Return of The Native

Introduction of Thomas Hardy

The Social Background to Thomas Hardy

The Background: Its Importance

Hardy's novels arc a comprehensive and elaborate study of English life and manners in the
opening years of the reign of queen Victoria. Hardy matured and created during these years,
and it is in the fitness of things that he has studied the life of the times with which he was most
intimately familiar. This makes his novels important social documents and a detailed
consideration of Victorian life and manners is essential for a proper appreciation of Hardy's art.

The Spirit of Questioning

The most marked social changes in Victorian England took place in the later sixties and
seventies. About the middle of the century the old landmarks are still there, but they are no
longer so prominent. The landed aristocracy still rules the rural parts, and still leads society in
London and its-country-house gatherings; the individualist businessman still flourishes, with the
honest, limited virtues of self-help. But these classes no longer fill most of the scene as in the
past. Social institutions and the classes privileged so far have already grown corrupt and
degenerate. In all ranks of life free criticism of social customs and religious beliefs takes the
place of settled creeds. There is unprecedented rise of the spirit of Questioning. It is a
liberal, out-spoken age, whose most representative men are neither the aristocrats nor the
shop-keepers, but men of university education, or men of trained professional intelligence.,
Dickens and Thackeray, among others,
are critics of their age, the latter more so than the former.
Rapid Social Change: The Democratic Spirit
Democracy, bureaucracy and collectivism begin to advance like a silent tide. Many changes
mark off the age from the previous one. The impact of Darwinism begins to be increasingly felt
on religious orthodoxy. Oxford and Cambridge arc gradually thrown open to all irrespective of
religious beliefs. Science and history begin rapidly to lake their place besides the classics, and
mathematics in the academic world. In order to enlist the ablest young men from the
Universities in the new bureaucracy, a competitive examination is made the normal method of
entry to the Civil Services; the working men of the town receive the right to vote by the Reform
Act of 1832, and the other Acts which followed. The Forester's Act provides primary education
for all, and the Trade Unions receive a new Charter of Rights corresponding to their growing
power in business administration. Limited liability companies take the place of the old family
firms; the professional and social emancipation of women goes forward on the lines advocated
in Mill's Subjection of Women. Women's colleges are found at Oxford and Cambridge and
Women's secondary schools are much improved; the Married Woman's Property Act releases
the wife, if she has money of her own, from economic bondage to her husband; the equality of
the sexes begins to be advocated in theory and finds its way increasingly into the practice of all
classes. The demand for the political liberation of women is the outcome of a very considerable
degree of social enfranchisement already accomplished.
Collapse of Agriculture

But the greatest single event frought with immeasurable consequences for the future, is the
sudden collapse of English agriculture. A series of bad seasons aggravate the trouble in its initial
stages, but the real cause is the development of the American grainlands within reach of the
English market. English agriculture is more scientific and more highly capitalized than q
American, but under these conditions the odds are too great. The overthrow of the British
landed aristocracy by the far distant democracy of the American farmers is one outcome of this
change of economic circumstance. An even more important consequence is the general divorce
of Englishman from life in contact with nature, which in all previous ages had helped to form
the mind and the imagination of this island race. Statesmen tend to regard the fate of
agriculture with indifference because it involves no acute problem of unemployment. The farm
labourer does not remain on the land when his occupation there has gone. He either goes to
the town and finds work, there, or he migrates overseas. He neither loves the land on which he
worked merely as a hired hand, nor are the opportunities of the town unknown to him.

Economic Troubles
Meanwhile the landlords and farmers, who have neither the wish nor the power to divorce
them from the soil, suffer and complain in vain, for their day as the political rulers of England is
over. Both the Liberal and the Conservative intelligentsia are saturated with the Free Trade
Doctrines. But economists fail to perceive that agriculture is not merely one industry among
many, but also a way of life, unique and irreplaceable in its human and spiritual values. The fate
of agriculture is only one example of the near-sightedness characteristic of the English state
policy. The Victorians make no plans for the future; they are content to meet those demands
and to solve those problems whose pressure is already felt.

The Cosmopolitan Spirit

Other causes also made the English lose some of the complacency and sureness of the early
years of the century. England was no longer the first in industrial machinery or in military
power. The Franco-Prussian War was the first shock and then America and Germany rose as
rival manufacturing powers. Some sense of this led to improved technical education in England.
It also induced a more friendly and respectful attitude to America than the English political
classes had shown during the American Civil War. The democratic England of the new era was
better able to understand the United States and 'the Colonies,' as Canada and Australia were
still called.
Rise of Socialism
The new situation led also to an anxious interest in modern Germany, which Englishmen had
been content to ignore so far. Matthew Arnold's Friendship Garland and George Meredith's
Harry Richmond warned England that national education and national discipline in the heart of
Europe was creating a new kind of power that had a jealous eye on the easily won, carelessly
guarded and ill-distributed wealth of England. At the same time Russia denounced the ill-
employment of wealth in destroying beauty, and its ill-distribution so corrupting alike to the
superfluously rich and the miserably poor.
No doubt, there was no strong movement of socialism among the working classes till the last
years of the century, but discontent with the spirit of laissez faire had been growing long before
John Stuart Mill died in 1873, bequeathing liberal philosophical doctrines that strongly
influenced the thought and practice of the age that followed. Mill's doctrine was semi-
socialistic. In his thought, democracy and bureaucracy were to work together, and it is largely
on these lines that the social fabric of modern England has, in fact, been constructed, even
though Mill himself and his philosophy have passed out of fashion.
Prosperity: The New Merchant Class

In spite of such decays and drawbacks, the Victorian era was, on the whole, an era of great
prosperity and increasing wealth in which most sections of society shared. A newly rich, and
prosperous merchant class came into being as a result of increased overseas trade, and the old
merchant class, less shrewd and enterprising, was pushed out. The increased prosperity of the
nation made it possible for adventurers like Becky Sharp and Rawdon Crawley to live on credit
—on nothing a year. Manners were gentler, streets were safer, life was more humane,
sanitation was improving fast, working-class housing, though still bad, was less bad than ever
before. Conditions of labour had been improved, real wages had risen, hours of work had been
shortened. But unemployment, sickness and old age, not yet regularly provided for by the
State, still had terrors for the workmen.
Better Conditions of Life
The liberal policies of Peel and Glandstone lifted the weight of taxation from the poor by
reducing indirect taxation to a minimum. Besides this, Free Trade also claimed credit for the
enormous increase of shipping and overseas trade. Under such conditions of 'free trade'
prosperity, many articles that were luxuries in the early years of the century were common
comforts in the Victorian Era. Food, clothing, bedding, furniture were far more abundant than
in any previous age. Gas and oil-lighting were giving way to electricity. Holidays by the seaside
had become a regular part of life for the lower middle class and even to large sections of the
working class, particularly in the north. But the week-end out of town was just beginning. It was
already a custom among owners of big country houses and their guests, but it was scarcely yet
known to the middle-class family. Travelling and touring by a craze. While some toured to
explore the highways and by ways of their own land on foot or on bicycle, others swarmed over
France, Switzerland and Italy in greater numbers than even before.
Social Climbing: Snobbery

Society was getting mixed. 'Society' in the older and stricter sense of the term was a limited
world, entry into it being closely guarded by certain Whig and Tory Peers. But in the Victorian
era 'society' had a vaguer meaning; it had grown more open and accessible. Social climbing
became a fact; those in the lower stratum constantly struggled to move up. This in turn gave
rise to snobbery.
Population Trends
In the beginning of the era, large families were still customary in the professional, business and
working class world, and the population rose. Only at a much later date did it become evident
that a reduction was beginning in the size of families, in the first instance in the professional
and middle class families, charged with heavy 'public-school' fees, and among the better-to-do
artisans struggling to keep up a high standard of life.
Science and Religion: Skepticism
Puritanism in ethical and sexual ideas, qualified by too frequent weakness of human nature in
practice, was the order of the day. There was much hypocrisy, and resort to double standards.
The Puritan attitude to life and conduct was inculcated by the Anglo-Catholic religion that had
grown out of the Oxford Movement of the thirties, and had spread wide. It was strongest
among the parish clergy, but its hold upon the common man was growing weaker. The growth
of the scientific outlook and rationalism were undermining religion. But Darwin's theory of
evolution and the idea of 'man descended from a monkey' were totally incompatible with
existing religious idea of creation and of man's central place in the Universe. Naturally the
religious world and the scientific men took up arms to defend their respective positions. The
strife raged throughout the Victorian Era.
The Advance of Science
The break-up of Victorian, "Compromise", traditions and conventions was accelerated by the
rapid advance of science. Science, with its emphasis on reason rather than on faith, encouraged
the spirit of questioning. Victorian beleifs, both religious and social, were subjected to a
searching scrutiny and found wanting. The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1850 is of
special significance from this point of view. His celebrated theory of Evolution contradicted the
account of Men's origin as given in the Bible. His theory carried conviction as it was
logically developed and supported be overwhelming evidence. Man's faith in orthodox
religion was shaken; he could no longer accept without question God's. omnipotence,
benevolence mercy etc., for such orthodox notions of God were contradicted by facts Similarly,
Darwin, with his emphasis on the brutal struggle for existence '' which is the law of Nature,
exploded the romantic view of her as a, 'Kindly Mother', having a "Holy plan" of her own. The
process started by Darwin was completed by philosophers like Huxley, Spencer, Mill, etc. The
impact of these developments in science and philosophy on the works of Hardy is far reaching.
The Rise of Pessimism

Thus the established order, customs, faiths and beliefs, traditions and customs, were losing
their hold on minds of the people, and the new order of things had not yet been established.
Man had lost his mooring in God, Religion and Nature. The mechanistic view of the universe
precluded any faith in a benevolent creator. Man felt, to quote Hardy himself, "Orphan and
defrauded". He took a gloomy view towards life, for he felt miserable and helpless with nothing
to fall back upon. It was for the first time, says David Cecil, that, "conscious, considered
pessimism became a force in English literature." The melancholy poems of Arnold, the poetry of
Fitzgerald, Thomson's Vie City of God, and the works of Thomas Hardy, all reflect the
pessimistic outlook of the late Victorian era. This growth of pessimism was further encouraged
by the flow of pessimistic thought from Europe, where pessimism was much in the air at the
time.
Liberalism
In the early years of the 19th century, Archaeology and History were in rapid progress, and their
discoveries strengthened the hands of science in the strife against orthodox beliefs. An
Academic 'liberal' party, of great intellectual distinction and very much in earnest, fought the
battle to free Oxford and Cambridge from the bondage of Church monopoly, and won it by The
Test Act of 1871. Academic study now embraced physical science and medieval and modern
history as strongly as humanism and mathematics. Queen Victoria's reign was indeed the
period when Oxford and Cambridge were most in the public eye. Their reform, particularly the
abolition of religious tests for academic posts, was one of the chief political questions of the
day. Trained intellect gradually became a youngman's best passport to learning, instead of
social patronage or fashionable friends. The most characteristic achievement of the reign was
the Dictionary of National Biography, initiated and largely financed by a private individual,
George Smith. It is the best record of a nation's past than any civilization has produced.
A change in the direction of levity, if not of laxity, took place, due, no doubt, in part to the
gradual crumbling of religious faith with which a strict and slighty ascetic moral code had
always been associated. When the hold of religion on the public mind was weakened, religion
could no longer influence the social conduct of the people, and Victorian taboos on sex relaxed.
The last decade of the century is the decade of the Yellow Book and 'art for art's sake'. A more
free and frank treatment of sex became increasingly common in literature.

Religious Movements
The conflict between science and religion among the educated classes was crudely but
effectively reproduced in Charles Brodlaugh's militant atheism, preached on public platforms to
masses of working men; while the last great Evangelical revival, the Salvation Army, brought the
enthusiasm of' conversion' to the host of the houseless and unfed, to the drunkard, the criminal
and the harlot. To bring street bands and coloured uniforms into the service of Protestant
religion was something new. It was no less significant that the Salvation Army regarded social
work and care of the material conditions of the poor and the outcast as an essential part of the
Christian mission to bring peace to the souls of men and women. It was largely for this reason
the Salvation Army enjoyed such power.
Another movement, analogous to the Salvation Army in its combination of religious and social
motive, was Total Abstinence, or Tetotalism. Not only Tetotalism but also the proper and
moderate use of wine and beer were encouraged by the increasing amenity and diminishing
monotony of life, by rival amusements and occupations such as reading, music, playing and
watching organized games, bicycling and sight-seeing, country and seaside holidays, above all
by more active and educated minds and more comfortable homes.
Class Struggle: Trade Unionism

In the Victorian era 'capital' and 'labour' enlarged and perfected their rival organizations on
modern lines. Many an old family firm was replaced by a Limited Liability Company with a
bureaucracy of salaried managers. It was also a step away from individual initiative, towards
collectivism and municipal and State managed business. This in its turn increased the numbers
and importance of shareholders as a class. The shareholders themselves had no knowledge of
the lives, thoughts or needs of the workmen employed by the company in which they held
shares, and their influence on the relations of capital and labour was not good. Fortunately,
however, the increasing power and organization of the Trade Unions, at least in all the skilled
trades, enabled the workers to meet on more equal terms the managers of the companies who
employed them. Under these conditions, the increasing national income was rather more
equally distributed between the various classes. But the distinction between capital and
labour, the personal segregation of the employer from the employed in their ordinary lives, still
went on increasing. Marxian doctrines, therefore, as to the inevitability of the class struggle,
constantly gained ground, and the more opportunist collectivism preached by the Fabian
Society was still more influential. However, all such doctrines were too theoretical to affect the
English worker to any great extent. It was the practical need to defend Trade Union rights that
brought Labour into politics to form a party of its own. Trade Unionism soon became; in most
trades and in most regions of England, a very powerful weapon of defence for workmen.
Increasing Urbanisation
The beginning of Queen Victoria's reign saw the so-called 'feudal' society of the country still in
being, but under changing conditions indicative of the advance of democracy even in rural
England and penetration of village Life by forces and ideas from the cities. With the coming of
railway transport, the intrusion of urban life upon the rural parts increased and the agricutural
way of life began to disintegrate. The country houses and the country estates were now less
than ever supported by agricultural rents, which American imports had lowered and brought
into arrears. The life at the country house was now financed by money which the owner drew
from industry or other investments, or from his income as landlord of more distant urban areas.
The old village life was gradually transformed into something half-suburban by newspapers,
ideas, visitors and new residents from the cities. The distinctive rural mentality underwent
urbanization, and local traditions yielded to a national outlook.
Municipal Reforms
In the realm of politics also, town and country were becoming assimilated. The agricultural
worker received the right to vote, by which he could vote as he wished, regardless of farmer
and landlord. Elected country councils were established as the administrative units of country
life. There was a rapid improvement in sanitation, lighting, locomotion, public libraries and
baths, and to some extent in housing. The Central Government supported the efforts of the
local authorities to better the life of the citizen by grants - from taxes, conditional on favourable
reports by Government Inspectors.

Industrialisation: Increased Ugliness

Municipal reforms supported by the State prevented much social hardship. The death rate
rapidly declined, town life was made increasingly tolerable on it’s purely material side, and
primary education became universal. But the urban and suburban life made no appeal to the
imagination, as did the old village life of England, or the city life of ancient and medieval
Europe. Civic pride and civic rivalry among the industrial towns of the north was almost entirely
materialisic and not at all aesthetic. The pull of smoke and smuts in itself was enough to
discourage any effort at beauty or joy in physical surrounding.

There had been practically no town planning for the Victorian cities. In vast areas of London and
other cities there was no open space within reach of the children, whose only playground
outside the school yard was the hard and ugly street. To millions the divorce from nature was
absolute, and so too was the divorce from all dignity and beauty and significance in the
wilderness of mean streets in which they were bred, whether in the well-to-do suburb or the
slum. The new education and the new journalism were both the outcome of these surroundings
and partook of their nature. A generation bred under such conditions might retain many sturdy
qualities of character, might even with better food and clothing improve in physique, might
develop sharp wits and a brave, cheery, humorous attitude to life, but its imaginative powers
must necessarily decline, and the stage is thus set for the gradual standardization of human
personality. There, was increasing awareness of this ugliness. Ruskin inspired the rising
generation of writers and thinkers with a sense of disgust at the ugliness of industrial
civilization. Looking back through history, they thought they saw fairer world than modern'
Lancashire. But there was no going hack, except in imagination.
Spread of Education
During the period under question, education was not only a national requirement on the
necessity for which al! were agreed; it was also the chief battleground of various religious
groups. A sort of religious compromise was reached and England was enabled to obtain a
system of universal primary education without which she must soon have fallen into the rear
among modern nations. The average school attendance rose from one and a quarter million to
four and a half million, while the money spent on each child was doubled. But the state did
little as yet for Secondary Education; nor was there a sufficient ladder of school scholarship to
the Universities for the ablest children in primary schools.
The Empire: The Colonies
Social life in Victorian England would have been a very different thing, if it had not been the
centre of a great maritime trade, and of an Empire. For generations past, the ways of thought
and habits of life in English towns and villages had been strongly influenced by her overseas
connections. During Victoria's reign, when the tide of emigration was still running stronger than
ever, the postage stamp kept the emigrant in touch with his people at home. Often he returned
home and told tales of the lands he had visited. In this way human manner, the middle and
lower classes knew quite as much about the 'Empire' as their 'betters'. The professional and
upper classes also went out to careers all over the world to govern, and trade, and hunt.
Englishmen got lucrative appointments in India and other colonies. In this manner, a vast and
varied overseas experience was for ever pouring back into every town and every hamlet in
Victoria's England.
An Era of Peace and Complacency
Victorian prosperity and Victorian civilization, alike in their grosser and their higher aspects,
were due to a long immunity from great wars and from any serious danger to the nation. Safe
behind the shield of the navy, Englishman thought of all the problems of life in terms of peace
and security which were in fact the outcome of temporary and local circumstances, and not
part of nature's universal order. On the whole, England's supremacy on the high-seas was used
on the side of peace, goodwill and freedom. Thus developed the Victorian complacency, the
Victorian faith in the supremacy of the English nation, and the Victorian faith in endless
progress. To the Englishman, foreign affairs were a branch of liberal and conservative politics,
tinged with emotion, a matter of taste, not a question of existence.

The English Novel in the Age of Thomas Hardy

When we speak of the Victorian novel we do not mean that there was a conscious school of
English novel, with a consciously common style and subject-matter, a school which began
creating with the reign of Queen Victoria and which came to an end with the end of that reign.
The English are too individualistic for such conformity. However, there can be no denying the
fact that the English novel during the second half of the 19th century, with the exception of one
or two novelists, shows certain common characteristics. The purpose of the chapter is to deal
with those characteristics and also to examine how far they are represented in the novels of
Hardy.

