THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
BOOK FIRST – THE THREE WOMEN
I
A face upon which Time makes but little impression
unorthodox novel opening focuses on setting
Egdon Heath – presented as character - face
Rainbarrow & Roman Road – signs of previous human civilisations
EH symbol of permanence against human world of transience
“The sea changed, the fields changed, the rivers, the villages, and the people
changed, yet Egdon remained.” p7
characterised by darkness, mystery
“It had a lonely face, suggesting tragical possibilities.” p7
characterised by fire
II
Humanity appears upon the Scene, Hand in Hand with Trouble
Hardy’s vision of nature always includes the human.
Venn (old Eng/Welsh = white) rescues woman in distress (Tamsin)
V description positive
Isolated by choice – reddleman role
“why should a promising being as this have hidden his prepossessing exterior
by adopting that singular occupation?” p9
Captain Vye reveals aborted marriage ceremony
Solitary Queen of EH (Eustacia Vye) appears on Rainbarrow
“It formed the pool and axis of this heathery world.” p12
‘Such a perfect, delicate, and necessary finish did the figure give to the dark
pile of hills…’ p12
III
The Custom of the Country
Bonfire Night – primeval links
‘The first tall flame from Rainbarrow sprang into the sky…’ p14
‘The ashes of the original British pyre…Gunpowder Plot.’ and
‘Promethean rebelliousness…Let there be light.’ p15
‘chorus’ of EH natives
first wedding interrupted by Mrs Yeobright
native mix of inherent wisdom and superstition
fires as ‘eyes’ – seeing/blindness key theme
EV’s fire contrast – ‘moon of the whole shining throng’ p 24
Humorous description – Christian ‘Painfully circular eyes surrounded by
concentric lines like targets’ p22
Susan Nunsuch - gaiety/spontaneity of natives’ dancing
contrast more serious/weighty characters – Venn & Mrs Y –
both engaged in the serious business of the wedding & T’s reputation
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
IV
The Halt on the Turnpike Road
Mrs Y & Olly dialogue reveals more of the wedding.
V delivers T to her aunt - ‘new trouble’
V all delicacy and care for T.
‘Now, Thomasin,’ she said sternly, ‘what’s the meaning of this disgraceful
performance?’
V
Perplexity among honest people
Problem with licence – wedding postponed
W & T discuss future – still intend to marry (more business than passion)
irony of heathfolk’s congratulations
as they drink W’s mead they spy E’s bonfire –outlasting all others
their opinion of E – ‘lonesome, dark-eyed creature up there that some say is a
witch...’ (Timothy) and ‘...deep as the North Star’ (Sam)
W goes to E
VI
The Figure against the Sky
‘conspicuous loneliness’ of the female figure (E)
Hardy describes the voices of EH
she part of the heath/adds her voice
watching and waiting for a very long time (Eustacia = steadfast in Greek)
E has enslaved a boy – Johnny - to keep the fire –
for a crooked sixpence ( defence against witchcraft)
E & W meet – she impassioned, triumphant
uses his first name – Damon (=demon)
history of passion, she rejoices in failed wedding
‘she loved on. She knew that he trifled with her, but she loved on’
VII
Queen of Night
‘Eustacia Vye was the raw material of divinity.’
associated with darkness – ‘To see her hair was to fancy a whole winter did
not contain darkness enough to form its shadow
‘She had pagan eyes, full of nocturnal mysteries...’
Hardy’s description/comparison to goddesses highlights her divine beauty
she an outsider/isolated by her foreign background
‘Egdon was her Hades.’
E a romantic – desired to be loved as escape from life of loneliness and
frustrated desires/ambitions. Her heroes men of action – Napoleon etc
filled her empty life ‘...dealising W for want of a better object’
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
VIII
Those who are found where there is said to be Nobody
Hardy emphasises the isolation of Capt. Vye’s house
‘the loneliest of lonely houses’ (link to isolation of E)
Johnny Nonesuch overhears E & W
runs/falls, scared by reddleman, who then helps him find lost sixpence
V bandages his hand & learns secret of E’s fire
contrast red/scary appearance of reddleman and caring/sensitive reality
V alone start & end of chapter – another isolated character
IX
Love leads a shrewd Man into Strategy
V an outsider
‘His occupation tended to isolate him, and isolated he was mostly seen to be.’
V’s previous proposal of marriage to T was rejected by letter
W confesses he has wronged both E & T
W asks E to go to America with him
She wants time to think
sexual metaphor – ‘They were as two horns which the sluggish heath had put
forth from its crown, like a mollusc, and had now again drawn in.’
