Shawshank Study Guide

Shawshank Study Guide

The Shawshank Redemption

Nominated for Best Picture in 1994 lost to Forrest Gump
Pulp Fiction and Quiz Show also nominated

Based on “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King collection of short stories which also contained “The Body,” which was adapted into Stand by Me.
Gilda is the Rita Hayworth movie shown to the inmates

The Cast
Tim Robbins- Andy Dufresne, a Vice President of a “large Portland bank”

Morgan Freeman- Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, narrator.   In the original story, Red was Irish.   They kept the line “Maybe it’s because I’m Irish” in for its irony.

Bob Gunton- Samuel Norton, the warden

Clancy Brown- Capt. Byron Hadley, chief guard

Gil Bellows- Tommy Williams, a young convict

James Whitmore- Brooks Hatlen, elderly convict who runs the library; has been in prison since 1905

William Sadler- Heywood, an obnoxious inmate, fan of country music

Mark Rolston- Bogs Diamond, leader of the Sisters

Frank Darabont- Director and Screenplay Writer

Other Characters
“Fat Ass”

Elmo Blatch

The Setting
Maine prison in 1947 (actually filmed in Ohio), but no one really speaks with a New England accent

Themes- friendship, persistence, the truly good vs. the truly evil, the rocks/ stones
Redemption- the process of being freed from captivity, freed from penalties of sin, changed for the better, and making good or making up for something.
“Get busy living or get busy dying.”

NOTES

Red- calls himself “Only guilty man in Shawshank”
Red gets goods for inmates makes 20%
Red gets denied parole at start after 20 years, then 30 years. Had said he was rehabilitated
At 40 years, he says he doesn’t know what rehabilitated means
Red bets Andy will be the first to cry on first night in prison and loses 2 packs of cigarettes
New inmates called “fish”
Freeman’s son is in first scene when Andy arrives and as young Red on his parole card
Andy asks Red to get him a rock...