FILM AND LITERATURE
Literature on-screen is not only about
Film and Literature: A Boundaries
Relationship
HISTORY OF FILM
-Early photographic experiments lead to the
development of “motion” pictures.
The first film (Sallie Gardner) was created
in 1877 and made to capture the motion of a
horse.
-Films were projected beginning in the
1890s. Early films were short (at least 3
seconds to 1 minute) and were about
everyday scenes. Some candid and some
staged.
Motion Picture- a series of pictures
projected on a screen rapidly one after
another so as to give the appearance of a
continuous picture in which the objects
move.
Film and literature have much similarity and
difference. In literature (fiction), the writer
uses language to show the interior of the
characters while in films the moving
pictures show the character through
actions. In fiction, the narration is in the
third person whereas in films it is in linear
fashion.
They both present stories and introduce
characters. They take us to worlds created
by the writer that are fascinating and new.
Novels and films generally have a
beginning, middle and end.
adapting existing books. Some movies
are creating their own kind of literary style
by
focusing on a famous author’s life or by
adopting specific cinematography,
directions, dialogues or edits to create a
literary or poetic aesthetic.
In 1897, in the preface of his novel The
Nigger of the Narcissus, author, Joseph
Conrad states: “My task which I am trying to
achieve is, by the power of the written word,
to make you hear, to make you feel-it is,
before all, to make you see”. In fact, while
reading, we imagine a fantasy world made
up of our own ideas and interpretations, and
when a director transcribes their own
vision of a book into a movie, it will not
precisely match ours. Here comes the
disappointment… or the surprise!
Some adaptations have been recognized as
bringing the reader’s mental image of the
book to life. For instance, Jules and Jim’s
French New Wave cinematic style suits
Henri-Pierre Roché’s literary style.
Is it really worth it to compare a book to its
adaptation? Of course, a few supposedly
unadaptable books may best be kept
away from investors, because we love
them badly enough not to see real
pictures upon it. Nevertheless, one could
consider an adaptation as an individual
artwork. As an example, let’s quote Now
You See It video’s ‘Film vs. Novel: What
Makes Them Different?’
 FILM AND LITERATURE
Film Adaption: Novel to Film
Film Adaptation
A film adaptation is a cinematic
work adapted from a piece of non-film
source material, which can either be a
work of fiction or nonfiction. Common fiction
source materials include a book, play,
novella, television series, video game, or
short story, while filmmakers can source
nonfiction materials from a memoir,
biography, or piece of journalism.
Types of Film Adaptation
1. Comic Book Adaptation
Comic book and graphic novel
adaptations taken from illustrated
storytelling mediums are among the most
successful film franchises of the twenty-first
century. Popular comic-to-film adaptations
include superhero movies such as the
Batman, Wonder Woman, and X-Men film
franchises.
2. Musical Adaptation
Along with plays, filmmakers have
also adapted many theatrical musicals for
the big screen, including Chicago (2002),
Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Les
Miserables (2012), and Mamma Mia!
(2008).
3. Play Adaptation
Many famous movies began as
theatrical works meant for the stage,
including Doubt (2008), August: Osage
County (2013), and Amadeus (1984).
Shakespeare's works alone account for
many play-to-film adaptations, including
modern re-imaginings like Ten Things I Hate
About You (1999), an adaptation of The
Taming of the Shrew, and adaptations like
Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
4. Television Adaptation
Many filmmakers adapt stories
initially told on the small screen for the silver
screen. Some notable examples include
Charlie's Angels (2003), Scooby-Doo
(2002), and The Brady Bunch Movie (1995).
5. Video Game Adaptation
Video games are popular sources of
inspiration for filmmakers because they
have recognizable characters, rich worlds,
and loyal followings. Some popular video
game adaptations include Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider (2001–2003), Resident Evil
(2002–2017), and Silent Hill (2006).
6. Book Adaptation
A book adaptation refers to an
original book or literary source—either a
novel or a nonfiction work—adapted to
suit filmmaking conventions. Some
famous literary sources for film adaptations
include Stephen King’s The Shining and
The Shawshank Redemption, Alice
Walker’s The Color Purple, Ken Kesey’s
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
Filmmakers have also adapted bestselling
book series like The Twilight Saga and The
Lord of the Rings into blockbuster films. The
biographies of luminaries also often serve
as source materials for film adaptations.
IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
FILMS AND NOVELS
● Visual Image vs. Verbal Sign
Visual image talks about the general
image that forms from the visual
perception of our brain. It was commonly
used in films. Verbal sign is defined as
something that deals with text and word,
it was commonly used in novels. In simple
words in films it directly shows what it wants
to express while in novels there's a
possibility that the readers might have
 FILM AND LITERATURE
different perspectives on the description
given by the writer. Literature and Film Adaptation Review
● Surface vs. Interior 4.1 Compare and Contrast
The surface is the overall picture of the film. 4.2 Paradigmatic Approach
It is all about what we see on the screen 4.3 Limits and Problems
and what we see is the only thing we know. 4.4 Beyond Fidelity
While the interior is the thought of the
characters. This difference between film
4.1 Compare and Contrast
and novel actually gives the audiences and
readers different experiences.
● Major volumes of studies on film
● Narration
adaptations appear to have focused
One of the differences between films and
on the ways in which a novel is
novels is that films show people the story,
translated into a film focusing on the
while the novels tell people the story.
similarities and differences between
The novels could be narrated either by the
the two
first-person narrator or by someone
● The method of such studies can be
outside it, or what they called an
conveniently named the
omniscient narrator or all-knowing point
‘compare-contrast’ approach as their
of view where in this point of view you can
interest lies in seeking rules and
also see the point of view of other
principles in filmic translation of
characters. In films we can only see what
literary work
the director wants us to see or hear
although it is somehow similar in novels but
George Bluestone’s Novels into Film:
in novels you can read or feel the emotions
The Metamorphosis of Fiction into
of the character.
Cinema (1957)
● Bluestone’s major claim is that the
● Sound vs. Silence
two media cannot be compatible and
The sound in the movie is the background
are opposed simply by the natural
music, noise or speech and this is one of
differences
the big advantages of films because they
● The filmmaker is not a translator but
had sound to enhance the comprehension
a new author
of the audience. In film they both use
images and sound to express the story
He defines two media as “two ways of
while in novels it is only through text or
seeing”
words. The magic of the sound in films is
that it could duplicate the sounds in real life,
1. Physical sight through the eyes and
and together with the images, it creates and
the other as constructed sight
displays the real life to the audiences
through the mind, hence imagination
directly and immediately while in the novel it
2. Relationship in which they share a
could only describe things through words, it
common ground where they benefit
only has silence.
each other in mainly commercial
aspects
 FILM AND LITERATURE
Brian McFarlane (1996)
● His initial aim is to set in a slightly
different direction, in which he tries
to discover common ground shared
by literature and film, and to what
extent the two media are
interchangeable
● Suggests a theoretical framework
within which the relationship of film
and literature should be
reconsidered
● He continuously emphasizes that
studies of adaptation should move
away from “the primacy of the
printed text”
Roland Barthes (1977)
● Roland Gérard Barthes was a
French literary theorist, essayist,
philosopher, critic, and semiotician.
● He develops a structural theory of
narrative that is influenced by
structural analysis.
Three levels of narratives:
1. Narration (top level)
- Narrative communication
Author-narrator-reader
● Narrative situation
● Various styles of representation
● Point of views
1st Person POV
- The narrator is a person in the story,
telling the story from their own point
of view.
1st Person Epistolary
● letter writing.
● is a collection of letters or simply
includes notes written from one
character to another
2nd Person POV
- The narrator describes the reader's
actions, thoughts, and background
using "you.
3rd Person Limited
- is where the narrator tells the story
from the perspective of a single
protagonist, referring to them by
name or using a third person
pronoun such as they/she/he.
3rd Person Omniscient
- a common form of third-person
narration in which the teller of the
tale, who often appears to speak
with the voice of the author himself,
assumes an omniscient
(all-knowing) perspective on the
story
2. Action (middle level)
- Characters are defined by their
actions.
- Characters in the story are classified
not by their psychological essences,
but by their participation in actions.
- Actions frequently have two sides
3. Functions (bottom level)
- Functions are the smallest unit of
narrative, something that does not
have meaning on its own but gains
meaning when combined with other
units on the same or higher level.
