Clement Yeobright

Clement Yeobright, called Clym, a native of Egdon Heath who returns to visit with his mother
and cousin after having made a career for himself as a successful diamond merchant in Paris. His
success and his education make him an outstanding figure among the humble people who live
scattered about the wild heath, and his return for a visit is a great occasion for them. During his
stay, he decides to remain, finding that the heath and its people mean far more to him than
worldly success in Paris; his intention is to become a teacher and open a school to educate the
people among whom he grew up, a superstitious and ignorant, if lovable and kindly, set. A
sensitive and somewhat rash young man, he falls in love with Eustacia Vye, a beautiful and
passionate woman. In her, Clym sees a perfect helpmeet for a schoolmaster, but she sees in him
only a chance to escape the heath and to live abroad. Clym and Eustacia Vye are married, over
the protests of his mother. These protests arouse the anger of Clym, who after his marriage does
not communicate with her. Disaster, in the form of partial blindness, strikes Clym, but he accepts
his plight philosophically and turns to the homely task of furze-cutting to earn a living. Unhappy
in her lot, Eustacia turns against him. On one occasion, she refuses to let his mother into the
house, an inhospitable act that indirectly causes the death of the older woman. Stricken by his
mothers death and, a short time later, by his wifes suicide, Clym becomes a lay preacher to the
people of the heath.
Eustacia Vye
Eustacia Vye, the self-seeking and sensuous young woman who marries Clym Yeobright.
Unhappy on the heath, bored by life with her grandfather, she tries to escape. First she seeks an
opportunity to do so by marrying Clym. When he cannot and will not leave the heath, she turns
to a former fianc, now a married man. At the last, however, she cannot demean herself by
unfaithfulness to her husband; instead of running away with her lover, she commits suicide by
plunging into a millpond.
Damon Wildeve
Damon Wildeve, a former engineer, still a young man, who settles unhappily upon the heath as
keeper of the Quiet Woman Inn. Selfish and uninspired, when he loses Eustacia Vye to.

In The Return of the Native, how would I

compare and contrast Eustacia Vye and
Thomasin Yeobright?
Eustacia Vye above all is a character who is shown to not fit in with her rural setting. The novel
constantly describes her as being a "goddess" or some form of mystical, other-worldly creature,
which arouses... There was, however, gradually evolved from its transformation scenes a less

extravagant episode, in which the heath dimly appeared behind the general brilliancy of the
action. She was dancing to wondrous music, and her partner was the man in silver armour who
had accompanied her through the previous fantastic changes...
Throughout the novel, in spite of her dreams of escape, the sure and certain tragic fate of
Eustacia is foreshadowed, and the key vehicle that Hardy uses to foreshadow her fate is her
relationship with the heath. There is a sense in which Eustacia is unable to escape the influence
of the heath upon her character, and Hardy suggests that her character and Egdon Heath are
blended or inextricably intertwined, indicating the role of fate and nature working against her.
Let us remember that it is when Eustacia tries to flee the Heath that she dies.
Thomasin is a character that is used as a foil for Eustacia Vye. Although they share similar fates
in terms of being scorned and shunned by society, at the same time, it is the way that both female
characters deal with this that is so different. Thomasin shows an ability to be a pragmatist and to
accept the blows that life gives her with equanimity. Although she makes a disastrous mistake
with Damon, she is able to accept her mistakes and to live with the consequences. Note what she
says following this disaster in her life:
"I agreed to it," Thomasin answered firmly. "I am a practical woman now. I don't believe in
hearts at all."
Although she may seem slightly less colourful compared with Eustacia Vye, at the same time she
represents a very different way of coping with life's problems and difficulties. Eustacia invests all
of her energy in daydreaming her escape and the kind of life she could lead. Thomasin does not
"dream" at all, and focuses on making the most of the kind of life she has been given to live, both
with its problems and joys. It is ironic that at the end, it is Eustacia, the confirmed Romantic,
whose life ends in tragedy, whereas Thomasin, who has shown herself to be a pragmatist
throughout the entire novel, gains the fairy tale ending that has eluded Eustacia.
Broadly describe the cultural background of
Native.

