Readers of Harlequin romance novels know they can expect a happy ending, but what does a happy ending require? A 2012 survey presented Turkish Harlequin readers with an excerpt from Shirley Jump’s Back to Mr and Mrs, published in Turkish in 2010 as Bır Şans Daha. The quoted passage detailed a quarrel between the hero and his father that would appear to lead to estrangement. Participants were asked to explain how they imagined the relationship between hero and father by the end of the novel. Of the 178 coded responses, only 15% of participants correctly predicted that the rift would continue; the majority of the participants anticipated a romantic happy ending that included reconciliation with the hero’s father. I employ Geert Hofstede’s theory of the cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism to explore the difference between the American happy ending, in which family relationships are not a required component, and Turkish happy endings, in which the protagonists’ parents are expected to play an ongoing role.
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