Editing Eyes Wide Shut (section)

===Adaptation===
Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella ''Dream Story'' is set around Vienna after the turn of the century. The main characters are a couple named Fridolin and Albertina. The couple's home is a typical suburban middle-class home. Like the protagonist of the novel, Schnitzler was Jewish, lived in Vienna, and was a doctor, although he left medicine to write.

Kubrick frequently removed references to the Jewishness of characters in the novels he adapted.<ref name="cocks29">{{harvnb|Cocks|2004|p=29}}</ref> In ''Eyes Wide Shut'', Frederic Raphael, who is Jewish, wanted to keep the Jewish background of the protagonists, but Kubrick disagreed and removed details that would identify characters as Jewish. Kubrick determined Bill should be a "[[Harrison Ford]]-ish [[goy]]" and created the surname of Harford as an allusion to the actor.{{sfn|Raphael|2000|p=59}} In the film, Bill is taunted with homophobic slurs. In the novella, the taunters are members of an [[anti-Semitic]] college fraternity.<ref name="cocks29" /><ref>{{harvtxt|Loewenberg|2006|pp=255–279}}</ref> In an introduction to a [[Penguin Classics]] edition of ''Dream Story'', Raphael wrote that "Fridolin is not declared to be a Jew, but his feelings of cowardice, for failing to challenge his aggressor, echo the uneasiness of Austrian Jews in the face of Gentile provocation."<ref>{{cite book |title=Dream Story |last1=Schnitzler |first1=Arthur |last2=Fredric |first2=Raphael |year=1999 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-118224-7 |page=xiii}}</ref>

The novella is set during the [[Carnival in Germany, Switzerland and Austria|Carnival]], when people often wear masks to parties. The party that both husband and wife attend at the opening of the story is a Carnival [[Masquerade ball]], whereas the film's story begins at Christmas time.<ref name=rs/>

In the novella, the party (which is sparsely attended) uses "Denmark" as the password for entrance; that is significant in that Albertina had her infatuation with her soldier in Denmark; the film's password is "Fidelio". In early drafts of the screenplay, the password was "Fidelio Rainbow". [[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] noted that both passwords echo elements of one member of the couple's behavior, though in opposite ways.<ref>{{harvtxt|Rosenbaum|2006|pp=245–254}}</ref> The party in the novella consists mostly of nude ballroom dancing.

In the novella, the woman who "redeems" Fridolin at the party, saving him from punishment, is costumed as a nun, and most of the characters at the party are dressed as nuns or monks; Fridolin himself used a monk costume. This aspect was retained in the film's original screenplay,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/eyeswshu.htm |title=Eyes Wide Shut original screenplay |first1=Stanley |last1=Kubrick |first2=Frederic |last2=Raphael |via=Godamongdirectors.com |access-date=August 22, 2014 |archive-date=January 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107074154/http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/eyeswshu.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> but was deleted in the filmed version.

The novella makes it clear that Fridolin at this point hates Albertina more than ever, thinking they are now lying together "like mortal enemies". It has been argued{{By whom|date=March 2023}} that the dramatic climax of the novella is actually Albertina's dream, and the film has shifted the focus to Bill's visit to the secret society's orgy, whose content is more shocking in the film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/2003/Greenwich%20conference.html |first=Rainer J. |last=Kaus |title=Notes on Arthur Schnitzler's ''Dream Novella'' and Stanley Kubrick's film ''Eyes Wide Shut'' |via=Clas.ufl.edu |access-date=August 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140902030345/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/2003/Greenwich%20conference.html |archive-date=September 2, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The adaptation created a character with no counterpart in the novella: Ziegler, who represents both the elevated wealth and prestige to which Bill Harford aspires, and a connection between Bill's two worlds (his regular life, and the secret society organizing the ball).{{sfn|Chion|2002|p=21}} Critic Randy Rasmussen interprets Ziegler as representing Bill's worst self, much as in other Kubrick films; the title character in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' represents the worst of the American national security establishment, Charles Grady represents the worst of [[Jack Torrance]] in ''[[The Shining (film)|The Shining]]'', and Clare Quilty represents the worst of Humbert Humbert in ''[[Lolita (1962 film)|Lolita]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rasmussen|2005 |p= 332}}</ref>

More significantly, in the film, Ziegler gives a commentary on the whole story to Bill, including an explanation that the party incident, where Bill is apprehended, threatened, and ultimately redeemed by the woman's sacrifice, was staged. Whether this is to be believed or not, it is an exposition of Ziegler's view of the ways of the world as a member of the power elite.{{sfn|Cocks|2004|p=146}}