A Deathly Adaptation Despite Death's Absence: Il Gattopardo Anonymous College

For an adaptation that omits the death scene of its protagonist, Il Gattopardo is a film permeated by the theme of death. Although Pallotta suggests that even in the novel, "the confrontation of a nobleman" with the "human dilemma [of] death" is "the central theme" (p58) [essay's italics]; this essay would instead argue that death transforms from a central theme into the central theme only through the process of adaptation by Visconti. Arguably, Visconti's closing scene is more deathly - despite the absence of the actual death of the Prince - than the death scene of the novel and therefore, elevates the theme from one competing with others to the main focus of the film.

This elevation of the theme of death does not simply occur in the final scenes of the film; instead, it is apparent from the very beginning due to the emphasis on the death of the solider found in the garden. The death could, rather than highlighting the theme, serve as a way of grounding the text in the era of Risorgimento. Certainly, in Lampedusa's novel, the death of the soldier - who "é morto per il Re" (Lampedusa, 2002, p28) - leads to an internal monologue by the Prince about the new king versus the former. Instead, in the film, Visconti's use of the...