Adherence to the Fielding Tradition: Loose Plots

For one thing, the Victorian novel continues to be largely in the Fielding tradition. The plot is
generally loose and ill-constructed. The main outline of the Victorian novel is the same. The
story consists of a large variety of character and incident clustering round the figure of the
hero. These characters and incidents are connected together rather loosely by an intrigue,
ending with the ringing of wedding bells. Thackeray follows, on the whole, this convention.
A Mixture of Strength and Weakness
Secondly, the Victorian novel is an extraordinary mixture of strength and weakness. There is too
much of false sentiment, flashy melodrama and lifeless characters. There is much that is
improbable and artificial in character and incident. Speaking generally, the Victorians fail to
construct an organic plot, a plot in which every incident and character forms an integral part of
the whole. Thackeray's plots, though much better constructed than those of Dickens, are still
loose and theatrical. There is much superfluity even in Vanity Fair and much that is
unconvincing and artificial.
Its Entertainment Value
Still, the Victorian novel makes interesting reading. The novelists may not construct a compact
plot, but they tell the story so well. They are so entertaining, that children still love to read and
enjoy a novel of Dickens or Thackeray. The plot may be improbable, but there is enough of
suspense, and the readers' attention is not allowed to flag even for a single moment. They do
not like to give it up unfinished.
Its Panoramic Value

The Victorian novelists may miss the heights and depths of human passion, there may be no
probing of the human heart and soul, and no psycho-analysis as in the modern novel, but they
cast their nets very wide. Novels like Vanity Fair are not, like most modern novels, concentrated
wholly on the life and fortunes of a few principal characters: they also provide panoramas of
whole societies. Thus in Vanity Fair the action ranges from the city to the town, from London to
Brighton, from England to France, Brussels, and other countries of Europe. "A hundred different
types and classes, persons and nationalities, jostle each oilier across the shadow screen of our
imagination."
(David Cecil)
Its Immense Variety
The Victorian novelist is a man of varied moods. His range of mood is as wide as his range of
subject. Just as he deals with all aspects of society, so also he renders human moods in all their
manifold variety. He is not a specialist in any one mood or temper. The novelists of the age
cannot be categorised. As David Cecil puts it, "They write equally for the train journey and for
all time; they crowd realism and fantasy, thrills and theories, knockabout farce and effects of
pure aesthetic beauty; check by jowl on the same page; they are Mr. Galsworthy and Mr.
Huxley and Mrs. Woolf, Mrs. Christie and Mr. Woodhouse, all in one. A book like David
Copperfield is a sort of vast schoolboy hamper of fiction : with sweets and sandwiches, pots of
jam with their greased paper caps, cream and nuts and glossy apples, all packed together in a
heterogenous deliciousness."
Imaginative Rendering of Reality
Not only have the Victorian novelists width and range of subject and mood, not only are they
entertaining story-tellers, they have also creative imagination in ample measure. Their
imagination works on their personal experiences and transforms and transmutes them. Their
renderings of the real world are not photographs, but pictures, coloured by their individual
idiosyncrasies vivid and vital. Often the picture is fanciful and romantic. At other times, it sticks
close to the facts of actual existence, but these facts are always fired and coloured by the
writer's individuality. The act of creation is always performed. Dickens is, "the romancer of
London streets", and Thackeray, too, transports us to an entirely new world, call it Vanity Fair
or Thackeray land, or what you will. His creative imagination works on the selling of his story
and transforms it.
Dramatic and Picturesque

This creative imagination is also seen at work on the incidents or the stories of the Victorian
writers. They linger long in the memory because they have been made dramatic and
picturesque by the imagination of the novelist. We get many such dramatic and picturesque
scenes in Hardy. "As a picture is an invention of line and colour, so are these brilliant inventions
of scene and action." (David Cecil)
Humour
This creative imagination is also seen in the humour of the Victorian novelists. Each of the great
Victorian novelist is a humorist, and each is a humorist in a style of his own. They have created
a number of immortal figures of fun, each comic in his own different way. They are hundreds of
fine jock and witty remarks spread all over The Victorian novel.
Characterisation
The most important expression of this creative imagination is to be seen in the most important
part of the novel, i.e., in the characterisation. The Victorians are all able to make their
characters live. Their characters may not always be real, there may be much in them that is
improbable and false, but they are amazingly and indomitably alive. They are wonderfully
energetic and vital. They are ail individuals, living their own existence, and lingering long in the
memory once we have formed an acquaintance with them. They act in their own characteristic
way; they have their own tricks of speech, their own way of saying and doing thing. A Victorian
novel is a crowd of breathing crying, living, laughing people. For example, Vanity Fair has a
crowded canvas, crowded with living, breathing individuals.
Lack of High Artistic Standards
The Victorian novel lacks uniformity. It is extremely unequal; it is an extraordinary mixture of
strength and weakness. It is teachnically faulty. This is so because it is still in its infancy, it is still
considered as a light entertainment, and not a serious work of art and the laws of its being have
not yet evolved. In this connection David Cecil observes, "Because it was in its first stage, it was
bound to be technically faulty. It had not yet evolved its own laws; it was still bound to the
conventions of the comic stage and heroic romance from which it took its origin, with their
artificial intrigues and stock situations and forced happy endings. Because it was looked on as
light reading its readers did not expect a high standard of craft, nor did they mind if it had
occasional lapses; especially as they themselves had no traditions of tastes by which to
estimate it." On the other hand, they strongly objected to spending their hours of light reading
on themes that were distressing or put intellectual strain on them.
Lack of Liberalism
Then again the Victorian prudery comes in the way of a free and frank treatment of the animal
side of life. In this respect the Victorian novel shows a definite decline from the earlier English
novel. Any lapse from virtue as that of little Emily in David Copperfield is shrouded in an
atmosphere of, "drawing the blinds and lowering the voice." Free and uninhibited treatment of
sex is lacking. Becky's relationship with Lord Steyne is left ambiguous for this reason.
Conclusion

For these reasons, the Victorian novelists cannot be ranked wit the very greatest, yet they have
greatness in them. they have their imperfections. Their plots are improbable and melodramatic,
their endings arc conventional, and their construction is loose. They do not have any high
artistic standards. But their merits also arc many. They are very entertaining, they can capture
and hold the attention, they have creative imagination, and they have uncomparable gift of
humour. And these are qualities which only the great have.
Life and Works of Thomas Hardy
Hardy's Birth and Parentage
Thomas Hardy was born in 1840, at the village of Upper Bokhampton in the parish of
Stinsford near Dorchester, South England. His father was a master mason who employed several
hands to help him in his work. He was in comfortable circumstances and his house, contrary to
popular belief, was spacious with several rooms and stables. Hardy's mother was an ambitious
lady who wanted her husband to leave his native village and move to some larger town in the
interest of his business. Baby Thomas was so sickly and frail that, at his birth, he was given up as
dead. It was only an accidental slap from his nurse that brought him back to life. It was this puny
baby who lived up to the mature age of eighty-eight, and achieved the distinction of being the
foremost English novelist of the Victorian era.

His Early Life: Formative Influences

As Hardy was so sickly and weak, his education was late to begin. But these early years of his
life were not wasted. His mother, out of her notions of social superiority, did not allow him to mix
up with other boys of the village. Moreover, for the good of his health, he was kept out of doors as
much as possible. So he got ample opportunities to observe the natural scenery round his native
village. His country world was his greatest education. He was a sensitive, observant child and had
a powerful memory. The scenes and sights of nature, which he thus observed early in life, were
never forgotten. This early familiarity with the moods and phenomena of nature, he used with
great advantage later in life, when he took to writing. Nature, in his works, has an almost
Wordsworthian stature.
Thomas Hardy, the senior (our novelist's father), was a fiddler in the church of Stinsford. He
also taught Tommy to play on the fiddle. There is some evidence to show that the boy played not
only in the church, but also at many a country wedding. This .early musical training trained his
ears, so that he could distinguish between the minutest sounds of nature. It was of great help to
him when he took to writing poetry.
Hardy at School
When he was nine years old, he was sent to the village school of Stinsford, and then to
Dorchester. His mother engaged for him a French mistress to give him lessons in French at home.
He did not lake much interest in the subjects taught at school and was in no way regarded as a
bright student. But he took a keen interest in the study of Latin and Greek. He also studied English
poetry and the New Testament. Thus his self-education was far more important than the
education he received at school.
The Apprentice-architect: Self-study
Whether it was financial reasons, or because the reports from the school were not favourable,
Hardy's education was discontinued at the early age of sixteen years. He was now apprenticed to
John Hicks, an ecclesiastical architect of Dorchester. But he did not take much interest in his
professional work. Though he was sincere and honest in the discharge of his duties, yet he spent
most of his leisure in the study of literature. He read the New Testament again and again and it
became a part of his being. His style has a marked Biblical tone. References to the Bible are
frequent in his works. It was during this that he acquired a close familiarity with the works of
classics, like Aeschiles and Homer. He also studied English poetry and it was the nature-poets
who had the strongest appeal for him. There were frequent literary discussions between Hardy
and his fellow apprentices. William Barnes, the village poet and scholar, was often approached by
them to express his views on controversial issues. Hardy was much impressed by his wisdom and
scholarship and he was a profound source of inspiration for him. He freely acknowledged him on
several occasions as his guide and mentor. His influence further increased Hardy's love for nature
and nature-poetry.
Hardy in London
In 1861, at the age of twenty-one years, Hardy left Dorchester for London. He had now to
think more seriously of earning his own living. He became an assistant to Sir Arther Blomfield, a
master-architect, busy at the time in the work of church restoration. Many of the old churches of
Dorsetshire and other neighbouring countries were in a bad condition and urgently needed
restoration. It was Hardy's job now to measure such churches and sketch designs for them. But
this work of a professional draughtsman was not at all to his taste. Though perfectly successful in
his profession his heart was elsewhere. He still studied literature with great eagerness. He took to
writing poetry, and many of his poems of this period were published in later years. In 1863, he
wrote an article on Terra-Cotta architecture which won for him a valuable prize, awarded by the
Royal Institute of Architecture. It was during this period that he frequently visited the picture-
gallery in the London' Museum. He learned painting and acquired sufficient skill in the art to draw
some fine sketches to illustrate the first edition of his Wessex Poems. In connection with his
professional work, he had often to visit old churches. He felt quite at home in churchyards and
would wander there for long hours, musing on the sadness of life. His taste for the ghostly and the
grotesque was thus fully gratified. He brooded long on human destiny and finally reached the sad
conclusion that, "nothing in nature is made for man."
Visit to Cornwall: Love at First Sight
It was in connection with the restoration of the church of St. Juliet that Hardy went to
Cornwall. At the rectory he was received by a beautiful young lady with flowing nut-brown hair.
Her name was Miss Emma Gifford and she was the sister-in-law of the rector. It was a case of love
at first sight. Writing many years later about their first meeting, she has told us that she saw a
sheet of foolscape paper projecting out of the pocket of "my architect". She had expected it to be
some architectural design, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was the manuscript of some
poem. What she sawin his shabby appearance to like and love, Hardy could never understand.
Hardy proposed soon after and was accepted by the lady. it was a happy period of courtship that
he passed there. When he returned from Cornwall, he had magic in his eyes. The happy event is
comcmorated in one of his Finest lyrics;
When I came back from Lyonnesse (Cornwall),
With magic in my eyes,
All marked with mute surmise
My radiance rare and fathomless,
When I came back from Lyonnesse,
With magic in my eyes.
Marriage and After
Inspite of their romantic courtship and love, they did not marry in a hurry. It was at the
instance of his Emma that Hardy took to writing novels. This was considered necessary for
improving his material prospects. It was only when his income had increased and he was in a
better position to support a wife and family that they were married. Various reasons made their
married life rather unhappy. They never understood each other. For one thing Emma, descended
from a family of higher social status, always felt that she had ruined her prospects in life by
marrying beneath her. She looked down upon her husband as being the son of a mason. Their
tastes were entirely different. While she liked to ride and gallop and enjoy the pleasures of high
society he loved a private, retired life, away from the "Urban murk and roar". Moreover, no child
was born to them, and this was a lifelong source of sorrow for Hardy. Whatever might have been
the differences between them, one thing is certain; Hardy never ceased to love his first wife. He
tried his best to make her as comfortable and happy as possible. His love for her finds a passionate
expression in the beautiful lyrics of 1912-13, written soon after her death. One who has read them
can never say that Hardy regretted his marriage or that it had embittered his life.
Back to Wessex
In 1867, after five years stay in London, Hardy left the city and the profession of an architect
for good. Illness was the main cause of his exit from the London stage. The atmosphere of his
Bayswater lodging in London was rather gloomy and unhealthy. He fell ill and pined for the
freshness of his native Dorsetshire. They shifted first to Waymouth where Hardy regained his
natural health and vitality. As his popularity as a novelist, and with it income, increased, he built
himself a house at Max Gate. It was a spacious house and commanded a fine view. In after years,
it became a place of pilgrimage for all Hardy scholars and enthusiasts. Owing to his retired saintly
life, Hardy came to be known popularly as the,"Saint of Max Gale."
Hardy's Second Marriage
The death of his wife in 1922 was a great shock to Hardy. In the declining years of life, when
he needed much affectionate care, he was left alone in the world. His domestic life was upset.
Many of his pet animals, whom he loved so much, strayed and died. It was to supply the want of
a house-keeper that Hardy married his private secretary in 1914. She was only thirty-five while
Hardy was seventy-four at the time. But she was a self-sacrificing and self-effacing woman. She
served Hardy affectionately and faithfully till the moment of his death.
Old Age and Death
Hardy lived to the ripe old age of Eighty-eight. Thus he had an uncommonly long productive
span. He had won reputation and public recognition. Honour after honour was showered upon
him. Besides several Doctorates, he got the Order of Merit and the Freedom of the city of
Dorchester in 1910. The younger generation of poets and novelists paid him their homage and
freely acknowledged him as their guide and teacher.
It was on a fine day of glorious sunset in 1928 that Hardy passed away from the world stage.
He had worked till late before retiring the previous night, and the end came suddenly and
peacefully. His ashes were buried in the Westminster Abbey and his heart in the church of his
native town of Stinsford.
THE WORKS OF THOMAS HARDY
Thomas Hardy was a born poet. Even, his novels are the works of a poet. He himself
considered poetry to be his. true vocation in life. He began composing poems long before he had
written even a single line of prose. He wrote novels, not because be had a taste for the work, but
because it was a profitable business and the only way open for him to make his living. He
continued to write poetry alt though the period that he was writing novels, and when, alter Jude
the Obscure, he gave up novel writing, he again returned to poetry.
Most of his novels, first appeared as serial stories in different magazines and periodicals, and
were then published in separate volumes. The Poor Man and the Lady was his first. It was
immature and fragmentary and so remained unpublished. George Meredith who had reviewed
the work advised him to put more events, "more of plot", in any future novel that he may write.
The result of this advice wasDesparate Remedies which was published in 1871. He wrote novels
and short stories from 1871 to 1895. After the hostile reception that was awarded to Jude the
Obscure (1895), he gave up novel writing and took to poetry. He has also one masterly epic-
drama, The Dynasts, in three parts, to his credit. His works arranged in chronological order are
as follows:
Novels and Short Stories
1. Desparate Remedies, 1871.
2. Under the Greenwood Tree or the Melistock Quire, 872.
3. A Pair of Blue Eyes, 1873.
4. Far From the Madding Crowd, 1874.
5. The Hand of Ethelberta, 1876.
6. The Return of the Native, 1878.
7. The Trumpet-Major, 1880.
8. A Laodecian, or the Castle of the dc Stanceys, 1881.
9. Two on a Tower, 1882.
10. The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1886.
11. Vie Woodlanders, 1887.
12. Wessex Tales (a collection of short stories), 1888.
13. Tess of the D'urbervilles, A Pure Woman, 1891.
14. The Waiting Supper, etc. (A collection of short stories).
15. Life's Little Ironies (A collection of short stories), 1894.
16. Jude the Obscure, 1895.
17. The Well-Beloved, 1897.
Essays And Articles:
1. How I Built Myself a House.
2. The Profitable Reading of Fiction.
3. Candour in English Fiction.
4. Why I Don't Write Plays.
Poetry and Drama
1. Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy :(Published by Macmillan and Co., first in 1932 and
then in 1952, being a collection of poems composed by Hardy from the beginning of his
career upto the end of his days), containing:
(a) Wessex Poems and other Verses.
(b) Poems of the Past and Present.
(c) Time's Laughing-Stack and Other Verses.
 (d) Satires of Circumstances.
(e) Moments of Vision.
(f) Late Lyrics and Earlier.
(g) Winter-words, etc.
2. The Dynasts, Part I, 1904.
The Dynasts, Part II, 1906.
The Dynasts, Part HI, 1908.
3. The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall, 1923.

Hardy as a Regional Novelist

Wessex: Its Location
An understanding of Hardy's Wessex, its physical features, etc., is necessary for a
proper understanding of his works, for this region forms the background to all that he
has written. In some of his novels, as in the Return of the Native, it is a dominant over-
character influencing both character and action.

