Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange is a masterpiece of dystopian literature that explores the darkest aspects of human nature. As those who have read the 1961 novel or seen the 1971 know, it follows Alex, a young man who leads a gang of violent thugs and is eventually caught and subjected to a radical experimental procedure designed to cure him of his violent tendencies.
But how A Clockwork Orange ends depends on which of the versions you have come to regard as definitive. While Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation ends with Alex – played by Malcom McDowell – “cured all right” as the procedure is reversed and able once again to indulge in violent and pornographic fantasies that we can assured will soon be played out in reality, the novel’s ending – at least the one released in Britain – differs significantly.
In an epilogue to the first edition of the book, Alex, now leading another gang of thugs, encounters his former gangmate Pete, who has since settled down, married, and found a steady government job. This encounter leads Alex to consider his own future, and he begins to think about the possibility of settling down and starting a family.
After all the efforts to cure Alex of his violent tendencies, his nature ultimately settles of its own accord, represented by his loss of interest in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a piece he once loved for its violent overtones. Instead, he now prefers love songs, a sign that he has finally matured and left his violent past behind.
In the years that followed Kubrick’s controversial withdrawal of the film from British screens in 1973, urban myth held it that Burgess had in some way prompted this by criticising Kubrick for omitting this final chapter. However, in reality, Burgess was a massive fan of Kubrick’s adaptation and considered the book’s epilogue “optional”. Though he and the director did eventually fall out over what Burgess saw as Kubrick’s lack of support when called on to defend both book and film from accusations of glorifying violence, he recognised that Kubrick, an American, would not have read the final chapter as it was omitted from the 1963 edition published in the USA. Burgess did not object to that at the time, and his own 1966 stab at a film script omits it.
In a rare interview, Kubrick said: “There are two different versions of the novel. One has an extra chapter. I had not read this version until I had virtually finished the screenplay. This extra chapter depicts the rehabilitation of Alex. But it is, as far as I am concerned, unconvincing and inconsistent with the style and intent of the book. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the publisher had somehow prevailed upon Burgess to tack on the extra chapter against his better judgment, so the book would end on a more positive note. I certainly never gave any serious consideration to using it.”
Burgess famously stated in the introduction to the novel’s 1986 edition: “Should we end here? An optional ‘epilogue’ follows. Readers of the twenty-first chapter must decide for themselves whether it enhances the book they presumably know or is really a discardable limb. I meant the book to end in this way, but my aesthetic judgments may have been faulty.”
And yet… the novel’s ending adds a layer of complexity to the story that is absent from the film adaptation. It shows that Alex has finally matured and is ready to leave his violent past behind, something that is only hinted at in the film’s closing scene.
However, some argue that the film’s ending, which leaves Alex triumphant and free to indulge in his violent tendencies once again – he is even to be rewarded with a government job – is more thematically consistent with the rest of the story. The film’s ending highlights the futility of trying to control human nature and the dangers of a society that seeks to strip its citizens of their free will.Regardless of which ending you prefer, there is no denying the impact that A Clockwork Orange has had on popular culture. The novel’s themes of violence, free will, and the role of the state in controlling human behavior are just as relevant today as they were when the book was first published. As the movie’s star McDowell says: “Every new generation rediscovers it – not because of the violence, which is old hat compared to today, but the psychological violence. That debate, about a man’s freedom of choice, is still current.”