Gazing at Beverly Marsh : A Comparative Study of Stephen King’s It and Andy Muschietti’s 2017 Film Adaptation

Abstract: This essay explores and compares the depiction of the character Beverly Marsh in Stephen King’s novel IT and Andy Muschietti’s 2017 film adaptation. The literary analysis uses the theoretical concepts of Mulvey’s the Male Gaze, Bartky’s sexual objectification theory, and Kristeva’s abjection. The Male Gaze describes how women are constantly looked upon by an implicit male subject, whether it be characters within the narrative or the spectator outside of it. Sexual objectification refers to how the body can become fragmented into sexual parts when described in an oppressive way. Feelings of abjection can occur when the concepts of subject and object, cultural norms, or sexual differences are challenged. The initial hypothesis was that King’s novel would lean more on patriarchal structures in the way femininity is described. However, the results show that both the original novel and the film depict Beverly in a sexually objectifying way, although the methods differ.