Egdon Heath in The Return of the

You might like to consider the way that Egdon Heath is linked to some sort of primeval past in
the novel. This effect is achieved through the description we are given of the Heath in Chapter
One on Guy Fawkes... In the valleys of the heath nothing save its own wild face was visible at
any time of day... None of its features could be seen now, but the whole made itself felt as a
vague stretch of remoteness... Red suns and tufts of fire one by one began to arise, flecking the
whole country round.
Note the way that Egdon Heath is presented as some sort of remote universe by itself. Often
characters comment upon the way that Egdon Heath seems to be a universe on its own and they
say that it is all they can see. The quote above includes a metaphor presenting Egdon Heath as its
own galaxy, with the bonfires acting as the suns in the solar system of the Heath.

The bonfires also function in another way by linking the Heath to a more ancient, primeval past
when bonfires were used for light and warmth in addition to celebration. The cultural
background of the Heath is therefore linked to the dark ages (note the darkness in the quote
above) and ancient times such as when the Celts and Romans variously dominated the land. This
sense of age and timelessness is something that is deliberately refered to in Chapter One in the
description of the Heath:

To know that everything around and underneath had been from prehistoric times as unaltered as
the stars overhead, gave ballast to the mind adrift on change, and harassed by the irrepressible
New. The great inviolate place had an ancient permanence which the sea cannot claim.
Not only is Egdon Heath "prehistoric," according to this quote, and we can imagine that Celts
celebrated there just as the characters in this novel celebrate there now, but Egdon Heath is also
timeless in the way that it remains unchanged by the ages that have gone by. The Heath is
therefore presented as almost being outside of time and beyond the reaches of time and the way
that it changes and withers everything else. This sense of permanence explicitly contrasts the
Heath with the fate of individual humans, who so quickly fade and die.
In The Return of the Native, how does Egdon Heath exert an influence on the
characters?

It is clear that in this novel, Egdon Heath in some ways is presented as being more of a character
than some of the characters themselves. Note the time and space that is devoted to describing
Egdon Heath to... But celestial imperiousness, love, wrath, and fervour had proven to be
somewhat thrown away on netherward Egdon. Her power was limited, and the consciousness of
this limitation had biassed her development. Egdon was her Hades.
Note the way that the language used presents Eustacia Vye as being almost a celestial character
as Egdon Heath is depicted as dragging Eustacia Vye down into her own personal hell.
For another example, consider the way that the Heath impacts the character of Clym in this
following quote:
As he watched the dead flat of the scenery overpowered him, though he was fully alive to the
beauty of that untarnished early summer green... There was something in its oppressive
horizontality which too much reminded him of the arena of life; it gave him a sense of bare
equality with, and no superiority to, a single living thing under the sun.
Note the overwhelming impression of the flatness and emptiness of the landscape, and how this
becomes an oppressive force on Clym. Note the "sense of bare equality with, and no superiority
to, a single living thing under the sun." The flatness of the Heath teaches Clym that he is equal to
everybody else on earth and that any sense of superiority is but an illusion.

eustacia vye wildn nature in chapter sixi am not able to finiding the perfect
characteristics goes with wildness for eustacia vye in chapter six...please help me
The young ladyfor youth had revealed its presence in her buoyant bound up the
bankwalked along the top instead of descending inside, and came to the corner
where the fire...

This paragraph is one that connect Eustacia to the wilderness. Firstly, Hardy has her buoyantly
bounding up the bank and striding across its height, symbolic of both strength like the great
outdoors and an superior power over the wilderness she conquers. Secondly, she comes face to
face with the burning bonfire, which she herself set, and flinches not. This represents her own
natural strength--strength like the great outdoors--that quenches even the natural danger of fire.
In The Return of the Native, braodly discuss the character of Clym Yeobright.