Wessex was the name of the ancient kingdom of the legendary King Alfred. Hardy
used this name for the six odd counties in the South-West part of England. Wessex of
Thomas Hardy stretches from the English Channel in the South, to Cornwall in the West,
and as far as Oxford to the North. It is this limited region which forms the scenic
background to each of his eighteen "Wessex novels" and to his poems, and also reappears
in the epic-drama. The same physical features —hills and dales, rivers, pastures and
meadows, woodlands and heaths —appear and reappear in all his works. This imparts to
his works a kind of scenic continuity and a touch of realism difficult to match in any
fiction. Every event in his novels takes place within this locality. It is seldom that he
strays out of it. It is for this reason that he is also called a regional novelist.
Hardy's Treatment of Wessex: Its Realism
The heart and centre of Hardy's Wessex is the country of Dorsetshire. It was here
that he was born and bred up and it was here that he settled in after life. It was here that
he produced the best of his works. He had acquired a thorough knowledge of this region.
He was permeated with its scents and substances, with its scenes and sights. He has
described the physical features of his Wessex with great accuracy and realism. He has
expressed the very spirit of this locality in his works. He has immortalized the land of
Wessex which is a living, breathing reality in his novel. That is why many a Hardy
enthusiast and topographer has taken the imaginary for the real and has gone in search
of various landmarks described in the Wessex novels. For example, the description of
Casterbridge in The Mayor of Casterbridge is so realistic that many have taken it to be
an exact reproduction of the town of Dorset. Similarly, all visitors to the Hardy country
have testified that the dreary and desolate atmosphere of Flint Comb-Ashfarm in Tess is
exactly the same as that of the real place.
Wessex: Heightening of Reality
 But this does not mean that Hardy's works have the literal fidelity of a guidebook.
We should not expect scientific accuracy from a writer of fiction. As Hardy himself
pointed out, his Wessex is partly a real and partly a dream country. It is a clever blending
of fact and fiction. The general features and broad outlines remain the same as of the real
objects. The spirit-of the place also remains the same. Thus much is realism. But the
details are shifted, modified or enlarged to suit the purpose of the novelist. For example,
the powerfulness of his imagination enabled the writer to magnify a small heath to epic
proportions and immortalise it in the Return' of Native.Similarly, he magnified the small
wood near his native place, and in the Woodlanders,imparted to it a vastncss and
grandeur which is utterly lacking in the original.
Wessex: Its Historical Associations
Dorsetshire and its neighbouring countries —the South-western part of England —
are rich in historic associations. The Romans ruled it for a number of years and have left
their monuments behind. Many other invading hoards came to it one after another. Race
by race and tribe by tribe as they came and went they have left the traces of their arrival,
which time has failed to obliterate. Hardy is fully alive to the historic character of the
region that he has chosen as a background to his works. Every sod in Hardy's Wessex
breathes history. He invokes history, even pre-history and geology, to cast over the land
of Wessex a romantic glow. In the Mayor of Casterbridge,for example, we are told that
even if we dig a few feet we are sure to find some skeleton of Roman warrior, with its feet
touching its abdoman and its vessels hurried near him. Such "Skellingtons" are a
common sight for the Wessex farmers and urchins. Near Casterbridge there is the Roman
ring or ampitheatre, the ancient relic of the Roman Empire, which no one likes to
frequent out of fear of its bloody associations. In Tess we get the temple of Stonehenge
which the ancients had built of placate the powers that be. Then there are the palaces of
ancient Wessex families like that of the D'urbervilles, now in ruins and unfrequented but
still important landmarks in Hardy's landscapes. In A Pair of Blue Eyes we are given an
account of the various races and tribes that came to Wessex from time to time. We are
then taken into the realm of pre-history, and made to see with our mind's eyes the
different animal species that have- successively stalked the land of Wessex. A similar
condition of things obtains in all other Wessex works.
Life and Customs of Wessex
Equally close is Hardy's familiarity with the life and customs of the Wessex rustics.
He knows every detail of the business of the farmer, the wood-cutter, the hay-trusser, the
cider-maker, the shepherd, the dairymaid and the dairyman. This knowledge is not that
of a person who has studied their life from apart, with a sense of superiority, but of one
who has lived with them and mixed with them on an equal footing as one of them.
Characters in the Wessex novels are drawn not from the upper strata of society b from
the lowest and the humblest rank of life. Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridgeis a
hay-trusser. Clym also turns a hay-trusser and furze-cutter. Tess in the Tess of the
D'urbervilles is a dairy maid, Giles an humble cider-maker and pine-planter, and Marty
South makes spars for her livelihood, He reveals to us the intimate details of their
respective professions, their skills and the hardships of their lives. He reveals to us the
inherent nobility of their souls, their persistance and their struggle against heavy odds.
They have to wrest their humble livelihood from Nature and depend upon her vagaries
for their life. In The Mayor of Casterbridgc we are told that the Wessexfarmer often
regards the Weather-God as a person hostile to him and bent upon destroying him.
In Tess we are taken to a dairy farm in the vale of the Great Dairies and are shown their
life from day to day, and intimate details of their profession are described with great
accuracy. The use of local dialect, in which Hardy was well-versed, and through which all
his characters express themselves, imparts to his works a touch of realism difficult to be
matched in any fiction. Not only this, he also knows that the Wessex rustic suggests more
through his movements than through his speech. In a characteristic passage in The
Mayor of Casterbridge, the various ways through which the Wessex rustic expresses
himself have been graphically and humorously described.
Wessex Rustics: Their Recreations
No aspect of Wessex life escapes Hardy's eye. Dancing, singing, and drinking are
their favourite recreations. In the evening, or whenever they have leisure, they assemble
in some inn and pass their time in drinking and singing or in idle gossip. For example,
inThe Mayor of Casterbridge the rustics gather at the Three Mariners, drink as they
gossip, and pass comments on the events of the day. They heartily enjoy the song of
Farfrae, and press him to repeat his performance. Village fairs are also a good source of
entertainment for them. In the opening of this very novel,we are given an account of the
annual fair at Weydon-Prior where Henchard sells his wife in the tent of the furmity-
seller. We also get an account of such a fair in The Return of the Native, at which Eustacia
dances with Wildieve. Later on, we get vivid accounts of the respective fairs organised by
Farfrae and Henchard and which lead to the latter's undoing.
Wessex: Orthodoxy and Fatalism
The Wessex of Hardy is an isolated country. Railways and modern industrialisation
have not yet reached it. The Wessex rustics live their own life untouched by modernism.
Many quaint customs and superstitions still persist. They are still fatalistic. In The
Mayor of Casterbridge, we get the 'Skimmity Ride'. The residents of Mixen Lane take
out on an ass the effigies of Henchard end Lucetta in close embrace, symbolising their
immoral relations. Elizabeth-Jane passively accepts her sorry fate because what is lotted
cannot be blotted. Tess when confronted with misfortunes passively exclaims, "It was to
be", and goes on as usual about the daily business of her life.
Some Wessex Superstitions
The Wessex rustics are a supertitious lot. Education as yet has not dispelled the
darkness of ignorance from the land. In every town, there arc conjures and fortune-
tellers. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, there is (he Conjurer Fall, the Weather-prophet,
whom Henchard consults before making his rash purchases. When crossed in his luck,
he feels that somebody must be melting his image made in wax to spell his ruin. Later
on, the sight of his own effigy floating in the dark water of the river prevents him from
committing suicide. In the Return of the Native, Susan Nunsuch burns a wax effigy of
Eustacia whom she regards as a witch. There is also the superstition "no moon, no man."
In Tess of the D'urbeivilles, we find that an evening crow is considered an ill-omen as it
signifies pre-marital sex experience or the part of the bride. In this very novel, the cattle
are supposed to withhold their yield on the arrival of a new hand and soften only when
music is played to them. In the other works of Hardy also, we are told of one or the other
of the Wessex superstitions.
The Impact of Modernism: Its Tragic Consequences
Hardy is suspicious of the advance of modern civilization. Wessex is so far
unaffected by it, but sophisticated people from the town arrive to disturb the even tenor
of the simple life of the Wessex folk. The rustics are happy and contented inspite of their
backwardness, their poverty and their humdrum ways. The impact of modernism leads
to tragedy. Henchard would have prospered with his old, unsystematic ways and rough
and ready methods of accountancy. But then Farfrae arrives on the scene. With his
systematic business like ways, with his new-fangled machines and with his polished
manners, he pushes Henchard out of business as well as out of the hearts of the people.
Similarly, sophisticated Luceta, with her refined manners and fashionable dresses,
conquers the heart of Farfrae and causes untold suffering to simpler but far noble
Elizabeth-Jane. In Tess, it is the sophisticated and self-centred Angel Clare and Alec who
are responsible for the tragedy of Tess, a pure woman more sinned against than sinning.
It is the same in all other prose works of Hardy.
The Universal Element
Such is Hardy's Wessex. He has immortalised it and put it on the world map. Hardy
is a great Regional novelist because he has imparted universal interest to a particular
region. The scenes of all his novel are laid in one particular region. He treats only of its
life, its history and its geography. Still his novels are of interest even to those who have
nothing to do with Wessex. This is so because he succeeded in universalising the regional
and the topical. He concentrates on passions and emotions which are universal; they are
the real themes of his novels.

Thomas Hardy, The Humorist

Humour: Defined and Explained
Humour may be defined as the kindly, amused contemplation of the incongruities
of life, and their expression in literature. Hardy was not a humorist in any profound
sense. His mind was not humorously built; humour did not enter into the substance of
his thought. Therefore, one would not expect any humour in the Wessex novels, but it is
there alright. As has been well said, "while passing through the gloomy regions of
Hardy, we do reach some sunlit patches."

Evolution of His Humour: Rustic Humour

It may be mentioned in the very begining that practically all the humour, humour
which is worth mentoning and preserving, that we get in the Wessex novels, is rustic
humour. "The profoundest of Hardy's humour is to be found in those scenes in which
the rustics exercise their chorus-function." Their remarks are not only replete with rustic
wisdom but also with rustic humour. And the quality of this rustic humour grew richer
and finer as the novels went on and the novelist acquired increasing mastery over his
craft. The ground-work of his simple, genial humour was laid in Under the Green-Wood
Tree, it is much richer and finer in Far from the Madding Crowd, and it reaches near
perfection by the time of the' Return of the Native. Tess of the D'urbervilles and Jude the
Obscure are deficient in this humour; there is no rustic chorus and so the intensity of
tragic gloom is not relieved by any mirth-provoking and amusing remarks of these sons
of the soil.
His Humour: Realistic and Verbal
Hardy's humour is realistic; it has been caught up with joy from the lips of the rustics
themselves. It is pure unadulterated essence of the humour of the English peasantry of
the 19th century. There might be a little, "selection and ordering of material", here and
there, in keeping with Hardy's artistic ideals, but its essence remains the same. Besides
this, Hardy's humour is verbal. It depends on its effects on the particular words used.
The rustic chorus does not act : it is content to comment in a leisurely manner on all that
goes around. Hardy listens to their comments and records what they say. Humour arises
from their grotesqueries and from the words in which they express themselves. Couched
in a different language, their observations would not strike us as humorous at all.
Hardy's Rustics: Grotesque and Funny
Humour results from an observation of the incongruities of life. Incongruity may be
explained as the discrepancy between what is and what should be. Its essence is contrast.
When any thing in thought, feeling, word or action, falls below the normal or expected
level, humour arises. The comic characters of Shakespeare, his Toby Belchs and Sir
Andrews, his Falstaff and Touchstones and Launcelots, are perenially funny, for their
level of intelligence is much below the normal level. What they do and say appears to us
as amusing only because it is in sharp contrast with that we think to be right and proper.
And it is for this very reason that Hardy's rustics are so very funny. They are ridiculous;
they are grotesque. They are funny in themselves and objects of great mirth for others.
Their native credulity, their eccentricities, their simplicity, their backwardness and
ignorance, their folly and frivolity, all make them objects of laughter in the Wessex
novels. We laugh at butts of village life, old garrulous grand-fathers, henpecked
husbands, superstitious fools, and timid, ludicrous simpletons. A few examples would
serve to bring out clearly the quality and sources of Hardy's humour.
Their Folly and Eccentricity
The Wessex rustics are grotesque, ludicrous, laughter-provoking in their ignorance
and simplicity. They oil their boots instead of blacking them, and they dust their coats
with a switch instead of brushing them. They hide their money in their boots. There is'
the timid Thomas Leaf of the ghastly look, who, "never had no head," but who knew a
moment of passing glory when he was allowed to tell his tale of how ten pounds became
thousand (Under the Greenwood Tree). In A Pair of Blue Eyes, we get an extremely
ludicrous, and so extremely amusing, account of pigs, some deaf and melancholy, others
insane and rheumatic. In the Far From the Madding Crowd, there is the fearful Joseph
Poorgrass of the "multiplying eye" with his blushes and with 'sir' said in reply to the
hooting of an owl. There is also the aged malster, whose age added up to one hundred
and seventeen. Indeed, the whole malt-house scene is crammed with humour.
The Fusion of Humour and Pathos
Hardy's humour grows finer by the time of the Return of the Native. It now mingles
with pathos. There is Grandfer Cantle, a new figure, with his juvenility and his bounce.
His reminiscences of his old glory, of the day when he was a soldier, "when he was afraid
of nothing except Boney", are funny as well as pathetic. Then there is Christian, his son,
who is as much an object of laughter as of pity. He cannot sleep at night for fear of ghosts,
and alas ! the poor fellow can get no wife to sit up with him, for no woman would ever
marry him as he was born when there was no moon : No moon, no man." He is
ridiculous; he is pathetic. And equally pathetic and ridiculous is the episode of Charley
and Eustacia's hand. In such instances —not in The Return of the Nativealone, but also
present here and there in his earlier masterpieces — Hardy's humour attains true
Shakespearean heights.
Matrimony, Love and Woman as Objects of Humour
 These sons of the soil have a keen eye for the funny side of matrimony love and
woman. There is the comment, for example, of Christopher Cone; on the marriage of
Henchard and Susan : "It is forty-five yean since I had my settlement in this here
town,"said Coney, "but daze me if ever I see a man wait so long before to lake so little.
There is a chance even for thee, after this, Nance Mockridge."
Obviously, the fling is at poor Susan, lean and thin, and ghastly. Similarly funny are
the remarks of the frequenters of the mallhouse from whom farmer Oak wanted to
extract some information regarding Bathsheba. They do not tell him anything about his
new mistress, but quite a lot about the love of her father for her mother :
"Used to kiss her in scores and long hundreds, so it was told here and
there",observed Coggan.
"He was very proud of her, too, when they were married, as I have been told", said
the Malster.
"Ay", said Coggan, "He admired her so much that he used to light the candle three
times a night to look at her."
Humour Arising from Rustic Inaction
In these instances the humour arises from their comments: at other times it arises
from their inaction : the chorus group does not act even at moments of crisis when
prompt action is the urgent need of the hour. For instance, when Bathsheba's sheep are
in trouble through eating poisonous weeds, the chorus stands round Bathsheba, "with
oriental indifference to the flight of time."They reply disinterestedly to her frantic
questions, point out the desirability of calling Oak, but not a soul stirs, to call him.
Similarly, they gather round Boldwood's house, discuss at leisure the fact that Troy has
been seen alive, but take no action at all. Humour in these instances arises from a
contrast between their leisurely inaction and the urgent need for prompt action.
Grim Humour
Nor does Hardy lack grim humour. Sometimes, we find him "Jesting in the court of
death" in the manner of Shakespeare. The classical example is that of Christopher Coney,
who digs out the four pence buried with poor Susan, for, says he, "Why should death rob
life of four pence ? Death is not of such good report that we should respect it to that
extent". And Solomon Long ways agrees with him and says, "Money is scare and throats
get dry. Why should death rob life of four pence ? I say there was no treason in
it."Commenting on this Duffin remarks, "It is rustic philosophy combined of
covetousness and mother-wit'
Animal Humour
There is another kind of humour also that we get in the Wessex novels, i.e.,humour
arising from Hardy's observation of the doings of animals. Animals are the perennial
children in the family of nature, and Hardy's eyes take on a merry twinkle when they fall
upon them, as do those of the grown-ups at the follies of their children. The classic
example of such animal humour occurs in Far From the Madding Crowd,where we get
an amusing analysis of doggy-motives. The young sheep-dog of Gabriel, learning the
sheep-keeping husiness, is,under the impression that since he is kept for running after
sheep the more he runs after the better." The result of his energy is disastrous and Hardy
remarks humorously : "George's son had done his work so thoroughly that he was
considered too good a workman to live, in fact, taken out and tragically shot .......", and
in this way he shared the fate of,"philosophers who follow out a train of reasoning to its
logical conclusion'.
Alas ! poor sheep-dog ! He is as much a victim of the irony of life as man himself.
Conclusion
Thus Hardy's humour — mainly rustic —is kindly and genial. Its purpose is merely
to amuse and entertain the readers. It is never satiric, for Hardy was not a moralist and
his aim was not corrective. As Compton-Rickettremarks, Hardy, "is too much of a
realist to take pleasure in caricature; too little of the moralist to make effective use of
satire."
Thus humour runs like an under-current through the Wessex novels and does much
to brighten their sombre atmosphere. It provides the much needed comic relief, but does
not come in the way of the tragic effects the artist wants to create.

Merits and Demerits of Hardy's Plots

Hardy and the Fielding Convention
In the construction of his plots, Hardy was a follower of Fielding. Hardy's novels
have a structure, a design, a plan, a framework which is definite, not loose. These plots
are dramatic in quality, nothing superfluous and unrequired for is inserted in them.
There is much in them that is sensational, melodramatic and unreal.

Architectural Design
An architect by his early traning, Hardy gives to his novels a design that is
architectural. He is a superb master on the constructive side of his plots. He builds it as
a mason or an architect builds a house. As a monument rises brick by brick, so Hardy's
plots rise scene by scene. They are constructed in scenes which are the bricks of his plots
of which his philosophy is the cement. His plots are massively and solidly built, like a
building of brick and stone. The setting of every part is calculated, every stone has its
place, every crumb of mortar bears its part. The creative work of Hardy is governed by a
powerful logic, the logic of events, infinitely clear, never moving by the tenth part of a
millimeter from appointed sequences. 'The broad sweep of design' goes hand in hand
with a strict accuracy in details. Nothing, not even the slightest part, is forgotten. The
ends of final issuses in Hardy's stories are foregone conclusions. Things or circumstances
being as they are, the results will be as they must be. No trait of Hardy's work is so marked
as this, and none is so impressive. Of all great writers of the English novel, he alone has,
in equal proportion, great gifts of imagination and extra-ordinary powers of invention.
Compton-Rickett remarks in this connection, "as a story-teller he combined rich
inventive power with a sense of symmetrical development which, as a rule, characterises
our lesser, not our greater men. Scott. Dickens, Thackeray, so productively fertile in
invention, show often little perspective on the constructive side. For all this minuteness
of method, Hardy never loses sight of the harmonious whole : his detailed touches have
ever their special significance in unfolding the burden of the story; here he shows the
economy of the greatest artist."
Hardy: Architectonics
 The Architectonics of Hardy have been universally praised, Architectonic is a word
taken from architecture. It means, "those structural qualities of proportion, unity,
emphasis, and scale which make a piece of writing proceed logically and smoothly from
a beginning to an end with no wasted effort, no faulty omission." Hardy's plots have all
these qualities; they are models of symmetry and proportion.
His Plots: Artistic Holes
His plots have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Often he opens a story with a man
going along a road. His narratives are conducted slowly at first, and great pains arc taken
to make clear the spirit of the country, with its works and ways : when that has been
made clear, the plot begins to move with an increasing momentum to an incalculable
goal; the characters come into conflict, there is strong attraction and repulsion, 'spirits
are finally touched' : then, there is a period of waiting, a breathing space, an ominus,
stillness and a pause; till at last, with increased force and motion, it goes forward to the
'fine issues' : all the inherent necessities of things cause their effects, tragic or comic,
triumphs of the right or of the wrong : and the end of all is told with a soft soleminty, a
sense of petty striving against a sense of fate. "The grandeur is the logical climax of
converging trivialities." In each separate incident there is an element which proves
necessary to the completion of the whole. When we close one of Hardy's greatest books,
the deepest impression is always of something fated and inevitable in the sequence of
events and this impression rests equally upon his skill in episode-invention and his
power of climax, his genius for imagination, his logic and powers of penetrating vision.
"He is, in fact, a. man of science, turned novelist, a mathematician dealing with dramatic
and poetic material. We find no digressions, no superfluities". His novels always have
unity of impression. His plots are simple, organic and symmetrical; they move in direct
lines."And however great the play of an external fate, the life or move which is the
centre of each plot is essentially psychological. Every novel is an answer to the question
: Given certain characters in certain circumstances, what will become of them?" (C.
Duffin).
Suspense and Surprise
Hardy has the incomparable gift of a story-teller, that of making his stories
interesting. The interest of his stories is remarkably maintained from the beginning to
the end. Whenever the interest flags, something turns up to enliven the proceedings.
Effective use is made of suspense and surprise, of hope and hopelessness, of chance and
incident. The 'rustic chorus' forms a kind of underplot and serves to dispel the tragic
gloom when it begins to grow too painful, or to relieve tension by contrast. However, this
comic under current does not mar the tragic impression; it is skilfully blended with the
main tragic story.
His Demerits
Such are the merits of Thomas Hardy's plots, but his demerits are equally well-
marked:
(1) His plots are melodramatic, sensational and surperficial. J. W. Beachpoints
out, there is too much of piling up of stagetricks, a concatenation of circumstances,
violent and surprising, all obvious and striking arrangements for providing excitement.
Chance, coincidences, surprises, accidents, over-heard conversations, old people turning
up suddenly, etc., are certainly artificial devices, and to a very great extent this criticism
of Hardy's plots is true. They nun too much upon chance and so appear forced and
unnatural. Chance events in Hardy's stories are too numerous to be quoted. However, it
must be added to Hardy's credit that these 'chance' events create surprise and suspense
and so keep up the interest of the story.
(2) The Love-element. They are built solidly round a love-situation; generally of a
complicated nature. The Wayor of Casterbridge seems to be the only exception. As C.
Duffin puts it, Hardy's plot, "takes it rise from the fact of two or more men loving one
woman or two or more women loving one man, or from a combination of two varieties
of complications." This eternal Iriangle is there is Tess of the D'urbervilles; in The
Return of the Native it is not a triangle but a thomboid, with a tail :
Eustacia — Yeobright
Wildieve — Thomasin — Venn.
The Plot of Far From the Madding Crowdhas a similar complicated situation:
The typical Hardy plot is a love-story and it is marked simple. "It concerns itself with
the lives of a few persons alone, the action proceeds in a few great movements, and in
clean direct lines." These simple plots of Hardy give him an opportunity to make a
profound study of a few lives and souls.
(3) Lack of Variety. As has been shows above, they are all love-tales. Secondly,
Hardy's plots are the handmaids of his philosophy. They are all based on a conflict
between Man and his Destiny or the Prime Cause of things. In this conflict, Man is always
pounded to atoms, despite the heroic struggle that he might put up. Thus all his plots
have a sameness, a sort of family likeness. They are repetitive.
This sameness, this lack of variety, also results from the fact that the scene of action
is always placed in Hardy's Wessex. The same physical features, same hills, dales, health,
and the same rustics, speaking the same dialect, appear and re-appear successively in
one novel after another.

The Pessimism of Thomas Hardy

Is Hardy a Pessimist?
Much ink has been spilt in proving, and disproving too, that Hardy is a pessimist
through and through. But Hardy himself repeatedly denied this charge in his prefaces,
letters and diaries. He called himself an "evolutionary meliorist" and a realist. Let us
here examine the arguments, both for and against, and then from our own conclusions.

