Accuracy as a Factor in Audience Appreciation of Film Adaptations of Jane Eyre

Abstract

The fact thatSince it is so often stated that thea books, in general, are is better than theirits adaptations, may mean that the question whether actually knowing in-depth knowledge of the novel may influencess your anthe audience’s appreciation of an accurate adaptations. is an interesting one. While a lot ofplenty of research has been done on both Jane Eyre as a novel and adaptations in general, athe combination between of thesee two subjects has not been academically discussed very often. However, if it is true that textual accuracy matters to an audience that is familiar with the novel itself, it could solve some of the problems that directors or screenwriters run into when adapting a novel such as Jane Eyre. In order to see whether accuracy actually matters, two groups of 10 students were asked to participate in this research. Four adaptations of Jane Eyre were ranked in order of accuracy, compared to one another, and judged by a group that was familiarised with the corresponding textual fragments in the novel, and a group that had only minor knowledge of the novel as a whole. It turned outIt was found that accuracy does matters: the group that was familiar with the textual fragments rated the most accurate adaptation higher, and the least accurate adaptation lower, than the group that wasn’t familiarised beforehand. However, as it turned out, textual accuracy is not the only thing that audiences pay attention to. In general, familiarity with the novel proved statistically significant, and this is something that could prove useful as knowledge for future adaptations. However, there were other factors, such as actors and cinematography, which also influenced the audience’s appreciation of the adaptations.