Clym Yeobright is of course the character who corresponds to the title of the book, as he returns
to his native land. However, although Clym is clearly one ofthe major characters, he spends the
novel makign many. Clym is one of many characters in this novel whose live is symbolised by
wasted chances and whose potential has been lost through the malign power of the heath. Note
how his past and potential is described:
He had been a lad of whom something was expected. Beyond this all had been chaos... The only
absolute certainty about him was that he would not stand still in the circumstances in which he
was born.
Clym's return to his homeland was therefore an exciting event until he decided to stay in his
homeland, which rather seemed to belie the great potential that it was though the had. As the
novel progresses, the series of mistakes that Clym makes reveals his own blindness, which
ironically comes to define his character when a literal blindness descends on him. We see this in
the way that he is blind to his own feelings and the impact of his actions. The metaphorical
blindness that characterises him overtakes his character with grim irony at the end of the story as
he is left to contemplate his failure
Clym, the native who returns to his birthplace on Egdon Heath, is an instance of a precocious,
highly regarded child and boy who, when a man, leaves his provincial background to make his
way in the world. He then gives up worldly success for what he thinks of as a more important
calling on his native ground. In short, Hardy's protagonist is a character who, though still
admired locally, is bound to be misunderstood when he chooses to forgo conventional ideas of
vocation and success.
It might even be said that he anticipates a kind of martyr's role. Both the heath folk and his
mother are doubtful of his plan to be a "schoolmaster to the poor and ignorant"; they view it as
impractical as well as less desirable than his commercial career in Paris. Eustacia can't
understand why a man who has lived in Paris, the center, to her, of all that is desirable, should
choose to return to Egdon. His mother further objects to his desire to marry Eustacia, whom she

considers an idle young woman. In short, from the very first Clym finds opposition to his plan.
But he will persist; in fact, Hardy may be indicating that he is more persistent even as he is more
strongly opposed.
At the basis of Clym's desire to serve his native Egdon lies a general and idealistic view of his
fellow human beings: "Yeobright loved his kind. He had a conviction that the want of most men
was knowledge of a sort which brings wisdom rather than affluence. He wished to raise the class
at the expense of individuals rather than individuals at the expense of the class. What was more,
he was ready at once to be the first unit sacrificed." At the end of the novel, his eyesight still
subnormal, his mother and his wife dead, Clym still persists in the same view of mankind, will
not complain of the injustice of his lot in life. Though his original plan is considerably reduced in
scope, he mounts the summit of Rainbarrow in his role of "itinerant openair preacher" with as
much optimism, Hardy indicates, as he would have shown had his dream of a school actually
come true.
As an individual, Clym is about as unsuited to be a husband as Eustacia is to be a wife. At one
point, Eustacia describes him to Wildeve as a St. Paul and remarks that the qualities summed up
in this allusion hardly make him a good companion. The phrase that describes him best is "inner
strenuousness." He is as Spartan in his style of life as a Thoreau; at the least, this makes him hard
to get along with, not merely for his wife, but for any other human being. It is ironical that in this
aspect of his personality he is so much like his mother, who is inflexible in her attitude toward
her son. Almost the only person in the novel with whom Clym is shown to be content is
Humphrey, when the two of them cut furze together.
However admirable Clym's personality may be, certain sides of it are unattractive, but this is a
tribute to Hardy's ability to create lifelike characters. Clym is given to self-pity, and he has in
him a curious unwillingness to act. His delay in trying to establish contact with his mother after
his marriage is repeated in his hesitating to ask Eustacia to come back to him. His inability to act
enables Hardy to show him at the mercy of events or circumstances or chance, a demonstration
of the theme of the novel. He is meant to be, in other words, a modern man: able to understand
but unable to act decisively.
Broadly discuss the wild nature of Eustacia Vye in The Return of the Native in
Chapter Six.

Key to answering this question is understanding the way in which Hardy presents Eustacia Vye
as being intimately connected to the malign forces of Egdon Heath. The Heath itself is so
important that it. This is why we see Eustacia by herself on the Heath at the beginning of Chapter
Six. Her wild nature is shown by the way in which she is there alone, with nobody else on this
barren tract of land. Consider the following description:
Her reason for standing so dead still as the pivot of this circle of heath-country was just as
obscure. Her extraordinary fixity, her conspicuous loneliness, her heedlessness of night,
betokened among other things an utter absence of fear. A tract of country unaltered from that

sinister condition which made Caesar anxious every year to get clear of its glooms before the
autumnal equinox, a kind of landscape and weather which leads travellers from the South to
describe our island as Homer's Cimmerian land, was not, on the face of it, friendly to women.
Even to the narrator, therefore, the motives of Eustacia Vye in standing where she stands seem to
be cloaked in mystery and unfathomable. She is a woman who is definitely not like other
women, who would not linger in such a spot that is so antagonistic towards them. She is also not
afraid of the darkness and of the menace of the Heath and the strength of the elements. Eustacia
is therefore presented as having some kind of visceral connection to nature and to the Heath.
Brodely discuss the love triangle The Return of the Native.

