Ms. Winfrey’s last show was a lot more like the first nationally syndicated episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1986, when the young woman who overcame an abusive, deprived childhood was only beginning to be known but had already developed a messianic streak. Ms. Winfrey showed a clip of that maiden appearance, in which she explained, “This show always allows people, hopefully, to understand the power they have to change their own lives.”

For her final farewell Ms. Winfrey chose to separate the two contradictory strands — spiritual guide and show-business diva — that are the alchemy of her success. Inconsistencies are the core of her improbable, inimitable career. There is no one like her partly because she is never less than two opposite things at once, Hollywood royalty and star-struck commoner, entertainer and confessor, profit seeker and prophet. Ms. Winfrey was a tycoon and also a tastemaker whose endorsement made the fortunes of housewives, authors, singers and even presidential candidates. She built schools, rescued abused children and hawked beauty treatments, sometimes all in the same show. Ms. Winfrey could move from high literature to lowly undergarments in a heartbeat; she is the woman who introduced “Anna Karenina” and Spanx to the masses.