Mansfield Park, the novel, or Mansfield Park the film? Essay -- essays

There construct been mevery adaptations of Jane Austens books over the years all six of her novels have been do into bucks or television dramas with varying degrees of success, from the classics of Persuasion, Pride & adenine Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility, to the funny modern version of Emma in the form of Clueless. In this paper I want to show how director Patricia Rozema has made Austens novel Mansfield Park much more modern, accessible, and, as some claim, radical, by skipping parts of the story that would make the film version drag, and importing events and dialogue that have significance into scenes, often created by Rozema, that are more appealing.There is always controversy whether a Jane Austen masterpiece can be adequately conveyed through the culture medium of film. It has been said that seeing a movie or television adaptation of any of Jane Austens works is like hearing a symphony of Mozart played on a harmonica which suggests that the adaptations are cheapened by the filmmakers and sometimes wildly misinterpreted. Andrew Wright says that many adaptations of Austens work are made to entice the demi-literate or those of presumably short t abateing span. This is the criticism that faced director Patricia Rozema with her film version of Mansfield Park, which states the very start that the film is only loosely based on the film, but also draws extravagance from the early journals and letters of Jane Austen. There are two schools of thought on the adaptation of Jane Austens novels, whether they are beneficial or not. It is clear that Rozemas version of the film makes it more accessible to viewers. M. Casey Diana has experimented on Austen adaptations with her class groupShe divided her students into two groups one read Sense and Sensibility first and then saw the Thompson/ lee side film, the other saw the movie first and then read the bookthe first group had a hard time comprehending (never mind responding on any deeply imaginative level to it), and both groups used the movie as a "gateway" into the book or an explanation afterwards. The film version surely gives us a more vivid view of the story, especially in scenes set in empennages Portsmouth home, where we can see the squalor you end up in when you marry for love. The film is also more poignant on the issues of slavery and abuse of human rights. I am referring to the wailing Fanny hea... ... and other Film/Video adaptationshttp//www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/jabbcvid.html 01 May 2005Wright, Andrew Jane Austen Adapted Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 30, No. 3, Jane Austen 1775-1975. (Dec., 1975), pp. 421-453.Stable URL http//links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0029-0564%28197512%2930%3A3%3C421%3AJAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-UDianas "Emma Thompsons Sense and Sensibility as Gateway to Austens Novel A Pedagogical Experiment," http//www.jimandellen.org/austen/janeausten.onfilm.html31 April 2005Elley, Derek http//www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=upsell_ check up on&review ID=VE1117752061&cs=1Posted Mon., Aug. 30, 1999, 01 May 2005Bezanson, David 05/05/04 http//movieweb.com/movies/reviews/review.php?film=1386&review=2451 02 May 2005Martin, Melissa. SparkNote on Mansfield Park. 2 May. 2005 . Bezanson, David 05/05/04 http//movieweb.com/movies/reviews/review.php?film=1386&review=2451 02 May 2005Martin, Melissa. SparkNote on Mansfield Park. 2 May. 2005 .Romero,C. Antonio Culturekiosque movie reviews NEW YORK, 31 December 1999 - http//www.culturekiosque.com/nouveau/cinema/rhemansfld.htmlhttp//www.haro-online.com/movies/mansfield_park.html 01 May 2005