The love triangle is a key element in the plot of this classic work. Let us remember that it starts
of with the relationship that Eustacia and Wildeve have enjoyed, and how this relationship is
what makes. However, fate does not have a happy ending in store for Eustacia. Having married
Clym with the hope of wanting to leave and visit and travel other parts of the world and enjoy a
good life and fulfill the potential she feels she has always had, her husband settles to become a
furze cutter, which is exactly the kind of fate that Eustacia wanted to avoid. What is more tragic
is that Wildeve has become rich and offers exactly the kind of escape and wealth that Eustacia
desires. However, she resists starting a relationship with Wildeve, but tragically they are seen
together, and Clym finds out, resulting in their separation.
Finally, we have the tragic ending of the story. Eustacia plans to escape, but finds a different kind
of escape. Trapped by circumstances and forces beyond her control, she jumps into a river and
drowns herself. Clym and Wildeve both jump after her to rescue her, and Wildeve dies in the
attempt too. Only Clym survives, being left to carry out his life sad and alone.
Please make a commentary on the beauty and personality of Eustacia Vye as
mentioned in chapter seven of The Return of the Native.

I take it you are refering to the first section of this great novel, in which Chapter Seven is entiteld
"Queen of Night." This chapter is key in building up our impression of Eustacia Vye, especially
in terms of her. Perhaps the most revealing comment regarding her personality comes in the
following quote, that points towards the way in which she is a bundle of contradictions and
different ideas:
Thus it happened that in Eustacia's brain were juxtaposed the strangest assortment of ideas, from
old time and from new. There was no middle distance in her perspectiveromantic recollections
of sunny afternoons on an esplanade, with military bands, officers, and gallants around, stood
like gilded letters upon the dark tablet of surrounding Egdon. Every bizarre effect that could
result from the random intertwining of watering-place glitter with the grand solemnity of a heath,
was to be found in her. Seeing nothing of human life now, she imagined all the more of what she
had seen.

The past thus exerts a curious fascination on Eustacia's character and indicates that not only does
her phsycial appearance make her something of an incongruous individual, but also her character
would have been better off living in a different time and a different place. The overall effect of
the description we are given of Eustacia's character in Chapter Seven is thus to highlight how
extraordinary she is as a character and how she really does not fit in to her surroundings.
What is the role of Egdon Heath in The Return of the Native?
Egdon Heath is not simply the setting of Hardy's Return of the Native. Rather, in
some ways, it is another character, symbolic of an all-seeing, uninvolved god. Hardy
personifies the heath in his first chapter... As a Naturalist writer, Hardy's focus on
elements of nature which control and often punish humans is overwhelming in
Native. Eustacia and Wildeve long to escape the drudgery of the heath, but in the
end, nature draws them back in death to the heath. Characters who do not fit the
plainness or barrenness of the heath do not fare well there. At the novel's end, Clym
lures followers to his non-confrontational lectures in the open air because they feel
pity for the man from whom the heath had taken so much.
can eustacia vye be called a coquette?
a mistake. I can't agree with that view. i can agree with this view. she was just a
poor woman, isolated by other women and traditional standards. I believe you need
to begin with the definition of coquette. By enumerating the qualities inherent, you
can parallel with her characteristics.
WHAT ARE THE THEMES OF "THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE" BY THOMAS HARDY?
main theme in the return of the native is human's fragility against nature and the
dire consequences that a human being can suffer for his/her determination to play
the role of destiny in their life. love adds colour to this overwhelming theme in the
novel.
Discuss the role of Egdon Heath in The Return of the Native.

