The object of the thesis is to provide secondary school students with a method of analysing literary and film narratives, through a comparison of Orwell's 1984 with its 1956 film version directed by Michael Anderson. It stresses that before adequate narrative comparisons can be made, a novel's film version must first be considered in its own right as a product of cinema rather than as visual resource material for the study of set novels. The method of approach is to regard a fiction narrative (both literary and film) as composed of three constructs: text, story and discourse. These constructs allow for a common ground to be drawn between literary novel and cinematic film version, from which all discussion proceeds. The author concludes that the film version is a serious drama with elements of 1950s cold war propaganda, and as such cannot possibly be an innocent visual retelling of the novel.