uperstition is put to logical analysis. “This diabolical agent had the Divine permission, for a season, to borrow into the clergyman’s intimacy, and plot against his soul”(118). This form of revenge is much stronger and is an important part of the book, which is not present in the movie. This in depth description of how powerful the mind is makes you doubt the outcome that is very effective. The weakest part of the script is the ending. Aside from straying significantly from that of the book, the final part turns this rather lugubrious melodrama into an action film. The book ends in a way that is literally preposterous, but is simultaneously sad enough to become tragic and satirical. It ends with poor Dimmesdale confessing his sin, crying out “His will be done! Farewell!”(233) and dying. It is obviously not acceptable for Dimmesdale to believe he has sinned, and so the movie cleverly transforms his big speech into a stirring cry for sexual freedom and religious tolerance. Instead of dying of a guilty seizure, the main point of the book, he snatches the noose from Hester’s neck and pulls it around his own, only to be saved when the Indians attack, driving a burning cart through the village. Ending with Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale riding away in the sunset. The film has a happy, Hollywood-style ending. And the message of the movie is very clear. “Who is to judge what is a sin in God’s eyes?” which are the final words of the film. Hawthornes novel does not portray that message at all but rather that evil or beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. So if the movie wanted to change the book’s message it should have created an original piece of work. The movie removed the character’s sense of guilt, and therefore the story’s drama. Instead of being a symbolism-laden parable about hypocrisy and set morals, it decides to become a condemnation of Puritan lifes...
