hollywood vs. romanticism

"Thankfully, this movie will be forgotten. It will fade into the field of worthless movies, a single strand in a sea of spent celluloid. The book, on the other hand, has already lasted 150 years. Even Hollywood's best intentions won't be enough to kill it."
-Jeremial McNichols [source]

In case anyone has seen the 1995 version of The Scarlet Letter, I just wanted to comment on the difference between the movie and the text. A lot of the time, I don't spend too much time contemplating the similarities and differences between the novel and the movie, because I don't think they can be judged with the same criteria. In this instance though, it's interesting to note that in Hawthorne's text, there is no sex scene between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, and the tale actually begins nine months after the fact. Also, Hester and Dimmesdale do not even have private and intimate conversation until the very end of the book. Not that sexuality or sensuality does not have a place in Romantic literature - for fellow bloggers have already made note on the presence of sexuality in American Romantic literature - but for this text, it is not relevant (or even interesting) to Hawthorne's more controversial ideas about human nature and morality. So, if you have only seen the movie, don't write off the book.