Scarlet Letter: Movie vs. Film

Movie vs. Film The Scarlet Letter is a literary work full of symbols and hidden meaning. However, when a book is transformed into a movie, things may seem a little off. Although the movie we are viewing in class is very similar to the book, there are slight differences that one notices. This, quite simply, is because we viewed scenes differently than the director of the movie did. One example of this is Chillingworth’s appearance. The author of the movie apparently saw Roger Chillingworth as a grungy, older man. However, when I read the Scarlet Letter, I viewed Chillingworth as a somewhat good looking man that had a menacing smile and somewhat wolf-like features. The Chillingworth I imagined seemed capable and lively, not frail and painfully slow. Another difference I noticed when viewing the movie was that Hester’s scarlet “A” was very flashy. Now, I know that Hester is a masterful knitter and she can craft many beautiful things, but I never imagined that her “A” would be so extraordinary. To be honest, I didn’t even realize that her “A” was actually an “A”. It has odd floral designs and branches off into a few different directions. Needless to say, this distracts me while I watch the movie. I feel as though the author saw something so amazing that I missed. In a sense, I feel as though I am missing out on some important quality of the novel. The last difference that I found was between my vision of the town and the director’s. I envisioned the town to be open and slightly barren, but the director displayed it as very closed up and confined. From the way Hawthorne described the town, I imagined more of an open landscape where one would have to walk long distances to get from point A to point B. However, the director displayed the town as very close together and small. Also, I noticed that everybody in the town was fairly dirty or dingy. This also contradicted