Frequently called the first American classic, and the only American classic never
to be out of print, The Scarlet Letter has been indelibly marked on the American
consciousness since Nathaniel Hawthorne published it in 1850. Generations have grown
up with its characters and their profound struggle against each other, their community,
and themselves. Since the earliest days of film, The Scarlet Letter has been re-presented
to each of those generations in a series of diverse cinematic adaptations, providing
audiences with an opportunity to re-evaluate those characters, their struggle, and the
lessons implicit in them. This dissertation surveys those films in order to produce a
production history—one that extends beyond the production details and critical reception
to consider how the lessons of The Scarlet Letter have been made to contribute to the
cultural conversations of the American twentieth century.
Following Chapter One's presentation of the method and intent of the study, in
Chapter Two I consider the most enduring film in this novel's cinematic tradition, Victor
Sjostrom's 1926 production starring Lillian Gish. In Chapter Three I examine Robert
Vignola's 1934 ' B ' movie version in the context of Depression-era sexual politics. In
Chapter Four, I unearth two live television plays that come to terms very differently with
the Red Scare and the social retrenchment of Eisenhower's America. Chapter Five also
presents a comparison of two very different but contemporaneous Scarlet Letters, one an
eccentric feature from Wim Wenders (1972) , and the other a prestigious PBS miniseries
(1979 ) . Finally, in Chapter Six I examine the 1995 Demi Moore vehicle in the context of
the Family Values debates.
By identifying the specific re-presentation strategies as rhetorically motivated,
and linking them with the most salient social debates of their times, I argue for the
ideological flexibility of the novel as a key to its endurance. I also demonstrate the
effectiveness of film study, and specifically of a film adaptation production history
focusing on one novel, as a tool for understanding emerging cultural attitudes and values.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/13818 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Solmes, Jennifer Anne |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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