Why are clichés so true?

If you love someone, set them free... just kidding. I can appreciate a good happy ending just like the next guy, or gal (let's avoid being heteronormative,) but I appreciate "realistic" endings more. Now this statement may raise flags for psychologists/psychiatrists but personally, I think that there are too many "happily ever afters" so much so that everyone believes that that's what they will get. I am not trying to sound pessimistic, and sorry to burst your bubble, but in the grand scheme of things, by definition, you will only have ONE happy ever after, but a multitude of disappointment. It is kind of ironic because, I too am in search for my own fairytale ending.

In any case, is Louise dead, alive, or an apparition at the end of the story? I don't think it matters. I think the importance of Louise in the second half of the novel is not whether she is dead or alive. Instead, I think Louise in many ways becomes the green light in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby:"

"I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone - he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness." (16)

Specifically the green light, and Louise, symbolizes both characters' dreams and hopes for the future. If I had to answer the question, Louise would be an apparition, except not in a spiritual/supernatural sense, but that she has transformed into an idea. If she were ever found, dead or alive, the discovery would sort of "cop out" the intensity and passion of the narrator's love. Louise's lack of autonomy or voice only strengthens the novel because she becomes an unattainable dream. Had Louise been found, the reader would not be able to appreciate, or measure, the capacity and depth of the narrator's love ("Why is the measure of love loss?" (1)). Also, the tone and diction of the novel would most probably have been vastly different if the narrator had found her, assuming that they reconciled.

I think it’s interesting that Winterson chose to end her novel with a “cliffhanger” and say that” that is where the story starts.” Although there are only three feasible “next steps” after his/her failed search, i.e. move on, keep searching, cut off all ties and live as a “widow” until death, his/her stating that “this is where the story starts” implies that time has passed and that he/she is much older/wiser and that he/she has somewhat formed a detachment and has achieved some form of closure to the relationship, hence why the narrator suggests that it is a “happy ending.”