Critics have often claimed that the principal 'character' of this novel is Egdon Heath itself. Explore Hardy's description and portrayal of the Heath from this point of view. What is your view of its role and personality?

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Return of the Native                Stephanie Ko, L6

Critics have often claimed that the principal ‘character’ of this novel is Egdon Heath itself. Explore Hardy’s description and portrayal of the Heath from this point of view. What is your view of its role and personality?

 

        Egdon Heath is an important character in The Return of the Native and is named before any of the other characters. The heath is described in the very first chapter of the book as the ‘vast tract of unenclosed wild’ and is present throughout the entire novel. The heath is alive with a conscious of its own and displays human qualities such as sleeping, breathing, thinking and even to “appear slowly to awake and listen”. It destroys anyone who is against its never-changing environment and as well as shaping the attitudes and cultures of the Rustics, the heath is also physically and spiritually important throughout the novel: characters are defined by their relation to the heath, such as Eustacia and Clym. The heath also plays an important role in highlighting the importance of the main character: Clym, the native. There is however, no definite ‘character’ of the heath because its descriptions vary from sublime to destructive and Hardy uses the narrator to express this.

        The heath has a broad, symbolic role in The Return of the Native- it is the unity of place; where all events take place. The entire novel is played on Egdon and in turn, the heath plays on its characters. Such importance will no doubt have a ‘character’ of its own. The heath can be characterized by a “chastened sublimity” and described as “a place perfectly accordant with man’s nature”. The heath is personified as a man when the narrator describes it as “slighted and enduring” with a “lonely face” and “the storm was its lover; and the wind was its friend”. Although the heath is physically described as ‘inviolate’, untouchable and unaltered by man, the heath is perceived very differently to different characters. For Clym, the heath is beautiful. Clym is a ‘product’ of the heath and understands it. Eustacia on the other hand is at odds with her environment and strongly wishes to escape from it. For Diggory Venn it is home and for Thomasin, it is comforting. And because of these dissimilar views, it is described differently by the narrator at different times, depending on whose perspective is being focused on. However, it is not just the attitudes of the characters that change but also the narrator’s. Hardy changes the perception of the narrator which makes the heath seem changeable. It is both "an instalment of night" and at the same time, “grand in its simplicity”.

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        As well as having different interpretations for characters in the novel, the heath is also responsible for characters’ decisions and the events that happen. “The heath has claimed one victim, though human weakness played their part” This quotation refers to Eustacia, Wildeve and Mrs. Yeobright. Characters are characterized emotionally and physically by their relationship to the heath: Mrs. Yeobright dies of exhaustion after being bitten by an adder whilst Wildeve and Eustacia are drowned by a storm. Although Mrs. Yeobright neither loves nor hates the heath, it puts her out of her misery because she was a “broken-hearted woman cast off ...

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