Consider what is unusual about the first chapter of Return of the native

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Return of the Native

Consider what is unusual about the first chapter?

'Return of the Native' by Thomas Hardy is a novel emphasising the mysteries of 'Egdon Heath'. The story revolves around Egdon, a character in its' own right. It tells the story of 'tempestuous' Eustacia Vye, who longs for love and freedom of the 'prison' of the heath and how this longing causes havoc in Egdon.

The first chapter is called 'A face on which Time makes but little impression,' Thomas Hardy is showing the readers that Egdon Heath had timelessness qualities. The first line of the novel gives the reader a specific time, 'A Saturday afternoon in November,' this frames the chapter. 'Approaching the time of twilight,' Hardy gives the specific time to capture the readers. 'It's at that very point,' crucial importance in time. From the reoccurring specific times in the chapter, the reader can tell that time will play a large part in the story.

Hardy makes the first chapter so unusual from other novels, Victorian ones in particular due to many reasons, such as there is no plot. At the start of most novels we are introduced to characters and meet people. Not a single character is mentioned and the only way the reader is shown that there maybe people there is the main road leading into Egdon. It appears at first alien to mankind. The main features of Egdon, the roman road, an aged barrow and an ancient Celtic burial mound highlighted the only man-made properties. Civilisation was Egdon's enemy. Hardy captures the atmosphere of the place, the role of heavens around it, the inhabitants recreating activities that previous occupants carried out thousands of years earlier. The previous generations are never far from the surface in this novel. Nothing happens in the novel that would make the reader want to read on, normally there would be a cliff-hanger or an event. Hardy makes the reader want to continue reading, just by making Egdon mysterious and unique. The reader wants to find out what will maybe happen in this unusual place. Also the fact that the first chapter is so different might entice the reader to read on.
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Hardy sets the scene in the first chapter, we find out that Egdon is very dark and mysterious. Hardy uses many descriptive words to give the readers a vivid description of the heath, 'sombre', 'gloomy', 'darkness', 'obscurity' and 'black'. The readers can now see how gloomy and dark the heath is and gives a hint that the rest of the story will too be dark and gloomy. Hardy uses the words 'titanic' and 'colossal' to emphasise the size of Egdon and how isolated it is. The heath is very big but the people are very small, this shows ...

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