Clarissa and Louis

The biggest change I saw between the book and the movie is the scene in which Louis unexpectedly arrives at Ms. Dalloway's home. The roles of the two characters are the opposite of the ones they are portrayed as in the book. In the movie, Louis comes over and they catch up on each other's lives. Then, Louis asks if something is wrong, and Clarissa breaks into tears describing how she thinks her life is insignificant and all about parties. Louis tries to help as much as he can and then leaves, confused about what just happened. Clarissa is very visibly weak. On the other hand, in the book, things are the exact opposite. Louis walks in, is fine for a while, then is crying because he knows that even though he says he is in love, he actually is not. Clarissa is playing the support role instead of Louis. It is a very interesting way of changing the story line to better suit the cinematic style rather than text. The writers did this to aid in the development . At this particular point in the film, we are at the height of (for lack of a better word) craziness in the other two women, and in this scene of the book, Clarissa's doubts and fears are still in her internal thought. With no way to express this, they needed to change something so the severity of the situation would be more recognizable to those who hadn't previously read the book. As soon as Clarissa started breaking down I realized what they had done and was very happy with the results.