Gary Sinse transformed the book of Arthur Miller, The Crucible, into a very forceful movie even though there are some differences between the play and the

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Nowadays many people prefer to watch a movie in the cinema or in the TV rather than reading a book. This explains why more and more books are being transformed into movies. Sometimes the movies are faithful to the books that they adapt. In other cases the directors feel free to change the play or the novel to best suit the feelings and the tastes of their audience. A film director has more resources to produce a film than what you have in a play theatre. In a play written for a theatre stage, the decorations can change only a certain number of times and it can be difficult to express the different emotions of the characters. A film can show the different emotions with close ups and can built emotions with different decorations and music. The play is more limited than the movie and that is why there are usually differences between a story written as a play and a film based on that same story. The movie and the play portray different feelings of pity, empathy and anger, as well as similarities with a historic event that has inspired both movie and play.

Gary Sinse transformed the book of Arthur Miller, The Crucible, into a very forceful movie even though there are some differences between the play and the movie. Sinse respects most of the play and consequently the movie and the play have many things in common. Nevertheless, to enrich the play and to make it less theatre like, the director introduces some changes in the movie that make it different from the play. There are differences between the play and the movie and the feeling we arrive. For the play we get mostly get a feeling of anger and pity.   The first difference comes in the first scenes of the play and the movie. In the play, Betty is in a small bedroom, lying on the bed, with her father, Reverend Parris kneeling beside her bed and praying (6-7-8). It takes a few pages to know what has happened to her and why she is in a sort of comma. The feeling that this situation evokes is anger because she is faking the whole situation and letting her father think that she is really dying. To avoid being punished and whipped by her father, Betty makes up a lie saying that the girls that were dancing had been witchcraft (44-46) and she fakes her own comma. The fact that she is so untruthful brings a feeling of anger in the reader. Another difference arises when Betty decides to jump out of the window. In the play, only the girls know Betty’s intention. It produces a feeling of anger because the girls are not trustworthy and are capable of throwing their own friend out of the window to save themselves. Some differences arise also regarding John Proctor. In the play nobody knows that John and Abigail have committed adultery (77. 105).For Abigail there is a feeling of pity because if she loves so much John, and is able to have people killed to be with him, then she should have told the whole town about it. In the play, some lies are better understood once it is clear that Abigail still loves John, is jealous and wants revenge (77).Also in the play John has completely forgotten his affair with Abigail and he does not consider it important. The love affair appears just as a sexual relation with not much feeling on John’s part.  This can be seen when he says “The promise that a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl!”(60). This declaration produces anger because it shows no respect for the girl. He is sorry about having had the love affair, he is distrusted by his wife Elizabeth and because of this distrust and for Elizabeth sake he avoids seeing Abigail (52-53). Another difference is that in the play Reverend Parris does not whip Tituba once it is said that she has done witchcraft. There is a feeling of pity for Tituba for being wrongly accused. In the play, when John is going to be hanged he does not pray. The felling is of pity because he has an unjust death. On the contrary, in the movie we mostly see a felling of empathy and pity.  In the movie, the opening scene shows some girls dancing in a crazy way around a fire with a stove in the forest. This way of starting the story sets a different frame of mind. Something surprising and wild can happen. It shows more imagination and catches attention quickly. This wild dance makes you feel pity for the girls because they believe in strange things that will happen to them. In the movie, everybody in Salem sees Betty trying to jump out of the window. A feeling of pity reaches the spectator when the town sees what these poor girl intends to do. Betty is trying to commit suicide because she feels very bad about herself and wants to tell the truth but the other girls do not let her (17).  Probably Sinse makes the whole town watch how Betty tries to commit suicide, to show how everybody in town knows what is going on. Sometimes the director can make up a character to bring up certain emotions in the spectators. For example, Sinse invents a new character Mr. Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs is a poor old man accused of being the devil, which of course he is not. Through him the spectator is more sympathetic with those accused of witchcraft. The feeling the film creates when he is at court saying to Betty that she knows him and that she knows he is innocent, the way the tone of his voice changes, is a feeling of pity. In the movie everybody knows that they have had a love affair. With this change, Sinse wants to emphasize that the situation of adultery is not so scandalous and that in spite of that, people continue respecting John Proctor. This situation creates a feeling of anger because John has a double life, with his wife and children and at the same time an affair with Abigail. In the movie, John knows that he has made a mistake having an affair with Abigail but he shows more affection towards her. John does not avoid her and it seems as if he still has some love for her. Sinse deals with the love affair of Abigail and John as something more serious and tender. Empathy for John’s situation arises in the spectator. Since John does not want his honour destroyed, he refuses to sign the paper confessing witchcraft. So, he will be hanged. John is an honorable man that dislikes lies and that creates a feeling of empathy. On the contrary, in the movie John recites parts of the bible before his execution. In this way, Sinse tries to transmit us the impression that John is not only innocent but that he is also a good Christian that will not lie. The feeling is of empathy because he is a good man and trusts God. By acting honestly, John gains back the respect of his wife. For example, when in front of his wife he says “I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such do Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony and sink them with it!” (133). In the movie, he whips Tituba until she confesses that she has let out the devil. The director does this to show how people in Salem were forced to say things that were not true. The whipping of Tituba produces anger because she is innocent. These differences change a lot the movie from the play but some basic ideas are kept in.

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Although there are differences between the play and the movie, Sinse keeps the essentials and the movie is really quite close to the play. In this way, the town of Salem is described as it is in the play. A puritan town ruled by religion and authority where everybody is expected to live under certain rules and they are looked at suspiciously if they do not follow the right path which means the rules of society. Both the book and the film transmit very well the sense of oppression and the lack of freedom to think differently. Both, play ...

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