There have been many on-screen movie adaptations that are based on novels from the past. A great example of this would be The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel was written in 1850 and progressed the career of Nathaniel Hawthorne who lived in Salem, Massachusetts at the time. The movie adaptation was released in 1995 and stars Demi Moore as Hester Prynne, alongside some other award-winning actors, such as Gary Oldman and Robert Duvall. There were alterations made to the onscreen version that changed how the book and movie was portrayed, including: the time frame in which both begin are completely different starting points, the person narrating the tales are different, and the ending in the movie is dramatically different than the novels ending. Movies makers tend to emphasize or change parts of a novel to make it more exciting and relatable to the viewers, which is exactly what …show more content…
The setting of the book begins at the prison doors where the town folk are awaiting the door to open, so Hester Prynne can make her way to the scaffold with her small infant child named Pearl that was a product of an affair she had with an unknown man. In the movie, it shows Hester's arrival in town while she is in the process of setting up the house while she awaits her husband to join her. It shows everything that happened leading up to the love affair between Hester and Reverend Dimmsdale such as their meeting for the first time, falling in love, and the act of the affair itself. While reading the book you do not get the backstories for the main two characters. All the reader knows is Hester is in prison with a child that was born because of an adulterous act, hence where the Scarlet Letter stitched to her bodice came from. In the movie it adds depth and more pieces to the story and helps with character understanding. Another way the movie adaptation changed things to the story was to change the
What is the significance of the scarlet letter A which is embroidered on Hester’s gown?
Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America's most renowned authors, demonstrates his extraordinary talents in two of his most famed novels, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. To compare these two books seems bizarre, as their plots are distinctly different. Though the books are quite seemingly different, the central themes and Hawthorne's style are closely related (Carey, p. 62). American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is most famous for his books THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, which are closely related in theme, the use of symbolism, characterization, and style.
The edgy tale of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is comparable in many ways to Arthur Miller’s haunting play The Crucible. Both are set in Puritan New England in the 17th century and revolve around the harsh law enforcement of the time. However, The Scarlet Letter tells the story of a woman as she deals with her heavy Puritan punishment, whereas The Crucible follows hysteria as it spreads throughout an entire town. Hester Prynne, the main character of The Scarlet Letter, was found guilty for adultery and sentenced to wear a red letter A on her chest to inform people of her sin. Similarly, The Crucible’s main character John Proctor admits to having committed lechery and is sent to jail for this and for being a
The Scarlet Letter and Chicago are two popular pieces of work that have similarities including the way the women treat their husbands, how the women handle it, and how they both got what they wanted, and differences including the reactions from the people in their town and their husbands, the reason why the women committed adultery, other characters, and the kind of person the women turn out to be in the end.
Both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome provide an insight into the moral ideas that have shaped New England. One major theme of The Scarlet Letter that helps to portray this is the theme of Puritanism. The religious nature of the morality shaped the society’s reaction to Hester’s affair. A major theme of Ethan Frome that helps to portray this is the theme of duty and morality vs. desire. Ethan feels he has a moral duty to remain with his wife, Zeena, even though he truly desires to run away with Mattie. The ideas of morality presented in The Scarlet Letter and Ethan Frome are similar in that they both portray adultery as greatly immoral; however, they differ in the reason behind these ideas of morality.
The novel The Scarlet Letter and the film Chicago have many similarities and differences. Within time the values of a person have changed and not in all cases do things get serious. Time periods have changed and now adultery is not as serious as it used to be. In the 1850’s and 1920’s nothing was easy to get away with at all.
Demi Moore's portrayal of Hester in the movie The Scarlet Letter proved her worth as a feminist actress, which led her to other, more modern female empowerment roles ranging from Striptease to GI Jane. But in the moviemakers 'attempt to give the story what they might think is a little modern flavor, they barbarously misconstrued the theme, and thus the importance, of a timeless story. In the novel, there can be little doubt that Hester is a strong person, but the movie made her out to be a martyr for women's rights. The female empowerment theme of the movie also inevitably led to the characterization of Christians and their ethics as tyrannical and oppressive because the feminist
FILM NOTE -- Sarah's Key, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot
The setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet letter” is crucial to the understanding of the event that takes place in the story. The setting of the story is in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era. During the Puritan era, adultery was taken as a very serious sin, and this is what Hester and Dimmesdale committ with each other. Because of the sin, their lives change, Hester has to walk around in public with a Scarlet Letter “A” which stands for adultery, and she is constantly being tortured and is thought of as less than a person. Dimmesdale walks around with his sin kept as secret, because he never admits his sin, his mental state is changing, and the sin degrades his well-being. Chillingworth
While the simplest portion of the written book is portrayed in the movie, (Hester thinks her husband is dead, has sex with Arthur, gets pregnant, and her husband shows up and enacts
hatred and the desire to inflict his revenge on the one who stole his wife*s
When books are adapted into movies certain aspects of the book are changed to aid in translating the story from page to screen. Details are changed to appeal to the audience.
Just because books are different does not mean that they cannot entertain the same audience. The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that takes place in the 1700s. Warrior Cats is a series of novels written by a group of people who call themselves Erin Hunter. I used to read Warrior Cats when I was younger, but I have a more advanced reading level now. These books have a lot more differences than similarities.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a complex romance story in which each of the main characters experience personal conflicts that relate back to love, romance, and sin. Three of the principal characters are Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Each of these characters experience a conflict between personal responsibility and personal desires. The nature of each character’s conflict, effects it has on them, and the overall significance in relation to the work is a critical part of understanding The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne committed adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale and now has a responsibility to mother and care for her child, Pearl.
Cover or the movie... Two things by which a book shouldn't be judged. While evaluating a story we should consider that a book and a movie are two seperate things. As you can see from many examples like Harry Potter, 1984 and Scarlet Letter; script writers create a new story from a book. They cease the events, change them or even add new ones to the plot. So even if movie and the book have the same basis; they become two discrete creation. There are just a few instances that the book and the movie has the same sequence of events.