From Novel to Screenplay to Film: The Adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility

Abstract

<p>This study of Sense and Sensibility comprising three main sections and a concluding appendix, arises out of the current interest in the adaptation of Jane Austen's novels for the cinema. A comparison of the novel with the final production, a comparison that has as its objective the identification of those areas of convergence and divergence, additions and omissions, becomes possible with the publication of Emma Thompson's screenplay and diary of the film-making process. I concentrate in the introduction on the subject of adaptation, providing a contextual background that shows the sometimes fractious relationship between literary critic, writer and cinematic artist. The following chapter contains a broad biographical and critical background of Austen that establishes the social milieu out of which she wrote. This provides a ground against which to view the screenplay, a comparison which forms the subject of the following section. My ultimate purpose in this, the final chapter, is to reveal the extent to which both director and screen-play writer recognize the novel's subtleties, its inherent social commentary, changing only in order to emphasize and to interpret. The appendix with which I conclude the study consists of some background information pertinent to the film's director, Ang Lee.</p>