Rozema's 1999 Mansfield Park is an eye-poppingly imaginative take on the original story. The original story is an exploration of the impact on a child's personality and character of being raised in a wealthy household as a scorned dependent relation. Fanny Price is already a bit timid when she arrives at Mansfield Park from her much more modest home in Portsmouth, but her introversion, shyness, and lack of confidence are increased by the way she is treated by the Bertram family. In this household, she learns the "pains of tyranny, of ridicule, and of neglect." She learns to be quiet and compliant—to become a "creepmouse"—and to survive in a selfish family largely indifferent (with the exception of Edmund) to her needs.

In contrast, Rozema's Fanny is bold, assertive, and athletic. She says what she wants without fear. It is as if none of the treatment which scarred the original Fanny has made any impact on her at all. Like Jane Austen, she is a writer, which the original Fanny was not, and even writes a youthful history of England just as Austen did.

Further, while Austen's Fanny is formed by Edmund into a young woman with a conservative moral sensibility who believes in and upholds the traditional values of Sir Thomas's Mansfield Park, Rozema's Fanny has a much more modern and assertive take on such issues as woman's rights.

As for similarities, two come to mind. In the novel, Fanny wants to discuss slavery with Sir Thomas when he returns from his plantation in Antigua but is afraid to pursue the topic. Presumably, given her moral formation, she would oppose slavery, as many did in her time period. Rozema takes this assumption and runs with it, making her Fanny an openly anti-slavery figure.

Second, in the novel, Fanny surprises everyone around with her steely self-will in refusing to marry the wealthy Henry Crawford. She sees him as slick and dishonest and dislikes him intensely. Although she is shy and the pressure she is under to marry him often reduces her to tears, she holds to her resolve. Likewise, Rozema's much more confident Fanny also staunchly refuses to marry a man she does not love.

Rozema's refashioning of Fanny alters the novel in fundamental ways, turning it into a late twentieth century commentary on sexism, patriarchy, and racism.

Compare a character's portrayal in the film Mansfield Park with their characterization in the novel. Are the changes based on Austen's text?

There are at least three film adaptations of Mansfield Park, and the question does not specify which film. Two adaptations were TV movies, so the 1999 film is probably the one in question.

In the film, Tom Bertram is portrayed as a drunken young man who is bitter and angry with the world, which the movie alludes to as the reason that he drinks. However, in the book, his character is different, although his selfishness and thoughtlessness certainly have a basis in Austen's text.

He is depicted as a thoughtless, selfish young man, but he interacts with his brothers and sisters much more in the book than in the movie, and he is not always drunk in the book. He is engaged in the play they mean to put on and is generally pleasant in these scenes, if thoughtless and unthinking:

“We must have a curtain,” said Tom Bertram; “a few yards of green baize for a curtain, and perhaps that may be enough.”

and

Tom was engrossed by the concerns of his theatre, and saw nothing that did not immediately relate to it.

Yet when his father returns home and is upset about the theater, it dawns on Tom why his father might be upset. Austen writes:

Tom understood his father's thoughts, and heartily wishing he might be always as well disposed to give them but partial expression, began to see, more clearly than he had ever done before, that there might be some ground of offence, that there might be some reason for the glance his father gave towards the ceiling and stucco of the room.

Moreover, after Tom recovers from his illness, Austen writes:

There was comfort also in Tom, who gradually regained his health, without regaining the thoughtlessness and selfishness of his previous habits.

She points out his flaws as "thoughtlessness" and "selfishness," not debauchery and drunkenness as in the movie. In comparison to the book, the movie Tom is much more one-dimensional and has too much hostility towards his father to even try to discern Sir Thomas's point of view with the theater.

The reason Tom’s character is changed in the movie is to make a point about Sir Thomas's role as a slave trader, which is discussed prominently in the film. It is also pointed to as a major cause in young Tom’s constant drinking and ultimately falling ill.

However, there is never any explicit reference to Sir Thomas being involved in the slave trade or owning slaves in the book. In the movie version, he not only owns slaves, he also whips them and perhaps even forces himself on female slaves.

The book discusses Sir Thomas going to tend to his properties in the West Indies and notes that “Sir Thomas's means will be rather straitened if the Antigua estate is to make such poor returns.” One could deduce that there he is involved in the slave trade or at least using slave labor on his estate. However, the movie spells out what is not stated in the book.

In fact, the topic of slavery is mentioned only once in the book. When Edmund encourages Fanny to speak up more and address herself to Sir Thomas more often in their evening family circles, she responds,

“But I do talk to him more than I used. I am sure I do. Did not you hear me ask him about the slave-trade last night?”

There is no trace of hostility towards Sir Thomas in her response that would indicate that the topic of slavery is fraught with meaning in the Bertram household because of hostility from Tom, Fanny and others towards Sir Thomas about it.

Compare a character in Rozema's film Mansfield Park with their portrayal in the novel. How do the film's changes relate to Austen's text?

The Fanny Price in Rozema's 1999 Mansfield Park film adaptation is far different from the Fanny in Austen's novel. Rozema has recreated Fanny as a far more conventional romance heroine, spirited, assertive, and bold—a match for Mary Crawford. Rozema's is a fearless Fanny who advises her sister to "run wild" and who writes like her creator, Austen.

In order to create the bold Fanny, Rozema's deletes details of Austen's Fanny's timidity, such as her escapes to the old schoolroom to avoid the "the pains of tyranny, of ridicule, and neglect." We do not see either the scene where the frail Fanny is forced by Lady Bertram to cut roses in the heat so that she becomes fatigued and has a headache at the end of the day, causing Edmund to scold his mother and aunt. Rozema also deletes Mrs. Norris berating Fanny for being a "creep mouse" or Edmund telling Fanny that she must get used to be looked at admiringly.

Though Rozema's Fanny is much more overtly spirited and sexual, Fanny in the novel exhibits signs of both spirit and sexuality as she attends her first Bertram ball. Her beauty is praised by Sir Thomas, and Edmund says,

“You must dance with me, Fanny; you must keep two dances for me; any two that you like, except the first.”

She had nothing more to wish for. She had hardly ever been in a state so nearly approaching high spirits in her life.

Fanny also shows a great deal of spirit when she refuses to accept Henry Crawford's marriage proposal, despite intense pressure from Henry himself, her uncle, and Edmund. She won't even capitulate when she is banished to Portsmouth.

Though Austen's Fanny shows signs of sexuality, especially around Edmund, and spirit during the ball, as well as spirited strength of character in refusing Henry, the Rozema Fanny is a significant deviation from the original—truly a different character.