Egdon Heath is the setting of the novel and is integral to the events in it. The book begins with a
vivid description of the heath, emphasizing the flat, infertile land. Nothing can be grown there
that is of worth to. Egdon Heath in Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native is more than
just a space or a setting. It is almost an overwhelming presence, a functional character in a way.
1. It stands for fate, an almost Greek notion of deterministic universe. It is commanding,
vengeful, retaliative and so on.
2. It has a temporal autonomy of its own. It prides on its antiquity and resists all the civilizing
projects of Modernity.
3. It is a pagan force as opposed to the Christ-like Clym.
4. It works through the lives of its people through chance and coincidence.

5. It is full of mastery, obscurity, austerity and asceticism. It only gives happiness to its
conformists and the people who try to change or modernize it (e.g. Clym) or other figures
of individualist authoritarianism like Mrs. Yeobright or Eustacia fall prey to its vindictive
machinations. Conformists like Thomasin find it no trouble at all on the other hand.
Critically analyse Hardy's treatment of Egdon Heath in The Return of the Native.

The Return of the Native is the book of Egdon Heath. In his other novels the scene could be
transported to some other part of Wessex, but in this novel, it remains unchanged. Egdon is the
scene of the story, she dominates the plot, she determines the destiny of the character. She is an
antagonist of the novel and almost all major characters except the rustics are more or less victims
to her wrath.
Hardys descriptions of Egdon reveal her mystery. In Hardys description Egdon is the vast tract
of unenclosed wild. It has its advent on his earth before astronomical hour. Its nature its
something about which no body could be said to understand the hath. It could best be felt when
it clearly be seen. It had waited unmoved during so many centuries. It is haggard. Hardy
observes it as haggard Egdon appeal to a subler and carcer instinct. About its friendship and
love-making and its association Hardy comments, - The storm was its friend. It became the
home of strange phantoms and it was found to be hitherto unrecognized original of those wild
regions of obscurity which are vaguely felt to be compassing us about in midnight dream of
flight and disaster. It is again singularly colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony. It
remains with its unchanged phenomena. Civilization was its enemy. It has worn the same
antique brown dress. Hardy discovers its ancient permanence for, -the sea changed, the fields
changed, the rivers, the villages, and the people, - yet Egdon remained.

Egdon the heath is alert of those who either try to leave her or who pass an opinion against her or
who show their disgust to her. Such attitudes from the dwellers appear to nature a kind of
betrayal. And she at once wages her weapon to dash the enemy to the dust or teach a severe
lesson.
For, instance, Clym Yeobright evoked Egdons wrath by leaving away her to Paris. Clym
violated natures code by making himself an engineer and later by taking an earnest effort of
establishing a school at the heart of Egdon. So, Clym, showing sense and intellect initiated
conflict with nature. And for punishing Clym, she upsets all his hopes and plans. Misfortune,
followed by suffering came upon him. He has betrayed by his wife-Eustacia.

Thomasin had no quarrel with Egdon. But Egdon appeared to her, drab, lifeless, uninteresting.
Egdons super sense could read that. And nature punished him by leading her in misfortune and
troubles.

Hardys novel, The Return of the Native is a novel of conflict between man and nature. Here
we find a perfect representation of what Hardy thinks of nature. And Hardy reveals natures
motive, desire, will, sense and feeling. If men were the senseless product of instinct, then there
had been no conflict between man and nature.
While Rousseau and Wordsworth, only find in nature a kind another, and they never living in the
heart of nature give us their wordy message, - Hardy in that case, gives us the total representation
of the reality of nature. And what he records about nature,- is the out come of his experience. So,
the conflict between man and nature as is represented in Hardys novel,- is a discovery. As in
Shakespeares tragedies, the conflict is between good and evil, like wise, in Hardys novel, the
conflict between man and nature, is the conflict between stagnancy and progress.
Bring out the conflict between man and nature in Thomas Hardy's The Return of the
Native.