Arguments of Hardy's Critics

Those who charge Hardy with being a pessimist do so on account of his 'twilight' or
gloomy view of life. They point out that in Hardy's considered view all life is suffering.
Suffering is the universal law and happiness is but an occasional episode. In one of his
poems, "Tire Poet's Epitaph", he calls life a "senseless school" and in another one
that"Life offers only to deny." In hide the Obscurea child, called Father Time, murders
his step brothers and sisters and then hangs himself. He does so because he feels that life
is not worth living, and it is better not to have been born at all. Hardy himself adds the
comment that Father Time symbolises the coming universal wish not to live.
Hardy Pessimistic about the First Cause
 Moreover, Hardy's critics point out, he is pessimistic about the governance of the
world. He rejected early in life the Christian belief in a benevolent and omnipotent
anthropomorhic God or First Cause. He rather conceives of Him as malevolent, as one
who take delight in the suffering of us mortals. In Tess we are told, "Justice was done,
and the President of the immortals had ended this sport with Tess."
In one of his poems he speaks of the Creator as, "Godhead dying downwards, with
eyes and head all gone" and elsewhere refers to it as some "vast imbecility". Thus in his
view 'the supreme power is blind, imbecile and malevolent and it takes joy in killing and
torturing his innocent creation. In this ill-conceived scheme of things, with an hostile
imbecility as the supreme governing force, there can be nothing but, "strange orchestra
of victim shriek and pain." If this is not pessimism, ask the critics of Hardy, then what
is?
Hardy's Own Point of View
But Hardy vehemently denied this charge, times out of number. He pointed out that
he was an artist and not a philosopher. It would be wrong to read any considered belief
or theory of life in his mood-dictated writings. Expressions, like the one
in Tess,regarding the President of the immortals, were simply poetic fancies, merely
poetic devices like the use of ghosts, witches, fairies, etc., commonly used in all
imaginative literature. Poems like "The Poet's Epitaph" were merely impressions of the
moment and did not represent his considered view. He should not be judged by them. In
his letters, diaries and prefaces he frequently explained his own point of view and called
himself an, "evolutionary meliorist", or an "explorer of reality."
Hardy a Realist and Not Pessimist
The fact is that Hardy was a thorough realist. Born and bred in a scientific age, he
could not shut his eyes to the fact of suffering. Therefore, the cheap, blind optimism of
poets, like Browning, who sang,
"God is in His heaven
All is right with the world."
failed to satisfy him. Rather, the brutal and ruthless struggle for existence which he saw
being waged in Nature everywhere, the starvation, hunger, sickness and disease which
stalks the earth, made him feel that God was not in heaven and all was wrong with the
world. He claimed, and rightly, that his position was nearer the truth. Nor could he agree
with the Romantic poets, like Wordsworth, who said that Nature had a "Holy plan" and
that there was joy everywhere in Nature. How could it be so, when number of children
were born to shiftless parents, like the Durbeyfields, to bring misery to themselves and
to others. The world was already over crowded, there were already too many hungry
mouth to be fed. Acutely conscious of this fact of universal suffering, he felt with his own
Jude that mutual butchery was the law of nature. This is not pessimism, but realism. This
state of affairs can be mended not by turning our backs to it, but by facing it squarely. He
therefore taught :
"If a way to the better there be
It implies a good look at the worst."
This is a perfectly sane and healthy view of life and no rightminded person can object to
it.
Hardy's View of the First Cause: Scientific
 As regards the creation and the Creator, Hardy was much influenced by the scientific
theories of his age. He agreed with evolutionary scientists, like Darwin, that the universe
could not have been created out of nothing by a single act of creation. It was in a constant
process of evolution. With all modern thinkers, he lost faith in the benevolent,
anthropomorphic God of Christian orthodoxy and conceived of the First Cause as an
inhering force or energy, working constantly from within. Thus Hardy's universe is in a
constant state of evolution. He conceives of this energy as indifferent and unconscious,
without any hostility or any sense of pleasure in causing pain. This is his considered view.
But when carried away by his indignation, he shakes his fist at the cause of things and
personifies it as a conscious and hostile Creator. For example, with indignation burning
in his heart at the unmerited suffering of Tess, he calls the First Cause as the President
of the Immortals who kill us for their sport. He may be excused for inch poetic'fancies,
for they have been made use of by all poets and writers of fiction. They do not reflect in
any way this logical position.
Ultimate Enlightenment of the First Cause
Moreover, he believes that this energy or power would gradually evolve
consciousness and then human lot would undergo amelioration. Towards the end of his
epic-drama, The Dynasts, his most philosophical work, he holds out a hope of the
gradual emergence of a better order of things. In this drama, he calls the First Cause,
Immanent Will, and says that already,
"..... a sound of joyance thrills the air,
Consciousness the will informing
Till it fashion all things fair,
And the rages of the ages shall be mended."
This is certainly not pessimism. It may be what Hardy called, "evolutionary meliorism."
Philosophy of Resignation, Not of Nihilism
Besides this, Hardy is not a Nihilist. Except in his last novel Jude the Obscure, he
never advocates a rejection of life. Suffering, no doubt, is the universal law but human
lot can be ameliorated a great deal through tact and wisdom and through wise social
reform. It is a philosophy of resignation which he teaches. The Wessex rustics are
resigned to their lot and suffer patiently. Joan Durbeyfield's suffering is not so intense,
because when faced with misfortune she again and again mutters, "It was to be", and
then goes about her way as usual. Elizabeth-Jane and Thomasin tactfully adjust
themselves to their circumstances and so escape much misery.
Emphasis on Wise Social Reform
Social reforms can go a long way towards ameliorating human lot. Marriage laws,
specially, should be liberalised in favour of the fair sex. 'Pure' women, like Tess, who are
more sinned against than sinning, should not be looked down upon and treated as
outcasts. Our double standards of morality must go. A marriage should be dissolved as
soon as it becomes a cruelty to either of the two contracting parties, for it is then no
marriage at all.
Hardy's View of Man
Moreover, Hardy does not take a degarded view of mankind. Odious villains,
detestable and condemnable rascals, are few in the Wessex Novels and none of them is
an unredeemed villain. Thomas Hardy cannot draw completely odious people. David
Cecilwrites in this connection, "Odiousness implies meanness; and mean people
neither feel deeply nor are aware of any issues larger than those involved in the
gratification of their selfish desires." If Hardy tries to draw such a mean person, he is a
dreadful failure. It does not mean that all his successful creations are virtuous. Henchard
and Eustacia commit sins, but they do so in a grand manner. There is no calculated
selfishness in them. Moreover, they know they are wrong : they are torn with conscience.
They are simply carried away by an over-mastering passion. Therefore, we do not dislike
them. Mankind for Hardy always assumes heroic proportions. The Wessex Novels are
the, "apotheosis of the human spirit", and not expositions of its meanness.
Hardy a Humanist, and Not a Pessimist
The spirit of, "Loving-kindness", Hardy advocates, should he the basis of all human
relations. Much of human misery results from the imperfections of the First Cause, but
much more suffering can be avoided if we are kind and sympathetic to each other.
Instead of seeking refuge in nature and turning our back on life, we should rather turn
to our own kind, for,
"There at least discourse trills around,
There at least smiles abound,
There sometimes are found,
Life-Loyalties."
A poet who could write like this cannot be called a pessimist. Thomas Hardy is a
'humanist" or what he called himself an,"Evolutionary meliorist."
To Sum Up
1. There has been hot controversy as to whether Hardy is a pessimist or not.
2. Those who consider him a pessimist point out :
(a) In his view all life is suffering and happiness is only an occasional
interlude.
(b) The ruling power is blind, unconscious of human suffering and lacking in
moral sense. Its activity is purposeless.
3. Hardy considered himself a realist and an evolutionary meliorist. He believed
that,
(a) If a way to the better there is, it requires a good look at the worst.
(b) The rulling power would be gradually enlightened with the passing of time.
(c) Human lot can be improved by tactful and adjustment to one's.
circumstance, by wise social reform and "loving-kindness."

Hardy’s Art of Characterisation

Hardy, Masterly Characterisation
Hardy is the creator of a large number, larger than that of any other writer outside
Shakespeare, of the undying figures of literature. The variety of his characters is immense
: his command over human personality is extensive. Angle Clare, Clym Yeobright,
Gabriel Oak, Giles Winterborne, Henchard, the Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess, Eustacia,
Bathsheba, Elizabeth-Jane, are only a few out of the many immortal personages of
Hardy. It is all, "a gallery of everlasting delight."

Methods of Character-Drawing
(1) Use of Incidental Touches, Metaphors, Comparisons etc. Of course, in
all novel as well as in all drama, the central action is the expression of the central
character. The character is developed in Hardy, as in other novelists, through the stress
of circumstances. But, as Duftin points out, delicate incidental touches of
portraiture, "vivid descriptive phrases, metaphoric illuminations and revealing
comparisons, chance utterances of the man himself, etc., are Hardy's means of
developing his characters and vivifying their personalities. the very movements and
gestures of his personages often reveal their characters. For example, the cynical and
dogged indifference of Henchard is revealed in the very turn and plant of each foot, nay
in the very creases behind his knees. His character is further developed through the use
of a wealth of metaphors, scattered all over the novel. We quote a few examples, selected
at random : he loves and hates with, "buffalo wrong-headedness": emotion sways him,
"as wind a great tree"; his personality besides that of Farfare, "is as the sun besides the
moon". The ground work of Hardy's power in character drawing lies in the"varied and
reiterated emphasis on prominent traits", through delicate incidental touches and
illuminating metaphors. It is in this way that, gradually and imperceptibly, Thomas
Hardy builds up the personality of his protagonists.
(2) Set-descriptions. The method of set-description in characterisation is also
used by him, though not so frequently. It has been used, and with rare success, in the
case of Eustacia Vye in the Return of the Native. An entire chapter has been devoted to
visualise her personality. Hardy has given her a treatment, more deliberate and more
thorough than in the case of any other character, either because he regarded her as a
rare, unique creature, or because the entire action of the novel depends upon her
personality. First, we get a succession of light touches in the usual manner of Hardy, and
then follows a full chapter of description, as marvelously rich as if the splendour and
romance of, "Drink to me only with thine eyes", should be prolonged over eight pages.
Every phrase is salient and arresting, and hence the chapter must be read out in full to
be really appreciated. However, even in this instance of set-description, Thomas Hardy
does not give us, as an inferior artist would have done, a catalogue of Eustacia's charms,
of her hue, form and features. Rather, Hardy tells us, "what she suggests and what she
stands for." Thus her hair is not said to he black, but that a whole winter does not contain
darkness enough to form its shadow. Similarly, her motion suggests the ebb and How of
the sea, and her voice the viola. Clym Yeobright, too, in this very novel, has been given a
lengthy and set treatment, though in his case only two or three pages suffice. Another
character, who gets such a set treatment, is Farmer Boldwood in Far From the Madding
Crowd. Hardy knows that a man or a woman cannot be described precisely by "items of
face and figure." He rarely describes a man or woman like a photographer, not even like
the common portrait-painters but like one who rises above the physical and tries to
understand the mind and soul of the person under study.
The Humanity of His Characters
 Thomas Hardy's characters are real, life-like. They are like ordinary human beings
subject to ordinary joys and sorrows and common human passions. He does not have
either angels or gods. His characters are gems, but Hawed gems all. They are all of the
earth, earthy. Here and there we do find a character more perfect than others : Giles
Winterborne in the Woodlanders and Gabriel Oak in the Far From the Madding
Crowdnearly reach perfection. But such instances of perfection arc few and far between.
No Unredeemed Villains
Just as Hardy has few perfect characters, so also he has no unredeemed villains.
Troy, Wildieve, Alec all have a likeable side (o their natures. Even Arabella Donn is not
wholly bad; Sue cannot help liking her. There are villains in Hardy's novels, but they have
some good also in them. As David Cecil points out, the fact is he cannot simply paint at
full length odious people 'Odiousnes implies meanness; and mean people neither feel
deeply nor are aware of any issues larger than those involved in the gratification of
their own selfish desires. And he cent only draw at full length people whose nature is of
a sufficiently fine quality to make them realise the greatness of the issues in which they
are involved." Hardy simply cannot get into the heart of such people. It does not mean
that all his successful creatures arc virtuous: Henchard and Eustacia commit sins but
they do so in the grand manner. This grand manner is the expression of an over-
mastering passion, not the calculated consequence of selfish lust. Moreover, they know
they are doing wrong —they arc torn with conscience. Therefore, we do not dislike them.
Hardy's Characters are Universals
Thus Hardy's characters arc life-like, realistic; they arc compounds of good and evil,
like real human beings. Moreover, they are neither realistic only, nor types only, they
arc universals as well. Like a photographer, Hardy gives us .an outside view of his
creations in the case of his minor, rustic characters alone. They alone are realistic, though
over them also is thrown a veil of romantic glamour. They arc divested of all vulgarity
and grossness of real rural life and in this way they arc idealised; an"atmosphere of
poetry laps them round."There are other character-creators who get below individual
differences and qualities, classify individuals and thus arrive at types. But such types do
not give us any profound understanding of human nature; types arc countless and one
type tells us nothing of another. Some of Hardy's characters, ax Angel Clare, Jocclyn
Picrslon, etc., are mere types and that is why their appeal is limited. But Hardy's greatest
characters, his most-successful creations, are neither types nor individuals; they are
univcrsals. Each of them comprehends within itself the whole of human nature, and that
is why they appeal to all, and once we have made their acquaintance we can never forget
them. In each of them, every reader of Hardy recognises something of himself : they are
built of the elemental material that is common to all humanity. Tess, Jude, Henchard,
Oak, Giles, Eustacia, Clym are all universal, elemental figures, rising like granite
mountains, out of the pages of Hardy. Women arc more elemental than man, and so
Hardy's female characters are more effective and vivid.
Hardy's Limitations
(1) No successful Upper Class People:Limitations of Hardy's art of
characterisation may now be noted. AsDavid Cecil points out, his imaginative range is
extremely limited. Almost ail his successful characters belong to Wessex and to the lower
strata of society. Whenever he strays out of Wessex, he makes a sorry mess of it. Fitzpiers,
Mrs. Charmond, Troy, etc., arc all wooden and lifeless. Great ladies and great men,
people of the city, etc., are all outside the range of Thomas Hardy. However, it may be
pointed out in Hardy's defence that he deliberately chooses characters from the lowest
ranks of society because, as he himself tell us, "the conduct of the upper class is screened
by conventions and thus the real character is not seen." In the lower ranks of society,
conduct or action is the real expression of character. He wanted to understand human
nature, and so he goes to the simplest specimen of it.
(2) No Successful Intellectuals: Just as Thomas Hardy cannot portray men and
women from the upper classes, so also he is not successful in the portrait of intellectuals.
His intellectuals arc selfish, hard-hearted and contemptible. There is no generous
impulse in them : they show the evil effects of cold reason. Clym's treatment of his wife
and mother is unflinching in its hardness. Clare fails Tess at the greatest crisis of her life
because of his, 'hard logical deposit', and Henry Knight is an egotist.
(3) Repetition: Another limitation of Hardy results from the impact of his
philosophy on his novels. His theme is,"man's predicament in the universe," : in each
one of his novels he shows man ranged against a cruel, malevolent destiny. Therefore,
his characters come to have a family likeness. Certain qualities strike him as significant,
and it is only these qualities that are developed, -in one novel alter another. His
characters can easily be divided into few categories. The same types are repeated.
(4) No Phycho-analysis: It has also been said that Thomas Hardy is successful
only in painting simple natures : we do not gel from him any complex characters. He is
incapable of that subtle psycho-analysis, that analysis of human motives, which we get,
say, from Henry .lames. There is much truth in this statement, but it must be said to his
credit that though the very greatest of his heroes and heroines are drawn from the lowest
strata of society, yet they have a soul which the novelist dissects and analyses in order to
show to his readers its grandeur and beauty.
Conclusion: Hardy's Explorations of the Human Soul
In all his greatest novels we arc concerned with something which is spiritual in
essence, something which pertains to the conflict and high manoeuvering of souls.
AsDuflin points out each one of his great novels is a Soul's Tragedy, such as we do not
get anywhere else outside Shakespeare. In other words, his characterisation is not only
external, it is internal also. y Hardy goes down to the lowest ranks of society for his heroes
and heroines and shows that they, too, have souls as beautiful, as mysteriously
interesting and as spiritually adventurous, as those of kings and queens. Tess has a
beautiful soul, and the tragedy arises from the fact that his pure soul is crushed into
impurity. Eustacia is also gifted with an equally noble soul, and Hardy makes us see that
soul despite her many faults of conduct. The deep anguish of Henchard is similarly
revealed. This probing of the hidden depths of the soul, this exploring of hidden
mysteries of the souls of ordinary people, gives as Duffin tells us, "Hardy a quite
extraordinary position among the great creators of character."

Hardy's Female Characters

Hardy, a Specialist in Women
The touchstone of a novelist's power is his handling of hi; female-characters, and
Hardy is a specialist in the field. His male character: yield to his women, both in clarity
and intensity. A number of bright and beautiful women, as glorious as the heroines of
Shakespeare, move across the stage of the Wessex novels. Tess, Eustacia Vye, Bathsheba,
Grace, Elfride, Sue, etc., are only a few of the portraits in the wonderful art-gallery of
Thomas Hardy. It is an immense wealth of material that we find spread before us as soon
as we enter the world. AsDuflln points out, it is possible to divide the women of Hardy
into four groups on the basis of the space devoted to their portraiture and of their
personal significance in the action of the novel.

