MOST EXPECTED QUESTIONSQ: PASSIONS IN HARDYS

NOVELS BECOME AGENTS TOBARBARIC FATE, EUSTACIA

VYE HAS TO FACE THETRAGEDY DUE TO HER LOVE FOR
CLYME, COMMENT?Q: EUSTACIA VYE PRESENTS HARDYS
CONCEPT OF TRAGICHEROINE. DO YOU AGREE THAT SHE
LACKS REAL SENSEOF A TRAGIC PROTAGONIST? Q:
DISCUSS ROLE AND CHARACTER OF EUSTACIA VYE? Ans:

For Hardy, romantic passion can be dangerous. Another

kind of passion, uncontrolled anger, can also have
unfortunate consequences. The only feelings, which can
be trusted, are moderate, like Thomasins kindness and
desire for people to be at peace with each other.
Relationships between people are best not when they are
violent and sudden, but when they have a long history
and have endured much, like the love between Diggory
and Thomasin. Love at first sight, as Eustacia and Clym
find out, is likely to be a mistake. Hot-tempered reactions
are generally a mistake, as well. Hardy understands that
passion is fundamental to human nature- and he portrays
passion so well that we cannot help but respond to it in
characters like Eustacia. But he stresses that we must try
to act in the light of reason. We may fail- as Clym doesbut we must try. Moderation is the goal. Is Eustacia really
a superior being, or does she merely thinks she is? Are
her passions deeper than other people's, or is she simply
greedy? Is she doomed by fate or by her own selfishness?
Few readers have ever been able to decide for certain.
That is the genius of Hardy's portrayal. If you are like
most readers, you will find this beautiful young woman
fascinating one moment, exasperating the next. Even the

other characters of the novel find her unpredictable, and

their reactions to her vary widely. Is she a goddess or a
witch? Hardy skillfully avoids simple answers by showing
us many sides of this complex character. At times, he
seems sympathetic to her frustrations with her narrow
life, yet he does not shrink from showing her at her worst.
She is capable of deception, and she has a killing temper.
She can be disloyal, she can wound with a perfectly
aimed insult, and she can exploit other peoples good
nature. Why, then, does the reader simply not turn away
from her? Perhaps because almost everyone can feel pity
for her at moments, such as before her death when she
cries out,How I have tried and tried to be a splendid
woman, and how destiny has been against me... I do not
deserve my lot! If she had been able to live in a great
city, perhaps she would have been splendid. If she had
found a society that appreciated her rare qualities, rather
than fearing or scorning them as the people of Egdon do,
she might have achieved great things. Hardys point, of
course, is that those possibilities are not available. Like all
of us, Eustacia must make do with the situation that faces
her: she must either accept or change her fate. Her
tragedy is that she refuses to accept it but fails to change
it. Usually, Hardy describes Eustacia in contrasts, to
stress the divided nature of her soul, the conflicts that
torture her. Early in the novel, he writes,As far as social
ethics were concerned Eustacia approached the savage
state, though in emotion she was all the while an epicure.
She had advanced to the secret recesses of
sensuousness, yet had hardly crossed the threshold of

conventionality. He is saying that, on the positive side

she is a nonconformist, an independent spirit; but on the
negative side, emotion, passion, the heart's needs have
become an obsession with her. She lives solely for
romance.To be loved to madness- such was her great
desire. One side of her nature, however, all too
poignantly recognizes that love itself is evanescent: she
is terrified of time. Think of her first appearance in the
novel, eagerly searching with her telescope for Damon.
She is the very picture of a desperate woman searching
for experience. She carries with her an hourglass, even
though, as Hardy takes pains to point out, she does have
a modern watch. It is as if she actually wants to see time,
her dreaded enemy, as it dribbles away. At the moment
which should be her most blissful, when she and Clym
decide to marry, she gazes toward the eclipsed moon and
warns,See how our time is slipping, slipping, slipping!
She confides to her lover the deep (and perceptive) fear
that their love will not last though she lives by certain
illusions, another side of Eustacia is ruthlessly realistic.
Perhaps her most attractive quality is this inability to lie
to herself about herself. Basically, she knows her own
faults; she's intelligent, perceptive, and honest. When she
first meets Clym, she explains to him that she is
depressed by life. Its a simple statement, but it may well
sum up all her difficulties. Life itself is somehow too much
for her unusually sensitive and demanding nature. Life
doesn't give her what she wants. Life, as she experiences
it, is a prison. Not surprisingly, readers disagree on many
aspects of this puzzling, ambiguous character. Her actions

