What are Hardy's intentions in his presentation of Eustacia Vye chapters 1-7? How successful do you think he is?

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What are Hardy's intentions in his presentation of Eustacia Vye chapters 1-7? How successful do you think he is?

'Return of the Native' by Thomas Hardy is a novel emphasising the mysteries of 'Egdon Heath', also the mysteries of one of the main characters, Eustacia. The incredibly deep female protagonist of the novel. The story of 'tempestuous' Eustacia Vye, who longs freedom and love and in doing so causes tragic consequences.

Hardy has already made the first chapter of the novel very different to other Victorian novels, by the fact that we are not introduced to any characters and no events take place. We are not introduced to one of the main characters Eustacia Vye until page thirty three but we are introduced through other characters. Hardy does this to give Eustacia an air of mystery, this makes the readers more interested to find out more about her. From the other characters we learn that she is unmarried and very attractive. The first time we visually see Eustacia is on top of a burial mound, we only know it is a female because of the womanly silhouette in front of the sky back pantomime. She is the point of a helmet and part of the heath. The first sign that Eustacia prefers solitude is when she is seen ,leaving the mound like the 'glide of a water-drop', when another group of people are seen approaching the mound.
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Eustacia is very much like the heath. She is an outsider similar to the heath. It is ironic as Eustacia detests Egdon, 'Egdon was her Hades' but she has similar qualities. Therefore you think Eustacia would like the heath. Like the heath she is untouched by man. When talking about being gloomy she says, 'It is in my nature to feel like that. It was born in my blood'. Here it shows that her moods are similar to the heath. We get an impression Eustacia has no morals. With her attitude she always gets what she wants.
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