Kenneth Pellow (1994
● He interprets film adaptation as a
critical commentary upon its original
literary text
● He claims “the film is almost
invariably a shrunken version of the
novel, a précis of sorts”
● He concludes that “the
transformational process is just the
vehicle” and his goal for the study of
adaptation is ultimately “to
 FILM AND LITERATURE
understand and appreciate the
‘making’ of novels”
4.3 LIMITS AND PROBLEMS
LIMITS
1. Loyalty to its source material
- closeness of the film to the
book
2. If a biographical drama will be made,
what preparation will the readers
approach the adaptation
3. Readers have every right to
remain attached to the plots and
characters of their favorite books
but one should be conscious that
these movies are billed the way they
are for a reason
- Audiences should also be
able to understand that not
every scene or cast in the
adapted screenplay will be
the same since it is an
adaptation.
4. Flaws in execution arise as well
- the film reviewer will evaluate
how close or faithful the film
from its source material
5. Screenplays can be adapted from
the literature that certain
audiences simply don’t want to
read
- Example: specific audiences
will don’t want to read 5-6
books in preparation just for
a 2 hour movie.
6. Filmmakers may also exclude
scenes from the source material
and achieve a far stronger dramatic
effect in doing so.
7. Although scrutiny of “loyalty-based
film evaluation” reveals its
shortcomings, there is no reason
to be discouraged
- films are not professionally
expected to be accurate,
essentially, translations of the
books.
- There are many opportunities
for additional creativity and
artistic invention because
there are no such rules.
PROBLEMS
1. Books are always more detailed
and thus a lot of people find it easy
to relate to the emotions of a
character in the book as compared
to a fast-paced film.
2. Many film adaptations do not
justify the depth that a book
offers; The creative liberties that a
director takes with a book
sometimes don’t go down well with
the audience, because they expect
the film to showcase exactly what is
there in the book.
3. Films ruin a reader’s imagination
if they are reading the book post
watching the film; films prove to be
a complete giveaway in the case of
suspense thrillers and mystery
books.
 FILM AND LITERATURE
WHAT IS FIDELITY?
Fidelity for them refers to the “notion that
purportedly measures the extent to which a
work of literature has been accurately
rendered (or not) as a movie”.
The Fidelity Issue
The most common approach to assessing
the value of an adaptation involves fidelity –
to what degree the film is faithful to the text
it adapts. They judge a film’s merit based on
the film faithfully replicates “the essential
narrative elements and core meanings of
the printed text”.
3 KINDS OF ADAPTATIONS
(Louis Giannetti)
LITERAL ADAPTATION
Stays faithful to the original text by relaying
on it completely. The plot, character, tone of
voice are retained as close to the original
text as possible. In this type of adaptation,
the purpose is to re-create the tone of the
literary work in a cinematic form.
FAITHFUL ADAPTATION
A work that tries to maintain closeness to
the original text.
LOOSE ADAPTATION
The films that lightly relied on the source
texts.
Adaptation Theories
“Re-Evaluating Fidelity: Film Adaptation
in the Language Arts Classroom” of
Rachel Malchow
THE DISPLACED SETTING
The film retains the original language and
flow of the film but makes changes in the
setting. This, according to her, is commonly
applied to Shakespearean plays adapted on
stage and on screen.
ACCULTURATED ADAPTATION
The acculturated film adaptation of a literary
text is basically an adaptation that retains
the general scheme of character, plot, and
themes of the original text. It innovates the
language and setting of the original text.
These types of adapted films create oral,
pictorial, and aural parallels between the
culture represented in the original text and
the culture depicted in the adapted text.
POLITICIZED ADAPTATION
This type of adaptation retains general
fidelity towards the original text, but works
on a theme in a different way in order to
make a political statement.
THE RADICAL HOMAGE
This is a type of adaptation which makes
use of innovative and unusual adaptations
of the original text.
Radical - very new and different from what
is traditional or ordinary
Homage - something that is done to honor
someone or something.
Meaning of Literature in Film Reviews
5.1 Essentialization
5.2 Author vs. Autheur
5.3 Novel vs. Film
Meaning of Literature in Film Review
Is Film considered as literature?
- Movies are considered literature
because they can be analyzed and
interpreted in the same way as
traditional written literature.
 FILM AND LITERATURE
Film Review
- Film review is a popular way for
critics to assess a film’s overall
quality and determine whether or
not they think the film is worth
recommending.
Writing a Film Review (5 Elements)
a. Introduction
b. Plot Summary
c. Description
d. Analysis
e. Conclusion/Evaluation
Tips in making Film Reviews
1. Watch the film at least once.
2. Express your opinions and support
your criticism.
3. Consider your audience.
4. Know the Actors' portfolios.
5. Call out directors, cinematographers,
and special effects.
