How Is Anne Frank Different From The Play

The memoir, “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank, and the play, “The Diary of Anne Frank”, contain many differences. While both pieces of literature are about Anne Frank and her time in the Annex, the major differences include how the play gives prologue-like information, how the play exaggerates the words and actions of the people in it, and how the diary gives a more personal, intimate perspective on events.
First of all, one of the main differences in the play and the memoir is how the play ends. Near the end of the play, Anne gives a monologue to the audience. The play reads, “Anne’s voice: And so it seems our stay is over. They are waiting for us now. They’ve allowed us five minutes to get out things” (Hackett and Goodrich 391). The play, like other plays, shows what happened to the people in it afterwards. Anne’s monologue is doing this in the play, but this is different from what happened in her memoir. Unlike the play, Anne’s last diary entry was a normal diary entry and did not contain any mention of leaving the Annex. In order to make the play more understandable to the audience, Hackett and Goodrich added events to the play that Anne did not write about in her diary.

For instance, the portrayal of Mr. Van Daan is exaggerated when in the play he says, “Petronella…liefie! Liefie!…Come back…the supper…come back!” (Hackett and Goodrich 352). The authors added lines such as these to add drama to the play. Throughout the play, the people of the Annex’s actions and words were getting exaggerated in moments such as these for a comedic element. Throughout Anne’s memoir, the people behave normally; while the behavior of those in the play is more outlandish in having the people talking with continuous pauses and adding emphasis to the sentences. This is another way that shows how the memoir changed when it was adapted into a