Hooper does indeed get eaten, and it's hard not to see it as a moral comeuppance for Hooper having had an affair with Chief Brody's wife. This whole subplot was wisely left out of the movie. If Richard Dreyfess' character had died in the movie, it would simply have been a random tragic event. It would have made Brody the lone survivor, a la Moby Dick, but I suspect the movie wouldn't have been as popular. I still would have liked it of course.

Quint is not eaten, but instead gets caught up in a rope and dragged out of the boat by the shark, in a direct homage to Captain Ahab - so Moby Dick was bigtime on Benchley's mind when he wrote his book. If in fact the shark were to have eaten both Hooper and Quint in rapid succession, it would have seemed a little ridiculous. This problem comes up in Jaws 2, with the number of teens eaten in a single afternoon suggests that this shark is literally unbelieavably hungry.

I still think it was cheating not to feed Richard Dreyfuss to the shark. I figured it was just because he was Richard Dreyfuss that he survived. Not a good reason in my opinion.

I suspect he lived because his character was re-envisioned to be a likable comedic foil to Shaw's hard-bitten Quint, as opposed to the smug preppie boy that Hooper was in the novel. So, too lovable to kill, basically.

the saccharine lack of that character's death.