can be seen from many different perspectives. For

example, some say that she sincerely loves Clym. Yet
surely she also has a selfish motive in agreeing to marry
him: in her mind, the marriage is associated with an
escape to Paris. Throughout the book, her mixed motives
often lead to troubling actions. No matter how many
times you read this novel, you will probably never be
certain just how you feel about Eustacia Vye. She is too
contradictory; she is too special and rare. Hardy himself is
most eloquent when he describes her in symbolic terms,
as when he writes that she and Damon, walking together
under the full moon, appeared amid the expanse like
two pearls on a table of ebony. Equally doomed, these
two passionate beings shine brightly in a dark world only
to be extinguished.
Q: DISCUSS HARDYS CONCEPT OF TRAGEDY.Q:
HARDY IS KNOWN AS A GREAT TRAGIC WRITER
HISTHE RETURN OF THE NATIVE PRESENTS
ANILLUSTRIOUS PICTURE OF TRAGEDY,
COMMENT.Q: HARDY IS KNOWN AS A PESSIMIST. DO
YOU AGREE?Q: DISCUSS HARDYS FATALISM?Ans:
Expressions like pessimism and fatalism have
unreservedly been used by critics and readers to describe
Hardys philosophy of life, and there is no doubt these
labels do largely convey his outlook and his stance. He is
deemed pessimist because he considers that man is born
to suffer and he is called fatalist because he thinks that
destiny is antagonistic to man and that it governs human
life, allowing very little free will to human creatures and

often inflicting undeserved sufferings upon them. Hardy,

however, is not a cynic because he does not regard man
as essentially mean and wicked. There, certainly, are
villains in his novels but he believes on the whole that
there is more goodness and nobleness in human nature
than evil, and that man is capable of a heroic endurance
of misfortune. Further wise, it is possible to call Hardy a
determinist instead of fatalist, because, while fatalism
implies a blind and arbitrary working of some
supernatural power, determinism implies the logic of
cause and effect. In Hardys novels the logic of cause and
effect is as much at work as an arbitrary supernatural
power. Hardys conception of life is essentially tragic. As
Austin never wrote a tragedy, Hardy never attempted a
comedy. He holds an opinion:Happiness is an occasional
episode in the general drama of pain.Hardy feels that
man is born to suffer and the glory of man lies in his
power of bearing his catastrophe. It appears that his mind
is trained in the Greek literature, which was the first
attempt to project a mighty clash between mans dreams
and realization. Hardy also portrays this conflict, but with
a slight difference. In Greek tragedy, Fate is some of
super natural power holds responsible of the catastrophe,
while in Shakespearean tragedy, man is solely
responsible for his actions their consequent disaster.
Hardy combines both these concepts to carve his own
view of tragedy. In his stories, destiny is as much
responsible for the disaster, as a character himself. The
Return of the Native fully illustrates Hardys conception
of tragedy. Aristotle defines a tragedy is a story of a

conspicuous man, who falls from prosperity to adversity,

because of his error of judgment i.e. hishamartia and his
sufferings, downfall arouses a feeling of pity and fear in
us, thus becomes a source of catharsis. As it is clear from
the statement as well as from the historical facts, that
Greek tragedy was the story of a conspicuous man,
related to country life, and almost same is the case with
Shakespearean tragedy. But Hardy sets his tragedy in the
rural background. His story brings forth the downfall of a
common man, yet noble. As Clym is a noble man, his
innate kind and loving nature, residing at the Egdon
Heath. He is surrounded by the intense figures of
common life, rustics. His mind is a kingdom, filled with his
noble aims of educating the rustics, in the true sense of
the word, as author comments:He had a conviction that
they want of most men was knowledge of a sort which
brings wisdom rather than affluence. But striving after
high thinking, he still likes his plain living. He struggles
selflessly to achieve his high aims, but he is somewhat
unpractical rather, too simple to plan properly for his
goals. And his flaw lies in the facthe goes too far,
selflessly but unplanned, for his aims, and thus injures
himself, both physically and spiritually, causing poor eye
sight in the first case and tension through disharmony
with his mother and wife, in the second case. His
unpractical nature also comes out when he decides to
marry Eustacia though she warns him that she would not
make a good home spun wife and his mother
pronounces her as an idle voluptuous woman. Clym
thinks that Eustacia would help in his educational

