Focusing the Gaze: The Role of Music in Film Adaptations of Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" <br> doi:10.5429/2079-3871(2010)v1i1.6en

Abstract

The role of music takes on a dual identity in the context of filming the Regency era, with modern composers fusing old and new in order to reach contemporary audiences. This article will illustrate how the musical scoring serves to focus the romantic gaze in filmed versions of Pride and Prejudice from 1940 to 2005 through a dual-gendered perspective. The musical gaze is fourfold, split by gender and by circumstance; male, joined, female, and societal. The dual narrative, one verbal, one musical, provides interplay between the male and female perspective.