Hardy uses a great deal of religious imagery in the novel and the purpose of this reference to biblical characters and disasters, gives the reader a better understanding and magnifies the importance of events. In book 1 chapter 4, Eustacia explains her hatred of the heath as she tells Wildeve, ‘Tis my cross, my shame, and will be my death’. The imagery anticipates her failure to escape the heath and foreshadows her death. In the chapter The Night of the 6th of November, Hardy describes Eustacia’s last walk on the Heath. He refers to the ‘agony in Gethsemane’. Eustacia’s thinks of various historical and biblical events as she heads off into the night on the path towards Rainbarrow. Such references are extremely symbolic. Similarly Venn is compared to an ‘Ishmaelitish creature’ inferring that he has been cast out and gives a better understanding to how Venn is seen as an outsider by the locals. The purpose of Hardy including these biblical references reflected the thinking of the time and is meant to be ironic.
Hardy’s lack of Christianity led him to the conclusion that there was an imminent will that controlled life and that people were simply pawns being manipulated by a higher force that was indifferent to pain. Although some of the characters in Return of the Native are uneducated, they question traditional beliefs which are shown through the Heathfolk’s Pagan rituals.
Art
In the novel, Hardy frequently pauses from the story to talk about the past and often refers to people in Greek mythology, art and literature to compare the characters. In his description of Eustacia, he compares her to myths like ‘Artemis, Athena, Hera’ to emphasise how much like a goddess she is and how she is different to other normal women. He also refers to her as ‘an embodiment of the phrase a populus solitude’ likening her to a quotation of one of Hardy’s favourite poems ‘Child Harolde by Byron.
When Hardy describes Mrs Yeobright perception of communities he suggests that she sees things from a distance and suggests that her view of life is the same as you would have to view the work of Flemish painters ‘Sarlert and Van Alsloot’.
From the point of view of Mrs Yeobright’s experience of rejection by Clym, the novel echoes the themes and actions of Shakespeare’s play King Lear, as it explores the themes of the parent-child bond, pride, arrogance, misunderstandings, justice, blindness and madness. The allusion to King Lear and the tone which Clym speaks to Eustacia is Shakespearian in its style as he says in book 5, chapter 3, ‘By my wretched soul you sting me, Eustacia! I can keep it up, and hotly too. Now, then, madam, tell me his name!’ The inclusion of Shakepearean themes in the novel adds more seriousness to the events taking place and stresses the tragedy.
Wessex Folklore
Hardy loved his native Dorsetshire and preferred country life to city life, much like Clym Yeobright. At the time of writing the novel in the 19th century, major changes were taking place largely due to the industrial revolution. This resulted in people moving from the farmlands to work in new factories in the cities. Hardy was well aware that one of the effects of the social change taking place was a loss of identity.
Hardy’s novel is centred around Egdon Heath and the people who live there and documents a vanishing life of colourful characters, traditional dialects, seasonal celebrations, folk remedies and superstitions. He included the details of the vanishing country life as a historical record which also included negative aspects. As the great agricultural depression took place in Britain and Ireland between 1870 – 1890, people lost their jobs. This is possibly the reason that Clym was forced to leave Egdon to look for work and probably the reason Diggory Venn was forced to take up employment as a Reddleman as his work running a dairy herd no longer existed as he writes ‘since the introduction of the railways Wessex farmers have managed to do without these’.
As well as documenting dying traditions, the heath folk act like a chorus in a classical Greek drama and through their talking and joking, they are able to comment on the actions of the main characters. Hardy uses them to provide the reader with a background to the story. For example in Book 1, chapter 3, they provide information that the marriage between Thomasin and Wildeve and that the brides Aunt, Mrs Yeobright ‘forbad the banns’. The main action of the plot is interspersed with the appearance of the Heathfolk who are always light and jovial, which allows the reader to take in important information and think about the consequences of the action of the main characters.
The heathfolk are the main participants in the ritualized celebrations that Hardy wanted to include. The action is organized around seasonal celebrations, which begin and end with the autumn bonfires. The bonfire is a symbol of continuity which has its origins in a pagan ritual and because the heathfolk are strongly superstitious, they use the bonfire to ward off evil spirits. Hardy uses the 5th November to show a strong sense of tradition which began in 1605 when Guy Fawkes attempted to get rid of the King James I by blowing up the houses of parliament. Bonfire night is also related to the Celtic New Year when bonfires were lit as part of the New Year celebrations.
Another example of traditional celebration comes when the heathfolk perform the Mummers play as part of the Christmas festivities. The Play of St George shows a battle between Christianity and Paganism and Hardy includes the play to make a point about good and evil and the fact that the reader should consider the complexity of the characters and not make moral judgements about them.
The gypsying at the village picnic in late August also marks the changing of the seasons as does the Maypole dance, a festival of Spring which is symbolic of fertility and renewed life. Hardy uses the Maypole dancing to suggest that new life may also be possible for Thomasin.
As well as the seasonal celebrations, Hardy includes other ancient rituals that are performed by the locals. In the novel, to cure Mrs Yeobright of her adder bite, Sam suggests an old folk remedy telling Clym ‘You must rub the place with the fat of other adders’.
Christians believed that man had the right to chose between right and wrong. However they also believed that there exists an evil agent at work in the world which the bible calls Satan. Following the New Testament teaching, the ancient church regarded the devil as the originator of all evil. Magicians, sorcerers and wiches who were believed to make use of Satanic powers were therefore excommunicated.
