Dolores Claiborne :: essays research papers

The EclipseOn the mean solar day of the full eclipse, Dolores Claibornes life changes forever. True, it had been changed by events beyond her control long before this fateful day, but she chooses this day to end her husbands life so she and her family can go on living. Steven King masterfully weaves this tale of love, abuse, and denial in his novel, Dolores Claiborne, which was ulterior turned into a movie directed by Taylor Hackford. Although the movie accommodation of the novel follows the stage line very closely, there are a few changes made, such as the role of Dolores daughter, Selena, the intended audience to Dolores, and the impressiveness of Salena being raped by her father.Although Salena plays an important role in twain the adjudge and the movie, her roles in each are different. In the book, she is dependent on her mother until the point when her father begins to sexu eachy abuse her. She then withdraws from everyone and tries to blank out about the fact that it ev er happened. In the movie, however, Salena has come back from hot York to defend her mother after she has been accused of knock downing Vera Donovan. She has developed a drug abuse problem, just like her father. Salena is the reason for many of the scenes end-to-end the movie, as she is remembering them and discussing what genuinely happened with her mother.In both the novel and the movie, the story of the eclipse and the events leading up to it are told in a flashback. The passing is that in the novel, Dolores is telling her story to the police in the form of a confession. She wants to get it all out of her conscious so that she can be cleared of killing Vera Donovan. In the movie, however, she is talking to Salena, who doesnt remember all of what happens, or is in denial about most of what happened. Many of the make up time scenes in the movie are of Dolores trying to convince Salena that this really did happen. Yet another important event in both the book and the movie is w hen Dolores finds out that her husband has been sexually abusing their daughter. It is at this time that she decides to kill him, after some prompting by Vera Donovan. She takes drastic measures in prep her husbands accident. In the movie, however, the abuse is only acknowledged.