Philippine E-Journals

Modern Adaptation of A MidsummerNight’s Dream: From Shakespeare’s Stage to Hoffman’s Film

Maylin De La Pena Roiles

 

Abstract:

Midsummer-Night’s Dream, a stage play of William Shakespeare who is highly and widely regarded English playwright and poet of all times has continued to enthrall poets and writers all over the world. This work of Shakespeare has been analyzed, criticized, interpreted and translated into different languages, acted on stage and adapted into films for many times. Te main purpose of the study was to analyze the intertextual deconstructive elements as revealed in Hoffman’s screenplay vis-a-vis Shakespeare’s stage play A Midsummer-Night’s Dream. Specifically, this delved into a comparative analysis of the plot structure; comparative characterization of the major characters; and synthesis of the film adaptation techniques. Tis researched utilized the qualitative method discourse analysis of the text specifically a comparative intertextual deconstruction from stage- to- film textuality. Essentially, it is a verbal, in-depth discourse analysis of Shakespeare’s stage play adapted by Hoffman into a screenplay by comparing literary devices of the two genres such as the plot structure, characterization and film adaptation techniques to deconstruct textual meaning of these literary texts. Te study revealed the following findings: basic plot structure of Hoffman’s screenplay stays faithful in its original version; however, the manner of interpretation and presentation of these events vary from the original text. Furthermore, the modern trend in flm making is adapting a movie into a play because of its potential audiences who patronize the original source and through the aid of the modern technologies, gadgets, advanced computer graphics, and digital animation which turns a flm into a fascinating, surprisingly exciting movie to watch. These adaptation techniques make the on-screen settings, scenes and actions realistic, animated and truly fantastic film that suit today’s generation.