Classification of His Female Characters

Some of these delightful creatures are painted at full length and are of a high order
of personality; Tess, Sue, Eustacia, Bathsheba, Elizabeth Jane, for instance. There is
a second group which consists of full-length portraits, but of a much lower order of
personality. To this group belong Elfride, Ethelberta, Grace, Viviette and Ann. There is
a third group which consists of women who are neither studied at length nor are of any
great personal significance — Paula and Fancy, Marty and Arabella, Thomasin, and
Lucetta. To the fourth groupbelong those who remain standing modestly in the
background, though, of course, each one of them too, is of great interest individually.
Tabitha, Matilda, Fancy, Charlotte, the three Avices, the three milk-maids in Tess, Mrs.
Yeobright, Mrs. Swancourt, Mrs. Malbury and Susan Henchard, all belong to this last
category. It is all a glittering array, alluring enough to charm the mind and heart of any
man.
The Secret of His Success
What gives Thomas Hardy this astonishing mastery over the female mind and heart
? For one thing, Hardy acted as the village Munshi when a boy at school at Dorchester.
Village maidens used to approach him frequently to write their love letters. A woman's
heart and soul, her psychology, can be truly and really studied only when she is under
the influence of love, and Thomas Hardy was lucky enough to get such an opportunity.
He studied the psychology not only of one or two love-lorn maiden, but of quite a large
number of them.-And when he took to novel-writing, he made good use of this
knowledge. Secondly, women are more the creatures of instinct and impulse than men,
and as Compton-Rickett puts it, Hardy's greatest success is achieved with simple,
primal characters :"Admirable as many of his male characters are, they yield both in
clarity and intensity of interest to his women: and since woman is more elemental than
man, swayed far more by the instinctive life, their superiority is another illustration of
Hardy's peculiar skill in dealing with the primal type."
His Limitations
Thomas Hardy's female characters are also subject, like his male characters, to the
limitations of his imaginative range. He cannot draw successfully city-women or women
belonging to the upper classes. Mrs. Charmond in the Woodlanders and Ethelberta
in the Hand of Ethelberta are not among the successful creations of the novelist. He has
practically, no thoroughly odious women; he simply cannot get into a really odious
person, male or female. EvenArabella Don has a likeable side to her personality.
His Range and Variety
But within these limits, the range and variety of Hardy's womanhood is
astonishing.Even the women of the same type or category are skillfully distinguished
from each other. Minute differences of personality, subtle distinctions, are carefully
noted and brought out. A few instance would make the point clear. The most noted
feature of Tess' personality is, "her luxuriance of aspect" and, "a touch of animalism in
her flesh". Sue, on the other hand, is distinguished by her sexlessness, by her desire for
marriage without physical union. She is a woman of the late developing type, in direct
contradiction to less. Both these women are among Hardy's masterpieces, and, as C.
Duffin puts it, "One may wonder at the creative insight that enabled Hardy to handle
these two opposite types with equal sympathy, understanding and conviction." Love,
both with Tess and Sue, is a passion, spiritual in nature, but how different ! With the
former it is mixed up with the animal instinct of sex : with the latter it is entirely fleshless.
Sue stands, similarly, in sharp contrast with Eustacia. They represent the two extremes
of the splendid in women; the one, a woman governed by the spirit, and the other having
rich sensuousness as her most dominant characteristic, and guided purely by her
emotions and animal instinct. Yet Hardy uses the same phrase to describe them both. He
calls both of them, "epicure in emotion",but how different are the emotional feasts which
they enjoy ! Similarly, Sue, Ethelberta and Elizabeth-Jane are all intellectuals, but the
intellectuality of each of them is entirely different. Sue feels as well as thinks — a rare
fusion of emotion and intellect; Ethelberta is nothing but cool, calculating reason,
mathematical even in love; and Elizabeth Jane is a special type, a little philosopher, the
only woman of Hardy with a sense of humour. Such power of differentiation is not a
universal possession of great novelists. One is compelled to agree with Duffin
that,"profound as is his comprehension of human nature itself, it is in the female
personality that he is most marvelously learned."
His Favourite Type
Though Hardy's womanhood includes all types and natures, his, "favourite heroine
is a country girl with a dash of culture." The dash of culture may vary from woman to
woman, but it is never much. Sue, Bathsheba, Elizabath-Jane, Grace, Marty South,
Tabitha Lark, etc., are all pure country born and bred, and all have some slight cultural
background. Only Tess; pure country bred, faces life in the full naked loveliness of
ignorance absolute
His Women more Active than Men
Albert Gucrard in his famous study of Thomas Hardy's novels point: out that his
male characters have certain self-effacing quality which, "make: Hardy's Women all the
more vital." He finds this contrast between Hardy'; male and female characters well-
marked. It is just possible as, is pointed out by Hardy's biographer, Evelyn Hardy, that
the dominaing character of Hardy's mother, and of his first wife, made him, "tend to
regard woman as the more energetic and forceful of the sexes, around whom men
revolve like obedient satellites." However, it cannot be said of Hardy, as it has been said
of Shakespeare, that, "he has no heroines".His menfolk, Henchard, Clym, Jude, Oak,
Angel Clare, etc., are as virile and energetic, as alive and kicking, as any one of his female
characters.
Hardy's Realism
Though Hardy's pictures of womanhood glow with love and admiration, he was
certainly no feminist. He was quite alive to feminine frivolity and weaknesses. The
character of Elfride is almost a satire on womanhood. She prefers ear-rings to a, "well
chosen little library of the best music," because, she thinks, "It is of no good." She insists
that her lover should tell her that he likes the colour of her eyes even though he has told
her frankly that he loves a different colour. Hardy is emphatic on the power of flatery—
and jealously—over women. Bathsheba marries Troy, a worthless rascal, even though his
behaviour is offensive and insuling, only because that behaviour signifies an admiration
for her person. Women in Hardy, as in real life, are capable of the most astonishing errors
in the judging of men. The portrait of Bathsheba, "is as distressing a picture of feminine
folly as one may well desire, and the most distressing thing about it is that the picture
is absolutely true to life. Never was the ruthless veracity of Hardy's character-drawing
made more plainly manifest".
Moreover, all over his novels there are scattered observations on "the sex" not very
favourable, and indicating an attitude which some would call cynical. Most of them are
concerned with a woman's inability to appraise a man. Here are a few such remarks taken
at random :
1. 'Women do not know how to manage an honest man."
2. 'Women are never tired of bewailing men's fickleness in love but the) seem to
snub his constancy".
3. "Feminine opinion of a man's worth is founded on nonessentials."
4. "It is next to impossible for a woman to have a positive repugnance towards
an unusually handsome and gifted man."
5. "Directly domineering ceases in the man, snubbing begins in the woman."
The last one has almost passed into a daily,' household proverb. All these views are
thoroughly realistic and their truth can easily be verified by personal observation.
The Suffering of Women
This very realism of Hardy is seen in the fact that women in his novels suffer more
than his men. "Out of his ten principal heroines, five are brought to tragic ends after great
suffering, and the rest endure great suffering. In the case of two — Tess and Eustacia —
we get the soul's tragedy more harrowing and painful than in the case of men." But all
this does not mean, as has sometimes been said, that Hardy took pleasure in inflicting
tormant upon women." It only means that Hardy is true to life; Women being the weaker
sex suffer more in life : and so they also suffer more in theWessex novels. "It is not Hardy
who treats women cruelly, but life —life as Hardy saw it."
Conclusion
Thus in his treatment of womanhood,Hardy is neither a feminist, nor a misogynist,
but a realist. C. Duffin rightly remarks, "What Hardy could do for his women he did —
he made them full of beauty, interest, fascination and lovable qualities of all kinds, he
gave them great parts to play, and let them (generally) play these parts well. His estimate
of women is high, but tempered and conditioned by keen observation of the realities
around him." He has a high ideal of her as a creature nobly planned and bright with
angelic radiance, but he knows also that it is only in rare cases that she is found free,
undimmed, ideal.

The Philosophy of Thomas Hardy

Hardy: An Artist and Not a Philosopher
Hardy was an artist and not a philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the 'Views'
expressed in his novels were not his convictions or beliefs; they were simply
"impressions" of the moment. His writings were all, 'mood
dictated', merely,'explorations of reality', and so it would be wrong to expect any
systematised philosophy of life. But when certain impressions persist and are constantly
repeated in the creative works, diaries and letters, of a writer, the readers may be
pardoned, if they take them to be his convictions. Moreover, Hardy is so often passing
from particular facts to life in general that we may safely take some of his views to be his
philosophy of life.

Suffering: A Universal
In Hardy's considered view, all life is suffering. Man suffers from the moment of his
birth upto his death. Happiness is only occasional, it is never the general rule. As he says
in "Vie Mayor of Casterbridge', "Happiness is but an occasional episode in a general
drama of pain". There is none who gets more than he deserves but there are many who
get much less than what they deserve. Not only man suffers, but all nature suffers.
Suffering is writ large on the face of nature. A ruthless, brutal struggle for existence is
waged everywhere in nature. All nature is red in tooth and claw and life lives upon life.
Thus all life, including human life, is subject to this law of suffering and none can escape
the operation of this law.
Imperfections of the First Cause: Human Suffering
But what is the cause of this universal suffering of man and nature alike. In Hardy's
view the real cause is the,"imperfection of the laws that may be in force on high." Thus
human suffering is the result of the imperfections of the First Cause, the power that
caused or created this sorry scheme of things. He rejects the orthodox Christian belief
that this power is benevolent, all merciful, omnipotent and omniscient. He cannot
reconcile the fact of universal, undeserved suffering with the omnipotence and
benevolence of God or the First Cause. He indignantly asks, "What makes suffering and
evil, necessary to its omnipotence ?" He regards this power as blind, indifferent, if not
actually hostile, and unconscious and immoral. He uses 'it' and not 'He' for this power.
This power has no sense of right or wrong, love or hate. In this blind, unconscious,
impersonal working, it does not, and cannot, take into account human wishes and
aspirations. Hence its working often causes men .much pain and suffering.
Nature as Instrument of the First Cause
This power manifests itself in a number of ways. Sometimes, it expresses itself
through some force of Nature. Usually Nature in Hardy remains indifferent to, and
unconscious of, the suffering of Hardy's character. For example, Tess' suffering goes
unheeded in Nature. She is violated in the lap of Nature, but all Nature remains
unconcerned and indifferent. But sometimes, Nature seems to work against the
characters of Hardy, or we, in our sympathy for them, feel nature to be hostile.The
Return of the Native is a tragedy of character and environment; Egdon Heath plays a
prominent part in the novel and is largely responsible for the tragedy. In theMayor of
Casterbridge, the very stars seem to be hostile to Henchard. The fair organised by him,
with such generosity and care, is ruined by untimely unexpected rain. The vagaries of
weather ruin him financially and make him a bankrupt. Bad weather had been foretold
and on that basis he made reckless purchases. But the weather cleared and he had to sell
at far lower prices. Then quite unaccountably the weather changed again. There was rain
and hail and Henchard was a financial wreck. Nature, thus, seems to be the instrument
of some hostile power working against Henchard. It is in this sense that Nature is fate in
Hardy's novels.
The Irony of Circumstance or Life
Sometimes, the ruling power on high expresses itself through the irony of
circumstance. By irony of circumstance, Hardy simply means that in this ill-conceived
scheme of things the contrary always happens. We except one thing and get its exact
opposite. This results in much undeserved suffering. Right things never happen at the
right time : they happen either not at all, or too late, when their happening brings nothing
but misery and suffering in their train. The heroines of Hardy, like Tess and Eustacia, as
well as his male characters, like Clym, Henchard, Angel, Alec are all the victims of the
irony of circumstance. The wrong man comes first, and when the right man comes it is
too late. Thus Tess remained a vague, fleeting impression to Angel Clare, till she had been
violated by Alec, and it was too late for them to live happily together.
Elizabeth-Jane consents to take up Henchard's name, and then he suddenly
discovers that she was not his daughter : "77ie mockery (irony) was, that he should have
no sooner taught a girl to claim the shelter of his paternity than he discovered her to
have no kinship with him. This ironical sequence of things angered him like an impish
trick from a fellow-creature. Like Prester John's his table had been spread, and infernal
harpies had snatched up the food."
He had planned and schemed for months to have Jane as his daughter and now the
fruition of the whole scheme was such, "dust and ashes" in his mouth.
Elizabeth-Jane, too, is the victim of this very irony of fate, for, "Continually it had
happened that what she had desired had not been granted her, and that what had been
granted her she had not desired."
In fact, Hardy's characters in general, and not in one or two novels alone, are the
victims of this irony. Their intentions and aspirations are constantly frustrated, as if
some hostile power were working against them.
The Role of Chance and Fate
There is a great difference between chance and irony of circumstance. Chance is
entirely unexpected or accidental and has no relation either to character or to the course
of action, while the essence of irony of fate or circumstance is its opposition to the
whishes or merits of a particular character. Chance may sometimes work in favour of a
particular character, but in Hardy's works it always operates against them, for it is caused
by the same indifferent, even hostile, First Cause. Thus Chance is another agent chosen
by the Supreme to express itself. Chance or accident plays an important part in life and
so in the novels of Hardy. The unexpected and the undesired always happens. Thus Tess
suffers because the letter she had written to Angel on the eve of their marriage never
reaches him. By chance it slips beneath the carpet and is not found. Many such accidents
or chance events also happen in 77ie Mayor of Casterbridge. The coming of Farfrae in
Casterbridge just at the time when Henchard was being taken to task for the sale of bad
wheat, the sudden arrival of Newson in Casterbridge for the second time, the entirely
unexpected appearance of the old furmity-seller in Casterbridge to drive the last nail in
Henchard's coffin, etc., are a few of the chance events that create the impression that
Hardy believed in the operation of fatal forces hovering all around us and driving us to
our doom. Chance or accident is thus an essential element in Hardy's philosophy of life.
Love: A Potent Cause of Suffering
Love is another force which causes suffering in the world of Thomas Hardy. The
women-folk, specially, are its chosen victims. As we are told in Tess, the cruel cause of
things has hardened them with the powerful sex-instinct which they have never desired
nor welcomed, and as a result of which they have to writh feverishly and pass sleepless
nights. Love causes untold suffering to Elizabeth-Jane, to Tess, to Eustacia, to Bathsheba
and to all other female characters of Hardy.
Human Freedom of Action: Its Limitations
Character may be destiny in Shakespeare, but it is certainly not so in Hardy's world-
view. In Hardy's philosophy, character is responsible for suffering only to a limited
extent. Inherited traits and inborn instincts determine the actions of a person to a very
great extent. Even if he wishes, he cannot act against them. Moreover, Hardy agrees with
Schopenheur in believing that,"a person can do what lie wills, but he cannot will what
he wills." Thus man is not a free agent and is not responsible for his actions to any great
extent. He has only a very limited freedom of action.
Ways for the Amelioration of Human Lot
(1) Tact: But within these limits he can do much. If he is rash, hot-headed and
obstinate, like Henchard, or Eustacia, he can bring about his own downfall. On the
contrary, if he is wise and tactful, like Elizabeth Jane, or Thomasin, he can make much
of his limited opportunities. Anyhow, it is his duty to adjust himself to his environment.
He must not exult when fortune smiles upon him for at best it is only a short interlude,
and may be followed by sudden and devastating misfortunes. And at such times, he must
remember, like Elizabeth-Jane, that there are many others who have not got what they
deserved or desired.
(2) The Rustic Philosophy of Resignation: Man must be resigned to his lot. It
is useless to complain, for no complains can reform this ill-conceived scheme of things.
It is equally futile to pit overselves against the inexorable, pitiless laws that govern our
destiny, for if we do so we are sure to be pounded to atoms. We must learn the lesson of
resignation, and we can do so only from primitive communities living in the lap of nature.
The Wessex rustics when confronted with overwhelming misfortunes are never
frustrated. They merely exclaim, 'it was to be', and go about the daily business of their
life with renewed courage. Hardy is all admiration for such heroic souls, and prefers a
simple life in their midst to an artificial life in a big city.
(3) Social Reform and Loving-Kindness: But this does not mean that in
Hardy's view man should make no attempts to ameliorate his lot. Hardy distinguishes
between the natural and the social environment. While man can do nothing to change
the natural environment, and must submit passively to it, he can do much to change his
social environment through wise social reforms. Marriage laws, for example, should be
liberalised in favour of the weaker sex. Unfortunate women, like Tess, who are more
sinned against than sinning, should be accepted by society. No stigma should attach to
them, for they are essentially pure. A spirit of "loving-kindness" should pervade all
human relations and then all would be well. Life is suffering, but man should not increase
its misery by this cruelty to his fellow-men, to women, and to the lower creatures.
Conclusion : Hardy's Humanism
Such is Hardy's philosophy of life. It is certainly a gloomy one, for he regards life as
suffering and man as a puppet in the hands of Destiny. But it cannot be called pessimistic,
for pessimism implies negation of life, a wish not to have been born at all. It is only in his
last novel, Jude the Obscure,that some cynism enters and Hardy becomes pessimistic.
Otherwise, Hardy is a humanist, a poet who wants man to turn from nature to his own
kind, for,
"There at least discourse trills around,
There at least smiles abound,
There sametime are found,
Life-Loyalties."

Hardy's Conception of Tragedy

(1) "Destiny as Character."
(2) Shakespeare and Hardy as tragic artists.
(3) Causes of Tragedy in Hardy's Novels.
Hardy: Shakespeare of the English Novel

Hardy has been called the Shakespeare of the English novel and the four great
Hardian tragedies — Tess of the D'urbeivilles, Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of
Casterbridge and The Return of The Native— have been likened to the four great
Shakespearean tragedies. But Hardy's conception of tragedy is radically different from
that of Shakespeare.
Hardy's Tragic Hero
In a Shakespearean tragedy, as Bradley has pointed out, the tragic hero is a man of
high rank and position. He may belong to the royal family or he may be some great
general and warrior indispensable for the state. He is not only exalted socially, but he has
also some uncommon qualities of head and heart. He is, in short, a rare individual. When
such a person falls from greatness and his high position is reversed the result
is'Kathartic'. His fall excites the tragic emotion of terror and the readers are purged of
the emotion of self-pity.
This was the traditional concept of Tragedy upto Hardy, But Hardy has his own
concept, he is the innovator of a new form of tragedy. His tragic heroes and heroines are
no exalted personages. They are neither kings nor queens. They belong to the lowest
ranks of society. Tess, for example, is an humble dairymaid. Henchard is a hay-trusser
and Giles is a poor wood-cutter and cider-maker. They may belong to the humblest rank
of society, but they are all rare individuals. They have some exceptional qualities of head
and heart which exalt them above the common run of mankind. Henchard, for example,
is a man of character and Tess is a 'pure woman', an almost, "standard woman." She has
that 'touch of rarity' which makes her interesting to all. Her "sensitivity of conscience",
despite her early up-bringing and lack of moral education, is surprising in the extreme.
Hardian Tragedy: Apotheosis of Human Spirit
When these humble heroes and heroines of Hardy suffer and fall from grace the
effect is an 'Kathartic' as that of a Shakespearean tragedy. An Hardian tragedy is an
apotheosis of the human spirit. It reveals to us the essential nobility and heroism of the
human soul. Tess fights upto the end against heavy odds and by her courage and fortitude
endears herself to the readers of Hardy. Her head is bloody, but it remains unbowed. She
is ruined but she never murmurs or gives in. Humanity may be insect-like in its
insignificance, but it has capacities like those of the gods.
Tragic Waste in Hardy
Like a Shakespcarean tragedy, a Hardian tragedy also creates the impression of
tragic waste. Evil is eliminated in the long run, but always at the cost of much that is
good and desirable. The real tragedy is this waste of good. Alec is killed in the end but it
is no tragedy, for he richly deserved punishment. Tess is hanged; that, too, is not the real
tragedy, for man is moral and he must die one day. The real tragedy is that the soul of
Tess is cursed in the end and she surrenders her body to Alec. It is this which is fearful,
appalling and terrifying. Similarly, much good is wasted when Eustacia comes to a tragic
end.
Hardian Tragedy Elevating
But a Hardian tragedy does not discourage, or cause despair. "It is elevating and
stimulating. It does not shake our faith in life, all the more it strengthens us : it does not
make us light-hearted, but makes us wiser and better."
No Tragic Flaw in Hardy
The Shakespearean hero has some fault of character, some strong tendency to act in
a particular way, which is the cause of his undoing. Bradley has called this weakness of
the hero as the "tragic flaw" of his character. This tragic flaw is responsible for the fall of
the hero, it is the cause of the tragedy. Though at a later stage the course of action is
complicated by other factors — chance, abnormal state of mind, some supernatural force,
etc., — yet primarily action issues out of character. Character is responsible for
tragedy. "Character is destiny in Shakespeare." But this is not so in Hardy. His tragic
heroes and heroines are free from any 'tragic flaw' in the Shakespearean sense. They do
not have any obsession or a marked tendency to act in a particular way. Character is not
the cause of Tragedy. The tragedy of Tess begins with a crime and ends with a crime. But
she is a 'pure woman'. She is more sinned against than sinning. She suffers for no fault
of her, but owing to circumstances beyond her control.
The Cause of Tragedy: Destiny and Not Character
"Character may be destiny" in Shakespeare, but in Hardy "Destiny is
Character." Tess cannot escape her destiny in spite of her best efforts to do so. She
cannot avoid it. She wriths under the attack of destiny. We feel that she suffers because
"It was to be." Fate or destiny expresses itself as chance. In all his novels, chance in its
malevolent aspect is present throughout. It is by chance that she falls asleep and the
horse Prince is killed. It is by chance again that she meets the wrong man in the very
beginning of her life and is thus ruined by him. It is again a chance that she should go to
the dairy at Talbothays and Angel Clare should also have come there to learn dairy-
farming. Her letter of confession never reaches' him, but by chance slips beneath the
carpet and remains hidden there. She goes to meet her in-laws at Emminster, and by
chance meets the brother before she has met the parents. Thus malicious chance or
destiny is against her from first to last. Destiny, and not her character, is responsible for
the tragedy of Tess.
In the Return of the Native and the Mayor of Casterbridge, no doubt, character
plays a significant role in bringing about the tragedy. It is the Mayor's "Bufello wrong-
headedness", that is responsible for much of his suffering. Similarly, Eustacia's tragedy
results from her excessive love of the glittering city life and from her extreme hunger for
love. But in these novels also cruel Destiny in the form of chance is ever present. It is just
a chance that Clym is asleep and Eustacia does not open the door to Mrs. Yeobright
thinking that her husband would do so. It is also by chance that Clym comes to know
from Jonny, the real facts about his mother's death. It is cruel destiny which places
Eustacia in an environment which proves to be her ruin in the long-run.
The Tragic Hero: Is He Responsible for his Actions ?
Indeed, Hardy denied freedom of action to the individual. With the German idealists
he believed that we can do, "What we will; but we cannot will what we will". In his
considered opinion, human freedom of action is an illusion. A man's character is
determined by his ancestry, environment, and the Immanent Will —the supreme moving
force in Hardy's universe —working from within and without. When working from
without, the Immanent Will takes the form of destiny or chance. When working from
within, it takes the form of an urge to act in a particular way. Tess, for example, has taken
an oath of celibacy. She does not want to love Clare and have anything to do wit!' him.
But some force working within her, irresistibly draws her towards Clare and she cannot
help loving him. The result is catastrophe and tragedy. Thus in the tragedies even the
actions of the hero and heroine are not voluntary or the result of free will. They are the
results of compulsion from within. Even if he wants, the individual cannot act in any
different manner. Hence he can not be considered responsible for the tragedy that takes
place.
Hardy's Originality
Such is Hardy's concept of tragedy."Character is not destiny" in his tragedies. He is
an innovator in more ways than one. He has democratised the conception of tragedy.
Both character and destiny are responsible for tragedy. Society also plays an important
role in bringing about the ruin of the hero. Sometimes, it is the intrusion of the urban
element which causes tragedy. Lucetta and Farfrae, both people from (he city, contribute
to the downhill of Henchard, and Angel Clare causes I lie ruin of poor Tess. A similar role
is played by Clym and Wildieve in the Return of the Native.

