EGDON HEATH

IN
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE: THOMAS HARDY

COURSE NAME: Novel (18th & 19th Century)

(BS ENGLISH)

An assignment submitted in 4rd semester, section B

By
SIBTAIN HASSAN
(NUML - F18 - 18843)

To
Dr. Aftab Akram (Sir)
At the
Institute of English Department
National University of Modern Languages (NUML)
Islamabad, Pakistan
(15th June/2020)
Introduction
Thomas Hardly OM (1840-1928) was a famous English Victorian era novelist
and poet. He is also called the Revolutionary Writer, because he represented
Critical Realism and highly criticise Victorian society because of their prideful
appearances, class alienation, and the declining status of rural in British as in
‘The Return of the Native’ (1878). Being a revolutionary writer, he challenged
the customs, norms of his era because he was aware of his dehumanizing era,
sanctity, and rigidity of class distinction. In the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-
1901), the sun never set on the British Empire, [ CITATION Mic20 \l 2057 ]. The pure
purpose of literature is to portray the societal life and point out its unjust aspects
and through their direction, realize to the reader to aware of those dark aspects
of society. As Charles Dickens highlighted the social criticism and exposed
Victorian Crime, hypocrisy and class system through his milestone works like
Oliver Twist (1837-39), Hard Times (1854), Great Expectations (1860) and
George Eliot marginalized the human psychology relations with humanity by
her famous work, such as the Middlemarch (1871) and The Mill on the Floss
(1860). Thomas Hardy astonishingly penetrated psychological insight and gave
a way a stream of consciousness especially the technique of characters thought-
process. As the witness of the 19th century his novels vividly pictured the
Romanticism blending with critical Realism, and how ecological and
psychological echoes affects human nature, [ CITATION Cou17 \l 2057 ].

Thomas Hardy’s novel ‘‘The Return of the Return’’ (1878), is one of the finest
pieces of writing. This novel has many thematic concerns like at the age of
modernity, it is unusual that one of the natives (Clym) return to their
countryside homeland, a heath, rather than marching toward the urban life.
Because this was the age of industrialization and smoky sky. This novel
highlights the hurdles being faced by romantic idealism and how they end up
their own created dilemmas. This novel revolves around two young lovers,
trapped in their infatuation marriages and wrong judgmental prudence. This
novel is set on the fictional barren moor, known as Egdon Heath in Wessex in
South-western England. The span time of the novel is about one year. The
inhabitant of the Egdon Heath, Clym Yeobright return from Paris to leave the
jewellery business and want to become a schoolmaster there to educate the
village youth. Hardy explicitly express the traditional way of life technique
psychological characterization of Clym and his cousin Thomasin. And
interestingly he exemplifies Clym’s wife Eustacia Vye and Thomasin’s husband
Damon. Both these (Eustacia, Damon) have a rebellious, imaginary, and
fanciful longing for city life. Eustacia’s dreams were vanished marrying Clym
because he contented to settle there in heath instead of returning to the
glamorous life of Paris. To attain her dreams she was attracted by a reckless
Damon. Furthermore, being of self-passionate, she considered herself
responsible for her husband’s mother’s death. On a stormy night, Eustacia tried
to elope with Damon. Tragically both were drowned and died. After that
calamitous event, Clym devoted his life to become a preacher and Thomasin
married to Diggory Venn, a humble man, [ CITATION The12 \l 2057 ].

