Differences Between an Original and a Modern Adaptation

The 1995 film version of “Persuasion” directed by Roger Michell is a beautiful adaptation of the text. Though certain scenes are changed it shares the same tone and message of the text. Specific themes are more clear by the focus of the film and the director’s translation. One noticeable theme, was the importance of illuminating the focus on the Napoleonic wars. Also noticeable was the overall desire for Anne to be able to escape all of the Elliots. The end of the movie is very different from the text as the film reveals the focus of war as an element of escape for Anne Elliot.
The end of the book is quite different from the movie for many reasons, as the mediums are different and the audience At the end of the book, Captain Wentworth comes to Sir Walter’s rooms and is amiable, but no other significant events occur. In the last chapter Anne and Captain Wentworth end up together with little opposition or interest from the Elliots. Contrasting, in the end of the movie, before Captain Wentworth makes it to Sir Walter’s rooms, Anne overhears that Napoleon has escaped from Elba and that indeed the navy would be requested at once. Then Anne goes and sits by her cousin, Mr. Elliot, whom she knows to be only interested in her because of his own interests within the Elliot family; he requests her decision upon his proposal. Before Anne can answer Captain Wentworth comes in and announces to the whole room of their proposal and his request from Sir Walter to secure a date.
The differences between the two endings are striking because of the proposed themes revealed in the different mediums. The film has a more direct focus upon the value of war as an element of escape for Anne Elliot that the book does not qualify so well. In the book, Anne is mortified because of her own family connections as she was severely conscious:
…Of having no relations to bestow on him which a man of sense could value…The disproportion in their fortune was nothing; it did not give her a moment’s regret; but to have no family to receive and to estimate him properly; nothing of respectability, of harmony, of good-will to offer in return for all the worth and all the prompt welcome which met her in his brothers and sisters, was a source of as lively pain as her mind could well be sensible of, under circumstances of otherwise strong felicity.
(p 202)
The acute pain Anne suffers is lost in the movie as it does not show her embarrassment at her own relations, rather, Sir Walter makes a scene as he wonders why Captain Wentworth should have taken an interest in Anne, and this is a close translation to make Anne’s internal feelings shown through her family’s peculiar reactions. Anne’s value on sense versus rank is evident in both the film and the text as it is clear to the audience that rank should be nothing without sense. As Sir Walter has only his rank he is a ridiculous man for Captain Wentworth to desire to have a connection with.
Anne’s desire to have good sense over rank and social status estranges her in her family. The movie had to have a war for Anne to truly escape from her family, whereas the book leaves her marrying as separation enough. The values for when the movie was made about travel made this change necessary as travel is a lot more feasible and sixteen miles of good road are nothing. Thus Captain Wentworth has to necessarily draw Anne out of her family circle by the new worry of war resuming. In the book, Anne’s friends are worried about her as Captain Wentworth’s; “profession was all that could ever make her friends wish that tenderness less; the dread of a future war all that could dim her sunshine. She gloried in being a sailor's wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance”(p 203). The movie felt it was right in refuting the worry as Anne should be able to go seafaring along with him.
The book does not end with a return to war, but rather the fear Anne's friends have of their being one as she is now married to a Captain of the Navy. This illuminates the texts use of war, for if there never had been war, there would not have been a rise in social class for so many men in the Navy. “Persuasion” uses the war to elevate Captain Wentworth to be someone that the Elliot's old rank will have to respect. Since the change was so drastic for the old nobility, it can be no wonder that in order for Captain Wentworth to leave all of the nonsense of the Elliot’s behind, that the film would more practically resume war and have Anne be on a boat far away from the Elliots.

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The Use of Poetry in Persuasion

Jane Austens novels are used to focus on the importance of reading as well as the dangers and strengths of specific genres. In “Persuasion” her targeted genre is poetry, and throughout the novel we see how specific the affect of poetry is on the plot. “Persuasion” uses poetry to exploit the characters with “a mind destroyed by wretchedness”(p 85). Poetry has a direct affect upon the emotions of characters in “Persuasion” as they grow and develop. When Anne judges the affects of poetry on Captain Benwick she realizes the danger to oneself if one only reads one genre; by exploiting one genre so severely the text shows us the danger of being focused too much on one type of reading as it becomes too large apart of the character’s identity.
There are two character’s that “Persuasion” chooses to show the danger of only reading poetry. They are Captain Benwick and Anne Elliot, as Captain Benwick is recovering from the loss of his deceased fiancé and as Anne tries to forget about Captain Wentworth. Anne is at a distinct disadvantage as she cannot forget someone with whom she is constantly around as she is at Uppercross. Captain Benwick is very comfortable with all of the dismal emotions of all of the poets as they reflect upon the sad state he is currently in. As we compare Anne to Captain Benwick we see how his enjoyment of poetry is truly hindering his recovery. Anne contrastingly is not so ill affected by poetry and is a good character to show how diversity in ones hobbies is a very amiable quality.
When Anne is in Lyme the affect of poetry on the plot becomes a lot more apparent. Captain Benwick meets Anne and as he is educated, she is quickly drawn into conversation with him. Upon their continued conversation Anne becomes aware of the ill affect of poetry to his recovery as he:
...shewed himself so intimately acquainted with all the tenderest songs of the one poet and all the impassioned descriptions of hopeless agony of the other, he repeated with such tremulous feeling, the various lines which imaged a broken heart, or a mind destroyed by wretchedness, and looked so entirely as if he meant to be understood, that she ventured to hope he did not always read only poetry; and to say, that she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly, were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.
(p 85)
Anne realizes that those who truly enjoy poetry are doing a great evil to themselves, as they seem to understand the poetry all too well. She reflects that those who are safe in reading the genre are typically those who cannot understand the verse very well. It is through Benwicks sole focus on poetry that the reader can feel what the text means by having the genre of poetry being the only genre read. The text shows the misfortune of people who are only focused upon poetry, as it has become a large part of who Captain Benwick’s character is, and as we see how Anne does not need to read poetry to maintain her identity.
As poetry relates to identity, we see how it contrasts Captain Benwick against Anne Elliot by how Anne re-evaluates her conversation with Captain Benwick. Anne is pondering upon her validity in judging the affect of poetry on Captain Benwick so harshly. She recognizes her own failures and is concerned as she reflects that she:
…could not but be amused at the idea of her coming to Lyme, to preach patience and resignation to a young man whom she had never seen before; nor could she help fearing, on more serious reflection, that, like many other great moralists and preachers, she had been eloquent on a point in which her own conduct would ill bear examination.
(p 85).
When she realizes that she is perhaps the wrong person to be so critical to the severe affect of poetry on Captain Benwick. Her concern with her unqualified judgment shows a new growth in Anne as she realizes what her sermon on patience and resignation would mean to someone who she knew very little and what his own judgment could be of her if he would know her better. This is a point where Anne is able to see failings in herself.
“Persuasion” is able to show the reader how severe the monopoly of one genre is upon the characters. By showing us this we are able to see how we are affected by our own monopoly of genres. The text allows the reader to be severe upon the characters and then unconsciously upon theirselves. When the text is able to point out the evils of its own genre we are able to broaden our own reading horizons and diversify, and then safely take the bad and the good of the genre.

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