prospects, but she proves to be exactly the opposite. Its

said, that Eustacia holds the greatest responsibility for
the tragedy in The Return of the Native, then it would
not be wrong. Hardy also shows the weak power of
decision of Clym that he fails to strike a balance between
his duties (to his mother), his ambition (forteaching) and
his love (for Eustacia). As the author states:Three
antagonistic growths had to be kept alive: his mothers
trust in him, his plan for becoming a teacher, and
Eustacias happiness.And he fails to maintain them, at a
time, first inclining totally towards Eustacia and then
towards his mother, and in adjusting his educational
plans between them. According to Hardy, Fate and
destiny have always an essential part toplay in bringing a
catastrophic end. In the novel under discussion, destiny
isdisguised in the cloak of nature and co-incidences.
Chances and Coincidences occur, in Hardys novels, too
frequently that they become almost unrealistic. In this
novel, the story leads to ultimate tragedy, with thedeath
of Mrs. Yeobright, which is caused by a number of ironic
accidents and co-incidences. It is also the role of chance
that the letter of Clym fails to reach Eustacia, which
becomes the cause of her fatal ending death. Thus,Hardy
feels:Human will is not free but fettered.Nature is
always considered as a living agent, by Hardy, which is
always so strong and influential, that his human
characters can never escape from its clutches. Egdon
Heath also depicts such qualities. It contrasts with the
human existence. Eustacia feels the heath, as her
cross, hershame, and eventually it becomes a

potential cause and the place of her death. Nature is also

hostile to Mrs. Yeo bright, as Heath kills her by
avenomous creature from its own bosom. Nature also
appears as the foreteller of coming events, when the
Heath becomes furious before the death of Wildeve and
Eustacia.The thick-skinned rustics are also an essential
part of Hardys writings.They perform the role of chorus
of the Greek tragedies and provideComic relief, like
Shakespeares characters. In The Return of the
Nativemuch of the useful information, also, about the
main characters is provided by these rustics. The most
important aspect of a tragedy, according to Aristotle, is
the feelings of catharsis. Undoubtedly, the tragedies of
Hardy also provide a source of catharsis. One certainly
experiences the feelings of pity and fear, when one
observes Clyms paralysis of will. He appears in the story
as a devoted, sympathetic, energetic fellow but he ends
up as a miserable, pitiable, half-blinded figure, with the
end of the story. Truly, the description of the author is
very true, when he says:Everywhere he (Clym) was
kindly received, for the story of his life had become
generally known. It can be noted through the treatment
of Clym, that Hardys general view about the human
nature is essentially noble and sublime, but tragic. His
main characters portray the higher values of human traits
of tolerance and bearing of misery, the eyes of the
reader. In short, it can be said that Hardys concept of
tragedy is of a higher level. Though he does not reach the
height of Shakespeare, but comes quite near to him.
Thus, it can be said that his art of tragedy is perfect.

Q: DISCUSS ROLE OF CHANCES AND COINCIDENCES

IN THERETURN OF THE NATIVEAns: Is chance the
same thing as fate? Different readers disagree on this
question. Perhaps it is cruel, deliberate fate that Eustacia,
for instance, has been set down to live on the heath she
loathes. It may be mere capricious chance, however, that
Mrs. Yeo bright decides to visit on the very afternoon that
Wildeve also decides to come to Eustacia's cottage. In
other words, fate seems to rule events according to some
vast pattern, which is beyond human control. Chance
seems to intervene in smaller, random ways, when
human beings are trying to act on their own. Many
readers, however, feel that chance and fate is the same
thing in this novel. Things just happen,without rhyme or
reason, and that in it is the pattern of the universe. Hardy
lost faith in orthodox Christianity quite early in his life. It
was mainly because of the advancement and challenges
of science to dogma. As a consequence, he reached a
new kind of skepticism. He felt that universe is governed
by some blind chance and not by any conscious power.
For this reason chance and coincidences play a very vital
role in all the novels of Hardy. Such a conspicuous
influence of accidents, on the course of events, does not
appear in the works of any other novelist. Though Hardys
characters are responsible for their suffering yet the role
of chance and coincidences often operates as a deciding
factor. Hardy feels:An impishness of circumstances
invades our life and becomes the cause of our undoing.
In his novel, man is tossed here and there in the ruthless
struggle for survival and the stronger one suffers more as