6. No spoilers!
7. Study the professionals.
8. Reread, rewrite and edit.
9. Find your voice
5.1 Essentialization
Essentialism
- From the word: Essence
- The intrinsic nature or indispensable
quality of something, especially
something abstract, determines its
character.
- The basic nature of a thing; the
quality or qualities that make a thing
what it is.
In Aristotelian Philosophy:
- Essentialism is something which
remains constant throughout the
entire process of change.
- For Example: Aristotle's definition of
man
- Aristotle said that Man is a
rational animal.
- In the sentence above,
Rationality = is considered to
be the essence of man
- A dead man is no longer a
man. It no longer possesses
any reason/ rationality (a
soul)
Medium Essentialism
● A philosophical theory stating that
each artform has its own distinctive
medium, and that the essence of
such an artform is dependent on its
particular medium.
● The theory relies on the presumption
that every artform has a unique
medium.
● Medium essentialism is the idea that
the way a message is
communicated affects its meaning
1. Dream Medium Essentialism
● A film's medium is to be found in its
creator's or director's intention or
‘dream’.
2. Editing medium essentialism
● A film's medium (and therefore
essence) lies in its editing.
3. Reality medium essentialism
● American philosopher Stanley Cavell
proposes that a film's essence is
defined by its medium, and that that
medium lies partly within a film's
portrayal of an illusion of reality.
● "Not by literally presenting us with a
world, but by permitting us to view it
unseen […] we are displaced from
our natural habitation within it,
placed at a distance from it."
● A film's medium lies in its projection
of reality
 FILM AND LITERATURE
Criticisms
- Most critics of the idea reject the premise
that every artform has a distinctive medium
which necessarily determines its essence.
- A film critic, V.F. Perkins in the 1970s
proposed that no one aspect of the film
medium (photographic production,
specifically) is superior to its counterparts
(such as artistic intention or soundtrack).
Noël Carroll in 'Theorising the Moving
Image,'published in (1996)
“Medium essentialism is an inaccurate way
to evaluate a work - as it requires the
distillation of a film to one medium, when a
film is constituted by not one, but several
mediums. These mediums may include
editing, lighting, narrative, photography,
color, and artistic intention.”
The Psychology of Essentialism and
How It Impacts Innovation and Creativity
in Film
● Focus Groups
○ They are Also called test
audiences
○ The studio calls together a
group of random strangers
from the target
demographics, screens the
film and monitors their
reactions. If the test audience
isn't happy, the studio asks
them what would have made
the film better and
implements that.
Big Data and Artificially Intelligent
Algorithms
- Netflix’s datasets have just as much
influence on a film or TV show as human
creativity.
- The political drama House of Cards was
Netflix’s most-streamed show prior to
Stranger Things, and the first original show
which achieved significant success.
- Algorithms had identified that a large
segment of their viewership watched Fight
Club and The Social Network from
beginning to end. It also a core segment
loved political dramas. These data points
provided the foundation for House of Cards
and strongly predicted its commercial
success.
How the Science of Essentialism
Influences the Human Element of
Creativity
- As movies and TV shows are forged from
larger and larger data sets, the human
element of creativity has become displaced.
As viewers, do we want to feel as if the
show was made by a fellow human? Would
we be less likely to enjoy a film made
through artificial intelligence with little
human ingenuity involved?
- Essentialism, this is the idea that we see
everyday objects as having a hidden ‘soul’,
which transcends its physical qualities
- With the philosophy of essentialism, Only
the real painting has the essence. And this
essence shapes our perception of the
painting, and how we value it.
- We gravitate toward the meaningful.
- What forms the essence of something in
our mind? A major contributor is the origin
story of the object; what we believe about
how it came into the world.
 FILM AND LITERATURE
The Role Essentialism Plays in the Film
Industry
- The origin story of the film - how it came to
be, and what its hidden essence is, shapes
how we perceive it.
- Using the example of the movie Fargo by
the Cohen Brothers in 1996
- The film tells the story of a grizzly set of
murders stemming from a staged
kidnapping gone wrong. The film opens with
the following lines:
This is a true story. The events depicted in
this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At
the request of the survivors, the names
have been changed. Out of respect for the
dead, the rest has been told exactly as it
occurred.
- The Coen Brothers later admitted that the
film wasn’t actually based on murders that
took place in Minnesota. The actual
inspiration for the story has been the subject
of much speculation, and the Cohen
Brothers have never revealed what, if any,
historical events the film is based on.
