The director of the movie The Scarlet letter, Roland Joffe, casted stars Demi Moore as Hester Prynne, Gary Oldman as Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale and Robert Duvall as Roger Chillingworth and came out in 1995. An additional character than in the book, Hester’s maid named Mituba played by Lisa Jolliff-Andoh was present. The romantic movie which was said to be an adaptation of the novel the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The movie bears many significant differences than the book, that it has been claimed to be based upon.
A young woman Hester Prynne moves to Massachusetts Bay Colony from England and is waiting for her husband to arrive soon. Before her husband arrives, she falls in love with the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale after she sees him skinny dipping and listening
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to him at the church. Hester's maid, Mituba, prepares her bath, and then Hester enjoys her bath by the candlelight, while dreaming of Arthur. The maid is watching all this through a peephole which honestly makes the viewer question as to how this scene could relate or what it could add to the movie except showing how lustfully the maid is watching the naked woman. Dimmesdale visits Hester, they become greatly attracted to each other, and commit adultery in the shed. Mituba again watches them, while she removes her robe and moves into the bathing tub. The whole point of why Mituba is acting like this is still very confusing. Anyways, Mituba holds a candle with its flame above the water, and at the moment of their climax, she draws it under the water, killing the light with a hissing noise. Hester is imprisoned when it is found out that she is pregnant when her husband is not even in the picture and is believed to be dead. The minister intends to confess his sin and face execution, but Hester convinces him to stay quiet because it does not make sense for both of them to suffer. She is sentenced to wear a scarlet "A" for adultery, and is outcaste by the people. Meanwhile, Hester's husband surfaces, having spent his absence as a prisoner of war. He finds out what Hester did and adopts a new identity as "Dr. Roger Chillingworth" and sets on a mission to find the person who stained his name by sleeping with his wife. The physician eventually murders a male settler leaving Hester's home and scalps him in an effort to implicate Algonquian warriors. Infuriated by this atrocity, the colonists declare war on the Indians and Roger, distressed by the severe outcome of his action, he commits suicide. Hester is nearly hanged with other undesirables in the outrage that follows, but Dimmesdale saves her by confessing that he is the father of her child. As he takes her place on the gallows, the Algonquian attack Massachusetts Bay. The end is much different than that of the book so i will not reveal it here, but it is the opposite of what happens in the book. The movie is set in the Puritan time in the 17th century.
The costumes and setting and the architectural designs of the buildings do make it look like it has been shot in the 17th century. The plot seemed weak, not because it was different than the that in the book but because it seemed to be dragging at points and in the book there was room for interpretation but the movie really makes you question if committing adultery is actually wrong or not because neither one is really harmed so it really makes you question it, which really makes you think that is this what we want the audience or people to think.
Secondly, the book has no character in place of Mituba and so it greatly makes her existence in the movie questionable. She is usually only seen spying on Hester, like what is are we supposed to interpret from that. Unlike in the novel, the movie we find out is being narrated by Pearl (Arthur and Hester's child) rather than the by the author like in the book. The end too is much different than that of the book where no war takes place. So the book that is said to be an adaption of the movie greatly contradicts and differentiates from it. It is a Rated R movie and has nudity and sexually explicit
scenes.
Have you ever read a book and watched its movie and thought that the movie was nothing like the book? The Giver’s story was not adapted well onto the big screen. There were many changes that were made, some of which completely altered the whole course of the storyline. For example, Fiona working at the Nurturing Center instead the House of the Old and the characters taking injections instead of pills also changed the way Jonas acted especially towards Fiona throughout the entire movie Some of the many trivial changes that were made did not affect the movie as much.
Many years later, in desperation for a remedy to cure his tortured soul, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale takes to the scaffold where Hester had once suffered her shame. He is envious of the public nature of her ...
The song, "Long Black Veil", written by Johnny Cash has many similar elements to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both have to do with the sin of adultery that ends up hurting the characters in the stories. In "Long Black Veil" a man is convicted of a murder because he cannot provide an alibi for the night that another man was killed. It turns out that the night of the murder, this man had been "in the arms of his best friend's wife." The man ends up being executed while the woman punishes herself for not saving his life by wearing a long black veil. "Long Black Veil" and The Scarlet Letter both demonstrate how secrets can destroy one's life. This theme is shown through the sin of adultery, the punishments that the characters go through and the symbolism of the long black veil and the scarlet letter.