The Role of Chance and Fate In The Wessex Novels

Importance of Fate in Hardy
In Hardy's novels, Fate plays an all important part. It is the supreme over-character
in his works, controlling the destinies of his characters and sending them to their doom.
His characters seem to be simply puppets in the hands of malignant Fate or Destiny.
They are always in conflict with their fate, for while they work to one end, Fate seems to
be working to some opposite end. The result is tragedy, misery and suffering for puny
mortals. It is for this reason that, the ill-judged execution of well-judged plan of things,
the call seldom produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour of
loving. Nature (or Fate) does not often say "see!" to a body at a time when seeing can
lead to happy doing."

This blind working of Fate makes life a "strange orchestra of victim shriek and
pain." "Man and woman wander about the earth, like two halves of a perfect whole,
each waiting for the missing counterpa1 and out of this maldroit delays spring
anxieties, disappointments, shocks, etc." Commenting on the importance of Fate in the
novels of Thomas Hardy, writes D. Cecil: "A struggle between man, on the one hand,
and, on the other, an omnipotent and indifferent Fate —that is Hardy's interpretation
of the human scene."
The Conflict Between Fate and Individual
Thus in Hardy's view, Fate is indifferent and blind. In its blind and indifferent
working, it often works against human happiness and so it seems to the victims as hostile
and malevolent. It is omnipotent and the cause of all human suffering. In his novels, the
real conflict is not between man and man or between man and society, but between man
and the impersonal, omnipotent Fate. All are puppets in the hands of Fate. Even those
characters who are' generally considered wicked, are as much the victims of Fate as those
who are considered good. Thus Alec is as much in the hands of Fate as Tess : Henchard
is as much a plaything of Fate as Farfrae or Eliabath-janc. All are to be equally pitied;
none is to be blamed, for all are creatures of circumstances, helpless victims of a blind,
indifferent and all powerful Fate.
Fate as Some Natural Force
Now Fate is an abstraction, and in order that it may play an effective purl in the
human drama, it must be objectified in some particular form. Sometimes, it is objectified
as some natural force. For example in Tin1 Mayor of Casterbridge, Fate expresses itself
as hostile weather which ruins Henchard. But more frequently, Fate expresses itself as
chance and love.
Fate and Chance
Chance plays an important role, even an exaggerated role, in the novels of Thomas
Hardy. Many things which are mysterious, and sudden, and which cannot be accounted
for in any natural way take place. The unexpected often happens and always it is
the undesireable unexpected. Such chance events are heavy blows aimed at the heads of
Hardy's protagonists and the send them to their dooms Cross in The Development of the
English Nave has emphasised the role of chance in Tess of the D'urbervilles in the
following worlds :
"At the very threshold of her life she (Tess) meets the wrong man. few days before
she marries Clare, she pushes under the door of his bedroon a written confession, which
slips out of sight under the carpet, where i remains concealed until found by Tess on the
wedding morning. On a Sunday Tess tramps fifteen miles to the parsonage of the elder
Clare to seek protection but there is no answer to her ring at the door, for the family is at
Church At just the wrong time she stumbles upon Alec once more. A letter she despatches
to Angel in Brazil is delayed; and he reaches home a few days too late".
In this way, from first to last, the plot ofTess is dominated by chance events. It is a
tragedy brought about by wrong things happening unexpected!' at the wrong moment.
Tess suffers because everything happens contrary to her wishes and expectations, in a
way that cannot be accounted for, except by reference to a hostile Fate.
Fate as Love
Sometimes, Fate takes the form of love. All Hardy's novels are love stories. Love is
the predominant factor in the lives of his characters, more specially female characters.
Love as conceived by Hardy is a"Lord of terrible aspect, a blind irresistible power
seizing on human beings whether they will or not, and always bringing min on
them." After her betrayal, Tess had regained equilibrium and she would have lived
contentedly enough, had she not beer mastered by her passion for Angel Clare. But her
love for him carries her off her feet and throws her down broken and despairing. She
loves Clare with all the warmth of her emotional nature. She worships him and inspite of
all her resolution to the contrary marries him. She consideres it an act of treachery to
conceal anything from her beloved and so reveals to him all about her past. The result is
terrible. Angel Clare, that man with a hard 'logical deposit', cannot forgive her. He deserts
her. Tess pays, and pays terribly for loving him so much. It is again on account of her
love for him that, in a fit of desperation, she stabs Alec and ends her life on the gallows.
Love is equally the cause of tragedy in the Return of the Native.Eustacia is dominated by
her passion and the result is not happiness but tragedy. It is rarely that love leads to
happiness, but it always leads to tragedy. Elizabeth-Jane, too, suffers in love, though
ultimately she gets the objects of her desire.

'Irony of Life or Circumstance" In Hardy

Irony of Life Defined and Explained
Irony is a literary device frequently used by witers to indicate the contrariness of
human life. It is a matter of common experience that in life we do not get what we expect
or desire. We expect one thing and we get its exact opposite. Thus irony of life or
circumstance may be defined as a situation which is the exact opposite of what has been
expected and desired. Such a situation seems to have been contrived by malignant fate.
Hence it is also called irony of Fate. Thus irony of Fate, Circumstances, or Life, lies in the
frustration of human aspirations. It implies Fate or the powers that rule on high working
against humanity and mocking at its frustration. This irony plays an important part in
Hardy's novels and it is most frequently used by him to create tragic effects. C.
Duflln remarks in this connection:

"In life it is the unexpected that happens, in the world of Hardy's novels it is the
undesirable unexpected. His whole novels are built upon the doctrine of the irony of
Fate, as commonly understood."
Irony of Life in "The Mayor of Casterbridge"
Hardy's characters are all victims of the irony of Fate; everything happens contrary
to their wishes and calculations. Like Elizabeth .lane, they all feel that there is no
necessary connection between desert and reward, desire and attainment, and endeavour
and accomplishment. Elizabeth- jane is a victim of this irony, for, "Continually it
happened that what she had desired had not been granted her, and that what had been
granted her she had not desired."
Henchard suffers equally at the hands of this mocking sequence of things. He had
contrived for long to make Jane his daughter and teach her to call him her fathet. But the
day he succeeds and she agrees to call him, 'father', he discovers that she was not his real
daughter and finds no pleasure in the achievement of his wishes. He is thus a victim of
the irony of life : "The mockciy was, that he should have no sonner taught a girl to claim
the shelter of his paternity, than he discovered her to have no kinship with him. Tins
ironical sequence of things angered him, like an impish trick from a fellow creature."
Tess', a Study in the Irony of Fate
 Coming to Tess of the D'urben'illes, we find that this novel also is a "study in the
irony of Fate." In this sorry universe, all arc equal victims of universal harshness, "the
harshness of the position towards the temperament, of the means towards the aims of
today towards yesterday, of hereafter towards to-day." Tess herself is the victim of this
irony of Fate. She goes to Trantridge to "claim kin" and it is hoped much good would
come out of the visit. Their rich relations would befriend them and Tess would marry a
gentleman and become a lady. But alas! the result is catastrophic. To the right man she
remains just a fleeting impression, while on the very first day of her visit she is marked
and coveted by the wrong man :
"In the ill-judged execution of the well-judged plan of things, the call seldom
produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour for loving." Nature
does not often say "see" to a poor creature at a time when seeing can lead to happy doing
: or reply "Here" ! to a body's cry of 'Where?' ......... and, "out of such maladroit delays
spring anxieties, disappointments, shocks, catastrophes — and what is called a strange
destiny."
Angel Clare and Alec as Victims
Angel Clare 'too' is as much a victim of the nony of fate as Tess. As he himself puts
it, he had given up all social ambitions and married much below his rank. He had hoped
that he, "would secure rustic innocence as surely as he had secured pink cheeks. But in
this also Fate had baulked him. He finds that Tess, whom he had regarded as a "Dewy
fresh daughter of nature" etc., was not after all so chaste and fresh. She had a past and
was, in short, a different woman from the one he had taken her to be.
Similarly, Alec also, villain though he be, is a victim of the irony of life. He seduced
Tess thinking that she was an ordinary peasant girl, like many others whom he had
seduced in the past. But to his bewilderment, he finds that she is an uncommon girl,
mighty sensitive for a farm hand. The result is he receives his death from the hands of
his victim. He had never expected that the affair would have such tragic results. Besides
this, later in the story, he secures a marriage licence and hurries to her with the honest
intention of marrying her and thus making amends for the wrong that he had done to
her. But he finds Tess already married. Such is the mockery of fate!
Irony in "The Return of The Native"
This novel also is a study in the irony of life. Eustacia longs for city life and she
marries Clym in the hope that he would take her to Paris where she would be perfectly
happy. But soon she finds her husband blind and an humble furze-cutter. Similarly, Clym
marries Eustacia in the hope that she would be of great help to him in running his school.
But he soon discovers that she pines for city life which he himself has renounced. Their
love marriage instead of leading to happiness results in tragedy for all concerned.
Similarly, Mrs. Yeobright comes to her son's cottage to be reconciled to him, but meets
her death instead.

Hardy's presentation of Rustic Life

The Three Categories of Hardy's Characters
Hardy's characters may be divided into three groups or classes on the basis of their
significance in the main action of a novel:
 (1) First of all, there are the protagonists (hero and heroine) of the novel, who play
a leading role in its action. As a matter of fact the action is chiefly concerned
with their destiny.

