Why Do People Choose Watching Adaptations of English Literature Over Reading It?

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences

Vol-8, Issue-3; May-Jun, 2023

Journal Home Page Available: https://ijels.com/

Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijels

IJELS-2023, 8(3), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.)

https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.83.26 160

Why Do People Choose Watching Adaptations of English

Literature Over Reading It?

Abin Mathew

Kalluvettamkuzhy (H) Punchavayal P.O., Kottayam (District) Kerala, India

Received: 19 Apr 2023; Received in revised form: 15 May 2023; Accepted: 21 May 2023; Available online: 29 May 2023

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Abstract— Nowadays people prefer to watch movie adaptations of a work rather than reading it. The main

reason is the novel of around two fifty to n number of pages will finish within one and a half to three hours

of duration. Even students of literature follow this trend of watching movies rather than reading books. The

positive and negative of this trend are different for a student or academia of literature and people from other

professions. Through this research paper, I am analyzing what are the positive and negative sides of this

trend? How can we acquire the habit of reading books? What are the limitations of film adaptations? How

can some directors overcome these limitations? The research is based on my view on five movies from

multiple languages including Malayalam, English, Swedish, Hindi and Italian that are adapted from famous

novels and plays. The movies are Joji (2021), The Colour Purple (1985), A Man Called Ove (2015), 2 States

(2014) and Canterbury Tales (1972)

Keywords— literature, film adaptation, novels, joji, the colour purple, 2 states

I. INTRODUCTION

Nowadays you can find lots of used book sellers in most

parts of the country. If you have an experience in buying

books from any of this shop you may be able to realize what

I am going to say, most of the books that are sold by them

are new and you will realize that it hasn't been read by its

previous owner. I know many people who buy books with

great interest. After turning the pages for sometimes they

keep the book aside and they completely forget about it.

When I used to ask them about their reading h habits most

of the students who are between 15-25 said that, once they

used to read books including Novels, stories, or at least

comics and now they stopped reading, the reason that most

of them unanimously tells is the usage or addiction of

phone. Most of them are using phones especially due to the

recent Covid – 19 pandemic most of the students had to

study from their homes and they all got a smartphone for

study purposes, in most cases after the study period they

used to play games in the phone or spent time in social

media platforms or video streaming platforms and this trend

took the beautiful worlds that a book gives them and took to

the darkest corners of their houses.

The role of smartphones is noticeably big in taking a reader

away from the book. Since most students possess a laptop

or at least a smartphone nowadays to study a novel or a

drama they first search on Google whether there is a movie

adaptation of that work if they find one, they watch that

movie adaptation and later read the plot, summary and the

themes of that novel, story or drama from any online

resources. It is quite helpful for them to pass the exam, but

this method has many pitfalls. Research on both the positive

and negative aspects of this trend of wholeheartedly trusting

adaptations of a literary work is a cardinal need of this age.

Watching a movie adaptation after reading the book is really

good, you will be able to realize the changes the director and

the scriptwriter made in the movie, and you will be able to

distinguish which one is best for you. It is only through

reading your imagination grows, the movie adaptation is the

representation of someone else who read the book. When it

comes to a student of literature or a literature enthusiast it is

important to read the book, it is only through reading books

you will be able to know the writing style of the author, the

way he describes each situation and write a critical review

on the book. If you are depending just on the adapted movie

Mathew Why Do People Choose Watching Adaptations of English Literature Over Reading It?

IJELS-2023, 8(3), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.)

https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.83.26 161

in most cases your views and assumptions are wrong. On

behalf of reading drama in most cases, if you are able to

watch the enactment of the drama then it will help you to

relate to the scenes in a better way especially when you are

reading classic dramas like Spanish Tragedy, Doctor

Faustus, The Shoemaker's Holiday, Way of the World, etc.

If you watch a film adaptation after reading the book you

will be able to see the characters, the things, the dresses, and

the places you imagined in your mind, sometimes it may be

the same as you imagined in your mind and sometimes it

may be completely different. While making film

adaptations some directors even change the name of the

characters, in the film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s

American Psycho, Paul Owen and Timothy Price in the

novel become Paul Allen and Timothy Bryce in the film. If

you are watching a movie considering it as an effective way

to judge the novel, then you are making a mistake for which

you will repent for sure.

