"Circle of Friends" as novel and film version

Term Paper (Advanced seminar) , 2007 , 23 Pages , Grade: 2,3

Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works

And they all lived happily ever after… This is the typical ending of a romance novel. Why does it always have to be a happy end? What happens to the story if it does not end this way and how does the reader react? These are central questions I want to examine in this paper. Therefore I will look at Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends and the film version of the novel. My first step is to investigate the general structure of typical romances and the special meaning of the ending for a novel. Afterwards, with focus on the ending, I want to show how Circle of Friends deviates from these conventions. For this purpose I will also look in greater detail at the heroine in the novel. Another central question of my paper is why women read romance novels and how readers are influenced by an unusual ending of a book. In my last point I want to compare the ending of the novel Circle of Friends with the one of the film. All in all, this paper should illustrate that Circle of Friends is a special kind of romance which influences our reception of the story.

Table of contents

1 Introduction

2 How does it all end? – Circle of Friends as novel and film version
2.1 The typical structure of romance novels
2.2 The general meaning of the ending in a novel
2.3 The ending of Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends
2.4 Analysis of the special ending in Circle of Friends
2.4.1 The traditional female main character in romance novels
2.4.2 The male hero in the romance novel
2.4.3 Benny – the unconventional heroine
2.5 Why do we read stereotypical romance novels?
2.6 Does a happy end really make the reader happy?
2.7 The film version of Circle of Friends
2.8 Personal opinion about the film version of Circle of Friends

3 Conclusion

Bibliography

• College: University of Regensburg (Anglistik)
• Course: Hauptseminar: Modern Romance
• Grade: 2,3
• Author: Michaela Kertesz (Author)
• Publication Year: 2007
• Pages: 23
• Catalog Number: V161423
• ISBN (eBook): 9783640746033
• ISBN (Book): 9783640746637
• Language: English
• Tags: Circle, Friends