Compare & Contrast
Compare and Contrast paper
After reading a book and then watching the movie based on that book, generally people will say they feel disappointed because the movie lacks its heart and substance. Even though the movie The Scarlet Letter, directed by Roland Joffé, is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, it offers different characters and plot than the novel. However, the book captivates people more. In both, the story takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, in seventeenth century. The Scarlet Letter is about Hester Prynne, a beautiful, young married woman from England who commits adultery with the respected minister Arthur Dimmesdale. When Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth comes to Boston after two years’ absence, he finds his wife has been unfaithful to him, and now has a baby, named Pearl. Furious about the betrayal, Chillingworth plots his revenge. The Puritan society is angry at Hester, and pressures her to confess her lover’s name, but she refuses. To punish her, they constrain her to wear the scarlet letter A. In the movie, Demi Moore stars as the pretty woman who commits adultery, Hester Prynne. Gary Oldman plays the admirable Minister Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth is played by Robert Duvall. The Scarlet Letter of Nathaniel Hawthorne is an amazing novel but Roland Joffé’s movie does not catch the essence of the novel, and the changes in characters and plot alter the message of the novel.
The beginning of the movie is different from the novel and this change changes the message of the book. The beginning in the novel attracts the reader’s attention more. The novel begins at the prison-door, and there is a wild rose-bush outside the portal. In the next scene, one young, beautiful woman is led to the scaffold from the town jail with her infant. Hawthorne states that “This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history” (46). The prison represents the Puritan society and its laws, judgments, and punishments. And outside the
After reading a book and then watching the movie based on that book, generally people will say they feel disappointed because the movie lacks its heart and substance. Even though the movie The Scarlet Letter, directed by Roland Joffé, is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, it offers different characters and plot than the novel. However, the book captivates people more. In both, the story takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, in seventeenth century. The Scarlet Letter is about Hester Prynne, a beautiful, young married woman from England who commits adultery with the respected minister Arthur Dimmesdale. When Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth comes to Boston after two years’ absence, he finds his wife has been unfaithful to him, and now has a baby, named Pearl. Furious about the betrayal, Chillingworth plots his revenge. The Puritan society is angry at Hester, and pressures her to confess her lover’s name, but she refuses. To punish her, they constrain her to wear the scarlet letter A. In the movie, Demi Moore stars as the pretty woman who commits adultery, Hester Prynne. Gary Oldman plays the admirable Minister Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth is played by Robert Duvall. The Scarlet Letter of Nathaniel Hawthorne is an amazing novel but Roland Joffé’s movie does not catch the essence of the novel, and the changes in characters and plot alter the message of the novel.
The beginning of the movie is different from the novel and this change changes the message of the book. The beginning in the novel attracts the reader’s attention more. The novel begins at the prison-door, and there is a wild rose-bush outside the portal. In the next scene, one young, beautiful woman is led to the scaffold from the town jail with her infant. Hawthorne states that “This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history” (46). The prison represents the Puritan society and its laws, judgments, and punishments. And outside the
Cited: James, Pearl. "An overview of The Scarlet Letter." An essay for Exploring Novels. Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, Literature Resource Center. Gale. Valley Christian High School - BAISL. Web. 18 Jan. 2010. "A review of 'The Scarlet Letter: A Romance." The Athenaeum. 1181 (15 June 1850): 634. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. p634. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Valley Christian High School - BAISL Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 2003. Print. The Scarlet Letter. Dir. Roland Joffé. Perf. Demi Moore, and Gary Oldman. USA, 1995. DVD. “The Scarlet Letter.” Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 158. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Web. 20 Jan. James, Pearl. "An overview of The Scarlet Letter." an Essay for Exploring Novels. Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, Literature Resource Center. Gale. Web. 20 Jan