Film adaptations are blessings to those people who want to

know the story or plot but do not know the language. Maybe

these people do not want to read the novel because

sometimes they do not know how to read or the language of

the classic dramas like Doctor Faustus, King Lear, etc. must

be not as easy as the English language that we use right now

so watching a drama or a film adaptation will help them to

possess a knowledge on that particular drama. There are

many films that are adapted from great classic dramas, for

example, the 1997 Jayaraj movie Kaliyattam is an

adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello, Kannaki is

another Jayaraj film that was released in 2001 is a loose

adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra,

Iyobinte Pusthakam by Amal Neerad which released on

2014 reportedly a loose adaptation of King Lear and Joji,

which released on 2021 is a loose adaptation of Macbeth.

These movies will help the common man to get the basic

knowledge about the drama at least they will be able to

know the plot of the drama but, a student of literature

overcomes these limitations.

Objectives

Every study is conducted with some objective. The present

study is taken with an objective.

• To study the positive and negative side of depending on

a film adaptation of a literary work.

• To compare and analyze the characters, plot, and

content between novels and movies.

Hypothesis

According to Oxford Reference Hypothesis, is a statement

of the expected relationship between things being studied,

which is intended to explain certain facts or observations or

an idea to be tested. A research Hypothesis is an assumption

or the outcome of a study. It is a prediction or speculation

by the researcher which may prove or may be disapproved.

The hypothesis of this study is:

1. People from all streams consider watching film

adaptations rather than reading books.

2. You cannot trust a movie adaptation, if you want to

know about a book or its author you must read the

book.

II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research is conducted because of my interest in literary

works and their film adaptations, for this, I have read many

books and watched their film adaptations. For the successful

completion of this research, I have read many books which

I am going to explain in the upcoming parts of this paper. It

gave me a direct experience in this subject with which I am

dealing. For the sake of my studies, reading these books and

watching their film adaptations were particularly important.

By reading and watching I came to a conclusion which I

would like to prove through this research.

III. LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Wikipedia Literary adaptation is the

adaptation of a literary source for example a novel, short

story, or poem to another genre or medium, such as film,

stage play, or videogame.’ While I was doing my research,

I found an interesting fact that a game named Assassin`s

Creed II portrays Renaissance Italy as its open-world

playground so playing this game will give you a valuable

experience and you will feel that you are in Italy during

Renaissance. So, this game gives us the idea that even video

games can be adapted from literary works or literary

backgrounds. Seth Schiesel wrote in Assassin's Creed II In

New York Times that now the teachers who teach Italian

history will be surprised when the students tell them that

they have already visited Renaissance Italy, which is the

effect of adaptations, people trust them, and they depend

on them more than getting direct knowledge through literary

works.

The India Today in its report Joji Movie Review:

Fahad Fasil’s Macbeth adaptation is exceptional states

that Power corrupts. So does greed. This is what

Shakespeare’s Macbeth has taught those who read it. They

are also asking who better than Fahad Fasil can show greed

in his eyes.

The New York Times in its report Film ‘The Colour

Purple by Steven Spielberg’ states that the characters in

the movie adaptation are big and vibrant but beyond that

they resemble Miss Walker barely at all.

Mathew Why Do People Choose Watching Adaptations of English Literature Over Reading It?

IJELS-2023, 8(3), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.)

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The Times of India in its edition that came out on May 13,

2014, reported that “2 States crosses the 100-crore mark

at the box office” It states that people are very excited to

watch the movie.

Differences between a literary work and its film

adaptation

The first thing that we have to keep in our mind is that both

novels and movies are two different forms of art, both are

independent in their sense. The usual page of a novel is

between 200-380, in some cases especially when it comes

to long novels it goes in between 750-10000 or more. In

most cases, this gives an inconvenience for the person who

just wants to know the story or plot of the book. In these

cases, people depend upon film or any other literary

adaptations. In most cases, the duration of a film is between

90-120 minutes. This is one of the main reasons people

depend upon film adaptation rather than reading a physical

or soft copy of a literary work.

