On the Two-Line Narrative of "The French Lieutenant's Woman"

Asa 2022-09-23 04:34:54

From the very beginning of the film, actress Anna, played by Meryl Streep, is staring at herself in a mirror that is both "me" and not "me", a parallel of the dual heroines. The setting is her self-exploration and self-examination, as if she is exploring "who I am" and confirming the meaning of the individual. The presence of the crew around her confirmed her as Anna, and when the music crescened, Sarah (Anna) walked through the smoke and onto the bank to complete the time-space transition from reality to the Victorian era in the play, showing two complete story. This double-line structure and the "play within the play" statement make the film full of dramatic tension. The ending of the original novel is open ended. When adapting the original work, the film made a bold adaptation of the original play structure and form, turning the three open endings in the original story into a closed ending, adding a modern story axis. Although this story axis is modern, the director captures the thinking about love and freedom. Therefore, the two theme lines developed on this basis each have their own love themes. In the past, the love theme of time and space was that two souls who loved each other would end up together, and the current love theme is that two people don’t pay attention to feelings and are only related to the body. People feel emotional pain, not together. The concept of love displayed by the two storylines is different. The stories of past time and space and the stories of present time and space are progressing layer by layer, and the two are symmetrical and echo each other. In addition to using various methods to shape Sarah in the past, the director still shapes Sarah from the side in the present time and space, which not only makes the two themes intertwined and contrasted, but also produces a deeper meaning, which not only makes the story more interesting. Plump and full of changes, while showing the rich connotation and theme of the film. Let us think about how to deal with the relationship between the sexes in life and in love.

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Extended Reading

The French Lieutenant's Woman quotes

  • Sarah: Do what you will or what you must. Now that I know there was truly a day upon which you loved me, I can bear anything. You have given me the strength to live.

  • Charles Henry Smithson: This isn't mistletoe, but it will do, will it not?

    Ernestina: Oh, Charles. Oh! Oh! Oh!