- There’s no arguing with the film’s success.
It took home the Grammy for Best Original
Screenplay and in 1997, was considered by
the American Film Institute as one of the
100 greatest films ever made.
- When asked about this, Joel Cohen had
the following to say, “If an audience believes
that something is based on a real event, it
gives you permission to do things they
might otherwise not accept."
- The belief about the creative essence of
the film impacts how it’s enjoyed.
- As an American journalist, Andrew
Leonard stated that,
“A reliance on Big Data might funnel
craftsmanship in particular directions. What
happens when directors approach the
editing room armed with the knowledge that
a certain subset of subscribers is opposed
to jump cuts or get off on gruesome torture
scenes? Is that all we’ll be offered?”
5.2 Author vs. Auteur
Auteur - “author”
- auteur - a director who exerts a
high level of control across all
aspects of a film.
- “An auteur is a filmmaker whose
individual style and complete
control over all elements of
production give a film its personal
and unique stamp
Auteur Theory
- director is the author and primary
creative force behind a movie
- Origin - French publication in 1954
of Cahiers du Cinema (notes on
cinema)
- American critic Andrew Sarris was
the one who referred to Francois
Truffaut's manifesto as "Auteur
Theory."
- The theory arose from the ideas of
Andrè Bazin and Alexandre
Astruc
Rules of Auteur Theory
a. Basic Competency
 FILM AND LITERATURE
- "A great director has to at least be Author- The originator or creator of a work,
a good director." especially of a literary composition.

b. Signature Style Auteur- A creative artist, especially a film

- "Over a group of films a director director, seen as having a specific,
must exhibit certain recurrent recognisable artistic vision, and who is seen
characteristics of style which as the single or preeminent ‘author’ of his
serve as his signature." works

c. Interior Meaning 5.3 Novel vs Film

- "Interior meaning is extrapolated
Visual image vs. verbal sign
from the tension between a
director's personality and his
- Movies tell stories mainly with
material."
images. The images in the film have
more direct and immediate
Auteur Directors
relationship to what it describes.
Some of the greatest auteur directors:
- In a novel, everything has to be
done with words, which are
1. Quentin Tarantino
processed in a linear fashion as
2. Steven Spielberg
the reader reads, right to left, one
3. Billy Wilder
word at a time.
4. Howard Hawks

Surface vs. Interior

Criticisms
- Pauline Kael, an early critic of
auteur theory, debated Andrew
Sarris in magazines
Law
- Under European Union law, largely
by influence of auteur theory, a film
director is considered the film's
author or one of its authors. while
the auteur, as its creator, is the
original copyright holder.
Difference of Definitions between Author
and Auteur
- The camera can only show the
surface, the film has to use some
other methods to express people’s
thoughts.
- In the novel the thoughts and
expression of the character can
be revealed vividly and clearly.
Narration
- The films show people the story
- Novels tell people the story. It can
be narrated either by the first-person
narrator or by someone outside it,
the omniscient narrator
Sound vs Silence
 FILM AND LITERATURE
- The sound of the film could greatly
enhance the audiences’
comprehension. The sound in the
film can be classified into three
types, namely, speech, music and
noise
- The silent and arbitrary nature of the
signs in the novel provided unlimited
space for the reader. Consequently,
every reader could create the most
excellent and imaginative “film” in
their mind.
Movies are massive collaborations
Novels are solo efforts
- A movie is, at minimum, a
collaboration between the writers,
the actors, the director, the producer,
the prop and costume people, the
camera operators, the sound folks…
- Novelists nearly always work alone
Novels and Films – Similarities and
Differences
a. Length
- A feature film can vary wildly
in terms of running time. On
the other hand, a book can
feasibly be a few pages long
to infinity.
b. Style
- Books are typically designed
so that you read the story in
parts. Film is typically
designed to be watched at
once.
c. Cultural Influence
- Films hold more cultural power
than books. This is due to their
ephemerality and visual
nature.
d. Adaptation
- Books routinely offer
Hollywood producers new
avenues to explore within
storytelling.
From Book to Script: Writing for Film
6.1 The Three-Act Structure
6.2 Character Arc and Development 6.3
Dialogue and Theme
The Three-Act Structure
- The three act structure is a narrative
model that divides stories into three
parts — Act One, Act Two, and Act
Three, or rather, a beginning,
middle, and end.
ACT 1 - THE SETUP
- In the setup, you’re looking to
establish the world your story is set
in, the characters it focuses on and
their goals.
