Have you ever seen a movie that was based on a play or novel? I am sure you have. And I am also positive that throughout the movie, you stated to yourself several times, "That did not happen in the book/play." Oftentimes, these movies can change the way someone understands the literature that it was produced from. But does it hurt or help that person's understanding? As a reader I try to picture in my head what is going on in the play. From reading the play The Crucible and seeing its movie, I concluded that the motion picture actually increased my understanding of the play because of its visuals. The movie version of The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, augmented my understanding of the play through its visuals of the emotion the characters displayed, the appearance of the village of Salem, and the many expressions of the characters.
The emotion of the characters in the movie gave me excellent visuals.
Arthur Miller, American playwright
Abigail
Deposition of Abigail Williams v. George Jacobs, S...In the movie, at the point where Judge Danforth asks Abigail whether or not she is speaking the truth, Abigail becomes extremely angered. She throws herself over his desk, and then gets right next to face and threatens that even he can become a subject of the Devil. Meanwhile, the veins in her face are literally bulging out. This helped me to see what Abigail was feeling at that point in both the play and in the movie. Obviously, by observing this, one can get an understanding that Abigail was extremely passionate about getting her point across and was willing to use threats to get people to listen.
In addition, setting had a major effect on my view of the play. I pictured Salem as a forest-like town in which the people lived fairly distant from each other. From...