Modernizing Classic Characters
There are some characters in literature that simply will not
go away. Call it love, call it stubbornness, call it whatever you will, but
while thousands of books and their principle players have been buried inches
deep in dust on old bookshelves, there are some characters so resilient that
they are as beloved now as when they first came into existence. Romeo and Juliet will never rest in peace;
Oedipus will perpetually be cycling, and readers will be trying to make sense
of Ulysses until the apocalypse.
What makes us love these characters and their stories so
much? There isn’t a single answer (how could there be?) but it seems to lie
somewhere in the ballpark of universality of a deeply shared commonality or
humanity, or something equally as deep sounding. As long as these characters
live in their original habitats, there can be a gulf between them and us, their
present-day readers. They exist in a different world and although we share a fundamental
humanity, our outward and societal experiences have some inherent differences.
But that is, ladies and gents, how we come to our current trend: modern
reinterpretations.
If you are as big a Jane Austen nerd as I am, chances are
the most recent and modern interpretation of Pride and Prejudice, Ms. Austen’s most famous novel, has hit your
radar. A YouTube web series, The Lizzie
Bennet Diaries, is the personal vlog of one Miss Lizzie, who recounts the
tales of her life and her sisters’ misadventures in love. It’s a notion that deeply
shouldn’t work, but somehow really does.
Lizzie is still very much Elizabeth Bennet (of a playful disposition that
delights in anything ridiculous), but she is also very much a woman of the
times.
Modern Lizzie is a grad student from a mildly eccentric
family strapped with student loans and mortgage troubles. Bing Lee is studying
to be a doctor and Darcy a young CEO of his father’s digital media firm.
Although the characters’ occupations and means of communication are vastly
different, they are all at their heart, the characters of Austen’s era and
simultaneously very real. The rich, conceited asshole and the wild flirt, for
example, are people that still exist today and will likely always exist. What makes this retelling so intriguing is to
see what these beloved characters will do when let loose in an entirely new
world. And what’s more, you can talk to them. Thousands of people write letters
to Juliet Capulet in Verona every year, but now, you can simply tweet at Lizzie
Bennet.
While The Lizzie
Bennet Diaries are taking the classic characters and making them more real
by allowing them to interact with fans, there are other modern
reinterpretations that make their characters more exciting by transposing them
to the modern day. Take for example the BBC miniseries, Sherlock. Nearly
everything about that series is a modern parallel for the original canon. And despite the current glut of crime dramas
on TV, this series stands out because Sherlock Holmes is the inspiration for
all that followed. But revisiting Holmes in the modern era simply makes him,
well, cooler. In the late 19th century, his dizzying intellect was
staggeringly impressive, but it admittedly didn’t have all that much to best.
But in the 21st century, with modern technology at his and
criminals’ disposal, his besting them makes cracking the case all that much
more impressive. Releasing Holmes from the Victorian era and giving him a
smartphone breathes a new life into the well-worn stories.
There are some stories that are deeply rooted in their
original time periods (A Tale of Two
Cities, for example is unlikely to be have a successful, modern
interpretation; what is it without the French Revolution?) and cannot exist
outside of them, even if their popularity endures to today. But for those
stories that can remain intact post-time travel, and if there are people
creative and daring enough to attempt to retell those stories, I hope that this
trend continues. It breathes fresh life into long beloved stories and ensures
that they never grow too old.
By Meaghan O’Brien
