“You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” This romantic line is one of the most famous quotes from Jane Austin’s celebrated  novel: Pride and Prejudice, said by Mr. Darcy, the main male character.

 

Published in 1813, the book was adapted into multiple versions of movies, series and podcasting. (This essay will be referring to the movie filmed in 2005). Some people believed that however accomplished the movie are, the original book can not be surpassed, while others argue that movies provide a new angle of the story, allowing the viewers to appreciate it in a new way. In this article, I’ll be discussing the differences between the original book and the movie.

       First, the major difference lies in the characters. When being introduced to the audiences or readers, the characters in the movie tend to make a stronger first impression, a more impressive debut since they’re played by real living people.  Meanwhile, the book uses dialogues and narrations to gradually build up figures in our heads.  However, the drawback of too strong an impression is that viewers tend to forget other details of the character. Occupied by the iconic scenes in the film, their impression of characters is only built on them instead of composed by the whole story. Take the famous proposal-in-the-rain scene for example: Mr. Darcy, soaked by the pouring rain, asks for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage for the first time, only to be refused. The scene is often believed to be the climax of the story because this is where the main characters show their pride and prejudice towards each other, have a huge fight, and begin to truly understand each other. In fact, this scene is so popular that the soaked white shirt worn by the actor became a central piece of a Jane Austin exhibition. (Lifestyle desk, 2022).  Of course, the scene is still essential in the book, but it’s relatively unlikely that a small part gets over-emphasized. In the movie, the buildup of each character was limited to certain scenes or an iconic line, meanwhile, a book can lead the readers to befriend each person bit by bit.

        Second, many small parts are sacrificed in the movie. As a book of 61 chapters, a lot of details are omitted from Pride and Prejudice. Some details, however, are too important to omit but too scattered to film day by day. Therefore, the director, Joe Wright, puts different events in the same day or changes the sequence of events in order to conserve the details without making the film lengthy. This practice is similar to someone modifying their clothes to make it fit better. An interesting fact, however, is that most celebrated designer’s work only has one size, because they know that’s how it looks best. Likewise, when a book was turned into a movie, omitted or condensed, it surely fits, but it might not be as  tightly woven together like it had been.

        The last difference is increase of narration. The narrator plays an important part of explaining the details or describing the surroundings.  So when Wright omits this part, additional conversations must be added to explain the situation, or to state a character’s personality. This practice, however, easily leads to “out of character,” especially when the director does not know the book well enough. For example, in the film, Elizabeth Bennet said that Jane, her elder sister, “may well perish with the shame of having such a mother. “When her mother porously made her ill so that she can stay at the house of a wealthy gentlemen and stated that people don’t die of a common cold. Many book fans are discontent of this line, arguing that Lizzy (short for Elizabeth ) would never say something like that because though she loves sarcasm just like her father, she is very careful about what she says to other people. Extra dialogues can be necessary, but the director has to be very careful about the things they add that wasn’t there before.

       Adapted into a movie, was given less details then in the book. The movie modifies the arrangement, and therefor also have to change the line of the character. It’s shorter, easier, and undeniably beautiful. The movie is a new way of enjoying the story, a starter pack for those who are interested in classics. Nevertheless, for those who want a thorough Pride and prejudice experience, I still recommend the book no matter you have watched the movie or not. 

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Austin, J. (1813). England: T. Egerton, Whitehall.

Lifestyle Desk. (2022). The Indian Express

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