Egdon Heath, the rather grim setting of the novel, is the embodiment of Nature against which
several of the characters struggle, unfortunately, unsuccessfully. Although the theme of man
against nature has been. Hardy envisions Nature, in the form of Egdon Heath, absolutely
controlling the people who live upon it. For example, Eustacia, whose own nature is described
as "celestial" (i. e., heavenly), is completely altered by her natural surroundings--the heath is
described as "an environment which would have made a contented woman a poet . . . made a
rebellious woman saturnine." In other words, Eustacia's vibrant personality is totally crushed
into silence by Egdon Heath, and Hardy actually describes the heath as Eustacia's hell.
Even Clym Yeobright, who is described as having a "barbarous satisfaction" when he observes
that the heath has reclaimed some cultivated land, later on he too is overpowered by "the dead
flat of the scenery" and he discovers that the heath "gave him a bare sense of equality with, and
no superiority to, a single living thing under the sun." Because Clym is the native returning to
his natural element, the conclusion he reaches here is especially powerful: if he cannot rise above
and control Nature, there is little hope for other characters who are not "natives" of the heath.
At every turn, then, no matter which character confronts Nature, the overpowering atmosphere of
the heath flattens its human inhabitants into relative insignficance.
Man-Nature conflict in Hardy's novel works in different ways, at different levels of narrative and
character. It is associated with Hardy's tragic vision of life which owes a lot to determinism and
especially the Greek tragic model of antiquity. It is man's conflict with fate or destiny almighty

that comes across through the presence of nature--an indifferent if not domineering and hostile
universe, in which man is 'unaccommodated'.
The conflict is also related with a Darwinian view where the Christian faith struggles with the
theory of evolution. What Hardy merges with the Darwinian nature is the post-lapserian myth of
nature as in Christian theology.
In the novel, Egdon Heath, in all its agency and autonomy is a representation of Hardy's natural
world. It demands absolute subjugation and if its domination is countered, it hits back, as with
Mrs. Yeobright, Clym and Eustacia. Surrender would lead to survival in nature's terms as we see
with the likes of Venn and Thomasin.
Hardy also presents to us the conflict between the human will to change the natural and the
resistance to change in nature. This is in a way, the clash between antiquity and civilization,
between nature and culture.
How would you describe Clym as a modern man in the novel The Return of the
Native?
The title of Hardy's novel, The Return of the Native refers to Clym Yeobright who
returns to his native Egdon having given up the accomplished profession of a
diamond-trader in Paris. Clym returns with his books and an altruistic mission to set
up schools in Egdon and Budmouth. His mission and intention, however miscarried,
make Clym a dedicated reformist bent on changing the so long unaltered face of
primitive Egdon. Clym works hard to become a school-master, loves and marries
Eustacia with the hope that the young woman from Budmouth would stand by his
side in translating his dream. To work for social-economic development through
education must be a modern agendum that ironically leads to the tragedy of Clym.
The ancient Egdon heath thus finds its opponent in Clym, the educated and
enterprising youth from Paris, whose schoolmaster plan aims at a change in the life
and economy of the heath-dwellers.
What type of narrative technique does Thomas Hardy use in The Return of the
Native?
For Native, Hardy chooses the same type of narration that he uses for many of his
novels. His third person omniscient narration is key because it represents Hardy's
version of Providence or God. The.

While third person omniscient narration is not uncommon, readers must note that Hardy chooses
it purposely. He stresses in all his works that Providence flirts with humans, dangling hope just
out of their grasp, only to pull it back when he grows weary of the game. The narrator acts in the
same manner--he hints at the possibility of an optimistic ending, and then forces the reader to
"settle" with Eustacia's death and Clym's philosophical ramblings. While he knows and sees
all, he does nothing to encourage or prevent the book's events.

For those who have read Fitzgerald's Gatsby, they should see a similarity between Hardy's
narrator and Gatsby's Dr. Eckleburg billboard
What is the most important scene in The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy?
Arguably, the most important scene from Hardy's masterpiece is the one in which
Eustacia will not open the door to her mother-in-law. Mrs. Yeobright takes this as
her son's rejection of her after she had put.
What are the techniques used in chapter 5 of "Return of the Native" by Thomas
Hardy?
I'm thinking you are referring to Book V, since several of the books contain a
"chapter 5", and it is written differently than the other books.