(2) Secondly, there are characters of a secondary importance who are in contact with
the chief figures and derive interest and significance from such contact. They
play only a subordinate part in the development of action.
(3) Thirdly, there are the minor rustic characters who do not have much
significance as far as the main action is concerned. They arc the rustic lookers
on. They arc also called the,'chorus group' or the, "philosophical party", on the
basis of their function.
The Rustics: Representative Nature
These rural folks of Hardy are drawn from every walk of Wessex-life. They are
shepherds, farm labourers, wood-cutters, fruze-cutters, domestic servants or those
serving in some inn, dairy-hands, etc. In short, they represent every occupation of
Wessex. In the Return of the Native, we have grandfather Cantle, Christian, Charley,
Susan Nunsuch, Johnny Nunsuch, Oily Dowden, etc. In Far From the Madding
Crowd, there is the grandest of this chorus group, Smallbury, Jacob, William, his son,
Joseph Poorgrass, Jan Coggon, Mathcw Moon, etc. In the Mayor of Casterbridgc, there
arc Solomon Longways, Christopher Coney, Buzzford, Able Whittel, Mother Cuxsom,
Nance Mockridge, etc. Such a "rustic-group" is present in almost all the Wessex
novels. Tess' of the D'urbemilles and Jude the Obscure arc the only exceptions and they
lose much of their charm as a consequence.
They Impart Realism
These rustic characters are not full length portraits, but they are realistically drawn.
As C. Duflln puts it, "their collective function precludes all individual realism." As they
appear always in a group, they have neither been individualised nor drawn at length.
They arc drawn in a convention different from the one used for the main characters. They
remind us of the minor characters of Shakespeare, Sir Toby Betch, Sir Andrew, Maria,
Feste, etc. they stand for real, Wessex country folk. photographer gives only an outside
view of a person, though that view is accurate. Hardy also, in the case of these characters,
presents only an outside, surface view and makes no attempts at diving deep into their
souls or developing them at full length. It is only rarely that they are individualised. The
episode of Charley and Eustacia's hand in the Return of the Native readily comes to mind
in this connection. Jan Coggan, too, in Far From the Madding Crowd', plays a man's'
part, though only for a moment, with Gabriel Oak.
Ignorant and Superstitious
Generally speaking, these minor characters are all ignorant, illiterate, orthodox and
superstitious. They believe in ghosts and witches and black magic. Christian believes in
the superstition, "no moon, no man", and is terribly afraid of ghosts. Belief in conjurers
and forecasters is wide-spread. Susan-Nunsuch is a superstitious woman who regards
Eustacia as a witch and burns her wax effigy. They oil their boots instead of blacking
them and they dust their coats with a switch instead of with a brush. It is to improve
these ignorant and superstitious people that Clym returns to Egdon Heath and becomes
a schoolmaster. Although these rustics are realistically portrayed from real Wessex
people, "there is thrown over them a veil of romantic glamour." C. Duffin rightly
remarks, "They are in a degree idealised, the faintest atmosphere of poetry laps them
round." They are divested to a great extent,"of that grossness and vulgarity which is
seldom absent from rusticity in real life."
Depositaries of Customs and Superstitions
These country-folk of Hardy are permeated through and through with Wessex spirit
and traditions. They are eternal like the woods and the dales which they inhabit. Man
many come and man may go, but, like mankind, they go on for ever and ever. "We may
in them read the spiritual history of a countryside : Feudalism and Catholicism and
Protestantism, law and education and tradition, changes in agriculture and commerce,
in traffic, society and living, all have worked and wrought upon these people."
As Baker puts it, "They are as eternal as the woods and fields and heaths; whereas the
different lovers, the weak or faithless women, the anguished victims of despair, are
symbols of a present phase of disturbance, restlessness and maladjustment." They are
the sole depositories of ancient customs and traditions. It is because of them that ancient
festivities and celebrations, like the mumming at Mrs. Yeobright's house, the gipsying at
Aldersworth, the Maypole dancing, the ceremonial bonfires, the various wedding
customs and festivities, etc., continue from generation to generation. They may be
ignorant, but they are also innocent and jolly. They drink and gossip, sing and dance and
help each other in trouble.
Their Speech: Local Dialect
It is to emphasise their realism that they are made to speak in dialect. They speak
the very language used by the rustics of Wessex. This shows them to be truly and
completely as rustics. In this way, Hardy achieved not only a realistic presentation of
Wessex life, but also created a sense of their aloofness from common civilised society and
a sense of their nearness to nature, so necessary for the performance of their chorus-like
function. In this way, they appear to be the emanations of the surrounding hills and
dales, woods and heaths, and entirely different from the other characters. However, the
dialect which they use is subjected to the same process of "selection and ordering of
material" as is the key-note of Hardy's art. Their speech is free from much of the
grossness and vulgarity which characterises real rustic speech.
It may also be mentioned here that their gestures, their facial expressions, their
merry or sardonic visages, are as eloquent as their speech. Every word which they utter
is imparted significance and effectiveness by the gesture which accompanies it.
Humour: Dramatic Relief
These rustics have been given an important role in the Wessex novels. The most
important function which they perform is to provide dramatic relief. Whatever humour
we get in Hardy's novels is provided by these rustics. Like the minor characters of
Shakespeare, they, too, are funny in themselves and objects of great amusement for
others. Grandfather Cantle, old and jolly with a reputation of being a fool, Christian, who
is 'no man', for he was born when there was "no moon", Joseph Poorgrass who once said
'sir' to an owl, etc., are all perenially funny. These country-folk do much with their racy
comments and comic actions to add cheer and sunshine to otherwise dark and gloomy
atmosphere of Hardy's novels. Tess, otherwise a masterpiece, is deficient in rustic
humour and so grows rather tedious and boring at places,
Their Chorus-like Function
 The role of the minor characters is, in certain respects, very much like that of a
chorus in a Greek Tragedy. Like the chorus, they, too, always appear in groups. They are
observers, but deeply interested observers, of all that goes on around them. They pass
shrewd comments on character and action; they are aids to understanding. They tell of
many things that have happened off the stage, but the knowledge of which is necessary
for a proper understanding of the story. By their timely remarks they serve to reveal the
real significance of all that is taking place, or the real motives of the characters
concerned. These were also the functions of a Greek chorus. It is for these reasons that
these rustics are also called,"the Chorus group."
Represent the Novelist's Point of View
These rural-folks are also referred to as the "philosophical party", for in their
comments they constantly rise from the particular to the general and give wise reflections
on life. In their idle gossip, they frequently moralise. One instance of such philosophy,
and perhaps the best one, we get in The Mayor of Casterbridge. The Mayor's wife is dead
and at her request four pennies are burried with her. One of the rustics, Christopher
Conny, digs out the coins and spends them on drink, for says he, "Why should death rob
life of four pence ?" The rustics at once see the reason of it and agree that as money is
scarce and throats get dry, it would be folly to waste even four pence on death. Often in
their philosophic comments, they represent Hardy's own point of view. They often serve
as the novelist's mouthpieces.
Represent the Norm
The rural-folk represent the norm, the commonsense point of view by which things
are to he judged. When the main protagonists are carried off their feet by, the passions
of the moment, these rustics, of the earth, earthy, keep their feet firmly planted, and
judge things by normal human standards. They stand for sanity and normal healthy life.
Excess of sentiment or passion always get adverse comments from them.
Further the Main Action
Not only that, sometimes they do actually help in the development of action. In
the Return of the Native, the burning of their bonfires helps the meeting of Wildieve and
Eustacia, and their 'mumming', brings together Eustacia and Clym. It is Jonny Nunsuch
who informs Clym of the visit of his mother to his cottage and of the real facts about her
death, and in this way hastens the final catastrophe. In the Mayor of
Casterbridge, the "Skimmity ride" causes the death of Lucetta and has far reaching
repercussions.
Conclusion
Hardy's rural-folk, though not drawn at full length and not individualised, are, 'like
similar characters of Shakespeare, among the immortals of literature. In the Wessex
novels, they form the human background against which the drama of elemental passions
is enacted. They are (a) The representatives of Wessex life, (b) The depositories of its
customs and traditions, (c) Provide humour, (d) Comment on character and action, (e)
Provide useful information, (f) Give expression to the philosophy of the novelist, and (g)
Often play a direct role in the action of the novel and contribute to its development.
Thomas Hardy's Treatment of Nature: His
Originality
1. His Landscape painting.
Hardy's Love of Nature: Provincial and Local
Hardy's love of nature is extremely provincial and local. Born and bred in that tract
of South England which he called Wessex, he loved it all his life with the glow of a lover.
He was permeated with its sights and sounds, with its odour and substances.
Hills, dales, heaths, rivers, meadows and woodlands of Wessex appear and reappear in
one novel after another, and constitute at least one half of the charm of his works. He
has intimate familiarity with his beloved Wessex and renders it with great fidelity. It is
not only a scenic background to his stories, but is almost on over-character
dominating the course of action. In The Return of the Native, for example, Egdon
Heath is a super-character casting a shadow over the lives of all the characters and
influencing the course of their lives at critical moments. It is seldom that he strays out
of Wessex, and whenever he does so he makes a sorry hash of it. He is never at his best
when out of Wessex.
Does Not Spiritualise Nature
Moreover, in his love of Nature there is nothing mystic or transcendental as in that
of Wordsworth. Though he habitually personifies nature-objects, he never believed that
nature has a separate life, a soul, of her own. He loves nature for her beauty, and not for
any mystic qualities that she might have. He does not worship her as a kind and
benevolent goddess, watching benignly over those whose souls are in harmony with her
own soul. He is too much of a realist to care for such romantic nonsense.
His Love of Nature: Comprehensive and Unconventional
But in another respect, his love of nature is more comprehensive and thorough than
that of any of the romantics. He loves and enjoys the conventional beauty of nature. The
beauty of moonlit glades, hills and dales, the arrival of spring when a thousand flowers
bloom and birds make sweet melody, the murmuring of rivers, the beauty of the sunset
and the daydawn, all fire his soul, move him to ecstasy and inspire him to poetic
descriptions. Beautiful nature passages, that bear eloquent testimony to his love of
conventional nature, are scattered all up and down his works. But he also finds beauty of
a new kind in such desolate wastes as Egdon Heath. He finds haggard Egdon sublime
and majestic and vexes lyrical in praise of its grandeur. In Tess of the D'urbervilles, he
finds an unconventional beauty of a tragic tone in desolate, forlorn tract of land called
Cross in Hand. He has a special love for the bleak and barren, for the wild and the stormy.
His love of the beauteous forms of nature, as well as of her uglier aspects, makes nature
alternately lovely and sinister in his works.
Love of Rustics and the Lower Creatures
Thomas Hardy loves not only the scenes and sights of nature but also those who live
in her midst. His characters are all drawn from among those who live and work in the
lap of nature. His best characters are hay-trussers, dairymaids and men, woodcutters,
furze-cutters, etc. He loves simple, elemental natures and portrays them with great
effectiveness. Not only does he love the, "natural man", but also the lower creatures of
nature, the humble breathren of man in nature's teeming family. He is one of the greatest
animal lovers in English Literature. At every step in his works, he displays a close
familiarity with their ways and habits. Some of his animal portraits —as the sheep dogs
of Gabriel Oak —are among the immortal figures of literature. Whenever he sees an
animal in suffering his heart goes out to it. His best characters are all born
humanitarians. They are all great animal lovers. Tess, for example, never could bear to
hurt a fly or a worm and the sight of a bird in a cage used often to make her cry. When
she finds some pheasants suffering death agony, she is moved to tears and puts them out
of their misery.
Awareness of the Faults of Nature
Thomas Hardy is both a poet and a scientist. As a poet, he loves the beauty of nature,
but as a scientist he does not ignore her faults. He is conscious of the ephemeral nature
of her beautiful shows. He enjoys the sweet music of birds, but also knows that it is short
lived. The rose may be beautiful but it has a thorn which pricks the chin of his beautiful
Tess. He knows that the serpent also hisses where the sweet birds sing. He gives us both
the sides of the picture — the ugly as well as the beautiful, the bright as well as the dark.
He portrays nature completely.
Nature Red in Tooth and Claw
Contemporary science has also made him aware of the brutal struggle for existence
that goes on everywhere within the apparent calm of nature. He finds nature rich with
rapine, red in tooth and claw. Life lives upon life, the strong prey upon the weak, and he
comes to the sorry conclusion that mutual butchery is the law of nature. There is no
harmony in nature, but everywhere there is an internecine warfare. In disgust he turns
from nature to his own kind, for there at least he finds "Life loyalties".
Nature Indifferent to Human Lot
Unlike Wordsworth, he fails to find any, "Holy plan" at work in nature. How can one
talk of a holy plan of nature when there is lawlessness and warfare everywhere within
her and when children after children are born to shiftess parents like the Durbeyfields ?
Why does nature bring out innocent children into this world, when she cannot provide
for them? Nature is not benevolent or kind, but rather she is indifferent to human lot.
Nature's indifference is again and again emphasised in the works of Hardy. Thus, Nature
remains indifferent as' the chastity of Tess is violated in her lap. She remains indifferent
to this heinous crime and does nothing to protect her. Though the life of Tess has been
ruined, but everything in nature goes on as usual. As hot anger burns in the heart of
Hardy at the spectacle of Tess' suffering, he goes to the extent of calling nature,
"shameful", "cruel", and "treacherous". It is nature's indifference which makes life
a, "strange orchestra of victim shriek and pain ".
Nature Not a Suitable Norm: One Exception
Hardy does not consider nature a suitable norm for human conduct. To follow her
would be to ape her own brutality and lawlessness. He finds nature's teachings vile and
sinister. There is no question of nature being our teacher or of our receiving from her
both, "law and impulse." But he makes one notable exception. He advocates that our
marriage laws should be based on the laws of nature, and an illegal surrender, at least
when it is the result of force and treachery as in the case of Tess, should not be regarded
with disfavour, because it is not looked down upon in nature. Thus Tess is a pure woman,
for she has broken no law known to nature but only a social law.
Hardy as a Landscape-Painter
 Hardy's keen powers of observation and word painting make him a notable
landscape-painter. "If word-pictures could be hung on walls", says Duffin, "Hardy's
nature pieces would fill up an entire gallery." Hardy's nature descriptions are fresh and
accurate. They are not bookish, but based on first hand observation of the facts and
phenomena of nature. He observes everything, nothing escapes his eye, but he selects
only those details as are likely to serve his purpose. Thus in his nature descriptions he
combines imagination with realism, fact with fiction. By the careful selection and
ordering of material he hightens the significant aspects of a scene and renders it with
greater effectiveness.
Methods of Landscape Painting
This makes Hardy a notable landscape-painter. His methods of landscape painting
are like those of a director of a modern movie. First, he gives us the broad outlines of a
scene, and then moves the camera forward and gives us the details of the landscape. This
combination of the methods of Wordsworth and Crabbe is best seen in the description of
the valley of the ; Great Daires. As Tess arrives there, we are first given the bird's eye
perspective of the scene and then the details. We are first told that the air was clear,
ethereal and bracing, and that the waters of the river were clear and rapid. As Tess
approaches nearer, we are even shown the large-veined udders of the cows that, 'hung
ponderous as the sand-bags, the teats sticking out like the legs of a gipsy's crock; and, as
each animal lingered for its turn to arrive, the milk fell in drops to the ground.' A similar
method has been employed in painting the Vale of Blackmoor.
In certain respects Thomas Hardy has an advantage over the painter, who paints
with the brush. A painter of landscapes can paint only what he sees; Thomas Hardy gives
us also what he hears. Thus he even describes the sound of the juice running in the vein
of plants and the stir of germination in all nature, with the coming of spring. The varied,
whispering sound made by heath bells and heard by Eustacia is the classic example of
Hardy's powers of hearing sounds of nature, and of rendering them into words. Another
thing : Hardyi shows us things in motion which a painter of landscapes with the brush
cannot do. There is nothing static in Hardy's landscapes. He shows things growing,
moving and becoming different from what they are. Thus the change in the moods and
aspects of Egdon Heath is carefully noted and described.
Hardy's Landscapes: Subject to Human Moods
Hardy's landscapes are always subjected to human moods and situations. Thus the
landscape in Tess changes according to the fate of the heroine. As a happy, innocent
maiden, we find her dancing happily on the village green. The scenic background
(landscape) is idyllic. Then she rallys and passes some of the happiest days of her life at
Talbothays. The landscape is beautiful, refreshing, in keeping with the happy love of Tess
and Clare. As a deserted wife, we find her on the bleak and barren Flintcomb Ash farm.
The nature-background is desolate and barren like her own life.
His Landscapes: Vast and Majestic
Contemporary science has revealed to Hardy the vastness of nature both in time and
space. Hardy's landscapes rest on geology. Even history and pre-history are invoked to
cast over the land of Wessex a romantic glow. All Wessex is rich in historic associations.
It abounds with relies of the past. Thus we are told that the Vale of Blackmoor is a historic
district. The traces of its earlier conditions are to be fcund even now in the oak copses
and irregular belts of timber that yet survive. The sky is then brought in to lend a touch
of grandeur and majesty to the landscape. Human figures are then introduced and their
insignificance in scheme of things is pointed out. In this way, Hardy constantly belittles
humanity. We would quote only one example from Tess of the D'urbervilles to illustrate
the point :
"Every leaf of the vegetable having previously been consumed, the whole field was
in colour a desolate drab : it was a complexion without features, as if a face, from chin to
brow, should be only an expanse of skin. The sky wore in another colour, the same
likeness, a white vacuity of countenance with the lineaments gone. So these two upper
and neither visages confronted each other all day long, the white face looking down on
the brown face, and the brown face looking up at the white facewithout anything
standing between them, but the two girls crawling over the surface of the fonner, like
flies."
A similar accuracy and vividness marks his painting of the storm scene in the Far
From the Madding Crowd, and his description of Edgon Heath, a desolate waste, in The
Return of the Native. "Norcombe Hill by Night" remains the most glorious example of
Hardy's nature-painting by night. Even the sky and the stars are brought in to add
majesty and splendour to the scene. Thomas Hardy is at his best when painting scenes
of desolation or describing weather at its worst.
Hardy's Nature-Treatment: Revolutionary
Thus Thomas Hardy's treatment of nature marks a complete break from the
romantic tradition. It is as great a revolt as that of the romantics themselves against the
nature-treatment of Pope and his school.

Hardy's Contribution to the English Novel

Hardy's Greatness as a Novelist
Hardy has come now to be universally recognised as the greatest novelist of the
Victorian era. Indeed, he is one of the greatest novelists in the whole range of English
Literature. Some critics have even called him the Shakespeare of the English novel. Let
us here consider the various merits and demerits of his art and then form our own
estimate of his true greatness as a novelist.

The Classification of Hardy's Novels

Hardy's first novel the Desperate Remedies appeared in 1871, and thereafter novels
after novels flowed from his pen in quick succession. His-last novel, Jude the
Obscure, which was published in 1895, was vehemently criticised as being immoral. This
hostile reception made him give up novel writing for good, for exclaimed he, "a man
would be a fool, to deliberately stand up to be shot at." The Mayor of Caslerbridge, The
Return of the Native, Tess of the D'urbervilles and Jude The Obscure are regarded by
universal consent as his masterpieces, and they have been compared to the four great
Shakespearean tragedies. Prof. L Abercrombie has divided Hardy's novels in to two
groups — the dramatic and the Epic. Dramatic novels are those in which our interests
is divided between a group of character whose actions and interests clash with each
other, such conflict forming the main point of the novel. The Return of the
Native and Far From the Madding Crowd are dramatic, for in them the chief interest
arises from a clash between the main characters. In the epic novels the interest of the
novel centres round the life of a single character. The background is vast and imposing
and there is no sub-plot. Tess of the D'urbervilles obviously belongs to the second class,
for in this novel the action centres round a single character, a milk-maid, whom Hardy
calls a "pure woman". The Mayor of Casterbridge shares the qualities of both these
kinds. Hardy was a born poet and even his novels are the works of a poet. Poetic scenes
of great power abound, and they have earned for Hardy World-wide acclaim and
popularity.
Hardy as a Regional Novelist
Hardy is a regional novelist. He is the creator of "Wessex" a small tract of country
consisting of six odd countries in South England. His knowledge of this limited region
is as thorough as that of Scott of his beloved Scotland and that of Wordsworth of the Lake
District. "Wessex" appears and reappears successively in one novel after another and it
is seldom that he strays out of it. But his treatment of this locality is not narrow or
provincial. He has raised it to the level of the universal. Wessex scenes and sights are
made a part of universal nature and his characters are at one with humanity as a whole.
Wessex heaths and woodlands have an epic grandeur and his principal characters have
the greatness of epic heroes and heroines. He has thus imparted a new emphasis and
significance to the regional novel which had already been dignified by the Bronttes.
His Theme
But above all Thomas Hardy is the creator of the philosophical novel. Uptil now the
English novel was a vehicle of social criticism. Man in society had been its theme so far.
But Thomas Hardy uses the novel to inquire into the cause of things. His novels are
questionings about life. He constantly inquires about the why and whereof of things and
constantly attacks accepted beliefs. Man's predicament in the universe is the theme of
Tliomas Hardy's novels. He has no faith in the benevolent and omnipotent God of
Christianity. He conceives of the First Cause as blind, indifferent and unconscious. Man
suffers owing to the imperfections of the powers on high. The Return of the Nativeis a
tragedy of character and environment but even here chance and fate play an important
role in bringing about the tragedy. Character is responsible for the tragedy only to a very
limited extent. Thus his conception of tragedy differs radically from that of Shakespeare.
His characters suffer for no fault of their own, but because they happen to inhabit a
blighted planet. In Tess of the D'urbervilles, Tess suffers even though she has done no
wrong. She is essentially a pure woman more sinned against than sinning. She has no
'tragic-flaw' in the sense in which all the tragic heroes of Shakespeare have it. In this way,
Hardy is the father of a new form of tragedy. He has given to the English novel depth,
richness and significance.
The Creator of the Democratic Novel
To Thomas Hardy must go the credit of having democratised the English novel.
Aristotle had taught that the hero (at least the tragic hero) of an epic, drama, or novel
must belong to the highest rank of society so that his fall from his previous greatness may
rouse the emotions proper to tragedy. Writers in general followed this precept of
Aristotle. Witness, for example, the great tragic heroes of Shakespeare. But the heroes
and heroines of the great Hardian tragedies are all drawn from the lowest rank of life.
Hcnchard, the hero of The Mayor of Casterbridge, is a haytrusscr, Tess is a milkmaid,
Giles is a cider-maker and pine-planter, Gabriel Oak is a shephard and Clym is a furze-
cutter. He has thus completely broken away from tradition and his novels do not suffer
in any way. He has revealed the essential nobility and grandeur of the soul of humble
humanity that remains unknown in country isolation. Tess, though an humble milk-
maid, has the nobility and grandeur befitting an empress. Hardy's tragedy is as great
an apotheosis of the human spirit as the tragedy of Shakespeare.
Hardy: Treatment of Sex
Hardy has broken new ground in another respect also. He was the first English
novelist who dared to make a woman who had sinned, or who was an adulteress, the
heroine of his novels. Tess is a woman with a past, yet Hardy has made her the heroine
ofTess of the D'urbeivilles. Similarly, Sue Bridehead, heroine of Jude the Obscure, is an
adulteress. Hardy thus shocked Victorian notions of morality and was vehemently
criticised as being immoral and a corrupter of the people. His books were burnt. But he
did not yield; he rather chose to give up novel-writing when the bitter attacks of his critics
were too much for him.
Characterisation
Characterisation is an important aspect of the art of a novelist and Thomas Hardy is
a master of the art of characterisation. Some of his characters are among the immortal
figures of literature. They remind us of the immortal creations of Shakespeare. He
chooses his characters from the lower strata of society because he believed that while the
character and actions of people from high society are concealed by conventions, the
rustics are free from any such control. Hence in their case character is fully revealed and
can easily be portrayed. Thus Thomas Hardy excels in the portrayal of simple, elemental
natures. His female characters are better and more forceful than his male characters,
because women are more elemental, nearer to nature, than men. Thus his range of
characterisation is limited. AH his important characters belong to Wessex and to the
lower strata of society. When he strays out of Wessex or attempts to portray complex
characters drawn from the upper classes of society, he fails miserably. But this does not
mean that his characters have only a topical or local interest. He deals with the universal
passions of man and so his characters are universal in their interest. They appeal to
people in all ages and countries. One has to think only of Henchard, Clym, Tess, Eustacia,
Giles, Marty South, etc., to realise the truth of his statement.
Thomas Hardy's characters are all human beings, with common human weaknesses
and virtues. They are neither saints nor angels, nor unredeemed villains. His characters
may have some faults; they may sin but they are never mean. We never hate them, we
love them despite their faults. They are grand even in the faults they might commit. They
have conscience, and they are torn within themselves when they do some wrong.
Henchard is jealous and revengeful, his wrongs are the result of impulse, never the result
of calculated malice. Whatever we may call him, we can never call him mean. Similarly,
Tess has sinned, but she is essentially a pure woman whom we pity, and whose heroic
struggle against heavy odds we admire.
Minor Characters
Hardy's characters may be divided into two broad classes —major and minor. His
major characters include such unforgetable. and forceful figures as Henchard, Farfrae,
Elizabeth-Jane. Clym, Eustacia, Giles, Marty South, Bathsheba, Gabriel Oak, Tess, Angel
Clare, Sue, Jude, etc. His minor characters are sons of the soil, real children of the earth.
They are representatives of antiquity. They perform the function of the Greek Chorus in
the novels of Hardy. They comment on action and people and tell us of what has
happened off the stage. They are the main source of humour in his novels. They provide
a norm by which to judge the main characters of his novels. Often they are the spokesmen
of Hardy himself and express his views on life. They appear in groups and generally
remain in the background. They may be likened to the clowns of Shakespeare or to his
rustics. They, too, are unforgetable and unique in their own way and constitute much of
the charm of his novels. When they are absent, as from Tess, even the best of his novels
lose something owing to their absence.
Plot Construction
Hardy's novels are masterpieces from the point of view of plot construction as well.
They have an architectural finish and symmetry. The architectonics of Hardy have been
praised by all who have studied him. The forethought, the careful planning, the pattern
and design, the majesty and grandeur of the plots of his novels, is explained by his early
architectural training. They are all massively built. As an edifice rises brick by brick,
joined together by mortar according to a particular plan, so are Hardy's plots constructed
scene after scene, and his wessex and his philosophy are the cement that weilds the
scenes into a single whole. Digressions are there, still everything develops according to a
preconceived design. There is no looseness, unfinished odds and ends.
The Faults of His Plots
But his plots are old fashioned. They are all love stories. The wrong man meets the
wrong woman or vice versa and thus complications arise leading the characters to their
doom. The "eternal triangle", is always there. Moreover, they follow the old fashioned
dramatic plot-pattern in the convention of Fielding. There is action, sensation and thrill;
but there is no such introspection, or psychol-analysis as we expect from a modern
novelist, and as we get in the novels of writers like Henry James. While Hardy is a
modern as far as the thought content of his novels is concerned, he is conventional and
old fashioned in his plot construction. Moreover, his plots turn too much on chance and
coincidence. This is unrealistic and jars upon the reader's sense of probability.
Style
The style of Hardy has come in for a great deal of criticism. Mr. Erza
Poundaccused him of writing with a blunted pencil. Others have called him pedantic for
his use of obsolete, dialectic words and such words and expressions drawn from the
terminology of the arts and the sciences, as are unlikely to be familar to the average
reader. He has been condemned for his faulty grammar —for his split infinitives,
unrelated participles, and the misuse of articles and prepositions. These arc serious
faults, no doubt, anil it is right that they should be pointed out. But the fact remains that
Thomas Hardy's style is the best suited for his purposes. It is a poetic style. He has an
almost Shakespearean felicity of expression, and has the rare, and invaluable nack of
using the best word for his purpose. At every step his style reveals the sincerity of the
man. He uses obsolete words and expressions, and scientific terminology only because
he wants to be exact and convey his sense to the readers as accurately as possible. He is
master of the use of similes and metaphors. When at his best, images after images come
out of his pen as sparks from a chimney fire. His rustics speak their own dialect, but they
use it most forcefully and effectively. Hardy instinctively chooses the best possible
vehicle of expression for them and for himself.
The Modern Note
Hardy is largely a traditional novelist. His plots, his characters are all conventional.
His narrative is straightforward. We do not find in him that probing into the human soul
which we find in the modern psychological novel. He does not, "move backward and
forward in time as a stream of consciousness" novelist does. He does not disregard
chronology or the logical sequence of events. His form is conventional, but as far as his
matter is concerned he is entirely a modern. He is a modern in his views of God and
religion, and in his free and frank treatment of sex.
Position of Hardy as a Novelist
What is Hardy's true position as a novelist ? To answer this question we can do no
better than quote from the estimate of Thomas Hardy's art given by L. Johnson in his
admirable critique on our novelist : 'In the largeness of design, in the march and sweep
of imagination, in the greatness of his great themes, he has given to the novel a simple
grandeur and impressiveness, the more impressive for his preoccupation with the
concerns of modem thought." Thus Hardy occupies an important place in the
development of the English novel.

