Comparative Analysis of The Text and The Movie of The Painted Veil

羅雅茜

Abstract： The movie The Painted Veil was adapted from the novel of the same name written by the famous British writer William Somerset Maugham. In order to comprehend the work thoroughly， this article will analyze the text and the movie in a comparative way through studying and exploring the characterization ， background stories and other different aspects of it.

Keywords： 《The Painted Veil》； the text ； the movie ； the characters ； the background stories

【摘要】電影《面紗》根據英國作家威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆的同名小說改編而來。本文將文本與影像進行比較，通過人物刻畫、故事背景等方面的探究，達到深入理解這部作品的目的。

【關鍵詞】《面紗》；文本；影像；人物；背景

Part One： Brief Introduction to The Painted Veil

The Painted Veil tells a story about a British couple. The heroine， Kitty married to a man， the hero Walter Fane that she didnt love and went to China and lived there with him. It was not long before she could not bear the boring and insipid life with Walter and had an affair with Charles Townsend， a married man. Walter was so resentful and decided to take her with him to Mei-Tan-Fu where there was a rampant cholera. During the time the knot and misunderstandings were finally untied and disappeared little by little. Nevertheless， Walter was inflected by the epidemic and died at the end.

Part Two： From The Text To The Movie

Section 1： The Major Distinctions

The content has adapted a lot from the original work in the transformation between the text and the movie. In the original work， the heroine Kitty did not able to fall in love with her poor husband. She returned to England and finally found her own way and started a new life. In the contrast， the movie payed more attention to the aspect of presenting how the disharmonious couple get to understand each other and rely their lives on each other. Both of the two versions have their own respective emphasis and features.

Section 2： Characterization

The movie has characterized and given the audiences a full interpretation and deduction to the hero Walter. He took his wife who had an affair to the dangerous place at the risk of death out of the resentment to her. On the other side， he made up his mind to save the lives of the villagers on his own when facing the real calamity of reality. The actor of this character， Edward Norton had prepared for starring the movie for about six years. He did a lot of work in acquainting with the locality where the story happened and on which the background based——the small towns of southern China in the 1920s. Also， he learned much about the cultural circumstance as well as the politics and history of that time.

Section 3： The Background Knowledge of The Story

We should say that in the text of the novel the management of the background was more obscure and the author did not point out explicit and specified time or events. Relatively， the Chinese culture and life style had been reflected all through the whole movie. Framing in Guangxi， the directer made an appropriate adjust to the background which presented the movements against imperialism happened in China in the 1920s. At the same time， the movie set the conflicts between the Chinese and Western culture beneath the story of love. This kind of method had gave the whole story a chance to be built up in a more credible and authentic historical background. The movie had properly showed us not only the culture shock experienced by the Fane couple but also the civilians blind boycott and resistance toward the foreigners and the foreign culture and it was praiseworthy.

Part Three： Conclusion

Maugham created his novel in an acrimonious， sarcastic but exquisite way. There was no doubt that he was a master writer who was very good at narrating stories of self-redemption which happened in era of chaos， wars and disasters. Moreover， most of his works did not have a comparatively satisfactory or romantic ending but depicted more about the bitterness and grimness of life. The movie to some extent changed and quited the cold and cruel style of the original work in the process of adaptation. Although Walter still died at the end of the movie， the disposition of Kitty was changed into a warm-hearted and sympathetic one.

Bibliography：

The Painted Veil， written by William Somerset Maugham， published by the Press of Chongqing， 2006.