he tries to resist the sweep of chance. Hardy believes that

chance is an embodiment of fate. He feels that fate or
destiny is sometimes indifferent, but it is most often
hostile to human happiness. He thinks:Happiness is an
occasional episode in the general drama of pain.
The hostile of fate, disguises itself in the irony of
circumstances, which one finds in the novels of Hardy. In
other word, when the human beings are not themselves
responsible for the frustration for their hopes and
thwarting of their aims, fate appears in the shape of
chance or accident to contribute to or to complete, their
ruin. Hardy thinks:Chance is the incarnation of the blind
forces, controlling human destiny. There is also an
abundant use of chances, accident and coincidences
inThe Return of the Native. These chances are
interwoven with the actions of characters, to bring forth
the ultimate catastrophe. Johnny Nun such introduces the
first coincidence in the story. He overhears the
conversation of Wildeve and Eustacia, when Wildeve
visits her in response to her bonfire. Johnny narrates this
incidence to the Reddle-man. As a result of this chance,
Reddle-man becomes activity involved in the affairs of
these two principal characters Eustacia and Wildeve. On
the other hand, furthermore, this chance meeting
eventually results in the wedding of Thomasin with
Wildeve. At some later stage, during the story, Christian
Cantle meets the villag efolks, by a sheer accident that
takes him to a raffle (lottery). He is carrying Mrs.
Yeobrights money, which is to be delivered to Thomasin

and Clym, inequal halves. Cantle, by a chance stroke of

good luck, wins prize at raffle.Being encouraged by his
winning, he agrees to play the game of dice with Wildeve
and loses all the money of Mrs. Yeobright. Then, the
Reddle-man appears and with his luck, wins all the money
back and delivers all the money to Thomasin. Thus, the
chance meeting of Cantle with the village folks causes a
great misunderstanding and also a future quarrel
between Mrs. Yeobright and Eustacia. The marriage is not
a misfortune in itself. It is simply the accident which has
happened since that has been the cause of my ruin.
Another accident is the chance meeting of Eustacia with
Wildeve, which leads not only to the renewal of bond
between the two but also to the suspicion in the mind of
the Reddle -man, who immediately goes to Thomasin and
informs her about her husbands plans. The most crucial
accidents, however, are yet to come in the novel. At an
occasion, Wildeve visits Eustacia during the daytime. At
the same time Mrs. Yeobright comes to reconcile with her
son. This coincidence creates a big complication, as
Eustacia fails to open the door, while Wildeve is inside
and when she opens it, Mrs. Yeobright has gone while
Clym is fast asleep, just by a chance. Consequently, each
of these four characters has to pay heavily for these
accidents, happening simultaneously. On her homeward
journey, Mrs. Yeobright faces yet another accident. She is
bitten by an adder and is dead. Her death results in a
fierce quarrel between Clym and Eustacia. Thus, much of
the tragedy of the novel centers round the closed door, to
which a number of accidents contribute. At a later stage,

Wildeve receives a legacy, by a pure chance. This news

would have been a sign of hope in the story, but the
future events prove Hardys essentially tragic conception
of life. Hence:There is pervading note of gloom, only
momentarily relieved.The news of legacy brings new
thoughts to Eustacias mind. Her meeting with Wildeve
encourages her to seek his help in her attempt to escape
from Egdon Heath. Unfortunately, this attempt proves
fatal and deadly for both of them. After the death of
Clyms mother, he first expels Eustacia out of his house
but later, he intends to bring her back to home therefore,
he writes a letter to her, but Captain Vye fails to
handover the letter to Eustacia and shedecides to escape
with Wildeve to Paris, this chance brings her fall.Finally,
the nature also contributes in the contrivance of chance.
On thenight of Eustacias escape, the weather
accidentally gets worst. The night becomes dreadful,
because of rain and storm. This desperate situation of
weather adds to the gloomy condition of Eustacia and
causes her death. Thus, Hardy certainly makes his story
hard to believe by his excessive use of chance and
coincidence. There are accidents and coincidences in real
human life, but they are not so frequent, as in the novels
of Hardy, nor are accidents and coincidences always
malicious and hostile to man. A critic says:The plot of
the novel lacks the terrific and terrifying logic of cause
and effect that marks the plots of the greatest tragedies.
That, yet operates the way it does more accidental than
necessary But to condemn his use of chance altogether is
to misunderstand hisview of life. His novels present a

