The Watfords

In this scenario, the scene treatment is inspired by an evolution of Pride and Prejudice. Scenes in Pride and Prejudice depict one of the protagonists’, Mr. Bennet’s, blunders. This film will be made in the tradition of Love and Deceit, complete with costumes and language. The production style of the adaptation in the Watfords is bound to loosely imitate Pride and Bigotry, which stars Kierra. My choice is on a commentary of pride and prejudice where I have decided to keep the key plot points and the objective point of the film since it focuses on both love and financial distress to make the audiences understand the plight of Mrs. Bennet in Pride and prejudice. The scene focuses on how Mr. Bennet was irresponsible with the family’s money hence I have raised the argument that it is a kernel scene.

In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet squanders the family’s wealth and tends to forget his uneducated daughters and jobless wife. He portrays the elements of pride and selfishness in that he fails to submit to his family of five daughters and also fails to channel the family resources to the family hence Mrs. Bennet describing the family to be worse than the street families in all aspects including presentation. Mrs. Bennet is on the other hand depicted as foolish and nosy whereas she is doing so for her daughter so that they can have a better life by ensuring that the stupid husband can save and secure a better future for the family. The girls are supposed to be brought up in better conditions so that they can have workable dowries.

The novel has a vivid explanation of the above and more scenes that truly extrapolate the characteristics of all the characters. In the film adaptation, the scenes would have been broken down up throughout the movie. In the Watfords, there is an almost similar context where the main characters who are the Watford family have the same problems at their home. Mr. Watford is a drunkard who was fortunate to inherit a vast family fortune but fails to channel it to the wife, Mrs. Watford and their two daughters who were forced to drop out of school. The film has scenes that date back to the 19th century, which covers the period between 1850 and 1898. I, therefore, present a view treatment in montage form for the vivid visual elaboration of the drunkards of Mr. Watford and how ill he treats his family and later the consequences of his actions.

INT. THE WATFORDS’ STUDY- C. 1850 MR WATFORD’S INHERITANCE

TEXT: (in script): Mr. Watford’s inheritance

Mr. Watford is in the stables looking after a sick horse that had a limping leg. He heads out of the stable to get an ointment that is to be used on the horse’s limb to ease the healing process where he spots a cloud of smoke coming from the east. He remembers that his father had once told him that news from the east is bad news since his enemies were all from the east. Mr. Watford stares at his shaking hands as he awaits the men whose horses formed a cloud of dust due to their speed to get to him. The dogs cannot stop barking, and this scares Mr. Watford further. The men get to him and announce the sudden death of his father and two of his brothers in a confrontation over the ownership of some herds of cattle. The news shakes him, and he bursts into tears lamenting of his loss and the loneliness that is bound to strike him following the death of her mother a month earlier due to an unknown illness.

After a week of mourning, Mr. Watford decides on marrying a girl who lived across the river that separated their home from their friends in the west. Mr. Watford has enough wealth to pay as dowry due to the huge inheritance he has as the only remnant of the watfords.

INT. THE WATFORDS’ STUDY- C. 1852 JANEA IS BORN

TEXT: (in script) Janea is born

Mr. Watford bangs the door and finds two women in the living room. One is his wife, Mrs. Watford, and the other a midwife. Mr. Watford is drunk like he has always done since the death of his relatives. He sits next to a shelf of books where he pulls one before sitting. He is so silent, and all that shows his drunkardness is how he staggers while approaching the shelf.

Mrs. Watford on the other end is rolling on the bed due to pain as she is about to give birth to their first child. The midwife tries singing calming songs while holding her hand. Mr. Watford is still silent and pretends to be reading the book, and he suddenly reads out loud a line in the book, “The reign of terror has just begun.” Both Mrs. Watford and the midwife are busy, and they do not give the phrase any concentration. A baby is later born, and the mother calls her Jane. The father is still ”busy” reading the book with his eyes closed, and he is woken up by the baby’s cries.

INT. THE WATFORDS’ STUDY- c. 1854 MARIA IS BORN

TEXT: (in script) Maria is born

Mr. Watford is receiving complaints from Mrs. Watford where she claims that Janea was forced to sleep on an empty stomach as there was no food in the house and He was at his favorite bar drinking with his friends while watching naked women dance. Mrs. Watford is not even through channeling her complaints when she gets severe pains in her lower abdomen following her nine months pregnancy. Mr. Watford rushes out to get the midwife.

Mr. Watford watches as the baby is cleaned where he starts tossing a coin up then later walks out. ”I have just dug a hole in my life,” he says as he carefully studies a hole on their house which he caused earlier while drunk.

INT. THE WATFORDS’ STUDY- c. 1860 JANEA AND MARIA GROWING UP

TEXT: (in script): Janea and Maria growing up

Mr. Watford bangs the door late at night and finds her wife waiting in the living room. She is starring at an empty cooking pan while laying her hands on a bag of corn. Corn has been their daily meal for some time. The eyes she gives Mr. Watford are those of resentment and regret. There is an imbalance of symmetry in the room, therefore, depicting the difference in composition between the lives of the two individuals.

Mrs. Watford laments how their children were forced to drop out of school following their lack of concentration in the various classrooms as they were not properly fed. The next day, Mr. Watford receives a letter, and he is sited at the table reading it. Janea, who is next to her, starts singing a song and the chorus emphasizes on how to bring up a family. She sings the song as she tears down a piece of paper she had taken from the shelves.

INT. THE WATFORDS’ STUDY- c. 1870 FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS

TEXT: (in script): Financial constraints

Mrs. Watford is cooking corn for the family. Even the husband is subjected to eating the corn due to some unavoidable circumstances. The daughters are not presentable due to the imbalanced diets that they have been consuming. It is important to note that this is their right ages to get married and therefore earn wealth to the family in the form of bride price. Maria has been practicing on how to read all by herself. She pulls out a book from the shelf entitled, ”after sowing, comes reaping.” She gives the book to the father who seems to be busy reading the business and finance sections of old newspapers. Mr. Watford can no longer go to the bars and get drunk due to the depletion of the family inheritance. He is shaken by the book that Maria hands over to him.

INT. THE WATFORDS’ STUDY- c. 1880 REGRETS

Mr. Watford is on the table writing a letter to one of the sons of his friends who he used to drink with asking him to marry her daughter, Janea, at an offer. Mr. Watford is sick, and he cannot walk to his friend’s house which is miles away, and he sold his horse. Maria is reading out loud an essay entitled ”Sorry is not used in ignorance.” Mrs. Watford serves supper, and she urges them to pray before they eat. She begins with reading a story from the Bible, the story of Esau and how he perished because of his selfishness. Mr. Watford is rooted in regrets as to why he never invested in his daughters as they could be his source of wealth at the moment.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and prejudice. Vol. 1. Artisan Shoppe, 2017.

Becker, Gary S. ”The Watfords.” Economica 48.189 (1981): 1-15.

Carey, John. The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia 1880-1939. Faber & Faber, 2012.

Sandweiss, Martha A. Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line. Penguin, 2009.