For example, I just finished watching "South and North", and I was immediately attracted by its atmosphere, smoothness, sense of history, and the power of the times, so I downloaded the original soundtrack and listened to Mrs. Gaskell's seven hundred. Read multi-page tomes page by page.
However, the original and the adaptation are still different in temperament. The original work is a typical female work, gentle and delicate without masculinity, and the structure is neat and long in narrative; while the adaptation of the play selects its essence to reorganize and create, balances its sentimentality with a kind of sober temperament, and uses The clean and powerful narrative weakens its sense of branches, so the whole story is beautiful and smooth.
The south and the north of England in the 19th century, one is leisurely and comfortable, picturesque; the other is laborious, heavy and dirty. The vitality and progress of the entire society stems from the roaring machines and the orderly production on a large scale. At the same time, these are also brewing a majestic industrial revolution and a labor movement that is poised to take off. This is the background of the story of "South and North". Under the adaptation of BBC, the southern part of the play is always in bloom, and the colors are not as splendid as the world; while the northern part is cold and windy, dark and cold, and the smog persists. Only the production workshop is full of poetry. Vitality, there is some kind of unknown hope hidden in it, which makes the beautiful picture in the south seem empty and monotonous by comparison. The play reduces the southern scene to the extreme, unreservedly highlighting the core strength of the north in the story.
The huge and exciting strike mobilization in the play probably made every audience unforgettable. However, in the original work, the description of this scene is absent. However, Mrs. Gaskell did not hesitate to write about the cause and effect of the entire strike, and explained in detail with a large number of dialogues. For those of us educated in Marxism, it is inevitable that we will not be afraid of the miserly and greedy capitalists, the exploited working class, the indomitable labor movement and the ruthless bloodshed that have spawned the machine production of capitalist society. The repression has created endless associations of bitterness, great hatred and deep hatred, and it is fundamentally doubtful whether the two sides can establish a rational dialogue amid irreconcilable opposition. According to the description of the original work, the drama shows the sharp struggle between labor and capital and the ups and downs of success and failure intuitively and profoundly. Here, the confrontation and struggle between labor and capital is plump and flesh-and-blood, and its intentional reconciliation gives us a space for imagination beyond common sense. It is a pity that such a progressive work has been accused of showing weak compromise and sadness for a long period of time in our country, losing the glory of the working class, and thus destroying its glorious position in the history of literature.
There are also many rich elements in this work, such as the crisis of faith of the Church of England priests at the time, the mutiny caused by the abuse of soldiers by military officers, and the capitalist status earned by self-made families, each of which is difficult to ignore. However, what really makes this show deeply rooted in people's hearts is love. I once thought that the lovelines of the hero and heroine in this play did not exceed the formulaic entanglement of "Pride and Prejudice", which made the deepness carefully created in the play with deliberate traces. I even had a cold heart to hope that it would end in tragedy, thinking that this would give it such a shocking power that it drowns the soul.
After reading the original book, I learned that about love is precisely the place where the drama has changed the most from the original book. It enhances the drama and conflict in the evolution of the hero and heroine's love, making it better and more memorable.
For example, the first meeting of the hero and heroine takes place in Margaret's house in the book:
"Mr. Thornton was much more alarmed and embarrassed than she was. A young lady, rather than a quiet middle-aged priest, came forward with frankness and solemnity--not like most of the girls he was accustomed to see. Type. Her clothes were modest: a straw hat of the right texture and style, trimmed with a white ribbon; a black silk dress, without any trim or ruffles, with a large Indian shawl hanging down , wrapped around her in a long, earthy way, and she wore a shawl around her like a queen in her long dress. He did not know who she was when he caught a glimpse of that dignified, unpretentious air, For the air of hers which showed that his presence had nothing to do with the charming face, and did not make the pale ivory face a blushing of astonishment. He had heard that Mr. Hale had a daughter, but he thought it was A little girl.
"It's Mr. Thornton! "Margaret said that after hesitating for a moment. For a moment, he was not at all prepared to say what to say. "Please take a seat. My father just led me to the door here. Unfortunately, they didn't tell him you were here. He had something to do and walked away again. But he's coming back. I'm sorry, but you have to drive here twice. "
Mr. Thornton was used to giving orders, but she seemed to calm him down a little at once. Before she came in, he was getting impatient, having lost a lot of time on a trading day, but now in He sat quietly at her invitation. . .
.
He had thought that Crampton's house was in fact just right, but now seeing Margaret, seeing her excellent manners and He felt ashamed, and although some vulgar decoration had caught his attention when he went to see the house, he still thought it was quite appropriate for the Hale's.
