A Pure Woman

Person of the Day: Thomas Hardy
Word of the Day: tragedy
Quote of the Day: (refering to stars)Which do we live on—a splendid one or a blighted one?

Last night was the beginning of the four part adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Of all the BBC classic adaptations I have watched, I have not yet come across one which I feel has been less than good. As per usual I expected Tess to be as good as all the others. And as the episode ended I felt it had met all expectations.

Gemma Arterton played an excellent Tess and did a very convincing job of Tess's shocking change from child to adult at the hands of Alec D'Urberville. Whilst the rape scene was uncomfortable it was done just as I had imagined as I read that section of the book. The conversation between Tess and Alec was delivered extremely well and resulted in a very firm dislike of Alec. Other scenes I felt Gemma Arterton excelled in were those with Alec's mother (after her rape) and Tess's own mother (when she tells her mother that she could have warned her about the darker side of men). I could not help but feel something tugging at my emotional side.

Hans Matheson portrayed the seductive and cruel Alec D'Urberville with some amount of brilliance. In this episode he made it so easy for the audience to feel hatred towards him for his unkind and unthoughtful treatment of the innocent Tess. But despite Alec's harshness towards Tess, Hans Matheson managed to convey to the viewers Hardy's intention of creating well-rounded characters, suggesting that there is more to Alec than first meets the eye.

And last but by no means least, the haunting scene where Angel first sees Tess left me longing for more (and the episode was hardly under way). The two actors held the painful gaze between Tess and Angel which tells all of Tess's tragic future. The camera shots that included the beautiful country scenery captured the wonderful description by Hardy. And Angel turning his back on Tess... I need say no more.