Hardy was keen to emphasise the superstitious beliefs and god fearing nature of the rustics on Egdon Heath. The two main examples of the local superstition are Diggory Venn and Eustcia Vye. Both of these characters are isolated and feared for being different and therefore arouse suspicion. In the early Christian years, the Church was relatively tolerant of magical practices. If you were proven to be involved in it, then all you had to do was to pay penance but later on, it was considered evil and the Church’s attitude became aggressive and all people suspected of witchcraft and socery were now charged with having made a pact with the devil, and using their supernatural powers to harm people. Most of the Heath people suspect Eustacia of being a witch as Jonny Nansuch explains to Venn, ‘They say she’s clever and deep, and perhaps she charmed ‘en to come’. She is linked to witchcraft often because she seems to have an unnatural power over men. She also strange habits, roaming the countryside at night, lighting bonfires. As the story develops, the fear of Eustacia as an evil force is shown in the cruel treatment she receives. Susan Nansuch believes that Eustacia has spellbound her children and when her son Johnny becomes ill, she believes Eustacia is the cause and makes a wax effigy of her and throws it into the fire after sticking it with pins. ‘To counteract the malign spell which she imagined poor Eustacia to be working, the boys mother busied herself with a ghastly invention of superstition, calculated to bring powerlessness, strophy and annihilation on any human being against whom it was directed’.
Diggory Venn, the Reddleman is also a victim of the heathfolks superstition. The fact that he is ‘trapped’ in his red colouring and the myths associated with his lonely trade cause many of the images associated with Venn to be Satanic. Hardy mentions that the Reddleman was the favourite bogeyman that Wessex mothers used to threaten their naughty children as they told them ‘the reddleman is coming for you’.
Dorset Festivals
Ashmore village in Dorset hosts the Filly Loo celebration on the nearest Friday to the longest day, June 21st. Villagers dance beside the village pond. A traditional morris band plays to the crowd who dance in the street. A Green Man arrives in a procession and takes part in the first dance to start the evening. There are display dances followed by public dancing, then at dusk, the celebrations reach their climax with the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. This is a torchlit procession with six antlered deer-men and four other costumed characters: a Maid Marion, a bowman, a hobby horse and a fool. The procession and dance is accompanied by a haunting solo melody in a minor key which is very atmospheric. The celebration finishes with the torches in the ground around the pond and everyone holding hands around the pond for the last dance..
Wessex Morris Men dance above the Cerne Abbas Giant, an ancient fertility symbol, at dawn, around 5.20am. They then walk down the hill collecting may and dance and process through Cerne Abbas accompanied by the Dorset Ouser (or Ooser), a horned animal-like figure.
Maypoles
The earliest sources suggest that the maypole acted as a focal point for May festivities or games, marking the spot of the where everyone should meet There is no evidence that they were connected to pagan beliefs or worship - such accusations were first made by sixteenth-century Puritan reformers hostile to all dancing, drunkenness and merry-making, which they associated with idolatry. As a result, during the Protestant regime of Edward VI (1547-53) the May Day customs were curtailed. In the reign of 'Good Queene Bess' the Puritans seem to have been the first to link the maypole to 'heathen' worship as a regular part of their propaganda and 'anti-ceremony' agenda. The matter became an issue of debate in ecclesiastical courts.
The Stuart monarchs seem to have had no objection to the maypole customs, although religious opposition from the Puritans continued. The issue of morris dancing and maypoles became a 'bit player' in a larger and more fundamental debate between Church and State. This reached new levels with the Puritan revival during the English Revolution (1640-60), when such 'folk' revelries were banned, along with celebrating Christmas and playing football. Maypoles were banned by Act of Parliament in 1664. Those local officials who did not comply could be fined 5 shillings a week.
On the restoration of the monarchy a Charles II General Wade raised the famous maypole in April 1661 on The Strand in London to celebrate the king's return to the capital.
The tradition of raising maypole to celebrate royal anniversaries began in the 17th century. In 1760 to celebrate the accession of George III maypoles were also erected. Likewise in 1887 and 1897 to celebrate milestones during the reign of Queen Victoria. Our present Queen, Elizabeth II, has also had maypole raised in celebration of her Jubilees in 1977 and 2002.
May customs and maypoles were brought into the industrial cities of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as part of the continued evolution of the celebrations.
Yet even as the old May traditions began to fade, they were revived as part of the cult of 'Merrie England'. Traditional song retained the May Day references. May Day acquired its connection with socialism at the end of the 1800s. In 1975 it became a public holiday again for the first time since 1640.
The majority of 'working maypoles' are only ribboned at the time of public festivities, such as May Day, and remain 'undressed' for the rest of the year. Maypoles are still ribboned for public dancing in different parts of England.
Mummers Plays
Mummers' Plays have been performed in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland for hundreds of years. They are folk dramas based on the legend of St. George and the Seven Champions of Christendom. They were originally mime or dumb shows (Thus mummers from the Middle English word mum, meaning silent.) where all the performers were disguised and known as 'Guisers'. All the characters were played by men who kept the same part for many years. Eventually, dialogue was added, but was passed on by word-of-mouth. Consequently, the 'Chinese Whispers' effect over the centuries and the loss of the real significance of the original story, makes present day performances very entertaining but virtually meaningless to most audiences.
The principal characters are St. George (…of dragon fame.), Captain Slasher, The Turkish Knight, The King of Egypt, Doctor and several men-at-arms who challenge St. George to a duel and are subsequently slain. The Doctor enters and demonstrates his skill by resuscitating the dead knights.
Many historians believe that this drama is a celebration of the death of the year and its resurrection in the Spring.