X
A desperate Attempt at Persuasion
E’s sensuality - ‘the sun shone into her mouth as into a tulip, and leant it a
similar scarlet fire’ p75
V offers E another means of escape – as companion to a rich widow
proud & disliking the idea of work, she rejects it disdainfully
XI
The Dishonesty of an honest Woman
He repeats his offer to Mrs Y – a ‘weapon’ in her negotiation with W
she asks W to tell T he can no longer marry her
W goes to E to repeat his America plan
E’s pride – ‘What a humiliating victory!’ and
‘Her social superiority...she felt that she had stooped in loving him.’
transience of passion – ‘evanescence of her passion for him’ – p83
E’s attitude to W changed, leaving the way clear for Clym (=clement)
he is exotic, having lived ‘In that rookery of pomp and vanity, Paris, I believe.’
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
BOOK SECOND – THE ARRIVAL
I
Tidings of the Comer
Heathmen discuss coming of CY.
Paris & C’s occupation – ‘Manager to a diamond merchant’ - symbolic of
materialism
education seen as a negative
‘If they’d never been taught how to write they wouldn’t have been able to
scribble such villainy’ and ‘Perhaps if Miss Eustacia had less romantic
nonsense in her head it would be better for her,’ said the captain shortly...
they instinctively pair E & CY ‘would make a very pretty pigeon-pair’
for daydreaming E ‘It was like a man coming from heaven.’
II
The People at Bloom’s-End make ready
Thomasin experiences ‘most sorrowful days’ – apple loft
nature – ‘maiden ...plunged her naked arms into the soft brown fern’
hint that Mrs Y wished T & C to be in love
idyllic description of the heath as T & Mrs Y collect berries ‘a stratum of
ensaffroned light was imposed upon a stratum of deep blue’
T determined to marry W, but wishes it kept secret from C
III
How a little Sound produced a great Dream
E continues to daydream and haunt Bloom’s End
transported when CY says ‘Good night!’
captain suggests the Yeobright’s lifestyle would be too ‘countrified’ for E
he accidentally offended Mrs Y in past
Providence offers opportunity
IV
Eustacia is led on an Adventure
E discovers the mummers are to feature at Mrs Y’s Christmas party
she takes part of Turkish Knight in return for hand-holding with Charley
further evidence of E’s attraction
V
Through the Moonlight
E is looking for a ‘hero’ to ‘deliver her soul from the most deadly oppression’
boy mummers guess her identity
she is killed in the play – foreshadowing her eventual fate
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
VI
The Two stand Face to Face
CY represents modern man?
inner conflict – mind & body – visible in his handsome face
‘look suggested isolation’
inner ‘deity...shone out of him like a ray’ and E is immediately affected
C has changed
E sees tenderness between C & cousin Tamsin – jealous
C & E meet – she now ‘warmed with an inner fire’
regrets that T is not already married to W
image of tragic heroine to end chapter – ‘sighing that tragic sigh of hers’
VII
A Coalition between Beauty and Oddness
captain amused by E’s impersonation – lack of moral guidance?
E goes to V to engage his help – V selflessly takes letter to W
W’s pride won’t let his lose both women
W beats V to Bloom’s End and ‘Venn’s heart sank within him’
VIII
Firmness is discovered in a gentle heart
C has heard the rumours – letter to Mrs Y
T exhibits a new practicality – ‘I don’t believe in hearts at all.’
T does not wish her aunt to give her away – isolation from family
pity for V
symbolic braiding of T’s hair – in seven
Mrs Y’s regret at parting from ‘Tamsie’
C returns and regrets how T has been treated
admits that he did once consider her his ‘sweetheart’
V – ever loyal – went to wedding to see Miss Vye give T away
V wishes T happiness and disappears from the area
BOOK THIRD – THE FASCINATION
I
My Mind to Me a Kingdom is
much had been expected of CY
identified with EH – ‘had been so inwoven with the heath in his boyhood’
twist of fate resulted in his joining diamond business in Paris
during Fairway’s Sunday morning haircutting heathmen discuss C’s future
C now disdains diamond trade - ‘idlest, vainest, most effeminate business...’
now plans to found a school
as usual the heathmen get to the heart of the matter
‘He’ll never carry it out in the world,’ said Fairway
and another ‘...I think he had better mind his business’
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
II
The new Course causes Disappointment
C’s ambitions are condemned by Hardy as ridiculous
C is the exact opposite to E
‘Take all the varying hates felt by Eustacia Vye towards the heath and turn
them into loves, and you have the heart of Clym.’
