As someone who lives in the tropics, I am smitten by the romantic description of the heath. Reading about this fictional setting makes you want to live there, amid the spirited and gossipy locals and the lush flora. This fictional setting is one that Hardy describes vividly. What happens to our native? Clym finds his calling as a preacher.Īll the events in The Return of the Native happen in Egdon Heath. Clym thinks that he and Thomasin can become a happy couple, but we find out that Thomasin fancies the reddleman, Venn Diggory, and decides to marry him. So now the cousins Clym and Thomasin find themselves a widower and a widow respectively. It is during this fateful circumstance wherein Wildeve and Eustacia meet their deaths by drowning. She seeks the help of Wildeve to escape Egdon Heath. Poor Eustacia! Stuck with a husband who appears to be happy doing manual labor, while her dreams of living in Paris have gone to the dust. A condition involving his eyes renders him incapable of even reading. Clym doesn't become the schoolmaster that he intends to be. So unless you want to know what makes The Return of the Native tragic, tread carefully, dear reader. Now here is where my summary can get a little bit spoilery.
He loves Egdon Heath, and he dreams of becoming a schoolmaster in the nearby town.
But when the two eventually get married, Clym reveals that it was never his plan to go back to the city of lights. Eustacia believes that it is Clym who'll take her away from Egdon Heath to live in Paris. When Wildeve and Thomasin do get married, she sets her eyes on Clym. Things don't go as planned with the marriage of Wildeve and Thomasin, and it has something to do with Eustacia Vye, a beautiful woman who was one time romantically involved with Wildeve.Įustacia is a restless soul. But now, Thomasin is set to marry the local innkeeper named Damon Wildeve. While Clym was away, Clym's cousin, Thomasin, was living with his mother. The native that the title refers to is one ClymYeobright, who finds himself returning to Egdon Heath to keep his mother, Mrs Yeobright, company. This is my first Hardy, and I can't wait to read his other works. In fact, it's one of my most wonderful reads this year so far. The Return of the Native can indeed by a downer, but it doesn't mean that it's not enjoyable. When my friends found out that I was reading Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native, I heard the words "depressing," "tragic," and "heartbreaking." And after finishing the novel, I knew that my friends were right. Topics: Romance, morality, provincial life, British, superstitions
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