bottle between man and destiny, whereas, destiny

appears through chances and coincidences. However, the
realism of The Return of the Native is certainly marred
by en extraordinary use of the device of chances and
coincidences: As Shakespeare says: Fate has a terrible
power; you cannot control it by wealth or war.
Q: DISCUSS THE ROLE OF EGDEN HEATH IN THE
RETURN OFTHE NATIVE?Q: EGDON HEATH IS A
PLACE BUT IT PERFORMS LIKEHUMAN CHARACTERS
IN THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE?Ans:
Huge, forbidding, strange- the wasteland of Egdon Heath
is like a stage set for the action of this novel. It offers
wide spaces for movement, but italso has hiding-places
for intimate scenes. Its many different faces reflect
orheighten the many different moods of the story. One
can believe that the Heath has many secrets, and has
witnessed all possible varieties of human experience. It is
a place of long life and of sudden death, of fertile spring
and short, vivid summer. No matter what feeling Hardy
wants to express at any particular point, the heath can
offer it up. Some thing about Egdon Heath depresses the
restless, adventure-seeking characters of the novel,
Eustacia and Wildeve. But it is a comforting presence to
unselfish people like Clym and Thomasin. As you read,
notice each character's reaction to the heath; it may say
something about his or her inner nature. The less
intellectual country folk simply take the place forgranted,
just as they take their own souls for granted. Does Egdon
Heath represent life? Time? The supernatural? Destiny?

Readers have suggested these and other possibilities.

Perhaps it is not a symbol for anything, but merely a
background, a small universe, having no meaning,
offering no answers. Part of the mysterious appeal of this
novel is that Hardy makes the heath seem so significant,
but then never specifically explains his purposes. We
must use our own imaginations to try to understand and
feel what the heath finally means. Egdon Heath is the
first character introduced into the book. The heath
proves physically and psychologically important
throughout the novel: their relation to the heath defines
characters, and the weather patterns of the heath even
reflect the inner dramas of the characters. Indeed, it
almost seems as if the characters are formed by the
heath itself: Diggory Venn, red from head to toe, is an
actual embodiment of the muddy earth; Eustacia Vye
seems tospring directly from the heath, a part of
Rainbarrow itself, when she is first introduced; Wildeves
name might just as well refer to the wind-whipped heath
itself. But, importantly, the heath manages to defy
definition. It is, in chapter one,A place perfectly
accordant with mans nature. The narrators descriptions
of the heath vary widely throughout the novel, ranging
from the sublime to the gothic. There is no possible
objectivity about the heath. No reliable statement can be
made about it. For Clym, the heath is beautiful; for
Eustacia, it is hateful. The plot of the novel hinges around
just this kind of difference in perception. Most of the key
plot elements in the novel depend upon misconceptions
most notably, Eustacias failure to open the door to Mrs.

Yeobright, a mistake that leads to the older womans

death--and mistaken perceptions. Clyms eventual nearblindness reflects a kind of deeper internal blindness that
afflicts all the main characters in the novel: they do not
recognize the truth about each other. Eustacia and Clym
misunderstand each others motivesand true ambitions;
Venn remains a mystery; Wildeve deceives
Thomasin,Eustacia and Clym. The characters remain
obscure for the reader, too. WhenThe Return of the Native
was first published, contemporary critics criticized the
novel for its lack of sympathetic characters. All of the
novel's characters prove themselves deeply flawed, or--at
the very least--of ambiguous motivation. Clym Yeobright,
the novel's intelligent, urbane, generous protagonist, is
also, through his impatience and single-minded jealousy,
the cause of the novel's great tragedy. Diggory Venncan
either be seen as a helpful, kind-hearted guardian or as
an under handed schemer. Similarly, even the
antagonistic characters in the novel are not without their
redeeming qualities.
Q: CLYM YEOBRIGHT IS NOT CENTRAL CHARACTER.
HEJUST PERFORMS THE ROLE OF A FOIL TO
ENHANCE THEEFFECTS OF TRAGEDY IN THE NOVEL.
DO YOU AGREE?Ans: Well denotation, if sometimes
mistaken, Clym is Hardy's central character, the returning
native of the novel's title. He does not find happiness, but
he does find a kind of wisdom through his suffering. In the
beginning, he is stubborn and proud. When he discovers
that he can cause tragedy for others, he learns humility.

