The Heath is introduced before any other character; the whole first chapter is devoted to describing the qualities of the heath and its permanence ”to know everything around and underneath had been from Prehistoric times as unaltered as the stars overhead” The heath has not been affected by man in anyway so has been able develop a character of its own with human qualities and the ability to exhibit human actions “it had a lonely face”
. In the second Chapter, Diggory Venn and Captain Vye remain as anonymous characters and rise out of the Heath. Diggory Venn appears to be an incarnation of the Heath, but in covered in a red dye.
As we read on we realise the mystery woman who was seen upon Rainbarrow in the second chapter, looking like “ an organic part” of the great mound is in fact Eustacia Vye. She despises everything about the heath, but personifies it with her virtue of powerful emotions, wild passions, foreboding nature and her dark beauty.
But even as we see the Heath as a physical object, but it is described as “inviolate, untouchable and unalterable by man,” but it is still highly pliable, it becomes what the characters want to make it. The Narrator’s description of the heath varies widely through the novel, they range from sublime to gothic. For Eustacia it is a hateful place, for Clym it is a place full of opportunity, a homely comforting place for Thomasin and Venn sees it as a home and a job. In the novel no one appears to have an objective view of the heath.
Throughout the book the heath takes lives and interferes them, like a classical God. The heath shows it is a force to be reckoned with, a force that cannot be tamed by man. The heath appears to be the ultimate adversary to the characters, but to some it is a comfort.
Hardy uses the heath as a vehicle for a number of Hardy’s views on life. One of these is chance and coincidence; Hardy uses chance as a way of moving on the plot. He writes in meeting, which would be highly unlikely, so therefore he can influence events to suit a purpose. Many critics have criticised Hardy for this engineering but it is the only way hardy could allow the Novel to work.
