In The Shawshank Redemption, what does Andy Dufresne say hope is?
Answer
A good thing, maybe the best of things.
In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne says hope is “a good thing, maybe the best of things.”
Andy writes this thought in a letter to his friend Ellis “Red” Redding after escaping Shawshank State Penitentiary. He tells Red to remember that hope is a good thing and that no good thing ever dies. Tim Robbins plays Andy, while Morgan Freeman plays Red and narrates the film.
The 1994 movie was directed by Frank Darabont and adapted from Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Unlike many King adaptations, it is a prison drama rather than a horror story. The film’s central friendship develops over decades inside the fictional Maine prison.
The quote is often reduced to “Hope is a good thing,” but Andy’s complete sentence adds “maybe the best of things.” That final comparison is why the line is frequently used as an inspirational quotation. The phrase belongs to the film’s closing exchange of letters and reunion.