Hardy wants the reader to learn what Clym learns. We

cannot always get what we want in life, but neither can
anyone else. Human beings should love one another and
try not to cause each other pain.Well-meaning, intelligent
in certain ways, Clym Yeobright is not suited to life in the
real world of his day. He dislikes city life as effeminate,
but when he returns to Egdon, no one understands his
ambition to teach school. His ideas come from books
rather than from direct experience with people.
Unfortunately, he does not really know himself, either. He
thinks he is rational and controlled; but love for Eustacia
causes him to act rashly. He thinks he is morally right; but
this leads him to be cruel to others, whom he believes to
be in the wrong. Like his cousin Thomasin, Clym loves
Egdon Heath, and the people there love him for his pure
nature. The most important influence in his life is his
home, especially his mother, Mrs. Yeobright. Temporarily,
he leaves her to marry Eustacia, but in the end, even
after her death, her influence on him remains strong.
Hardy suggests that Clym is too sensitive. His constant
thinking almost seems to weaken him physically; his
studying literally makes him an invalid for a while. His
high ideas are not very practical. In day-to-day
experiences with other people, he often has little or no
idea what they want, or what they are thinking. Yet this
does not make him ridiculous. We have to respect him
because he is struggling to find the truth of life. Though
he is sometimes obtuse, he is never thoughtless. Perhaps
he lacks the sense of self that is necessary to survive. If
Wildeve is too selfish, then Clym in contrast is too un

selfish. In the end, Clym dedicates himself to others,

hoping to spread truth and comfort and to teach all men
to love each other. Ironically, he himself has failed with
his mother and with Eustacia, the two people he loved
most. He is more successful at loving all mankind than at
being a son or husband.
Q: DISCUSS THE ROLE AND NECESSITY OF
MINORCHARACTERS, ESPESICIALLY THOMASIN
YEOBRIGHTAND DAMON WILDEVE. WHAT PURPOSE
THEY SERVE INTHE DEVELOPMENT OF PLOT?Ans:
Countrified and inexperienced, Thomasin seems to be
less complex and interesting than the other major
characters. So far as we can tell, she is not as passionate
as Eustacia, as intellectually profound as Clym, as
sophisticated as Wildeve, or as intuitively insightful as
Mrs. Yeobright. Hardy likens her to a bird, and she often
flits through a scene, scattering good cheer but not
pausing to alight. And yet, it is Thomasin who gets (and
perhaps deserves, in Hardy's view) a happy life, in
conventional terms. As the novel comes to a close,
Thomasin feels fulfilled, as a loving mother and beloved
wife. The more ambitious characters have exposed
themselves too openly to fate; she is content with her lot,
rooted to the heath where she has grown up, comfortable
with the simple life of the Egdon area, she belongs. There
is no conflict between what she is and where she is.
Perhaps, in that sense, she is the most fortunate
character in the novel. Unhappiness does come to her,
but only when some element intrudes that rubs against

the grain of ordinary Egdon life- Wildeve's attraction,

Eustacias rivalry, even Clyms return from Paris. Although
she is drawn to Wildeve, he does not belong on Egdon
Heath, and ultimately she cannot be happy with someone
who is so foreign to (and contemptuous of) the ideas,
people, and land that her life is tied to. Diggory, on the
other hand, who actually lives on the open heath, is a
good match for her. Uncomplicated as she may be,
however, Thomasin is no fool. She marries Wildeve with
her eyes open; she has a pretty good idea of his faults.
Without being told or shown, she recognizes when his
passion for Eustacia comes back to life. Eventually, when
she is free, she comes to appreciate Diggorys deep, slow,
and silent commitment to her. Perhaps more important
than what she sees, however, is what she wants to see.
For example, when Clym and his mother are not
speaking, she tries to act the role of peacemaker. When
Clym is estranged from Eustacia, again Thomasin urges
reconciliation. She does not like conflict. Perhaps Hardy,
who doesn't support traditional Christian ideas in this
novel, none theless believes somewhat in the New
Testament idea, Blessed are the peacemakers.
Thomasin is good because she is concerned for the good
of others. She is in harmony with her world; she wants to
share that harmony. Alone among the major characters,
Thomasin represents the continuity of human life. Clym
cannot bring himself to marry again, but she can.
Motherhood is important to her; she won't even let the
hired nurse carry herchild. Why she is finally attracted to
Diggory? He is a dairy farmer and has been a riddle man-

