Question

Read the following scene from The Little Foxes. BEN. (very jovial) I suppose I have been. And why not? Horace has done Hubbard Sons many a good turn. Why shouldn’t I be anxious to help him now? REGINA. (laughs) Help him! Help him when you need him, that’s what you mean. BEN. What a woman you married, Horace. (Laughs awkwardly when HORACE does not answer) Well, then I’ll make it quick. You know what I’ve been telling you for years. How I’ve always said that every one of us little Southern businessmen had great things—(Extends his arm)—right beyond our finger tips. It’s been my dream: my dream to make those fingers grow longer: I’m a lucky man, Horace, a lucky man. To dream and to live to get what you’ve dreamed of. That’s my idea of a lucky man. (Looks at his fingers as his arm drops slowly) For thirty years I’ve cried bring the cotton mills to the cotton. (HORACE opens medicine bottle). Well, finally I got up nerve to go to Marshall Company in Chicago. What would be similar about a stage and a film interpretation of this scene?

Answer 1

If the options are:

A. Viewers would have to infer the emotions and motivations of Ben and Regina.
B. Viewers would have to envision the physical descriptions of Ben and Regina.
C. Viewers would have to imagine the few props being used by Ben and Regina.
D. Viewers would have to visualize the actions and movements of Ben and Regina.

Then the right answer is A. In stage and film adaptations, there is no need for the viewers to envision physical descriptions, imagine props, or visualize actions and movements. They can already see all of that, as the directors have already taken care of it. We only have to visualize all these things when we read the play. However, inferring the inner enigmas of characters' motivations is still up to us.