The Lottery

6 Pages 1409 Words

The most common problem with adaptation between literature and film versions is that many of the books many significant assets are lost within the story as a mundane detail. Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery written in 1948 was a very well written piece of work that was very dependent on its characters to set the tone of the story. The director of the film version of The Lottery, filmed in the nineteen sixties, also used the characters to place the overall tone of the film. The director of the film, however, accomplished an astounding feat of keeping the integrity of the literature intact, and furthermore, adding additional life to the characters.
The use of facial gestures, body movements, and voices added a life to Shirley Jackson’s story that did not speak falsely of the work, but made the overall situation more true to life. For example, in Jackson’s version of the story she presents Tessie, a wife and seemingly very pleasant woman. “I almost forgot what day it was” (Jackson 461). As the reader it is unclear as to Tessie’s indications of her comment. One could assume that the character is being sincere in her speaking, but just the same the reader can be lead to assume that Tessie was merely joking around and is very eager about the events that are about to take place.
The director of the movie, however, took this scene from the short story and visualized and vocalized the importance of this characters moment with speech and facial gestures. Tessie enters the scene and says, “I almost forgot what day it was” (Movie). The visualization of Tessie speaking shows that she is vibrantly smiling and looking forward to playing the lottery. The visual interpretation is more efficient because this scene is critical to show an important development in Tessie’s character portrayed later in the story.
Tessie’s character change is very important to the story because it shows her true feeling towards the lottery, and ...