The French lieutenant's woman: book and film comparison

French Lieutenant's Woman (BOOK & MOVIE)

John Fowles' 1969 book The French Lieutenant's Woman puts across an account involving a controversial woman who interacts with various other characters that express opinions that are more or less criticizing regarding her personality. It is difficult to determine the exact message that the writer is interested in conveying through discussing the character of Sarah Woodruff. Fowles describes his characters using elements that belong to a time period that is different from the Victorian era during which they live. In spite of the fact that the writer appears to be disapproving concerning feelings and trend from the period, he assists his characters through having them express thinking that is not characteristic to Victorian England.

Fowles is unrestrained by Victorian concepts and philosophies and this makes it possible for him to discuss matters from a more objective and intellectual perspective. The characters of Sarah Woodruff and Charles Smithson are presented as being capable of expressing ideas related to existentialism and postmodernism, even with the fact that it was largely impossible for people living contemporary to the Victorian era to do this. In order for readers to gain a better understanding of the book, they need to look at matters from an existentialist point-of-view.

Through considering that Sarah is not as immoral as the local community believes she is, Charles managed to adopt a postmodernist attitude in dealing with things. He questions concepts that are apparently indisputable simply because he is against discrimination and does not appreciate individuals who express their opinion in regard to something or someone without actually being acquainted with the respective something or someone. Charles appears to be aware that society can label people wrongly and that it would be absurd for him to ignore Sarah simply because of the fact that the local community expresses lack of support concerning her presumably immoral background. Charles basically wants to employ an objective attitude in judging people and reflects the writer's convictions in regard to the world. The fact that Fowles had just witnessed the world experience a global conflict makes it possible for readers to understand more regarding what motivated the writer in adopting existentialist concepts in writing this book.

Fowles breaks free from tradition by having his book incorporate three different endings, by intervening at various moments and expressing his personal perspective concerning the action taking place in the book, and by having his characters express thinking with which society was not familiar during the Victorian era. In addition to this, he relates to events that took place in the twentieth century by distorting narrative time and by creating discontinuity in the novel.

The fact that Fowles lived in an era when people were encouraged to express unprejudiced thinking influenced him in having Charles put across existentialist thinking through refraining from associating Sarah with the whore image that the local public labeled her with. It is difficult for readers to follow the writer at particular moments in the book, as he alternates between reality and the imagined world managing to create an environment that consists out of reality and fiction. When considering that he focuses on the Victorian era when describing his characters, one can believe that Fowles was interested in criticizing this society by emphasizing its problems and the fact that people then were generally unable to comprehend concepts related to objectivity.

Karel Reisz' 1981 motion picture The French Lieutenant's Woman is based on the novel and the director also seems to be appreciative in regard to postmodernism and existentialism when considering the elements that he introduces in the film. Reisz created his film by designing a story within a story as he presents viewers with an account involving the actors playing Victorian characters. The director is not apparently concerned about criticizing a Victorian society, as he apparently wants audiences to think about how dilemmas present in the nineteenth century could also emerge in the 1980s. Reisz was well aware that he needed to address existentialism in his film, and he knew that he needed to do so by combining concepts contemporary to him and elements originating in Victorian England.

While Fowles used the narrator's voice with the purpose of intervening at different moments in the novel, Reisz has characters in the 1980's express their opinion regarding the film they are shooting. Individuals in the "real" world speculate concerning Victorian attitudes in regard to concepts that were no longer taboo in the second half of the twentieth century. Sarah's sexuality is presented as an essential element meant to present viewers with the sexual frustration in nineteenth century's individuals. The character is shown as it goes back and forth in the nineteenth, and, respectively, in the twentieth century in an attempt to discover more regarding her personality.

Sexual issues are one of the principal concepts making the film relate to existentialist ideas. In spite of the fact that he wants to have Fowles' philosophy present in his film, Reisz also concentrates on having viewers understand that an unrestricted society is not necessarily healthier than the Victorian society.

The characters in the 1980s part of the film are not very different from the characters in the Victorian era. It appears that both Mike and Charles fail to understand that Anna and Sarah are not necessarily interested in them and that they simply intend to have an affair without getting emotionally involved in the relationships that result. Although it is difficult to keep up with the storyline, viewers are likely to feel sympathetic in regard to the way that the director jumps back and forth through time.