Mrs Y comdemns his plans ‘Your fancies will be your ruin, Clym.’
Susan Nonesuch stabs E with a needle in church
C ignores the warnings of both his mother – ‘Good girls don’t get treated as
witches even on Egdon’ and Sam’s negative reply to C’s asking if E would like
to teach children ‘Quite a different body from that I reckon.’
III
The first Act in a timeworn Drama
C goes to help with the captain’s well
E appears at a window – ‘whose panes blazed in the ruddy glare from the
west.’
Reminds us of E’s desire for a ‘blaze’ of passion.
he tends to E’s hand - wounded by well rope
dialogue makes clear their antipathy – heath v Paris – ignored by both
both feel their lives are beginning anew
conflict begins between C and Mrs Y
Mrs Y condemns E as ‘lazy and dissatisfied’ and a ‘hussy’
C already sees E as his future wife
IV
An Hour of Bliss and Many Hours of Sadness
eclipse of the moon – symbolic darkness?
C & E meet to declare their love - silence as moon darkens
C talks of marriage and E talks of Paris
darkening moon foreshadows tragic end?
E aware of her too obsessive love and fear it will end
‘It is too much what I feel. They say such love never lasts.’
V
Sharp Words are spoken and a Crisis ensues
C reads and meets E in secret
C and his mother argue about his unrealistic dreams and choice of wife
C moved to tears as his mother reproaches him
ironically, he was to bring his mother to meet E that day
C & E ‘love at full flush’
E with a ‘voluptuous air of triumph’
C proposes marriage without delay
6 months in a tiny cottage until they can move to Budmouth
ominous note – “ ‘...if no misfortune happens. If no misfortune happens,’ she
repeated slowly.’ ”
‘Eustacia was no longer the goddess but the woman to him’
in ‘cooler’ mood C would have preferred a ‘less hasty marriage’
R&J allusion in final lines? ‘...those who love too hotly to love long and well...’
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
VI
Yeobright goes, and the Breach is complete
C packs his things and goes to see the cottage for rent.
symbolic storm damage to trees – ‘The wet young beeches were undergoing
amputations, bruises, cripplings, and harsh lacerations, from which the
wasting sap would bleed for many a day to come, and which would leave
scars visible to the day of their burning.’ Personification suggests human
suffering?
parting C & his mother leaves both in great sorrow
Thomasin visits Mrs Y –
T compared to different birds - now ‘skimmed like a swallow’
T in need of money (W gives her none)
Mrs Y has 50 guineas each for T and C
T advises her to be less unyielding towards C & E
T visits each day, but then is unwell
W hears of E’s marriage to c and ‘the old longing for E had reappeared in his
soul’
VII
The Morning and the Evening of a Day
wedding morning
Mrs Y weeps and predicts C will rue the day
W comes, but doesn’t know about T’s money
Mrs Y then entrusts money to Christian (!)
Christian is waylaid by a raffle where he (ironically) wins a gown-piece
W walks with Christian across the heath and tricks him into gambling
all 100 guineas lost to W - but V appears
VIII
A new Force disturbs the Current
Venn a ‘red automaton’ plays with superhuman calm
W becomes furious as he continues to lose
he throws dice away in despair
heathcroppers surround them, then gallop away
death’s head moth puts out lantern flame
they play on by light of glow worms
tension reaches a climax as the die splits and W throws stakes at V
W forgets lost money at sight of C & E driving from wedding
In error V gives the whole 100 guineas to T
future misfortune results from V’s mistake
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
BOOK FOURTH – THE CLOSED DOOR
I
The Rencounter by the Pool
‘The July sun shone over Egdon and fired its crimson heather to scarlet.’
Setting touches on all seasons – also suggests seasons of life
only season & weather when ‘the heath was gorgeous’
C+E idyllically happy. Haze of love, but ominous note –
“the quality of finiteness was not foreign to Eden”
Dreams are still divided – Paris/Budmouth
Mrs. Y finds out about lost guineas from Christian,
visits E by the pool (symbolising W) - get off to a bad start
E convinced Mrs Y has bad opinion of her
heated argument – anger on both sides
E speaks of ‘condescension’ in marrying C
E says “you have caused a division that can never be healed!”