Margaret couldn't change her appearance. The small curved upper lip, the plump upturned chin, the high-headed demeanor, and every move filled with feminine tenderness and contempt, always left an impression of arrogance and indifference to strangers. At this time, she was very tired, and would rather keep silent and rest as her father had arranged for her, but she was a lady of status, and naturally she should have diligently said a few words to this stranger from time to time. . It must be admitted that the stranger did not bother to groom or tidy up after trudging through the streets of Milton and through the crowds. She wished in her heart that he would get up and take his leave, as he had said before, not to sit there all the time and give some brief answer to what she said. She had taken off her shawl and put it on the back of the chair she was sitting on, her face turned towards him, towards the light, and she sat there, her charming appearance completely in front of his eyes. The round, white neck was revealed from the plump and light figure; when she spoke, her lips moved so slightly that she did not change the shape of that lovely and arrogant little mouth in the slightest, thus destroying the cold and calm expression on her face. Expression; gentle and melancholy eyes met his eyes with a girl's leisurely gaze. By the time their conversation was over, he had almost secretly told himself he didn't like her. He wanted to use this to try to make up for his own emotional damage, because he couldn't help looking at her with admiration, while she looked at him arrogantly and nonchalantly, seeing her - as he thought - as his own in exasperation. He was the one person he thought he was—a big old man without any suave elegance all over him. He interpreted her laid-back, calm attitude as arrogant and contemptuous, and felt so disgusted in his heart that he almost wanted to get up and leave, not to deal with these Hales and their arrogant air.
It was obvious love at first sight, but Margaret's impression of him was flat:
"Hey! I don't really know what kind of person he is." Margaret said languidly, she was too tired to do anything Let's take a closer look. Then, persevering, she said, "He's a tall, broad-shouldered man, about--about how
old , Dad?" "About thirty, I guess."
"About thirty -- born -- neither quite ordinary, nor pretty face, not at all outstanding -- nor does he look like a man of status, but it's not likely to be expected. He's like."
"But not vulgar or vulgar," interrupted the father, a little afraid that someone would belittle his one-of-a-kind friend in Milton.
"Yo, no!" said Margaret. "He had such a determined look, a face like that, no matter how ordinary he looked, it was neither vulgar nor tacky. I would not like to deal with him, he seemed determined. On the whole, it seems that he was born to do his business, Mom, smart and strong, just what a big businessman should be."
And the first encounter in the play is both fascinating and thrilling, Margaret said. Mr. Thornton's disgust was simply insoluble. So the story of love prejudice started slowly.
In fact, the handsomeness of Richard Armitage, who plays Mr. Thornton, influences how the story unfolds. Because his appearance is so much more charming than the original portrayal, some reasons for his disgust in the heroine had to be created in the show so that the story would not be far-fetched.
Of course, the emotional development process of the two people is completely faithful to the original - misunderstanding and admiration, prejudice and loss, marriage proposal and rejection, until Mr. Thornton saved Margaret with great pain and love for Margaret's reputation, and he His relentless determination finally caused ripples in Margaret's heart.
"But even if she should be grateful, she still doesn't appreciate him if his intervention is out of contempt. Oh! who has such a legitimate reason to despise her? Mr. Thornton has more reason than anyone else! To So far she has been looking down at him from an imaginary height! Suddenly, she found herself at his feet, and was inexplicably distressed by her own slump. She cringed in her mind, afraid to explore their premises from the conclusions so that she could admit to herself how much she valued his respect and goodwill. Whenever she came to such an idea after a long thought, she would refrain from thinking along it—she did not like to believe it. idea."
The seesaw of love has undergone subtle changes at this time, which also makes the audience's emotions unreservedly inclined towards Mr. Thornton. So Margaret left with her secret and sadness, and the melancholic reading of Thornton's "look back at me" in the heavy snow, which was not in the original book, was designed in the play, which was just right to be heart-wrenching.
In this way, there is a final station encounter, which is indeed more romantic than the description in Mrs. Gaskell's original book. When the truth is revealed and a lover is finally married, what could be more convincing than a tender and affectionate kiss in the eyes that have always been resolute.
Love, ah, love, although the time is fleeting, when it comes, it is always a landslide and unstoppable. No matter how clichéd and repeated such a story is, we are still willing to sink into it and feel the same way.
The actor Richard Armitage is really excellent. His performance of Mr. Thornton in the play can almost be compared with that of Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy. He has performed perfectly with his deep affection, persistence and tenacity, violent appearance but soft heart; The appearance of the heroine seems to be more ordinary than the description in the original book, but her temperament is graceful and generous, and there is no sense of pretense.
The one who moved me very much in the play was Mr. Thornton's mother, Mrs. Thornton. Her solemn and monotonous demeanor suppressed her surging love for her son, which was really unforgettable. As for the strike leader, Hills, he is basically loyal to the original work. His temperament as a worker leader and his pure-hearted quality are impressive; it's just that the actor is too strong and lacks the shape of the bones described in the original work. Derived from fearlessness and determination.
Last but not least, praise for the original soundtrack of the show. Sometimes low and sad, sometimes magnificent, each song is closely related to the plot, and this scene that happened in a factory in the north of England in the 19th century is very emotional.
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