ACT 2 - THE CONFRONTATION
- The second act of your screenplay
structure is the confrontation – this is
when you throw obstacles at your
hero. The action rises, and your
character is tested. You'll need to
have fully fleshed out a character arc
for your protagonist.
ACT 3 - THE RESOLUTION
- This final act should show how the
main character is able to succeed or
become a better person. Everything
that you’ve written in Act 1 and Act 2
leads up to this final act, so make
sure you create a lot of interesting
tension here as well as tying all the
loose ends.
 FILM AND LITERATURE
Character Arc and Development
Character Arc
-Progressive internal change indicates that
a character progresses from the beginning
to the end of the story.
Building blocks of a character:
Belief
● Define the entire character.
● Make a character's desires known
● influence how they achieve their
goals
● Create strengths and weaknesses
Want
● it is external
● originates with a character's beliefs
Need
● what the character must learn about
themselves or the world in order to
be completely balanced or whole
● originates with a character's beliefs
Different Character Arcs
Flat Arc
● character already know the truth
from the beginning of the story
● stereotyped, one-dimensional
characters.
● characters around him will go
through change
● Flat arcs are perfect for passive
characters that let the story come to
them.
Positive Change Arc
● character believes a lie
● character encounters the truth
● character overcomes lie by finding
and accepting the truth
● “Before things get better, they have
to get worse.”
Negative Change Arc
● "fall arc"
● the character is defined by a journey
downwards to a state of failure
● character believes to a lie, rejects
new truth, and believes
worse/stronger lie
Character Development
● is the process of creating a
character for a work of fiction such
as a feature film, television show, or
novel. It is the way in which
characters change throughout a
story.
Importance of Character Development
● showing who your characters are by
revealing their personalities,
backgrounds, desires, flaws, and
motives.
● it engages the reader to connect
with the characters in a story.
Static Character
● Also known as flat characters, these
are the character(s) that do not go
through an emotional or physical
transformation by the end of the
narrative.
 FILM AND LITERATURE
Dynamic Character
● Characters that change and evolve
throughout the story. Usually the
protagonist or hero — who
undergoes major inner change over
the course of a story.
Dialogue
● Dia means "through," while logos
means "word" or "meaning."
● Dialogue is essentially a flow of
meaning.
● Inner, where characters converse
with themselves and exhibit their
personalities (stream of
consciousness, dramatic
monologue).
● Outer, a conversation between
characters.
Theme
● is the implied perspective on the
primary issue or subject, the
fundamental idea, and message of a
story, or the underlying meaning that
the piece is trying to express.
It features two distinct themes;
● A major theme is the most important
notion in a writer's literary work and
is a topic that the writer frequently
returns to.
● A minor theme is a concept that
very briefly emerges in a work
before giving place to another minor
subject
●
Analysis of Character Translations in
Film Adaptations of Popular Literature
Character Analysis
● is a deep dive into the traits and
personality of a particular character,
as well as a discussion of the
character’s overall role in the
story.
● Some authors choose to infuse their
characters with many layers of
meaning, while others simply use
them to convey a message about
something or move the story along.
Why is character analysis important?
● Authors use their characters to
express meaning and convey
messages to their audience.
● Authors don’t always explicitly tell
you what they want you (the reader)
to know about the
character—sometimes, the writer
wants you to come to realize
things about the character for
yourself.
● Pay attention to this things:
behavior, personality, what they
say, motivation and relationship
● A character analysis aims to gain a
deeper understanding of the piece of
literature.
CASE STUDY I: Character Changes in
Moby Dick (1956)
SUMMARY:
Capt. Ahab (Gregory Peck) has a vendetta
against Moby Dick, the great white whale
responsible for taking his leg. He sets out
on a treacherous sea voyage aboard The
Pequod, along with a crew including
Starbuck (Leo Genn), Father Mapple
(James Robertson Justice) and Ishmael
 FILM AND LITERATURE
(Richard Basehart), to hunt down the
elusive beast. With reckless abandon, Ahab
leads the crew on his obsessive and
suicidal quest, anxious for a final showdown
with the legendary white whale.
CHARACTERS:
ISHMAEL - The narrator, and a junior
member of the crew of the Pequod. Ishmael
doesn’t play a major role in the events of the
novel, but much of the narrative is taken up
by his eloquent, verbose, and extravagant
discourse on whales and whaling. Ishmael
represents the fundamental contradiction
between the story of Moby-Dick and its
setting. Melville has created a profound and
philosophically complicated tale and set it in
a world of largely uneducated working-class
men; Ishmael, thus, seems less a real
character than an instrument of the author.
