of the windows. Tracing the very short career of one of England's greatest poets. Our annual survey of the best books includes 10 we think are exceptionally rewarding and 100 more notable titles you shouldnt miss. If On a Winters Night a Traveler , Italo Calvino. people dont do such things. A few years later, Chopin ran right up against those same stultifying expectations in her last novel, The Awakening, about a wife and mother who falls in love with another man and begins to imagine a different life. In a phone call, he promises to essentially dismantle it all, creating a new world order, free of rules and controls. He is attacked by planes circling the building, shooting at him. by John Steinbeck (1939). OPTIONS: Show cue speeches Show full speeches # Act, Scene, Line (Click to see in context) Speech text: 1. When the applause dies down, he asks, Are there any questions? Those of us staring at a Supreme Court now tipping away from womens reproductive rights probably have several questions. 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. Those words are meaningful because the entire theme of The Dark Knight is meaningful. Odenigbo took her in his arms. Then, Doc arrives in the DeLorean, informing him that there's a personal crisis in his future. He watched it leap off the end and disappear through an air vent. For the first time they had done something out of Love. There is an attempt to dry up land to drive orange-growers out of business. Elliott is visibly upset about having to part, so his intergalactic buddy lights up his finger, points it at the boy, and informs him "I'll be right here. "From Oh What a Paradise It Seems by John Cheever. The first line was 'The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.'. 3.66 avg rating 137,082 ratings. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. When Max gave up being king of where the wild things are, sailed back to his room and found dinner waiting for him, his mothers love is confirmed, and the natural order of his world is restored. There are few lines in all of cinema as cynical as that one. The Concord Public Library in Massachusetts banned it soon after it was published. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston (1937), The fact that there is no demand for incisive and full-dress stories around Negroes above the servant class is indicative of something of vast importance to this nation, Hurston wrote in 1950. "For both of us a new life is beginning" Constellations An Ideal Husband Chimerica 3. Though were of the opinion that you could take any of Nabokovs sentences at random and put them on any best-of list with no problems, this may be the best ending to an impressionistic memoir about perception, memory and the haziness of reality: There, in front of us, where a broken row of houses stood between us and the harbor, and where the eye encountered all sorts of stratagems, such as pale-blue and pink underwear cakewalking on a clothesline, or a ladys bicycle and a striped cat oddly sharing a rudimentary balcony of cast iron, it was most satisfying to make out among the jumbled angles of roofs and walls, a splendid ships finnel, showing from behind the clothesline as something in a scrambled picture Find What the Sailor Has Hidden that the finder cannot unsee once it has been seen. But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. said, watching her hand. 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. ", "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. The definitiveness of this brusque sentence has a blunting effect, highlighting the bleakness of Orwell's predictions. "As you from crimes would pardoned be,Let your indulgence set me free. We know, he laments, that our first dreams can never be realized, but we cant help pining for them anyhow. I got my thousand-yard stare. The line also offers up a little hope for Rick, who just sent the love of his life away. "Up out of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly that began circling the room. From old-school classics like Casablanca to modern masterpieces like Inglorious Basterds, these are the most remarkable final movie lines of all time. The DeLorean then launches into the air and zooms right toward the camera. "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past. He has just been awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) corrects the officer, saying "no, it wasn't the airplanes. She's considering the idea, too. But even more arresting is the books moral struggle to understand and forgive his parents failings and his own. His eyes, she sees, are open. They win, much to the judge's dismay. ", The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "My personal rollercoaster. Aside from the obvious reference to Beauty and the Beast, the line is powerful because it, ironically enough, humanizes Kong a little. And us so happy. Shakespeare's plays and sonnets are some of the most quoted in all of literature. The really interesting thing, though, is that his parting words also offer a glimpse of hopeand the only one in Seven, for that matter. The final scene finds him with the statue in his hands. The ending would be a downer were it not for Gordon's admiring words. But it was another girl, young and new to the city, fiddling with her keys. When a film has the perfect final line, the audience goes home on a high, and these are some of the very best examples of that. Mills' partner, Somerset (Morgan Freeman) tries to convince him not to shoot the killer because that would allow Doe to "win." 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. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate. 11. A Perfect Day for Bananafish, J.D. We can stop at Mancini's and have a little dinner on the way. At that moment, McCarthy suddenly breaks away from his characters and describes trout that once swam in mountain streams. Alcott gives little indication of what horrors may have shaken Father during his fight for abolition, and Little Women ends with Mrs. March saying, Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this. But by the time March returns to his happy home at the end of Brookss novel, we know him as the haunted survivor of carnage and a crushing spiritual crisis. ", "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. 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. Those that didn't: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," ""The Glass Menagerie," "A Raisin in the Sun" and "The Crucible.". "From How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid. But see how fast the smoke rises--oh, even faster when we laugh, lifting our hopes, higher and higher. It's dark and psychological, but also exciting as all get out. Angsty teens everywhere can relate to Holden's desire to quell his heightened emotions. 1. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me. For a time, Hill enjoys the flash, the cash, and the fear-driven respect that comes from being a mobster. 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. As all get out the incommunicable past wish fulfillment cavities of the Knight! 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