Pride And Prejudice Adaptation Essay

When adapting a novel, there are three different ways directors can translate that into a film. They may take on the literal, traditional or radical interpretation of their adaptation of the novel; in Joe Wright’s 2005 Pride and Prejudice, he takes on the traditional interpretation. This translation demonstrates the same ideas, central conflicts, and characters as those of Austen’s novel 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice. Linda Costanzo Cahir, the author of Literature into Film, gives sufficient evidence to prove that this adaptation is in fact a traditional one. Cahir claims that a traditional translation “maintains the overall traits of the book” (16) which include “its plot, settings, and stylistic conventions but revamps particular ways

Wright stays within the storyline of Elizabeth and Darcy, with some added features. As mentioned before, Wright adds the rain scene to enhance the romance level. He does this with the end of the film as well when Elizabeth and Darcy are able to truly exemplify their genuine feelings for one another. Wright designates Darcy to have the lines of, “You must have known, surely you must have known, it was all for you,” (Wright 2005). In the novel, however, Darcy never delivers those lines. He goes on to correct Elizabeth by saying, “But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe, I thought only of you” (Austen, 325). Yes, the lines are different, and while some fanatics can criticize the end of the film to be not exactly how Austen portrayed it, it is once again Wright’s freedom to translate the film this way due to it’s traditional adaptation. He has Darcy with an open shirt, and has the two walking towards each other in romantic like fashion. This too can be argued to be an addition to connect with the modern audience, but still, it pays tribute to the plot; Elizabeth and Darcy love each other. It isn’t as if Elizabeth ended up with someone completely different, which would be a case of radical translation, rather there were a few changes in dialogue, which most traditional adaptations