Comparing Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos and Cruel Intentions the Movie
It is my intention to compare the book, Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos, to its modern movie version, Cruel Intentions starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. I intend to examine how the original French text was modified in reference to plot, character, morals/values, and themes. I also plan to discuss how these transformations change the meaning of the story and reflect different cultural/historical contexts. There are some major differences between these two works, if only because of when they were written.
First, the plots of both works need to be discussed and explained how they are different. The stories of both works have basically the same structure, until it gets toward the endings. In Dangerous Liaisons, the Vicomte de Valmont dies in a sword battle between him and Danceny. Right before he dies, though, he gives Danceny all of his letters between him and the Marquise de Merteuil and tells him to circulate them in order to ruin Merteuil’s reputation. Danceny does this and then moves away for a while. Merteuil ends up becoming disfigured from small pox and her reputation crumbles. She moves to Holland because of this. Cecile moves back into the convent and Madame de Tourvel dies of misery because of the suffering that Valmont put her through.
Because Cruel Intentions is such a modernized version of this story, the ending is a lot different. Sebastian (Valmont) dies by being hit by a car because he pushed Annette (Tourvel) out of the way in order to save her life. Obviously, this is a much more modern way of dying in a movie than dying in a sword fight. Also, it shows the Valmont character as being more heroic, which in Dangerous Liaisons, he was not quite so heroic. In the movie, it does not really say what happens to Ronald (Danceny). He fights with Sebastian, and that is the last we see of him. Catherine (Merteuil), like in the book, also has her reputation ruined, but she gets humiliated in a more dramatic way (in front of the student body and faculty). Also, there is the issue of drugs. Her addiction to cocaine is revealed. The use of drugs is a common issue in today’s modern movies, and that is one of the reasons Cruel Intentions is different in terms of its cultural context. Cecile and Annette (Tourvel) worked together to produce copies of Sebast...
... middle of paper ...
...haracters’ clothing is not discussed in the book, so I cannot really apply this theme to it.
Lastly, I would like to discuss the issue of Libertinism. Libertinism was a movement that started in the eighteenth century; about the time Dangerous Liaisons was written. It was a movement of questioning religion and God and of scandalous affairs. The people of this movement no longer thought the world is controlled by God, but by your own actions. The characters of Valmont and Merteuil were prominent Libertines. The book is definitely an example of this movement. It completely represents the values that come from Libertinism.
In conclusion, both of these pieces of work were written in their cultural and historical context. I attempted to compare the two in reference to plot, character, morals/values, and themes and explain them in their cultural and historical context. Dangerous Liaisons was considered to be a condemned piece of literature and Cruel Intentions emphasized this immorality as a modernized version of the story.
Works Cited
Cruel Intentions. Kumble, Roger. Columbia Pictures, 1998.
Laclos, Choderlos de. Dangerous Liaisons. London: Penguin Classics, 1961.
The story of The Fantasticks, written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt and also based upon Edmond Rostand's play Les Romanesques, concerns itself with the pairing of two young lovers, appropriately enough, the Boy and the Girl. As their story begins to unfold, as told to us by the Narrator (El Gallo), we quickly come to recognize both the Boy and Girl as specific characters with specific concerns, but at the same time we see them as every boy and girl that have ever fallen in love. We see the Boy's unwavering devotion and the Girl's romantic idealism and even though their fathers have built a wall between them, the zealous young lovers will let nothing stand in the way of their passion. Just as the story might b...
However, what really frames Francine du Plessix Gray’s biography is not so much the “fin du dix huitième siècle” but the “fin du vingtième siècle” and the “reality” material from Sade’s life that made it possible to represent the Marquis, his sons, his wife, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and uncle as so many of the people who populate the running narrative of criminals, deadbeat dads, incestuous relatives, date-raping playboys, and battered women that fill soap operas, day-time talk, women’s magazines, talk radio, and the tabloids. This paper, then, explores Sade’s biography not as a narrative of (the Marquis de Sade’s) his life, but as a narrative that pleases today’s reader because it serves up a voyeur’s view of (in) his “dysfunctional” family life “at home” that we are all too familiar with. This becomes abundantly apparent when du Plessix-Gray’s rendering of the Marquis and the Marquise’s lives are superimposed over the récit of lives that we read about all the time in the popular press and observe in television soaps and other series. Ultimately, we are interested in what such a reading, writing and representation of Sade’s life does to Sade’s persona and status, both in the world of letters, but more importantly, in the world at large.
In Harry Mulisch’s novel The Assault, the author not only informs society of the variance in perception of good and evil, but also provides evidence on how important it is for an innocent person experiencing guilt to come to terms with their personal past. First, Mulisch uses the characters Takes, Coster, and Ploeg to express the differences in perspective on the night of the assault. Then he uses Anton to express how one cannot hide from the past because of their guilt. Both of these lessons are important to Mulisch and worth sharing with his readers.
