MovieChat Forums > Way Down East (1920) Discussion > Tess of the D'Urbervilles - story?

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - story?

posted 13 years ago by naletof
7 replies | jump to latest

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I saw this film a while ago, and now when reading Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles, I'm stricken by the similarities. Both stories are about poor girls who are sent away to claim kinship (I think this is the case in the film too, but correct me if I'm wrong) with richer relatives. Both girls are seduced by wealthy womanizers ("cousins"), and in the first version of the book (published in the newspaper) Tess is tricked into a mock marriage by her seducer, just as Anna Moore is in the film. Both girls have a child, which dies in infant age, and whom they baptize before their death. Both girls want to start a new life and takes job at a farm (Tess at a dairy farm) where they hope for anonymity, and where a handsome man living in the house falls in love with them, and they do everything to conceal their past.
Now, this is how far I've got in the book, so I have no idea if the great similarities continue. But I think Griffith must have been greatly inspired by Hardy's novel. What do you think?

"Do you like me more than you don't like me or do you not like me more than you do?"

[–] teresajeanne 12 years ago

OMG, THANK YOU! I just saw this film for my film history class, and I read "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" when I was in high school, and I was thinking the exact same thing! The entire time, I was just like, "This is basically 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'." The story lines are uncannily similar; it's kind of ridiculous. lol I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed though. :)

[–] naletof 12 years ago

Haha, I'm glad someone else made the connection too :) I've since then read the whole book, and I think the film MUST be film of the book but with the story altered a bit, perhaps due to copyright issues or something like that (although I've no idea what copyright laws were like during this period. Probably weren't the same as today... should check it up).

"Do you like me more than you don't like me or do you not like me more than you do?"

[–] TwilightandShadow 11 years ago

I know this is a pretty old thread, but I just finished watching the movie and I logged in to see if anyone else found the similarities between the script and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I assume you finished the novel a long time ago. Did you like it?

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.

[–] naletof 11 years ago

Hi! I'm only glad to find the thread comes alive now and then :)
I'm convinced that this is a thinly veiled adaptation of Tess, with some changes (perhaps most notably the ending). Yes, I have read the novel and really liked it, especially Hardy's style of prose, not to mention his depiction of landscapes in the book... it's hard not to fall in love with it. What about you?

"Do you like me more than you don't like me or do you not like me more than you do?"

[–] TwilightandShadow 11 years ago

Oh, I loved the book, though I found it very depressing. It was the first novel I had read by Hardy. I watched 3 adaptations from the novel: the 1979 movie Tess and 2 mini-series, from 1998 and 2008.

I wonder why they didn't do a full adaptation of the novel. I know a few of his novels had already been made movies in the 1910's. Maybe they approached him and he didn't like the changes, lol.

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.

[–] brad_filippone 9 years ago

This is over three years after your original question, but just in case you were still interested....
Way Down East was based on a play of the same name by Lottie Blair Parker first produced in 1898. It is, of course, entirely possible that Ms Parker may have taken her inspiration from Tess of the D'Ubervilles, as that novel was written seven years earlier.

Brad

[–] 9 years ago

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