E – unhappy with marital situation
“my son’s happiness does not lie on this side of the grave”
Mrs Y warns “he can be as hard as steel” – like Angel Clare.
II
He is set upon by Adversity but he sings a Song
E goes home to Clym – conflict ensues
‘I have seen your mother; and I will never see her again!’
E says she is a ‘sharer of your doom’ (tragic undertones)
C doesn’t understand dream of Paris - never promised Paris
damage to eyes – C ‘an invalid’ - ironic as he represents light – confirms that
dream of Paris will never come true: “That dream of beautiful Paris was not
likely to cohere into substance in the presence of this misfortune.”
to E’s horror C decides to become a ‘furze and turf cutter’
description of colours & creatures of EH and Clym’s affinity with it (p209):
“Day after day he rose with the sun”,
“A forced limitation of effort offered a justification of homely courses to an
unambitious man” – excuse to live a simple life on the heath.
irony of French song (= C’s happiness)
E cannot bear their social failure
In just two months love has cooled
“and so love dies with good fortune!” - p212
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
III
She goes out to Battle against Depression
E is depressed by C’s situation
C sees how E first saw him“I was wrapped in a sort of golden halo” and “an
adorable, delightful, distracting hero?”
now E sees “Two wasted lives”
Decides to shake off depression so dances on the green, where she
encounters Wildeve.
Looking for distraction. Their love is rekindled.
“sudden rush of blood to her face” Passion is still there.
“floated round and round on Wildeve’s arm”
Her old self “rapt and statuesque” & “ permanent brilliancy”
Because she is unattainable W starts to want her again
They sit together “like two pearls on a table of ebony” 219
He walks E home, meet V & C - V aware of W, C is not.
V uses horse metaphor to show he knows W was with E:
“a beauty with a white face and a mane as black as night.”
IV
Rough Coercion is employed
Venn follows W and foils plan to see E – evening
their relationship was always secret, cover of darkness
Signal of moth in window – dies in candle flame p223
suggests fatal attraction of passion?
V tells Mrs Y of Clym’s affliction
Mrs Y concerned E & W still have an understanding
Mrs Y: ‘my life may be cut short’ – foreshadows death
Reconciliation desired by C & Mrs Y, not by E
E suggests it would have been better if C had not returned
C’s return from Paris has altered the destinies of five people (C, E, Mrs Y, T &
W) p227
V
The Journey across the Heath
last day of August – intense heat
violence of heat shown in word choice
‘The sun had branded the whole heath with his mark’
‘dry blazes’ & ‘kiln’ & ‘incineration’ – p 228
Mrs Y follows C unwittingly
rests on a tree-covered knoll – ‘Devil’s Bellows’ – omen
finally summons courage to go down – sees visitor (W)
fallen apples in garden suggest past Eden?
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
VI
A Conjuncture, and its Result upon the Pedestrian
W now determined to visit E by day
C asleep on hearthrug after his labours
contrast between W & C ‘painfully apparent’ to E - p232
again W opines ‘The fates have not been kind to you’
E admits she loved C partly for the life he would give her
E embarassed when Mrs Y knocks – retreats with W
‘This is your first visit here; let it be your last.’
E assumes C will wake and admit his mother...
C sleeps on and Mrs Y departs, exhausted & distraught
she meets Johnny Nonesuch, who sees her symptoms
but lacks understanding of how close to death she is – ‘like a lamb when you
drive him till he’s nearly done for’
VII
The Tragic Meeting of two old Friends
C has been dreaming of his mother
C determines to visit his mother that same evening
E tries to postpone his visit to no avail
C discovers his mother on thyme bank, unable to speak
he carries her to a lonely shed
the company of heathfolk arrive to help
she has been bitten by an adder – symbol of evil
C ‘anointed the wound’ – superstitious cure
VIII
Eustacia hears of good Fortune and beholds Evil
grandfather tells E of W’s inheritance - £11,000 – irony
calls her a fool for not sticking with him
E reflects on W’s ‘unparalleled grace’ towards women
and how little attention she paid him earlier
W appears – he would exchange his fortune for E
he plans to travel – ironically to Paris
significantly they are united in their estimation of Paris –
‘the central beauty-spot of the world’ – p249
W & E go towards Bloom’s End and discover the hut
Mrs Y is fading – her heart and exhaustion the cause
she dies and Johnny pipes up ‘ she was a broken-hearted woman and cast off
by her son’ – p251
E – ‘I am to blame for this. There is evil in store for me.’