Marjorie Morningstar (film) - Differences Between The Film and Novel

Differences Between The Film and Novel

The most significant difference between the 1955 novel and the 1958 film is the ending. At the end of the novel, the free-spirited Marjorie Morningstar settles down with a man her parents would approve of. In a criticism of Herman Wouk's ending, Alana Newhouse writes in Slate Magazine that "In the final nine pages, the formerly vibrant Marjorie gives up on her career, gets married to a man named Sidney — er, Milton — Schwartz, and moves to Westchester... Most female readers cry when they reach the end of this book, and for good reason. Marjorie Morningstar, as they came to know her, has become another woman entirely: 'You couldn't write a play about her that would run a week, or a novel that would sell a thousand copies. … The only remarkable thing about Mrs. Schwartz is that she ever hoped to be remarkable, that she ever dreamed of being Marjorie Morningstar.'"

In the film, Marjorie seems to go off with Wally Wronkin, the playwright. Though he is successful, unlike Airman, he is far more artistic than the Milton Schwartz Marjorie settles down with at the end of the novel. This ending suggests a different prejudice in the film than Wouk's novel - the lesson is that Marjorie is able to mitigate her desire to break away from tradition, with her parent's wishes. In the novel, the moral seems to be that her only solution is to settle down into the tradition of her parents.