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The return of The Native

A review of Thomas Hardy 's The Return of the Native

Thomas Hardy 's The Return of the Native is a statement about human motivations , particularly concerning love , and the indifference of fate It is set in Egdon Heath , a backward place in which all the action takes place . The discontented and passionate Eustacia Vye wants to escape from Egdon Heath , which is unacceptably backward and stifling in her eyes She sees herself as an outsider . She sets her eyes on Clym Yeobright the 'native ' who comes back from Paris , as a ticket

out of the place However , after they get married , she discovers that Clym loves and wishes to stay at Egdon Heath , and this sets of a chain of tragic events that leads to Eustacia 's death

The Return of the Native is a statement about human motivations , where these motivations bring out the best and worst in humans . Hardy had a modern conception of human motivations , especially those that affect relationships between men and women . Ambition and failure , as corollaries of human motives , are questioned , and depicted as largely immaterial to the onslaughts of fate . Moral truths are also questioned and the importance of subjective truth over absolute truth is demonstrated

The theme of the indifferent universe , where "The sea changed , the fields changed , the rivers , the villages , and the people changed , yet Egdon remained " is played throughout the book , expressed as events of chance or coincidence , such as when Captain Vye and Diggory Venn happen to walk on the same road , when Thomasin is in Venn 's wagon when Wildeve and Eustacia meet and get to scheme to escape because Wildeve mistakenly thinks he was summoned by Eustacia when Eustacia misses Clym 's letter where he begs her to return to him and when Venn and Thomasin stumble upon Clym , Eustacia , and Wildeve after their accident , where Clym is saved and where Eustacia and Wildeve die

Those who are content to live and want nothing more , such as Clym , are the happiest , and get their happy ending , while persons who rebel against their immediate environment , particularly Eustacia Vye and Wildeve , are those who are unhappiest . Clym finds beauty in the heath while Eustacia finds only things to hate . Eustacia bemoans how she has tried and tried to be a splendid woman , and how destiny has been against me ! I do not deserve my lot ! O , the cruelty of putting me into this ill-conceived world ! I was capable of much , but I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control ! O , how hard it is of Heaven to devise such tortures for me , I who have done no harm to Heaven at all

It is such differences and mistakes in perception that are the basis of most of the conflicts in the story . Eustacia and Clym misunderstand each other 's motivations , for example . A key event that was based on such a mistake , and which triggered an important conflict , was when Eustacia did...

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