Comparison of Linguistic Differences in the Film and...

Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange - Linguistic Differences in the Film and Novel A Clockwork Orange, written by Anthony Burgess, is experienced differently as a novel than it is as the movie directed by Stanley Kubrick. The heart of the difference between the two forms is expressed by Bakhtin: The potential for [‘double-voiced discourse’ between the author and narrator] is one of the most fundamental privileges of novelistic prose, a privilege available neither to dramatic nor to purely poetic genres (Bakhtin, 320).1 An entire dimension of the novel’s story is lost in the movie when Alex’s role is reduced from narrator to commentator. The ability of Burgess to speak indirectly to the audience through Alex is removed, and the†¦show more content†¦Burgess is revealing Alex’s disdain towards God and organized religion. Two different things are happening when Alex says, you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not b eing read much neither (Burgess 1). On one level, Alex says these words to comment on the way society is going. He presupposes his audience has a basic familiarity with his world. He reminds his audience what sort of mestos the milk-bars were, but does not need to explain what a mesto is. On another level, Burgess uses this moment to give the reader some indication of the setting. Through this commentary of Alex’s, the reader’s subconscious mind is able to pick up on the fact that time has passed for Alex since the events of the story took place. This difference in time between action and narration is resolved with the controversial twenty-first chapter, where Alex looks back at his younger days and the way he spent his time, and feels bored with it. At the same time, the reader detects some trace of an unstable social and political situation around Alex. The audience Alex is addressing with the familiar O my brothers is different from the audience which Burgess is add ressing—the readers of his novel. While the readers of Burgess’ novel are also the audience of Alex’s story, Alex does not