in both cases, working with the basics of sustaining

life.These two are meant for each other; for example, on
the stormy night when Wildeve and Eustacia drown,
Thomasin lets Diggory carry her child. She shows no one
else this basic form of trust.Oddly, Thomasin has little
personal history on the page before us- no parents, no
siblings, and no close personal friends. Who is she? Who
or what has influenced her most? In some ways, she
resembles Mrs. Yeo bright; also, she is clearly affected by
Clym's opinions. Finally, though, it may be best tosee her,
as Hardy does, as a birdlike creature that finds Egdon
Heath her native habitat. She flourishes there. To
understand her, we would have to understand the
mysterious heath itself. Romantic Wildeve is a striking
contrast to Hardy's plain, honest country folk. His past is
shady. He has failed at his career as an engineer, perhaps
because of laziness; he seems never to have failed with
women, however. More than anyone else in the novel, he
cares about money and is usually strangely lucky in
getting it. This man has never had to work hard for
anything. Thoughtless, handsome, eager for what he
cannot have, Damon Wildeveis not a strong or a likeable
character. He seems to have no friends and no family
connections, although he is sexually irresistible to many
young women. He seems unusually sophisticated for the
wilds of Egdon- much like Eustacia. The crucial difference
between them is his overriding weakness. He does not
have her high standards or her depth of feeling. In fact,
Hardy often shows Wildeve taking rash steps almost
frivolously, like someone gambling with life. He just can't

take other people's needs too seriously. Heisn't evil, but

he is so self- centred that other people suffer. What
Wildeve wants most is comfort and pleasure, a life of
ease. Even Eustacia, who partly shares these desires,
knows that he is really not very substantial; she's quickly
diverted from him when Clym arrives, and only returns to
Wildeve when Clym disappoints her. When Wildeve dies,
he isnot mourned long. His only legacy, a daughter, is
ironically the product of a marriage to Thomasin that he
really wanted to avoid. Yet perhaps we can feel sorry for
Wildeve, caught up in the tragic web of circumstances,
too weak to resist the fate that sweeps him along. Is
Wildeve a villain- a liar, gambler, and seducer? Or is he
simply a shallow man who has blundered into a more
tumultuous world than he was meant for? Consider both
possibilities as you read the novel. Clym's mother has
definite limitations. She is snobbish, even though her own
social position would not be very high outside Egdon. She
is stubborn and likes to get her own way; she interferes,
with disastrous consequences. On the other hand, her
judgments about people turn out to be remarkably
accurate. Also, her deep love for Clym and for Thomasin
always wins out over her temper, and she is willing to
forgive. She has a strong sense of fairness; for example,
she does her best to be polite to Wildeve. Like her son
and niece, Mrs. Yeobright feels at home in Egdon. Her life
there is simple and unpretentious, in tune with the
community. She is part of an older generation, so perhaps
we can forgive her for trying to manipulate the young
people. What chiefly motivates her is love for Clym. She

wants him to be successful financially, married to

someone who will be devoted to him. And yet, without
knowing it consciously, she also probably wants tokeep
him for herself. In addition to being a strong central
character, Mrs. Yeo bright is also a kind of symbol. She is
the last representative of her generation. Even atEgdon,
change is on the way. For Hardy, she may well embody
both the faults and virtues of a particular time and place
that's rapidly passing away. Strong and silent, Diggory
Venn is not what he seems to be. At night, he looks like a
demon, but he has the morals of an angel. People think
he is low on the social scale, but he can at any time
return to being a successful farmer. He is also artful,
able to disguise his true feelings, when he is courting the
one love of his life, Thomasin. Diggory is, of course,
almost too good to be true. To many readers, he almost
appears to be a supernatural being. He arrives in the nick
of time, whenever Thomasin seems to be in danger. He
can move swiftly across the heath at night; he can beat
the lucky gambler Wildeve, even with Wildeve's own dice.
It seems Diggory can almost read men's minds. Capable,
insightful, loyal, he performs the role of a guardian
angel.It is easy to see why Hardy originally thought that
Diggory should simply disappear at the end of the novel,
instead of settling down with Thomasin. Diggory is too
fantastic a creation to fit easily into an ordinary home life.
However, he says he has entered this strange life as a
riddle man only because Thomasin rejected him; to marry
her, then, he returns to normal society. Though his
actions seem magical, Diggory's heart is totally human. It

