Tuesday, April 17, 2012

O is for . . .


Opinion piece. Here’s mine.

In a January post, Unfinished Masterpieces, I wrote about screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes’s completion of Charles Dickens’s, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Sunday night the Hughes drama aired on public TV and I happened to tune in.

Never having read the fragment by Dickens, I don’t know precisely where he left off and Hughes began, but I do know that Dickens never identified the murderer. Hughes, of course, does—but I don’t think it’s the one Dickens had in mind. Or if she got the murderer right, she must have twisted the plot in the wrong direction.

Hughes herself admitted that she felt emboldened . . . to go where the characters took me, and hope that people who love the book even if they dont like what Ive done with the mystery[would] still love Dickenss characters.”

From reading other Dickens novels, I’d say most of the characters in Drood are Dickensian for sure. John Jasper is as black hearted a villain as any Dickens created, utterly loathsome. The crypt keeper, Durdles, is stock Dickens. 

If you read my N post yesterday, you perhaps will remember Alun Armstrong from New Tricks. In Drood he’s the benevolent guardian of the heroine, Rosa Budboth of whom have parallel types in other work by Dickens. 

Edwin Drood himself is curiously inconsistent. He manfully accepts Rosa’s wish to break their engagement, but immediately does something impulsive and immature. This action, which I won’t spoil by divulging, is crucial to the mystery. I can’t decide if Drood's inconsistency was his fatal flawor Hughes's.

The tale tangles right after the midpoint murder, and thereafter, the charactersmotivations and hence the plot grows less and less believable.

And then there’s a major loose end. I can’t tell you what it is without giving away the climax. But this surely was not Dickens’s ending. His plots are organic, causative, and neat above all.

It could be that Dickens himself couldn't undo the plot knots and thus left the tale unfinished. Hughes's version doesn't solve The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It deepens it.

14 comments:

  1. Great piece! I'll have to keep a watch on my public tv channel to see if it airs in my area.

    I've always thought myself rather perceptive with picking apart characters, motivations, plots and clues in mystery movies and books.

    If i get to view it I'll let you know what I think.

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  2. Hmm, I'll have to check it out. But I'm a bit of a purist, so I'm glad I have your opinion to arm me in advance; otherwise I might get annoyed too easily.

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  3. My favorite Dickens is Our Mutual Friend - I'm not familiar with this one. But he is such a master at creating extreme characters -esp. villains!

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    1. Yes, I enjoyed Our Mutual Friend too. I saw the tv drama first and then I checked out the book.

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  4. Oh, forgot to mention, I'm a visiting A-Z blogger! And new follower. Love your blog name, that twist on Whiter Shade of Pale.

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  5. I wonder if that was on Masterpiece Classic. I have three of those shows recorded that I haven't watched yet.

    It's nice to meet you. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I always meet the nicest people during the A to Z Challenge.

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    1. Yes, Patricia, it was Masterpiece Classic. It's nice to meet you too!

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  6. I've not read Edwin Drood, nor seen this "completion" of the story, but your post intrigues me. I must see if a friend of mine, who is something of a Dickens expert, has seen the program. Very interesting...

    Thanks for dropping by my blog earlier today!

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  7. I'd heard some buzz about this. I think it's time to dive in to Edwin Drood. I've loving the fare on Masterpiece Classics.

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  8. Hmm, never read Edwin Drood either, but your post has me curious.

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  9. I've not read the piece, but I must say that it would be a huge undertaking to try and finish another's work, especially one like Dickens.

    Michelle :)
    www.michelle-pickett.com/blog

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  10. I don't know if I'd have the guts to finish off someone else's story, especially someone as great as Dickens :)

    Universal Gibberish

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  11. I haven't seen this and now I'm not sure if I want to! What I love about Dickens is exactly what you said-- those neatly wrapped up endings that are just so brilliantly done.

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