The return of the native by Thomas hardy - review

Authors Avatar

The return of the native was written by Thomas hardy in 1878, the story is based on a place called Egdon heath. When hardy wrote the novel it was the time of Charles Darwin, he had written his book ;on the origin of the species’ so this was a big influence on hardy's view of god and evolution, it was also the time of the Boer war (1899-1902). Hardy wrote the novel return of the native to portray how life was in nineteen-century Britain was. The characters that hardy wrote about were dominated by supersitions and religious influences just like he was in that time of his life. Hardy was very keen to set the book in a rural place so he chose Egdon heath which he described as being ‘vast’, ‘unenclosed’, ‘wild’ and ‘mysterious’, it was also referred to as being ‘the home of strange phantoms’: the people that lived in the heath (heath folk) believed that the heath could make bad things happen and if the people respected the heath then the heath would respect them, their beliefs were based upon stories and folklore, the heath folk feared the heath and its powers:

Pg12         “civilisation was its enemy”

In the novel hardy used personification to suggest the “the heath” had power over the heath folk and it looked down and watch the heath folk that live around the heath, the heath folks lives were ruled by the image that the heath watch them as they were trying to live on and away from the heath.

Egdon Heath is where the novel is set, It is not only the setting of the novel,  the rugged and unforgiving terrain of the heath plays a crucial role, it seems to dominate the plot and determine the fate of characters, it shapes the culture and attitudes of the local heathfolk but also in motivating the main characters and even in shaping the outcomes of crucial events. The heathfolk might imagine themselves to have civilized their native terrain, but in truth the heath remains wild, with a character of its own that asserts its will over its human residents. Egdon heath is an isolated, desolated and wild place, the night bring the heath to life, but the heath folk are even more afraid of the heath when the sun starts to go down:

Pg 9         “looking upwards, a furze cutter would have been inclined to continue his work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and go home.”

This shows that the men would have carried on working if he hadn’t have seen the sky closing in.

The Heath presents a harsh, lonely face which time never changes its appearance. The vegetation makes it appear to wear a dark brown dress. It is quiet, somber, and tragic by nature, and it seems to increase the gloominess of both day and night. It is also obscure and mysterious and sometimes hostile. The people on the heath live and work on the heath even though it is overgrown, obsolete, obsure and mysterious. The people feel comfortable in the heath if the live by the heaths laws the heath has been unchanged for ages, except the road that travels its length:

Join now!

pg. 12        “the sea changed, the fields changed, the rivers, the villages, and the people changed, yet Egdon remained"

But even while the heath has a physical object it is described as "inviolate," and untouchable by man, as a symbol it is highly manageable: it becomes what the various characters want to make of it. It is ugly for Eustacia, beautiful for Clym Yeobright, comforting for Thomasin Yeobright, and home for Diggory Venn. And it is described differently by the narrator at different times, depending on what the character perspectives are focused on; it is not just the attitudes of the characters ...

This is a preview of the whole essay