The Power of Persuasion:PersuasionandCarryingAnnie.

Adaptation has been present throughout the ages. From the Romans ‘ reimagining of Greek mythology, to Disney ‘s reinterpretation ofHamletandMacbethinThe Lion King, through Shakespeare taking narratives from his civilization and reassigning them onto the phase or Wagner taking Norse mythology and makingThe Ring of the Nibelung, a clear inspiration for Tolkien and hisLord of the Ringss. Adaptation has been changeless and will go on to go on for ages to come. Though all narratives can be adapted, some seem to be adapted more than others. One writer who seems to be adapted continually and into any medium is Jane Austen. Her narratives have been turned into movies, mini-series, amusing books, picture games, plants of plastic humanistic disciplines, and more late, even into web-series. Some of her narratives have been more popular, and, therefore, more altered than others, but over all, her full work has been adapted into some format or other.

The clearest illustrations of Jane Austen ‘s influence in the universe of version are the great trade of romantic comedies, both on screen and on the page, that have used Austen ‘s work as beginning stuff. There have been inquiries as to how good, or non, Jane Austen ‘s narratives translate into modern times. Some cases of this effort at interlingual rendition have been: The of all time popular, but non subtle in its mention,The Bridget Jones Diaries( both novel and movie ) , an version ofPride and Prejudicewhere the chief character issubtlynamed Marc Darcy. Or the ill-famedClueless ( 1995 ) ,a reinterpretation ofEmmaas a adolescent romantic comedy set in the 1890ss.

In this essay I am traveling to speak about the work of an writer who chose to ship on this challenge.Carrying Annieis Melissa Nathan ‘s effort at accommodatingPersuasioninto modern times, 2001 to be precise. Nathan had already adaptedPride and Prejudiceinto herPride, Prejudice and Jasmine Field( in which she cleverly cast Mr.Darcy as a modern twenty-four hours movie ace ) , and had planned to accommodate all six Jane Austen novels. Unfortunately, she passed off from chest malignant neoplastic disease before she could carry through this end.

The love narrative is really much the same inCarrying Annieas inPersusion.The chief character, Annie falls in love with a immature adult male and is persuaded by her godmother non to go on that love matter. In this modern version Annie falls in love with Jake ( Captain Wentworth ) while they are both at university. She believes she is pregnant and they decide to run off, but at the last minute her godmother, Susannah ( Lady Russell ) , shows up holding found out about the whole thing and convinces Annie that she should non run off. This happens mere minutes before Annie realises she is non so pregnant but her period was late due to emphasize. When she tells Jake that she is non traveling to run off with him and that there is no babe, he misunderstands the whole state of affairs believing she has gotten rid of the babe and runs out of the room, and out of her life.

This state of affairs generates a sorrow that still haunts her old ages subsequently when she is all of a sudden confronted once more with that old fire, merely like inPersuasion.Merely, this clip, she is confronted by Jake as the new adviser director who is supposed to salvage her household ‘s PR concern from traveling under. Unlike in the original narrative where Anne understands that Captain Wentworth is angry and blames herself for her sadness, Annie is merely as angry and resentful at Jake for holding run out on her, as he is about the whole misinterpretation. The re-encounter is one of the most similar minutes between both texts. Annie manages to avoid run intoing Jake the first clip when Sophie and Fiona ( the equivalents of Louisa and Henrietta ) meet him. Subsequently, she is supposed to go to a dinner party where she will hold to be confronted with Jake, but her nephew has a small accident ( he puts atoy fire engine ‘s ladder up his olfactory organ ) and she stays place to take attention of him while her sister and brother in jurisprudence go on to the dinner and run into Jake. Annie feels relieved at holding avoided this meeting and the following forenoon she is merrily lounging at place preparing breakfast for her and her sister when her brother in jurisprudence, Charles ( one of the lone characters to hold the same name as in the beginning novel ) , appears with Jake catching her wholly off guard. Unlike with Anne, Annie can pull off her daze at seeing Jake once more because of her choler towards him. Shortly after this, lies a minute that is really similar between both texts. When Mary absent-mindedly says to Anne: “Captain Wentworth is non really gallant by you, Anne, [ … ] he said ‘You were so altered he should non hold known you again’” . This closely resembles how Victoria, Annie ‘s sister, tells her: “Jake did retrieve you. Not really complementary about you, though. Said you look 20 old ages older, would n’t hold recognized you” .