...s going to be forced to marry Paris but The Friar hatches a plan to get them back together. This offers the audience hope that all could still end well. The suspense builds up to the climactic final scene where the previous glimmers of hope emphasise the tragedy of their deaths. This gripping sequence of events brilliantly depicted in different ways in both Zeffirelli and Luhrmann’s films showcase their abilities as directors and their different aims for the films.
The famous French philosopher Rousseau and its setting in the Romantic Era seem also to have influenced the themes in the book with its focus on the necessity of emotion and the importance of protecting nature, something which could actually be seen as the main ?message? of the book. Her book is a warning against the ?over-reaching? of man and she uses the Gothic style to shock 19th Century readers.
Before taking this course, I always looked at films and read books just as the average person does; interesting plot and how long will it hold my interest, but this course gave me an entire different perspective when watching films and reading books. Now that I have taken this course and have watched the required films, the most important thing when watching other movies and reading books, is the meaning behind each scene and how they relate and affect our world. For this paper, I will discuss a book that I read a long time ago, which is She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb and how this book relates to this course.
...e allows violent language to drive the characters. Yet at the same time, the violent language ends up proving to be not as harsh and actually leads these sets of characters to courtship.
However, the easily overlooked similarity is the concept of love. This emotion is merely overlooked. Through this similarity, it becomes evident that love not only is something yearned for by humanity, but also a temptation so strong it can blind us to reality. This blindness can cause the pain of death. Love can cause people to do crazy things, and if you are Lieutenant Cross, even make you treat a pebble as if it were a tongue. Frank’s love for Mary Ann, as innocent as it may seem, exists as a love for a married woman. Love and lust are dangerous beasts, ones that we as readers must be weary of, for if we are not, we may find ourselves sharing the same fate as Frank, death by
Many of us have heard of the “dysfunctional relationship” characterized by the twists and the turns of emotion and the outrageous behavior of two self-destructive individuals. However, we never envision ourselves in that situation, playing either the stereotyped role of the crazy woman or man, both blinded by love or another passionate emotion. However, in Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee creates an eye-brow rising, head-tilting relationship between the old and pedophilic magistrate and the damaged barbarian girl. The transformative relationship between the two individuals is based on torture, guilt, atonement, and power. Didactically, through their relationship, Coetzee intends for the reader to understand the effect of moral idleness and also to see himself reflected in the idea of the true barbarian.
Despite his refusal of her request, Viconte persuades the Marquis to promise him a reward (a sexual favor) if he accomplishes his self-appointed task. In the meantime, the Marquis drags in a poor music teacher, Dawsoni, to achieve her desires. Eventually, for purposes of revenge, Viconte assists the Marquis in her venture. This leads to Madam de Tourvel falling in love with Viconte, as he desperately falls in love with her. Their love is tormented by the fact he is ashamed of actually loving, and all of his skeletons come out to haunt him.
A young girl, like Juliet can be mesmerized by the idea of love and have the thought in her head that love is all that matters. The intensity of love in both of these texts becomes a dangerous and violent thing. Juliet goes through physical pain stabbing herself so she could be with Romeo after his death. Juliet looks at death as a positive thing because it allows her to be with Romeo again. Before she kills herself she says, “O, happy dagger, this is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die” (Shakespeare V.iii.174-175). In most romantic tales, violence is the last thing you would think of when it comes to love, but it would be different in this play. In both of these texts we see love destroy people mentally and physically; instead of bring happiness to their lives. When Juliet notices that Romeo drank poison and had killed himself, she was not only upset about his death but also seemed more upset that he “left no friendly drop to help me after! I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them” (Shakespeare V.iii.168-170). This bond that seems to be unbreakable between them causes more harm than it would have if they were not together like society would want them to be. During this time period in the 16th century, the parents usually arranged marriages, so this goes completely against societal
In Literature and Life, Love is a powerful force. Sans love; feelings, desires and relationships may seem empty. This force however, can also be destructive, even may end a marriage. Marital discord, arising in general, due to infatuation, lust or affection for a third person, may crop up primarily facilitated by adverse familial, economic or societal conditions that do frequently find their mention in the written word. Some of these concerns like family, marriage, sexuality, society and death, are notably illustrated by the authors, Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary and Laura Esquivel in Like Water for Chocolate.
... personalities were shared, since in the time of inquisition, they were ruled by religious and Catholic thoughts that were nothing else that a mirror of non-free life that all citizen should follow. Both the Marquis and Bernarda die turning crazy on each corner of their lives, but the love that the Marquis tried to give once will remain alive although his daughter is not aware about it.
The proscription from any domain of memorable works may be due to a major problem both in the novel and film: the ambiguous point of view adopted. The novel is geared for a transposition to the screen. It is no coincidence that the film was scripted by Niccolò Ammaniti, who adapted ...
The Rape of the Lock deals with the issues of vanity, frivolity, conceit, pride and the indulgence of elite of the English society in trivial matters of love, romance, sexuality and flirtation. In the mock-...