Throughout his literary endeavors, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion; that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
Overall, the movie and book have many differences and similarities, some more important than others. The story still is clear without many scenes from the book, but the movie would have more thought in it.
The plot in the film is very similar to the book but in parts, especially towards the end, the plot is slightly different to the film. The plot is varied in the film to show
From the start, the movie is adapted from the novel and therefore it could not cover everything, some actions or acts in the novel are too dense such that it is not of any importance to angle them in the movie. It is very realistic to everyone that the movie cannot cover every single paragraph in the novel even the memorable ones. Some materials are left out in the film, and others were changed.
The movie is, most likely, done well enough to intrigue its intended audience. It captured the theme and story line of the book. It falls short, though, when compared to the beautiful, sensitive and contemplative prose of Natalie Babbitt. One could only hope that a viewing of the film will lead the watcher to try the book and be delighted all the more.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most respected and admired novels of all time. Often criticized for lacking substance and using more elaborate camera work, freely adapted films usually do not follow the original plot line. Following this cliché, Roland Joffe’s version of The Scarlet Letter received an overwhelmingly negative reception. Unrealistic plots and actions are added to the films for added drama; for example, Hester is about to be killed up on the scaffold, when Algonquin members arrive and rescue her.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates life in the 17th century of Hester Prynne, an adulterer, and her daughter Pearl. Hawthorne depicts the good qualities of Hester throughout the novel although her sin has casted her and her daughter out of Puritan society. Moreover, in 2010, the director Will Gluck created the film Easy A, many say it is the identical and updated version of The Scarlet Letter. The film Easy A illustrates the story of a teenage girl; Olive Prendergast is accused of prostitution through rumors in her school. Despite the opposing cultural and social backgrounds, the similarities in the overall plot between concealing secrets, the effect of sin, and being able to others is the reason why Will Gluck's film Easy A is the modern version of the novel The Scarlet Letter.
Films of this era are criticized for substituting violence and special effects for "substance". Many believe that creating a movie script is a juvenile form of writing, a shrub to the oak of a novel. Upon reading both the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and viewing the film produced by Roland Joffe, one notices the tremendous effort put into both. This essay will explore the many differences and similarities between the book and movie.
One of the central themes of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the idea of how nature bridges a connection with human beings. In the novel, it can be thought that Hawthorne portrays nature as a human like entity. That is, in the novel, nature, much like a human, is capable of observing, responding to, reacting to, and interacting with the characters. That being said, in this case, nature goes by both definitions of the word: nature as the wild, untamed outdoors, as well as human nature. As each day cycles through night and day (or light and darkness), so do the events (of the novel) take place during the light of day, or under the cover of darkness. What should be noted
First and foremost the movie opens considerably in advance of the novel's first scene, and the script by Douglas Day Stewart delves deeply into early events only hinted in Hawthornes tale. Though much of this background, despite being speculative, works, although it takes forever for the romance between Hester and Dimmesdale to get off the ground. This is because of Hesters circumstances. Hester comes to the Puritan stronghold at the Massachusetts Bay Colony to escape religious persecution in England. Her husband Roger has sent her ahead to set up house. Already the good folk are scandalized by her intention to live alone until her husband arrives. Hester meets Dimmesdale, who she has already seen, covertly, swimming like a glorious serpent in a woodland waterfall. Combustion is immediate and she finds herself completely indured by the fiery young minister. Hesters persistence, knowledge and beauty also draw Dimmesdale. Although they scrupulously avoid each other to put off what nature has inexorably in store for them, when word arrives that her husband's ship has been attacked by Indians, no survivors, she flings herself into the lusty reverend's arms. This is when they ...
Now for the counterargument. Some people say that they enjoyed watching the movie after reading the book. They may say that they think the movie does follow the book, and that the characters and events are the same in both versions. However, they are wrong because there is plenty of evidence that says otherwise. The different scenes of the book and movie, and also the characters that are completely different and don’t follow the same path in the two different
Adaptation of any kind has been a debate for many years. The debate on cinematic adaptations of literary works was for many years dominated by the questions of fidelity to the source and by the tendencies to prioritize the literary originals over their film versions (Whelehan, 2006). In the transference of a story from one form to another, there is the basic question of adherence to the source, of what can be lost (Stibetiu, 2001). There is also the question of what the filmmakers are being faithful to or is it the novel’s plot in every detail or the spirit of the original (Smith, 2016). These are only few query on the issue of fidelity in the film adaptation.