is part of his appeal that Diggory stead fastly loves

Thomasin. She is not clever or sophisticated, and she has
been foolish. She is generous, however, and her heart is
in the right place. Diggory unlike Clym and Wildeve, falls
in love for reasons that may cause love to last. He
combines Clym's sense of justice with a practical
understanding of how men and women actually live their
lives.
Q: DISCUSS HARDYS STYLE OF WRITING NOVELS.
DOES HE HAVE ANYTHING UNIQUE IN HIS VISION OF
THE WORLD? Ans:
The Return Of The Native written early in his long
career, shows Hardy trying out different writing styles. He
is always ambitious, but he is not always successful.
Occasionally, his poetic descriptions are pretentious and
long-winded; they become top heavy. In other passages,
he tries to record the earthy folk dialect of the Egdon
area, and sometimes his attempts to be accurate can
become awkward; the dialect gets in the way. But the
achievements of his style far outweigh the few failures.
His best descriptions are not simple pictures; they're
dramas of life. His most believable conversations have
the force, the contradiction, and the illogic of actual
conversations. He has also created a successful voice in
which he can speak directly to the reader. Sometimes it
sounds a little formal, but generally it is a useful way to
guide us along, as he moves easily from discussions of
philosophy, for example, to a portrayal of a simple
country scene. Does Hardy's writing move slowly?

Perhaps it does, for us today, conditioned as we are by

thirty- second television commercials and three-minute
pop songs. In Hardy's own day, however, readers
expected to spend long hours every evening in reading a
novel, taking plenty of time to think about what was
happening. When a novel was published serially, in a
magazine, as Hardy's novels first appeared, the
experience of reading a novel might go on for months.
The pace of Hardy's long, complex sentences is a
reflection of the pace of the times. You can look one by
one at the elements of Hardy's prose- the use of dialect
vocabulary, the vigorous verbs, and the careful
explanations- and still not find the secret of his best work.
Many readers will recall a favorite scene as brilliantly
written. But when they return to the book, the actual
words used may not live up to the impression they made.
Hardy's gift is to summon up powerful images that take
on a life of their own, quite beyond style. Often, Hardy
pulls back from his story to talk about the past. He refers
frequently to famous characters in classical myths, the
Bible, or history, perhaps to show that people in all
civilizations have had much the same problems and have
probably had the same questions about existence.
Ancient peoples have been forgotten, and so will we.
Egdon Heath is a symbol of this timelessness; throughout
its seasons and cycles, it remains essentially the same.
There are storms, and there are bright summer days, but
the true nature of the heath never really alters. Human
life, too, has its storms and bright days, but it is essential
nature never changes, either. For Hardy, nature could

have many moods. He uses natural descriptions in

several ways: to reflect a character's inner emotions, to
symbolize the conflicts of human life, to show the
comparative insignificance of human beings. Sometimes
nature seems to help mankind; sometimes nature seems
to turn against us. It is as mysterious as fate. In this
novel, Hardy investigates these and other aspects of
nature; but he also takes obvious delight in describing
various kinds of natural beauty for their own sake.
Anyone with unusual skill likes to exercise that skill, and
Hardy enjoys writing his famous descriptions: the
romantic loveliness and excitement of the heath by
moonlight, the burning heat of the afternoon Mrs. Yeo
bright dies, or the terror of the storm the night of
Eustacia's death. Some characters, like Thomasin, are in
harmony with this beauty; others, like Eustacia, struggle
against it. By making it a powerful presence in this novel,
Hardy shows us that nature is a force to be reckoned
with. Egdon's colorful dialect, seasonal celebrations,
superstitious folk beliefs- these were disappearing even
as Hardy wrote the novel. He loved his native countryside
and tried to re-create both the land and the people. But
heis a faithful historian, and so he shows the bad with the
good. He is not blind to the faults of uneducated,
unsophisticated country folk; he knows they can be
cruelly prejudiced, as well as loyal. They can be foolishly
ignorant, as well as dependable. Like Clym, though, Hardy
clearly prefers life in the country to life in the cities. In
spite of his realistic portrayals, nostalgiacolours the rustic

scenes, for Hardy is sorry to see the changes that

progress will bring to the villages of his youth