Under the Greenwood Tree

Possibly because of all the turmoil we are experiencing in the world, maybe because I can, thanks to Netflix, I have been watching a lot of period dramas especially those put out originally by BBC, A&E, or one of the major film studios. Sometimes I watch the same drama by every possible producer just to see the difference in techniques and ideas for bringing the stories to life.

Some stories are such classics like Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, or The Scarlett Pimpernel, that you can find them done in different eras with the adjustments that the producers and directors see would be preferred by the modern culture.  As best I know it, I have seen every version of all of Jane Austen's stories.

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was recently turned out again by a big studio and I have now seen every version of Jane Eyre that has been made. There are a lot of them. The best, by the way, are those done as miniseries because it's such a complex story to turn out in two hours. A miniseries can take its time and flesh out the nuances, tone and shadows.

There is one of these old classics I have deliberately skipped but might give it a try, or at least the newest version, and that's Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I have only seen it with Sir Lawrence Olivier. The problem I have with it seems to be a difficult story to want to view or to spend time but maybe my view of it will have changed with my age.  I have mentioned before that I don't like tragedies. I see too many of those in real life.

This last week we worked our way through one of those period dramas, a miniseries, George Eliot's Middlemarch which although not exactly upbeat in the characters and events, is certainly an excellent story about how we can create illusions that ruin our lives, how money is both used to control and the lack of good sense regarding it can ruin a life. The characters really are fleshed out and it brings the viewer to that time and how people often do react in good or bad ways.

There is one though that as far as I know has only been done once and it might be my very favorite-- Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree. It is also the only one of these films based on a book written by a male. When I began watching it (rented it through Netflix taking a chance as I didn't know the story), I thought uh oh. This is Thomas Hardy. Will I regret renting it? I not only did not, I happily ordered it to have my own copy for whenever I want to return to Mellstock and more time with Dick Dewy, Reverend Maybold, Farmer Shiner, Fancy Day, and all the delightful secondary characters.


Under the Greenwood Tree is a romance but also a story about motivations, Victorian England where the mores were strict for what was right to do, and about social interactions where people must find their self-worth. It is very well-acted. The side characters are as much fun as the four main protagonists as Fancy must choose between three very different men. Will she make the right choice? Well that's why someone watches such a story, to find out.

I do think there is value in watching these stories of earlier times where often people did wrestle with the same problems we do today. Life has changed a lot but human interactions sometimes not so much.