After this Annie and Jake are thrown together continually in assemblages with Anne ‘s sister and brother in jurisprudence, and the two immature sisters of said brother in jurisprudence. Another scene that is really similar in both texts is that of Charles and Victoria discoursing with which of the immature misss Jake will stop up. They do so in forepart of Annie, non cognizing what had happened between the two characters, and they each have a front-runner. Charles thinks it will be Sophie ( Louisa ) and Victoria thinks it will be Fiona ( Henrietta ) . During this clip, Edward, the main executive officer of the household ‘s PR house shows a pronounced involvement in Annie and Susannah greatly approves of the lucifer. Annie ‘s male parent ( George ) besides seems to be approached by Davina ( Mrs.Clay ) who is a really good friend of Annie ‘s senior sister. George invites Davina to travel along with him and his senior girl to New York ( the novel ‘s equivalent of Bath ) and Annie is worried about what might go on in her absence. Just like Anne is worried about what might go on between Mrs. Clay and Sir Walter while she is non in Bath with them.

The turning point of the love narrative takes topographic points when Sophie has an accident, Annie proves her presence of head and Jake realises he is non over her like he thought. In this instance the accident takes topographic point in a London dark back street where Sophie is being foolhardy and Jake allows it. Sophie is hit in the caput by a stealer with her Channel clasp bag and falls unconscious to the floor. Everyone is panicking and Annie is the lone 1 who takes charge of the state of affairs. After this Jake seems to distance himself a small from Sophie, and, finally, Sophie ends up falling for the 1 who plays nurse to her, David ( a merger between Harville and Benwick ) . Annie goes to New York to fall in her male parent and there is where the action unfolds. Jake follows her there, realises that person is syphoning money out of the PR concern and efforts to calculate it out while he tries to win Annie back. In the terminal he finds out that the one responsible for Annie ‘s household ‘s economical ruin is none other than Edward, merely at the same clip as Annie is told that Edward is really an ex-convict who specializes in victimizing people and taking their money. They besides find out that Edward is working with Davina ( Mrs.Clay ) and they are both arrested. This is chiefly the secret plan of the novel, aside from a twosome of other sub-plots.

The flood tide to the love narrative is at the same clip improbably similar to that ofPersuasionand really different because of the times. In the instance ofCarrying Annie, Jake overhears, through an intercom, a confrontation between Annie and her godmother in which Annie tells her she should non hold allowed herself to be led by her all those old ages ago, and so he types a missive for her on a computing machine. The missive is practically indistinguishable to the 1 in the original narrative but with more modern linguistic communication ( and a twosome of misprint because he is nervous ) .

As can be seen, Nathan was rather faithful to the original text, and, in more than one juncture, the scenes and even the words she uses are really similar. Even so, there are a twosome of differences between both texts that should be noted, and these differences are frequently on history of the different times the narratives are set in. One such difference is Annie ‘s bureau and mobility. Unlike Anne, who has to remain at place and fret over the episode in her yesteryear, Annie has a occupation in an art gallery, she works for her household ‘s concern and she voluntaries in a aid line for people who need person to speak to. Another difference is that Annie has a set of friends, two friends from the aid line she voluntaries at and a best friend, who are at that place for her. While in the original work Anne has no 1 like that and is wholly stray within her societal circle.

