There have been many adaptations of Jane Austen's books over the years; all six of her novels have been made into films or television dramas with varying degrees of success, from the classics of Persuasion, Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility, to the funny modern version of Emma in the form of Clueless. In this paper I want to show how director Patricia Rozema has made Austen's novel Mansfield Park much more modern, accessible, and, as some claim, radical, by skipping parts of the story that would make the film version drag, and importing events and dialogue that have significance into scenes, often created by Rozema, that are more appealing.
There is always controversy whether a Jane Austen masterpiece can be adequately conveyed through the medium of film. It has been said that ‘seeing a movie or television adaptation of any of Jane Austen's works is like hearing a symphony of Mozart played on a harmonica’ which suggests that the adaptations are cheapened by the filmmakers and sometimes wildly misinterpreted. Andrew Wright says that many adaptations of Austen's work are made to ‘entice the demi-literate or those of presumably short attention span.’ This is the criticism that faced director Patricia Rozema with her film version of Mansfield Park, which states the very start that the film is only loosely based on the film, but also draws inspiration from the early journals and letters of Jane Austen. There are two schools of thought on the adaptation of Jane Austen's novels, whether they are beneficial or not. It is clear that Rozema’s version of the film makes it more accessible to viewers. M. Casey Diana has experimented on Austen adaptations with her class group:
‘She divided her students into two groups; one read Sense and Sensibility first and then saw the Thompson/Lee film, the other saw the movie first and then read the book…the first group had a hard time comprehending (never mind responding on any deeply imaginative level to it), and both groups used the movie as a "gateway" into the book or an explanation afterwards.
The film version certainly gives us a more vivid view of the story, especially in scenes set in Fanny’s Portsmouth home, where we can see the squalor you end up in when you marry for love. The film is also more poignant on the issues of slavery and abuse of human rights. I am referring to the wailing Fanny hea...
... middle of paper ...
... and other Film/Video adaptations http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/jabbcvid.html 01 May 2005
Wright, Andrew Jane Austen Adapted Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 30, No. 3, Jane Austen 1775-1975. (Dec., 1975), pp. 421-453.Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0029-0564%28197512%2930%3A3%3C421%3AJAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U
Diana's "Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility as Gateway to Austen's Novel: A Pedagogical Experiment," http://www.jimandellen.org/austen/janeausten.onfilm.html
31 April 2005
Elley, Derek http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=upsell_review&reviewID=VE1117752061&cs=1
Posted: Mon., Aug. 30, 1999, 01 May 2005
Bezanson, David 05/05/04 http://movieweb.com/movies/reviews/review.php?film=1386&review=2451 02 May 2005
Martin, Melissa. SparkNote on Mansfield Park. 2 May. 2005 .
Bezanson, David 05/05/04 http://movieweb.com/movies/reviews/review.php?film=1386&review=2451 02 May 2005
Martin, Melissa. SparkNote on Mansfield Park. 2 May. 2005 .
Romero,C. Antonio Culturekiosque movie reviews NEW YORK, 31 December 1999 - http://www.culturekiosque.com/nouveau/cinema/rhemansfld.html
http://www.haro-online.com/movies/mansfield_park.html 01 May 2005
Southam, B.C., (ed.), Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Landon, NY: Routledge & Kegan Paul - Barres & Nobel Inc., 1968.
Grey, J. David., A. Walton. Litz, B. C. Southam, and H. Abigail. Bok. The Jane Austen Companion. New York: Macmillan, 1986. Print.
Moving from the home she adored was troublesome for Jane, particularly in light of the fact that the family lived in a few better places until 1809, when Mr. Austen passed on. Amid that time of nine years, Austen did not compose. After her dad's demise, Austen and her mom and sister moved to Chawton, a nation town where Austen's sibling loaned the family a house he claimed. There Austen could seek after her work once more, and she composed Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. Mansfield Park, which was published in 1814, narrates the story of Fanny Price, a young lady from a poor family who is raised by her rich auntie and uncle at Mansfield Park. The book concentrates on profound quality and the battle amongst heart and societal weights and is considered by a few pundits to be the "primary present day novel” (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948).
Jane Austen's novels at first glance tell a story of romance set primarily within the landowning society amidst country estates, and their cultivation of tea parties, social outings, and extravagant balls; ladies sashaying in flowing gowns through precisely decorated rooms, and men deliberating over their game of whist. The storybook romance usually unfolds in these familiar settings, and inevitably involves the conflict of two lovers separated by differences in social class, and the resulting influence of the diverse societies they revolve in. Although these superficial aspects of Austen's stories are protruding at the seams, underneath the skin of these well-clothed dramas lie serious moral issues afflicting the culture of England during Austen's life.
Ballaster, Ros. "Introduction to Sense and Sensibility". Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.
When a person is traveling and is not used to the culture of the place in which they are staying, the individual may get upset. The inability to adjust to a foreign culture can anxiety, loss of appetites, or feelings of sickness.Sociologists refer to the challenge that an individual may have when the adjustment to a new culture different from the person's own needs to occur as culture shock. Occasionally culture shock can happen when a change of environment occurs inside one's own culture. Culture adaptation can help ease the shock of being introduced to a new culture. Adaptation is how humans begin to get used to changes occurring in the environment that surrounds
An earthquake can be defined as vibrations produced in the earth's crust. Tectonic plates have friction between them which
Diffusion and osmosis refer to passive transport systems where molecules and ions move down concentration gradients driven by thermal motion. The concentration gradients are setup in solutions in living systems that are separated by biological membranes. Diffusion refers to the spontaneous movement of particles, molecules, or ions from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. The process occurs slowly without any expenditure of energy. Diffusion occurs in liquids and gases. An example of diffusion is the movement of the smell of a spray from the point of spraying to the rest of the room. On the other hand, osmosis refers to the movement of molecules of a solvent such as water from an area of low concentration to an area of higher concentration. It is a special type of diffusion that occurs in reverse. An example of osmosis is the process through which animal cells feed on the food they partake. Thus, diffusion and osmosis are called passive transport systems because they enable cells of living systems to move molecules in
Grochowski, Jonathan. "Jane Austen (b. 1775- D. 1817)." Jane Austen. N.p., 7 Dec. 2005. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. .
An earthquake is the shaking of the ground caused by sudden release of energy inside the earth's crust. It's the breaking and moving of tectonic plates along a fault line. Earthquakes can range in size from weak where we don't feel them to extremely violent where they actually thow people around and destroy cities. They may be a result of geological faults or other activites such as volcanoes, landslides, mine blasts and nuclear tests. An earthquake is not always naturally caused.
Work Cited Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. Norton Critical Editions. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 2002.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. New York: WW Norton &. Company, 1996.
Many people read Jane Austen’s fiction novels and only see her writing as cliché and old fashioned. But her stories have a classic, undying theme to them. Stories that are still relatable to readers today. In the last 10 years Austen’s books have been made into a number of television adaptations. Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. Not only do we see Austen’s story lines through her books and the movies, but many modern authors and movie directors use Austen as an inspiration when writing their books and movie scripts. Austen’s stories capture the heart of many people, but she also captures the heart of women today. Women who strive to abolish the social discrimination against themselves. It is a debatable
Earthquakes are one of the most mysterious natural disasters that we deal with to his day. That is the thriller of earthquakes, is the fact that they are so strange and bizarre that it keeps us guessing when the next one is to come. The San Andreas Fault earthquake is the most mysterious, dangerous, and soon to come earthquakes that we still do not necessarily have a date on towards when it will happen.
Fergus, Jan. “Biography.” The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen. Ed. Janet Todd.