Another major difference is that films give us a clearer

picture than a book gives us. While film directly stimulates

our perceptions, literary works indirectly stimulate them.

While reading a book sometimes we find ourselves sinking

into the imagination and spending time thinking or

visualizing a situation in our mind but on the contrary, a film

is fast-paced it will start at a specific time and end at a

specific time, we don’t have to think all that we have to do

is just to watch the movie and understand the story, plot, and

theme.

Regarding the visual imagination of the novel we read, it

varies from person to person and their purpose of reading.

Some people skim books, they just read fast and complete

the text but that is unimaginable for some people, they turn

each page very slowly reading each sentence by imagining

that in their mind like a movie. We will be unsure about

whether they will like the movie or not especially when they

watch the film adaptation of their dearest book. Sometimes

when the film is released, they will come to know that their

favorite scene is cut. In most cases it happens because of the

limitation of time. The 1972 Italian movie Canterbury Tales

directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini is an example of this; the

film is an adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury

Tales. Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four

stories that have over 17000 lines, but the film portrays only

a few stories among them, and it shows just the important

scenes. If you need to get a clear understanding of the work,

you must read the book. This short information that the

movie gives you will not help you.

The film adaptation has many limitations; it varies from

person to person, culture to culture, and place to place. In

some places people will not understand the direct adaptation

of a literary work, for example for a common man in Kerala,

Macbeth is something that they are not able to relate to. The

crew of a film can’t introduce a film to a group of audiences

who will not be able to relate what they are trying to present

before them, in this situation the movie will become a flop.

The Malayalam movie Joji is a loose adaptation of William

Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Through some of the events that

any Kerala man can relate to, the director tells us how greed

destroys a person’s life. The female character who acted as

the sister-in-law resembles the Shakespearian character,

Lady Macbeth.

But adaptation is always a big question for

academia. Choosing the literary work over the adaptation

needs a strong will. It is a literary work that will give a

person a good understanding of the subject. Indian film has

its audience always waiting for entertainment. All they want

is entertainment, so a director cannot give a direct

adaptation of a foreign literary work. Even though this is a

fact many films including, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali,

Apur Sansar, and Shatranj Ke Khiladi were made from great

Bengali works and audiences received it with both hands.

Data Collection

The data collection is based on my view of five movies from

multiple languages including Malayalam, English, Swedish,

Hindi, and Italian that are adapted from famous novels and

plays. The movies are Joji (2021), The Colour Purple

(1985), A Man Called Ove (2015), 2 States (2014), and

Canterbury Tales (1972)

IV. SUMMARY

Joji is inspired by William Shakespeare’s

famous play Macbeth. Joji was released through the OTT

platform Amazon Prime on 7 April 2021 since the covid

forced lockdown forced people to sit in their homes many

people watched the movie. Critics praised the movie

relating it to the play Macbeth. The plot of the movie

consists of a father and his three children. The father is 74

years old and still he oversees the family affairs. He is like

a dictator in the family. His three children include Jomon a

divorcee, Jaison and his wife Bincy, and Joji the youngest

son who is also an engineering dropout. All three sons are

leading a life of fear under their father’s domination. An

unexpected event occurred in the family and gave hope to

Joji that the death of his father will give him a fortune. His

greed turns him into a modern Macbeth and by supporting

him and motivating his greed Bincy becomes the modern

Lady Macbeth.

The novel ‘The Colour Purple’ v/s Movie ‘The Colour

Purple’

Similarities

Colour Purple is an epistolary novel in which Celie writes

Mathew Why Do People Choose Watching Adaptations of English Literature Over Reading It?

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fifty-six letters to God and fourteen to her sister Nettie. To

make an epistolary novel into a film is possible only with a

man with a strong will. The famous director, producer, and

screenwriter Steven Allan Spielberg did the direction of the

movie. The name ‘Steven Spielberg’ itself gives us a reason

to watch this film adaptation because he is such a promising

director in Hollywood. The movie and novel have more

similarities than dissimilarities. One of the similarities is

Celie’s stepfather raped her and she gave birth to two

children named Adam and Olivia they were later given to

Samuel and Corrine who were unable to have children.