There are a twosome other worthy things to notice on in this version. One of the funniest is that Nathan transformed the “shooting” Charles is ever making inPersuasioninto golf, the modern interest for the wealthy bored adult male. Certain descriptions of characters are really similar to those ofPersuasion.An illustration would be George ‘s ( Sir William ‘s ) description. He is described as “a adult male of little head and big opinions” and the storyteller, at one point, says: “Nothing was more violative to George than bad expressions in a individual. It was downright ill-mannered, every bit far as he was concerned” . Likewise, Susannah ‘s interior ideas on her three god-daughters are besides really similar to the original text, every bit good as her description of each one of them. A clear illustration of how closely related the two texts are when covering with Susannah/Lady Russell is how neither can understand how their god-daughter could be so unmarked by her household and Davina/Mrs. Clay so esteemed. Austen writes: “The sight of Mrs. Clay in such favor, and of Anne so overlooked, was a ageless provocation” . While Nathan writes: “Susannah could merely mourn mutely that her Annie should be treated so evidently different to Davina by those who should cognize better” . Another thing worth observing is that althought Nathan ‘s usage of free indirect address is non every bit sophisticated as Austen ‘s, she does utilize it and good. Her usage gives us the point of position of all the characters at some point or another in the novel. Most notably it gives us the point of position of Jake and we can acquire the other side of the narrative. Geting a glance of all the characters ideas and motives allows for a better apprehension of them.

InCarrying Annie, Nathan takes some illations that one gets when readingPersuasionand makes them more concrete. For case, there is the clear transmutation of the character of Mr. Elliot into, rather literally, a con adult male in the form of Edward. Another such illation is the manner people keep overlooking Annie: “ [ they ] made the easy premise, like so many other people that, because Annie kept her ideas to herself, she had none” . There is besides a farther geographic expedition of how Victoria ( Mary ) is really world-weary of being at place with her kids and envies her hubby and how he can go forth and travel golfing. This last one is solved subsequently on in the narrative by opening Charles ‘ golf nine to adult females and Victoria picking up the athletics and viing in tourneies together.

Another clear difference between the texts is that Nathan trades with topics that Austen could n’t hold because of the limitations of her society and besides because some did non even exist. This issues range from the inability to gestate by some adult females and the interventions they undergo to rectify this, to adult females in the work topographic point. The first can be seen in the Character of Cassandra, a character that seems to be an equivalent of Mrs. Smith in that she is a school friend of Annie and the 1 who enlightens her as to the true individuality of Edward. But she is besides a new character because she is Susannah ‘s girl and Annie ‘s best friend. The latter subject can be seen in that most adult females in Nathan ‘s fresh work, with Victoria being the lone exclusion.

To reason, version has been a really popular and changeless pattern throughout the ages and it is likely safe to state that Jane Austen ‘s work will go on to be adapted for rather some clip. In the debut to her bookA Theory of AdaptationLinda Hutcheon says that “adaptation is non slavish copying ; it is the procedure of doing the adapted stuff one ‘s own” . By this definition, it is possible to state that Melissa Nathan “madePersuasionher own” when she wroteCarrying Annie. Although versions, at least good 1s, are a hard thing to draw off, Nathan did rather a good occupation.At times she kept so close to the original text that it was impossible non to see the similarities between scenes and, even, words. Yet at other times the differences were really dramatic. However, though dramatic, the differences made sense when transfering the narrative from Regency England into the universe of the early 2000 ‘s. All in all, it is clear that Melissa Nathan studied her beginning stuff thoroughly and inCarrying Anniepaid clear court to Jane Austen andPersuasionspecifically.

Notes:

I am including a character tantamount grid in instance some of the equalities between characters in both texts are ill-defined.

Carrying Annie	Persuasion
Annie Markham	Anne Elliot
Jake Meade	Captain Frederick Wentworth
Susannah Brooke	Lady Russell
Sophie Norman	Louisa Musgrove
Fiona Norman	Henrietta Musgrove
Charles Norman	Charles Musgrove
Victoria Norman	Mary Musgrove
Edward Goddard	Mr. Elliot
George Markham	Sir William Elliot
Davina Barker	Mrs. Clay
David Silver	A merger between Captain Harville and Captain Benwick
Cassandra Brooke	A sort of Mrs. Smith

Bibliography:

• Jane Austen,Persuasion. The penguin English Library, 1975. WithA Memoir of Jane Austenand an debut by D.W. Harding.
• Melissa Nathan,Carrying Annie. Avon Trade, 2001.
• Linda Hutcheon, “Beginning to Speculate Adaptation.”A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge, 2006.