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Scarlet Letter: Novel v Movie
Films of this age are often criticized for lacking ‘substance’ and compensate for this discrepancy with explosions and elaborate camera work. ... Many believe that concocting a script is an unsophisticated mode of writing, a copper to the gold of a novel. After careful scrutiny of both, the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and viewing the rendition of the Scarlet Letter by Roland Joffe, one can immediately comprehend the enormous amount of work put into both, as well as the innumerable differences and similarities between them. ...
The film is freely adapted from the novel. ... The first hour of the movie was devoted to informing the viewer about the background. The film was set in motion when Hester arrived in the New World, not at the grim prison door she passed through on her way to the scaffold in the novel. Many characters not included in the novel were inserted into the film, several of whom were pivotal to the plot. Mituba, Hester’s introverted slave girl, Brewster, the coarse, undisciplined rule-breaker, Goody Gotwick, the mouthpiece of the community’s “pious women,” and Minister Cheever, the influential church leader who attempted to serve as the judge of the community’s morals did not exist in the novel. ... In the book, their connection prevented her persecution, whereas in the movie, no familial bond protected mistress Hibbins from the cruel witch trials typical of the seventeenth century. Hibbins minor function in the in the book, evolved into an imperative role in the movie. ... In the novel, Dimmesdale was not inclined to do anything with the possibility of arousing suspicion. ... Pearl showed no real interest her mother’ letter; it was she who discarded it beneath the horse carriage as Hester, Dimmesdale, and herself left at the conclusion of the film for their new life in the Carolinas. In Hawthorne’s novel, Pearl held the letter as almost an appendage of her mother’s. ...
There are also a number of plot differences between the film and the novel, some of which emanate from the introduction of new characters. ... ” The film version of the letter was fairly simple: a solid, capital, bright red “A” with a black background, definitely not a masterwork of embroidery. The “A” of the novel was finely sewn in gold thread on a blazing, fervent background; it was a renowned ignominy of both, passion and sin. ... Pearl seems more impartial in her views than the narrator in the novel. There was more of a sense of having to achieve atonement for sin in the novel hence Pearl’s depiction as being almost a devil-child.
Some of the similarities noted in both the novel and the film are the concepts of original sin, lust, the symbolic use of the color red, Chillingworth’s evil nature, the theme of the uncivilized and witchcraft, and the Puritanical obsession with rules and order. ... Lust is an important theme of the novel, and central to the film’s development. ...
The Scarlet Letter’s filmmaker, Roland Joffe, also utilized coloring in his film just as Hawthorne did. ... Joffe used a variation of scarlet in defining Chillingsworth’s character, rather than ebony overtones in the book, but once again to prove the same point of Chillingsworth’s evil. ... The use of the color red for Pearl’s blanket and clothing as a symbol of life, love and passion is used in the film and novel as well.
Approximate Word count = 2819
Approximate Pages = 11.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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