Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36646
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36646
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Hmm. When I'm not sure about something, I like to look at some examples.

_All Quiet on the Western Front_ has the characters never win. In fact, they all die, and their side loses the war (something we know from the outset, since that's Germany in WWI we're talking about). Nonetheless, _All Quiet on the Western Front_ has its moments of warmth: there's camaraderie aplenty, there's gallows humour, there are the lighter moments with the French prostitutes and with the food. It's those warm moments that help the reader connect to the characters, and feel a loss when they die.

_Dr Zhivago_ is not happy reading either. With Russian Revolution as the backdrop, and an intelligent, warm, honourable MC, it's set for tragedy. Every time it appears things are starting to go right, something happens that makes everything go terribly wrong. But there are those times when things start to go right. There's love, and there's the breathtaking beauty of rural Russia. Those draw you in, and keep you hoping, even as the MC hopes, for a better future, not just for him, but for Russia.

Finally, _Hamlet_, as an example of a tragedy. It starts bad, and it gets worse. At the same time, it offers plenty of wit. ("- What do you read, my lord? / - Words, words, words.") There's comedy (the gravedigger in the 5th act, for example), and there's Horatio's warm, unwavering friendship, offering some release from Hamlet's lonely lot.

So, it would appear that **a novel can be quite dark, but light is still needed in it**. It is the light that sets off the dark. It is the warm moments that make loss meaningful. There needs to be hope, for it to be dashed. And in real life too, there is light to be found even in deepest dark. In greatest hardships, people still find a way to love, to be friends, to give each other hope, to laugh at their executioners. I guess it's human nature to keep striving, and we expect stories to do the same - to keep finding a bit of light in unlikely places (until, if you so wish it, there is no more light to be found).

Original score: 34