Book V is characterized by quick movements and dramatic situations. Most of the important
action takes place within a few days, whereas the events in the other books are slow-moving,
taking months to unfold all of the events. Hardy develops a melodramatic writing style, which is
reflected in the characters, their actions, and their dialogue. Clym raves in his anger, losing all
sense of perspective. Thomasin decides to bring her baby with her while walking through a
storm. The passionate prose reflects the wildness of the characters.
Another difference in Book V is it doesn't reveal the truth about what happens to Eustacia -- was
her death an accident, or did she jump? We know Eustacia has suicidal tendencies, but we aren't
told the whole truth as we are in the rest of the novel. Critics suggest one reason for this is to
show how unreliable the narrator is, while others say it's done on purpose so the reader can better
understand the characters. Since the reader doesn't know if Eustacia committed suicide or not, we
are forced to make our own decision based on what we already know about Eustacia, giving her
a reality of her own.
What is Hardy's philosophy of life in "The Return of the Native"? Why can't the main
characters of Return of the Native be called "rustic characters"?

The above commentator rightly argues about how the characters in Hardys novel do not have
control over their lives. However, it can also be added in this regard that Hardys philosophy of
life in The Return of... Hardy has a very pessimistic philosophy of life as can be seen in his
characters who seem to have little control over their own lives. Hardy saw external
circumstances and uncontrollable internal urges as controlling human actions. In Eustacia Vye,
attributes such as her beauty which would usually be considered an asset are actually a curse to
her in her surroundings.
Hardy's characters cannot be called "rustic characters" because they lack the innocence of the
rustic characters found in pastoral literature. This type of literature idealized the rural experience
making the simple peasants or shepherds of their story heros when compared to complicated
urban characters. Hardy's characters in the Return of the Native are hardly idealized, simple

peasants. They are complex humans controlled by both their surroundings and animalistic urges
which cause them to make poor choices for their lives.
While we take an attempt to peep into Hardy's philosophy of life , we must bring into account
the role and function of chance, co-incidence and accident in a noble of Hardy, we should
certainly look into Hardys pessimistic cum tragic vision of life .To Hardy happiness is but an
occasional episode in a general drama of pain. Fatalism and its predominating influence on
human life are the other factors that lead Hardy to conclude that life is summation of chance, coincidence and accident. Irony of fate, situation and environment as expounded in Greek tragedies
recur in Hardys novel. Hardys penetrative vision could read the heart-beat of fate and there by
he did not find any surety and security in mans life.

The Return of the Native in particular and the other novels in general exhibit the concept of
fatalism through the instrument of fate,- as chance, co-incidence and accident. The major
characters of The Return of the Native, - we may mention Eustacia and Wildeve and with
some extent the minor characters, like Thomasin and Mrs. Yeobright, simply become the prey of
Egdon who symbolizes first of all fate of Greek tragedy and secondly nature incarnate.
Egdon, the fate of puts traps on the ways of the aforesaid characters that show sense, intellect
feeling, whim or disgust of their own. The devices chance, co-incidence and accident in this
novel are in the hands of Egdon just as the rope or string remains in the invisible hand of the
puppet dancing master who at this will alters, moves, and shifts these puppets in a stage. Life is a
stage and fate controls, guides, and moves human beings as she wills. And understudy of Hardys
novel The Return of the Native presents before us the following chances, co-incidence and
accident.
Expect the characters ,- Eustacia , and Wild eve all other characters are rustics .They are the
product of Egdon .These two characters are foreigners . Clym ,-the hero of the novel is sin to the
soil .
What are the commonalities among these novels in relation to Nature, Realism and
the Victorian Age. The novels are Wuthering Heights, Oliver Twist, and The Return of
the Native.

The first thing to consider is that the Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to
1901, in the second longest reign in English history, only recently surpassed
by Queen Elizabeth II. This was a period of rapid social and. Oliver Twist 1837