Thomas Hardy artistically constructs the plot, in the novel by creating much
symbolism, derived from mythological and historical allusion. The most
important symbols in ‘The Return of the Native’ are Egdon Heath, the moon,
Rainbow, Bonfire, Eyesight, and Paris. These symbols play an important in the
novel and the characters are itself tends to portray in symbolic in some aspects.
According to many critics that the writing style of Hardy is figurative, paints
symbolism instead of argument. Hardy was the admirer of nature and a naturist,
whose plot was based upon the natural landscape and his work is full of natural
scenes as mentioned above in symbolism [ CITATION Hay09 \l 2057 ]. According to
Margaret Drabble (1976: 12) says that Hardy voiced dark by its rain’s sound
and breezing wind within a lane of the tree. He was a countryman and was
aware of the corruption of industrialization against rural life. Furthermore, the
nature in Hardy’s work plays an important role as characters do rather than
symbolism. That’s why Hardy exquisitely pen down his creativity in a skilful
manner by developing a setting with its great impact over on its characters like
Eustacia, [ CITATION Mah14 \l 2057 ].

Egdon Heath and Its Significance:

Thomas Hardy characterized the natural ecological consciousness of the
surrounding environment by which human being is influenced either physically,
morally or psychologically. Egdon Heath is the fictional setting in the novel and
the whole plot of the story is portrayed within that heath. So the whole novel is
in the small universe of Egdon Heath, from where no character escapes till the
end of their life. Likewise in the text that place is like a stationary figure, ‘‘the
sea changed, the fields changed, the rivers, the villages, and the people
changed, yet Egdon remained.’’(Book.1, Ch.1). Heath is uncultivated moorland
with wild grasses. Hardy gives a recapitulated picture of that heath at the
beginning of the novel, ‘‘A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching
the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon
Heath embrowned itself moment by moment,’’(Book.1, ch.1, p.23). Heath is
the embodiment of antagonistic character or as a revolt against the
industrialization and the development of the society, which lead the factor of
dehumanization and materialism, “Civilization was its enemy” (Book.1, ch.1,
and p.7).

Thomas Hardy is famous for its figurative style of portraying diction such as he
treated the heath as a prominent figure in the novel and give it a man-like trait:
“A Face on which Time makes but little Impression” (Book.1, Ch.1).
Moreover by using the tool of personification Hardy relates Egdon heath to the
living soul:   “The heath becomes full of watchful intentness. When other
things sank brooding to sleep, the heath appeared slowly to awake and listen”
(Book.1, Ch.1). By modern critics, this novel is called, ‘The Book of Egdon
Heath’. Because the characters been exhibit within heath are controlled by its
fate, and Hardy explains every aspect of that heath very keenly. He presents
heath in an alive manner from a natural perspective to gothic mood. For
example in chapter one, Hardy explains the heath in a very precise and
elaborative manner, ‘‘a place perfectly accordant with man's nature.’’ Besides
a famous novelist, Hardy also has command on poetry, that’s why the figurative
art is so expressive in his work.

Egdon Heath and Its Impact on Characters.

Same as Charles Darwin’s theory of fittest survival in any community, Thomas

Hardy in ‘The Return of the Native’ give heath a natural agency that restrained
the characters to live in its territory with open and sharp foresight rather than
being rebellious against it. As a result, the character of Eustacia Vye and
Damon Wildeve is sentenced to death by that heath, ironically by that dark
stormy night, ‘‘Never was harmony more perfect than that between the chaos
of her mind and the chaos of the world without,’’(Book.5, Ch.7, p.360). From
a critical point of view, Eustacia was a rebellious and wanted to get freedom
from that ‘dark’ and ‘lonely face’ heath. As a product of that time, it reflects the
Victorian era in such way that voices were started against her (Queen Victoria)
reign because of class stratification and those who stood against Queen, were
cut down and their existence vanished same as heath done to Eustacia and
Damon,[ CITATION Isa15 \l 2057 ]. From start till the end of the novel Eustacia and
Damon, revealed their hatred for heath in their conversation, ‘‘You hate the
Heath as much as ever; that I know”, “I do … ‘Tis my cross, my misery, and
will be my death.’’(Book.1, ch.9). Morally Eustacia was the wife of Clym but
mentally her intentions were with Damon Wildeve, because of their disliking
for heath. Hardy artistically present Eustacia’s coldness psychology toward
Egdon such as, “the raw material of a divinity” whose “celestial
imperiousness, love, wrath, and fervour had proved to be somewhat thrown
away on netherward Egdon.”(Book.1, cp.7) In addition to being rebellious
towards heath, her downfall was destined only because of her, her spirit was
unable to settle with calmness in Egdon, ‘‘the subtle beauties of the heath were
lost to Eustacia’’ [ CITATION KIT \l 2057 ] and she was blind for gluttonous life. This
is human nature and a well-known result too that those who isolated themselves
from the society and dreamed to imagery world, longing for an unattainable
place, against the norms of society, will ultimately turn into chaos and ashes. As
she had affair with Damon Wildeve, ‘‘she was strange to all such local
gathering’’ and ‘‘scarcely appertaining to her sphere’’