No one else aboard the Pequod possesses
the proper combination of intellect and
experience to tell this story.
AHAB - The egomaniacal captain of the
Pequod. Ahab lost his leg to Moby Dick. He
is single-minded in his pursuit of the whale,
using a mixture of charisma and terror to
persuade his crew to join him. As a captain,
he is dictatorial but not unfair. At moments
he shows a compassionate side, caring for
the insane Pip and musing on his wife and
child back in Nantucket. Ahab, the Pequod’s
obsessed captain, represents both an
ancient and a quintessentially modern type
of hero.
MOBY DICK- The great white sperm whale.
Moby Dick, also referred to as the White
Whale, is an infamous and dangerous threat
to seamen, considered by Ahab the
incarnation of evil and a fated nemesis.
Moby Dick is an impersonal force, one that
many critics have interpreted as an
allegorical representation of God, an
inscrutable and all-powerful being that
humankind can neither understand nor defy.
STARBUCK- The first mate of the Pequod.
Starbuck questions Ahab’s judgment, first in
private and later in public. He is a Quaker
who believes that Christianity offers a way
to interpret the world around him, although
he is not dogmatic or pushy about his
beliefs. Starbuck acts as a conservative
force against Ahab’s mania.
QUEEQUEG- Starbuck’s skilled harpooner
and Ishmael’s best friend. Queequeg was
once a prince from a South Sea island who
stowed away on a whaling ship in search of
adventure. He is a composite of elements of
African, Polynesian, Islamic, Christian, and
Native American cultures. He is brave and
generous, and enables Ishmael to see that
race has no bearing on a man’s character.
STUBB- Stubb, the second mate, is jolly
and cool in moments of crisis. He has
worked in the dangerous occupation of
whaling for so long that the possibility of
death has ceased to concern him. A fatalist,
he believes that things happen as they are
meant to and that there is little that he can
do about it.
CASE STUDY III: BLANCHE RISE IN A
STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
Title: A Street Car Named Desire
Written by: Tennessee Williams
Performed on: December 3, 1947
Back story of Blanche:
Blanche Dubois is the anti-hero in the
play. Tennesse Williams characterized her
as a woman with narcissistic personality
disorder.
Blanche met Allan Grey, her first love, who
she later insults and belittles when she
sees him having sex with another man.
 FILM AND LITERATURE
When she lashes out, Allan runs outside
and dies by shooting himself in the head.
This incident torments Blanche
throughout the rest of her life.
She spends the rest of her youth watching
the rest of her family die out and loses
Belle Reve due to bankruptcy. She loses
her job as an English Teacher for sleeping
with a 17 year old student. Blanche
indulges in a string of affairs with various
men.
Character Analysis of the Characters:
● Blanche Dubois
Southern Belle and Aristocracy
- Blanche and Stella are both from
the Old South with an aristocratic
heritage.
Manipulative and Pathological liar
Blanche manipulates other
characters, including Stella and
Mitch; she bends the truth to fit her
stories.
Insecure and sensitive
Blanche is insecure about her aging
and spends time fixing her
appearance and constantly fish for
compliments and attention.
Lonely
Extremely lonely. This is established
when she states that Stella is all she
has in the world.
Flirtatious and Seductive
Blanche is insecure and tries to
regain her youth by flirting with
Stanley and Mitch.
Delusional
Blanche's delusions and illusions
help her escape her past.
● Stanley Kowalski
Stanley is a crude, uncivilized brute
who treats women with violence and
objectification.
● Stella Kowalski
Stella is the younger sister of
Blanche, who cares deeply for her
and tries to protect her despite her
husband's abuse. Stella's inability to
stand up to her husband's abuse
leads to Blanche's fate.
● Allan Grey
Allan's death changed Blanche into
the woman she is, and his memory
is the driving force of the play.
● Harold "Mitch" Mitchell
Mitch is a decent and well-mannered
character who falls for Blanche's act
and comforts her when she confides
in him about Allan's death.
Symbolism
The name Blanche is derived from the
french word “white”; white is a common
symbol of purity and innocence. While
Dubois means “of wood”. Wood
associated with means a strong, hard and
durable material. Ironically Blanche is the
opposite.