Wuthering Heights 1847

The Return of the Native 1878

In Oliver Twist, Dickens is writing about the life of an impoverished orphan (who actually turn
out to a gentleman by birth). The novel was written as a critique of the Poor Laws and explores a
theme common to many of the works of Dickens, namely urban poverty. This is classically midVictorian in its focus on the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution. Earlier forms of social
welfare had been concentrated in the parish system, which was based on a rural agricultural
economy and was simply overwhelmed by the rapid growth of the great industrial towns such as
Manchester and Birmingham. In this novel, Dickens critiques the new system of workhouses.
Even though its plot is melodramatic and filled with improbable coincidences, the minute
descriptions of urban poverty add some elements of realism into the novel.
Wuthering Heights is not a realistic novel. In many ways, despite being written later than Oliver
Twist, it is closer to the Gothic, with its dramatic use of nature and focus on romance and
atmosphere; it is closer to the work of Radcliffe than of Dickens. It has a rural rather than urban
setting and the protagonists are mainly members of the upper classes. The wildness of nature
nature in the Yorkshire moors is used to introduce the theme of nature versus convention in
human relationships.
The Return of the Native, like Wuthering Heights, is set in a rural environment and focuses on
romantic relationships. It also uses nature as an important theme, but is post-Darwinian and
Naturalistic, seeing nature as determining the lives of humans, who no matter how much they
may struggle against it, can never escape its harsh laws. It is classically Victorian in its theme of
the "fallen woman"
To what extent is Chapter 1 a significant exposition of The Return of the Native?

In Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native, the landscape of the village that Clemson
Yeobright returns to is compellingly described in detail in the first chapter. The village is
isolated, standing out on a windswept heath that is both stark and desolate and yet also
hauntingly beautiful. The descriptions portray a landscape covered in certain types of vegetation
native to the region (namely heather and gorse, which flourish in harsh conditions of wind and
cold), and the names of many plants and trees demonstrate their prominence in the memories and
daily lives of those who live there and those who were born and raised there, like Yeobright.
Hardy's novels are notable for the dramatic landscapes portrayed: the influence of the landscapes
upon characters' actions and imaginations cannot be underestimated. Dorset is rugged and rural,
not far from Cornwall which is rich in history and filled with neolithic stone circles and
monoliths. The Egdon Heath described in the novel is mysterious and laden with pagan meaning,
as with this quote: "Black chaos comes, and the fettered gods of winter say Let there be Light."
This quote effectively joins both pagan and Christian imagery, paralleling the contradictory
imagery and themes of the novel itself (Clym's love of nature reflecting a pagan worldview, and
Eustacia's moral dilemma echoing Christian guilt).
In The Return of the Native, how does Hardy's characterization of Thomasin show
her close relationship with the heath?

Thomas Hardy's first chapter of The Return of the Native is devoted to a lengthy description of
Egdon Heath suggesting that it is both a natural and an intrinsic force in the lives of the

characters of Return... The time seems near,if it has not actually arrived, when the
chastened sublimity of a moor, a sea, or a mountain will be all
of nature that is absolutely in keeping with the moods of the more thinking among mankind....
"Haggard Egdon" is not beautiful, nor charming and fair, but it appeals, Hardy writes, instead to
a "subtler and scarcer instinct." Further, it is described as having "a lonely face, suggesting tragic
possibilities."
Of a nature agreeable to this heath is the character of Thomasin. For instance, in Book II,
Chapter 2, she talks with her aunt about her situation of not having married Wildeve. Before she
responds, she peers into a tree or a bush, then she speaks in answer to her aunt's inquiry if she
would agree to marry Wildeve if the confusion over the license had not occurred to "entangle"
her to him:
Thomasin looked into the tree and appeared much disturbed. "Aunt," she said presently, "I have,
I think, a right to refuse to answer that question.
Further, she again speaks from within the tree:
Thomasin turned and regarded her aunt from the tree. "Now hearken to me." she said, her
delicate voice expanding into firmness by a force which was other than physical.....
Thomasin came out of the tree, shook from her hair and dress the loose berries which had fallen
thereon...
Much later in the narrative, in Book V, Thomasin speaks with her husband, Wildeve who detests
the heath:
He [Damon] looked towards her.... "What, do you like Egdon Heath?" he said.
"I like what I was born near to; I admire its grim old face."
"Pooh,...You don't know what you like."
"I am sure I do. There's only one thing unpleasant about Egdon."
"What's that?""You never take me with you when you walk there.
Certainly, for the other characters the heath brings even death, but Thomasin, who for a time
suffers like a caged bird in her shame of not having been married and hiding this from her cousin
Cym, and who must endure the gossip of others, the heath offers solace and, as though Nature
understands, it envelopes her with kindness rather than death as it does others.