Meaning

(narratology) A catastrophe (dramatic event leading to plot resolution) that results in the protagonist's well-being..

Example Sentences

But at the story of the little boy (which is a fully attested fact of course) with its apparent sad ending and then its sudden unhoped-for happy ending, I was deeply moved and had that peculiar emotion we all have – though not often. […] For it I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce).

Let us hymn the small but journal wonders of Nature and of households, and then finish on a serio-comic note with legends of ultimate eucatastrophe, regeneration beyond the waters.

The "problem" of T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot comes partly from our post-Christian sense of a world where Tolkien's eucatastrophes never happen, and partly from the way we write biography.

Literary unity demands that once a eucatastrophe happens it must be accepted as part of the story rather than as an arbitrary whim of the author.

Word Forms

• eucatastrophes

Synonyms for eucatastrophe

Related Words

When Should You Use Eucatastrophe?

Use eucatastrophe when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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