Another similarity is that in the novel Celie is afraid of men.

Differences

There are a few differences. One notable difference is in the

novel Celie writes back letters to Nettie, but she does not

write back letters in the movie. There are differences in

some dialogues, in the novel Shug ask, “How is your god?”

and in the movie, Shug and Celie do not even talk about

God.

Novel ‘A Man Called Ove’ v/s Movie ‘A Man Called

Ove’

Similarities

Both in the book and the movie the character of Love is

presented as the same stereotypical character. Most of the

important scenes including the death of Ove’s father is

shown in the movie.

Dissimilarities

Even though the novel gives a long description introducing

Ove’s life, the movie shows Ove’s life after his wife’s death.

The movie repeatedly shows Ove’s various attempts of

suicide and his visit to his dead wife’s tomb alike it

somehow forgets to portray the whole life of Ove as it is in

the novel.

Novel 2 States: The Story of My Marriage v/s Movie 2

States

Similarities

2 States tells the story of Krish, who is a Punjabi, and

Ananya who is a Tamilian who meets in IIM-A a prestigious

institution in India, and become friends later fall in love, and

eventually get married. The whole plot is about how they

both are convincing their parents to agree to the marriage.

The main reason for their parents opposing their marriage is

that their language and culture are different.

Differences

Notable differences are hard to find but the second part of

the movie seems hurriedly taken. As the novel is a lengthy

version there are many limitations, so people are forced to

make the movie shorter and more convenient for the

audience. A few scenes like the scene which was shown in

the promo were cut off. Some parts of the novel like Krish’s

transfer and his work environment in Chennai were omitted.

The name of the company where they both are working is

also changed.

Canterbury Tales book v/s Canterbury Tales Movie

Similarities

The Canterbury Tales movie is a movie that came out in

1972. We will realize the talents of the director of this movie

Paolo Pasolini when we think about the limitations that any

director and crew members of a film face especially when it

comes to the technical side.

Differences

The movie retells only eight stories from The Canterbury

Tales that are, The Merchant’s Tale, Friar’s Tale, Miller’s

Tale, Wife of Bath’s Tale, Reeve’s Tale, Pardoner’s Tale,

and Summoner’s Tale. Even though this film adaptation is

largely faithful, Pasolini expands some stories.

V. CONCLUSION

Nowadays people adhere to the trend of watching film

adaptations of literary works rather than reading the work.

Trusting film adaptations is not a good trend. We will get

first-hand knowledge and all the relevant knowledge about

the book from the original literary work itself. Due to its

heterogeneous audience, the film is more popular than the

book. Due to the limitation of time, many directors and

scriptwriters are forced to shorten the movie, which lets

many of the important parts go missing, this scenario may

not affect a common man who watches the movie for the

sake of entertainment but it will definitely affect a student

or academia of literature who watch the movie for the sake

of learning the novel or the literary work. As we have seen

in Paolo Pasolini’s The Canterbury Tales many important

scenes were cut off and many stories also cut off, so

depending on this will not be helpful.

Some of the major limitations that a filmmaker will face

while he adapts a story are casting, he should find casts that

exactly fits the character in the work, and this will decide

the success of the work. Another limitation is the

technology, the imagination of a writer will go on and on

to create an exact visual effect for this is a challenge for a

director. In most cases, people do not read books because

they feel lazy or bored after turning a few pages. That is why

they depend on film adaptations. Depending on film

adaptation is not a good trend for a student or researcher

who works in literature even though it somehow helps them.

Only reading the original text will help a person to know

about the author, his work, his writing style, and the

limitations he faced during his period, it will also sharpen

Mathew                                                         Why Do People Choose Watching Adaptations of English Literature Over Reading It? 
IJELS-2023, 8(3), (ISSN: 2456-7620) (Int. J of Eng. Lit. and Soc. Sci.) 
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.83.26                                                                                                                                                164 
the imaginative skills of the writer, and reading will give a 
reader  more  empathetic  experience  while he  or  she goes 
through each page. 
 
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