And those who respect and adapt to live in Egdon heath would survive as Clym
and Thomasin. Though heath has its harsh and severe mood it accepts the Clym,
unlike Eustacia. Heath reflects for him as Mother Nature. While working on
heath Hardy associated and cherished him with such beautiful words, ‘‘Amber
coloured butterflies” and the “Emerald-green grasshoppers,”. For another
heath was a place to be escaped but for Clym, it was an ideal place where he got
inner satisfaction and healing and the other creatures that live on that heath
never scared him, ‘‘Huge flies, ignorant of larders and wire-netting, and quite
in a savage state, buzzed-about him without knowing that he was a man…,
snakes glided in their most brilliant blue and yellow guise, none of them
feared him,”(Book.4, ch.2, p.312). He was so much absorbed in the
environment and climate of heath and was soothing for him rather than those
who revolted against her cruelty, “Clym had been so inwoven with the heath in
his boyhood that hardly anybody could look upon it without thinking of him"
(P. 142). Thomasin was an innocent and kind-hearted lady contrary to her
husband Damon. She was satisfied at heath though at one place she felt hard in
Egdon heath and called it, ‘‘a ridiculous old place,’’ (Book.6, ch.3). Her nature
was like Clym, both love to be in natural life rather than busy life of the city and
she was not so smart enough like Eustacia, to long for that alienated urban
lifestyle of Paris. And she was happy with her simple heath life, ‘‘I am not fit
for town life- so very rural and silly as I always have been.’’(p.327)

Most interestingly, critically and strangely the hardness of Eustacia’s heart was
the same as the heath itself. Because those who did not come under their criteria
were rejected by them. Eustacia hates everything related to that heath either her
husband also been marked by her to hate, ‘‘I hate her (heath) already.’’(p.244).
her soul was like a modern-day woman as they slogan in ‘‘Aurat March’ ‘Mera
Jism Meri Marzi’’ and want ultimate freedom. Egdon Heath was a hellish and
dystopian place for Eustacia, ‘‘it is a jail to me.’’(Native, p.146) Her hatred
turned into extreme when her husband decided to work as a furze-cutter over
the moorland of Egdon. Her elopement with Damon was a great step against the
norms of society, especially the barbaric heath. And the glitters of unrealistic
and in a cosmopolitan city life desires end them with a tragic death. [CITATION
DrA15 \l 2057 ]

The main concern of Hardy to express the character of Eustacia was the
connection between human and nature. People were moving towards urban life
and the population of villages was decreasing steadily. The heath might
represent the concept that human being has to control his/her desire and look,
act, and respond logically. So that consequences might not happen as been
observed in the novel. Finally, nature has its own rule and regulations and has
many faces either beautiful, charming, or fanciful or at the same time harsh,
barbaric and hostile. Dreaming and imagination is itself unique creativity but
adopting or accepting reality is also important for a happy life. Nature always
heal those who accept them and destroy those who reject it. Thomas Hardy is
very meticulous by saying that, ‘‘Man lives his life in a universe that is at least
indifferent to him and maybe hostile.’’ [ CITATION Sha14 \l 2057 ]

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