How important is the question of social position in this novel?
The concept of social position should be a vague one when viewed from the supposedly non-judgmental and classless civilization of 2003. But in truth it is not. Social position is determined by the wealth and name into which you were born and Hardy realised the prominence of the distinction between higher and lower and used it both morally and technically throughout The Return of the Native.
There is no denying that the happenings of the novel concentrate on the privileged members of the heath community. The Vye and the Yeobright families are presented as the two ruling families of the heath between whom there is a subtle suggestion of rivalry. There are times at which we get the impression that this is almost a feudal society (the gathering at Blooms End for the Christmas mumming, the constant chatting between heath folk about these elite of the community). But the view that the heath folk do little more than ‘add a comic dimension to the novel’ is blinkered. We see Christian Cantle’s foolish superstition, seeing his birth on a moonless night as a curse that he shall be ‘the man no woman will marry’ and Grandfer Cantle’s boastfulness but there is undeniably more to them. Many interpret Hardy’s work as being an attempt to retain the agrarian life style which the majority of his key character’s seem to have little respect for. He was concerned with the preservation of the local dialect (as is evident from the inncomprehansable lyric ‘A boon’, a boon’, quoth Earl’ Mar-shall’’), the recording of folklore customs and festivities, such as the ‘mumming’ and ‘gypsying’, of which the heath folk are the primary participants. The social distinctions within the novel gave him the means through which he could do so. Although he concerns his plot with the elite, the agrarian background gives him a means through which ruralism can be conveyed.