Hardy’s View of god and Religion

Hardy: Religions Faith
Hardy was born in a devout Christian family. His parents were regular church-goers.
His father and grandfather were church-fiddlers and as a boy he himself fiddled in the
church on several occasions. All his life he attended the church regularly and, like his
own Angel Clare, had the greatest possible respect for the Institution. Early in life the
holy Bible was placed in his hands and repeated reading of it made it a part and parcel of
his very being. His style betrays profound influence of the holy book and quotations from
it abound in his works.

Hardy: Christian Virtues

The church and the Bible were the most important formative influences on Thomas
Hardy. We know it from the testimony of all those who came in contact with him
that,"Hardy was one of the most Christian spirits that ever lived." He possessed all the
Christian virtues —humanity, compassion, love for all life, truthfulness — to a
remarkable extent. He was one of the most human persons that have ever walked on this
sorry planet of ours. His best characters are all endowed with the typical Christian
virtues. Tess, for example, is charitable, conscientious, pure in heart and full of the spirit
of love and self-sacrifice. She could never bear to hurt a fly or a worm, and the sight of a
bird in a cage often made her cry. All the tendencies of her life and character represent
the finest aspects of Christianity.
Hardy: Religious Hypocrisy
Though absolutely religious in the real sense, he was never in sympathy with a false
conventional morality, and could not tolerate the hypocrisy and sentimentality of many
of its ministers and professional champions. He had a profound respect for the clergy of
a genuine sort who, like the elder Mr. Clare, had the good of their parishioners really at
heart. But he never missed an opportunity of having a dig at those servants of religion
who are callous and sentimental like the clergy of Marlott —he refuses to give Tess's child
a Christian burial because it had not been properly baptised ! Nor could he tolerate the
custom of painting texts from the Bible at prominent places with the idea of reforming
the sinners. The episode of Tess's meeting with the painter who paints texts like THY
DAMNATION SLUMBERTH NOT is a delicious bit of satire on the practice. Similar in
nature is the episode of Alec's conversion from a leacher into a preacher. It is no
conversion at all. It is merely a transformation. The inferior man lies within and springs
into action at the first sight of Tess's big black eyes and arched lips. Indeed, as W. L. Cross
points out, "He (Hardy) is out of joint with the codes of conduct sanctioned by a
Christian civilisation." Arnold Kettle in his"Introduction to the English
Novel"pertinently remarks — "And in the pattern of the novel (Tess) the Christian
Church is seen at best a neutral observer, at worst an active abettor in the process of
destruction."
Hardy: Rejection of the Christian Concept of God
Though emotionally he remained a devout Christian all his life, intellectually he lost
faith in the God of Christian theology quite early in life. He could not reconcile (he fact
of suffering with the concept of a kind, benevolent, omnipotent and omniscient God. The
suffering and misery that he saw everywhere in nature made him feel, again like his own
Angel Clare, that
"God is not in His heaven,
Everything is wrong with the world."
Hardy: View of the First Cause
Under the influence of contemporary science and modern thought, he conceived of
the First Cause as a force or energy working within the universe and causing it to change
and grow. He used the pronoun 'it' and not 'his' for the First Cause and conceived of it as
blind, unconscious and indifferent to human lot. He has referred to it by a number of
names in his works. God, Nature, Chance, Fate and finally Immanent Will, are the
various terms he used for the cause of things.
Hardy: Immanent Will
Thomas Hardy has developed his theory of the immanent Will forcefully and in
detail in his most philosophical work, Tlie Dynasts.He has represented it as a blind
worker, working ceaselessly and aimlessly. It has no sensibility, does not understand any
concepts of right and wrong, pleasure and pain, and is 'loveless' and hatcless. It remains
indifferent to human loi and from these imperfections of the first cause —the Immanent
Will —arise all the ills of humanity. It is a creature of inferior moral quality and this has
made human life, "a strange orchestra of victim shriek and pain." The only hope for a
suffering humanity is the gradual enlightenment of the Immanent Will. One day it may
evolve consciousness and then the, "rages of the ages shall be mended." Such a hope is
held out towards the end of the Dynasts.
Hardy: Spectacle of Suffering
Thus in Hardy's considered view, the First Cause is indifferent and unconscious. But
when carried away by his indignation at the spectacle of human suffering, he shakes his
fist at the unrcgcnerale cause of things and personifies it as a merciless, malicious
creator, who takes pleasure in the pairs and misery of us poor morals. Expressions, like
the one at the end of Tess— justice was done and the President of the immortals had
ended his sport with Tess— are the outbursts of a sensitive nature at the sight of human
suffering and agony.
Conclusion
 Thomas Hardy is thus a modern in his rejection of the anthropomorphic concept of
the First Cause. But he was basically a devout Christian. His genius was religious and so
all his works have a deeply religious tone.

Marriage and Sex Relations in Hardy

The Need of Reform
Hardy pondered deep on the question of marriage and sex relations and came to the
conclusion that much human misery can be avoided only if there is a reform of marriage
laws. His views on marriage and sex relations have been expressed in a number of novels,
but his position has been most forcefully stated in his two last masterpieces—Jude the
Obscure and Tess of the D'urbervilles.

Impulsive Marriages
Hardy believed that a marriage should not be the result of a momentary impulse or
a passing fancy. He was thus against a marriage based on love at first sight. A marriage
to be successful, to be most conductive to the happiness of the married couple, should be
based on a harmony of taste and temperaments. Jude and Arabella failed to live happily
together because their marriage was impulsive and there was no similarity in their
natures. In their temperaments the two were poles apart. Angel Clare, on the other hand,
wants to marry a dairymaid because she is likely to be a true helpmate to him in
the vocation of farming. He feels, and he reflects the view of Hardy, that a fashionable
woman of high society would not be a good wife for him, for she would not be a help to
him in any way in the vocation that he has chosen for himself. He, therefore, prefers Tess
to Mercy Chant.
Advocacy of Divorce
Hardy felt that early imprudent marriages lead to the frustration of many a
promising youth's high aims and hopes, and the ruin of his career. Henchard, in
theMayor of Casterbridge, feels that he had ruined himself by an early and foolish
marriage and says, "For my part I do not see why men who have got wives, and do not
want them, should not get rid of them as these gypsy fellows do of their horses." In his
preface to Jude the Obscure, Hardy states, "A marriage should be dissolved as soon as
it becomes a cruelty to either of the parties, — being then essentially no marriage."
The aim of a marriage is not only sexual gratification or the increase of population,
but also the happiness of the individual. If the husband and wife do not find pleasure in
each other's company or if the marriage makes them unhappy, then it should be
dissolved and the couple should find "quid sir relief in parting." Hardy calls such
marriages "social nooses and gins" to hold back the unwilling.
Advocacy of Liberal Marriage Laws
Hardy was vehemently criticised for his -views and was called tht breaker of homes
and the corruptor of public morals. But Hardy was nothing of the kind. He did not
advocate promiscuity or sexual licence, he only wanted, "a liberalisation of the
marriage laws in favour of the weaker sex." He believec and rightly, too, that the 'purity'
is of the mind and the spirit and not of the body. He, therefore, advocated that women
like Tess, who arc more sinned against than sinning, should not be treated as outcasts.
They are essentially pure, for their attitude, the whole tendency of their life, is moral.
Therefore, Hardy, like Angel Clare, elevates, "Hallenic Paganism at the expense of
Christianity", for in that civilization an illegal surrender was not certain disesteem.
Surely then he might have regarded that abhorrence of the un-intact state, which he had
inherited with the creed of mysticism, as at least open to correction when the result was
due to treachery."
Abhorrence of Double Standards
Thus Hardy's views on marriage and sex relations are essentially humane.
He abhors the Christian double standards of morality,one standard of judgement for
women and another for men. He has no sympathy for hard-hearted and self centred
people like Angel Clare who are not ready to pardon another exactly for the same sin for
which they themselves have been forgiven a moment before. He advocated, "a closer
interaction of the social machinery", a reform of the marriage laws, more just to the
weaker sex, so that essentially 'pure' women like Tess may get a fair deal at the hands of
society. Modern divorce laws clearly prove the correctness of Hardy's position.

Outline Stories of Some Major Novels of Hardy

1. Under the Greenwood Tree
Hardy's first important novel Under the Greenwood Tree is a poetic idyll. Here
Hardy describes, as he does in most of his novels, the rural life of Wessex. The scene is
laid in Mellstock village. Dick Dewy loves Fancy Day, the school mistress. The course of
their love does not run smooth. Though there are many obstructions in the way of their
marriage, yet in the end they are happily joined. They are engaged, Dick and Fancy Day.
But Fancy Day, for sometime, is tempted by the Vicar's offer of marriage. Soon she
realises her mistake and withdraws. The novel ends happily with their marriage.

2. A Pair of Blue Eyes

Stephen Smith, a young architect, comes to Endelstow to restore a Church tower and
falls in love with Elfride Swancourt, the blue-eyed daughter of the Vicar. The Vicar does
not like the idea of their marriage because Stephen belongs to an ordinary family. The
two lovers plan to elope but the girl's mind is not firm, as a result of which the scheme
fails. In his disappointment, Stephen accepts a post in India. Now Elfride meets another
lover, Henry Knight, whose life she had saved. They are engaged. Then a woman informs
Knight of Elfride's affair with Stephen and the engagement is broken. This breaks
Elfride's heart. After sometime there is a meeting between Stephen and Knight when the
latter comes to know of the true facts about her. They run to Cornwall to clarify the things
to her. But her dead body is in the same train by which they are travelling. Such is the
irony of Me.
3. Far From the Madding Crowd
Gabriel Oak, the hero of the novel, loves Bathsheba Everdeene devotedly for many
years, but gets no encouragement from her. There is a gallant fascinating soldier,
Sergeant Troy. He has deserted Fanny Robin who dies in a workhouse. Now he comes to
Bathsheba and wins her. But he starts ill-treating her. Boldwood, a farmer, loves
Bathsheba with great passion and one night murders Troy. Later on, Boldwood himself
becomes mad. Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdeene are at last united. This is one of the
better known novels of Hardy.
4. The Woodlanders
In the wooded country near Blackmore Vale in Dorset, Giles Winterbourne carries
on the apple and cedar trade. He is betrothed to Grace Melbury, the daughter of a timber
merchant. She has gone to a fashionable school for her education. When she comes back,
she feels that she is superior to her rustic lover, Giles. Besides Giles is in financial
difficulties. This results in the breaking of their engagement.'Her marriage takes place
with a fascinating young doctor, Edrcd Fitzpiers. Grace suspects that her husband has
illicit relations with Sukc Damson, a village girl. There is also a wealthy widow, Felice
Charmond. When she comes to the doctor, he turns away from his wife. This
estrangement between the husband and the wife results in divorce which brings Grace
and faithful Giles together again. But his hopes come to nothing. Filzpiers had gone
abroad with Felice Charmond. When he returns from his travels, Grace flies for shelter
to Giles' Cottage. Giles sleeps in the open. As a result of exposer, Giles dies. Charmond
also meets her death. Thus death brings Grace and Fitzpiers to reconciliation. A poor girl
Marty South also loved Giles. At the death of this poor man, she and Grace meet by his
death-bed. Grace is reconciled to Fitzpiers and poor Marty alone stands near his tomb.
5. The Mayor of Casterbridge
It is the story of a hay-trusser, Michael Henchard by name. Though essentially good
at heart, he is a man of moods and strong impulses and owing to his hot headedness
often does wrong. Under a fit of drunkenness, he sells his wife, Susana, and infant
daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor name Newson. Susana, a simple, honest woman,
considers the sale as binding upon her and goes away with the sailor. When sober,
Henchard repents of the black deed he has committed and takes an oath not to drink for
twenty-one years. He solemnly keeps his oath.
Henchard goes to Casterbridge and there by dint of energy and hard work becomes
the Mayor of the town as well as the richest and the most flourishing corn and hay
merchant. After eighteen years, his wife returns to him, Newson being supposed
drowned in one of his voyages. Susana also brings Elizabeth with her, but she is not the
same Elizabeth Jane. She is her daughter by Newson, but she keeps Henchard in the dark
about the death of his real daughter.
Henchard falls from his high position owing to his wrongheadedness. He quarrels
with his friend and able manager Farfrae and turns him out of service. Instead of making
him a friend by allowing him to marry Elizabeth (as they are in love), he turns him into
an enemy by carrying a cut-throat competetion with him. This competition ruins him
and turns him into a beggar. His house and all his other property are auctioned to pay
off his debts. They are purchased by Farfrae who now also becomes the Mayor of the
town.
Farfrae not only displaces Henchard from the affection of the people and from
business, he also displaces him from the heart of his lady-love, Lucetta. Farfrae marries
Lucetta which is a severe blow for Henchard. With hot anger burning within him he
makes an attempt at his life, but his essential goodness asserts itself and he desists at the
last moment.
 Henchard is now a lonely man. He hungers for love and affection, but he does not
get it from any quarter. He has been alineated from his friend and his beloved has been
taken away from him. Now Newson returns and he is in danger of losing Elizabeth-Jane,
too, on whose love he has fallen back even though he has been disillusioned about her
being his real daughter, So in desperation he tells Newson that Elizabeth is dead and thus
tries to keep her to himself.
But all is in vain, Lucetta dies. Farfrae again pays attention to Elizabeth and soon
they are married. Newson, too, returns and truth is revealed to her. In shame at his own
misdeeds and fearing exposure, Henchard leaves the town. He is now a lonely desolate
man. He again turns a hay-trusser and wanders about the desolate Egdon Heath. His
days are numbered. He falls ill and dies a lonely, heart-broken man. His last wish is that
Jane should not be informed of his death and no one should weep for him.
Such is the story of Henchard's life. He has strong weaknesses in his character, but
we do not condemn him. We rather pity him and admire his heroic struggle against heavy
odds. He is really a man of character.
6. The Return of the Native
The action of this novel takes place against the sombre background of Egdon Heath,
a bleak and barren tract of land which has been magnified to epic proportions by the
imaginative rendering of Thomas Hardy. The novel opens with a detailed description of
the atmosphere and characteristic features of this desolate Heath. Indeed, it is the Heath
which dominates the course of action and critics after critics have called it the most
important character in the novel. I
The plot of the novel is simple. Demon Wildeve is an engineer who has turned an
inn-keeper. He makes love to two women at one and the same time —simple and
innocent Thomasin Yeboright and wilful and capricious Eustacia Vye. Thomasin does
not care for her sincere but humble lover, Diggory Venn, a reddleman. She marries
Wildeve who continue his relations with the love-hungry Eustacia even after his
marriage.
Clym, the brother of Thomasin, engaged in diamond trade in Paris, feels disgusted
with the materialistic city life. He returns home with the intention of becoming a teacher
in his home town. Eustacia Vye is fascinated by him. She marries him in the hope that
one day he would take her away to the glittering city of Paris and thus she would escape
her lonely life in Egdon. But she is disappointed. Clym losses his eye-sight as a result of
over-study and becomes a furze-cutter in order to earn his living.
Quite unintentionally, Eustacia becomes the cause of the death of Clym's mother.
When Clym comes to know this, as also of his wife's continuing relation with Wildeve, he
takes her to task for her misdeeds. This leads to a violent scene and the two agree to
separate. In deep frustration, Eustacia elopes with Wildeve in a dark, stormy night. Both
are drowned.
Clym's life is darkened. He considers himself responsible first, for the death of his
mother, and then for the death of his wife. He becomes a wandering preacher, while
Thomasin marries her former lover, the faithful Diggory Venn.
It is a powerful novel and is acclaimed by many as the best work of Hardy. In the
characteristic Hardy manner, the novel shows in this sorry scheme of things tragedy
results because the wrong man and wrong woman come together first, while the right
ones remain indifferent or unknown to each other.
7. Jude the Obscure
Jude the Obscure is a powerful novel. It is the story of a young man who has high
intellectual aspirations but fails to satisfy them owing to the vagaries of chance and
circumstance. Early in life he tries to satisfy his passion for learning by working as a stone
mason. He reads voraciously whenever he gets time. But he is soon entrapped by one
Arabella Donn whom Hardy contemptuously calls, "a mere female animal." As the
marriage is based only on a momentary impulse, and not on any harmony of tastes or
temperaments, it proves an utter failure. After living with him an unhappy life for
sometime, she deserts him following a bitter quarrel.
Jude overcomes his frustration somehow or the other, and goes to Christminster,
the centre of learning, hoping one day to enter the university as a student. There he meets
a distant cousin, Sue Bride-head, and despite all his efforts to the contrary, falls violently
in love with her. The two have a strange fascination for each other.
Sue marries an elderly school teacher Philloston. But she has a strange and perfectly
unaccountable horror of the very touch of her husband. As a result, she leaves him and
comes and lives with Jude. Thus, this time Sue comes in the way of his literary aspirations
which he was now to give up for good.
The two try to ractify their illegal relation through marriage. They can marry, for
both of them have been divorced by their respective spouses, but each time they try to
marry, she shrinks from the step at the very last moment. Their illegal relationship is
condemned by society. The two are involved in daily increasing difficulties. They are
unable to get any accommodation for their large family. Frustrated at their plight, and
feeling that they are not wanted in this already over-crowded world, Father Time, the
son of Jude and Arabella, kills himself as well as all his younger brothers and sisters.
Father Time, Comments Hardy, represents the coming universal wish not to live.
Sue is filled with remorse. She feels that the tragedy is a punishment for her sins.
Repentent, she return to Philloston. She considers it an act of self-chastisement, a kind
of torture inflicted on herself. Jude takes to drink and then is enticed away once again by
the sensual Arabella Donn. He falls ill and dies a miserable death in loneliness and
poverty.
The publication of this novel lead to a storm of hostile criticism. It was condemned
as being immoral. It was nick named Jude, the Obscene. Copies of it were burnt in large
numbers. Thomas Hardy bade good-bye to novel writing after this.
8. Tess of the O'urbervilles
Tess Durbeyfield is the eldest of the half-dozen children of shiftless parents. The
father John Durbey-field, a haggler by profession, is an invalid, a drunkard, who does
work regularly to support the family. The result is that the Durbcyfields have already
fallen on evil days. The schooling of the children has been neglected, though Tess could
reach the sixth standard. The mother, .loan, is simple to the extent of being foolish.
One day Parson Tringham of the neighbourhood informs John Durbeyfield that he
is the last descendant in the male line of the noble and knightly D'urbcrvilles. The new
turns the head of the haggler. He goes to the village inn to celebrate the event; and is
brought back to home late in the night. The result is that 'Sir John cannot go to the city
with the bee-hives that night. As the matter is urgent, Tess and her younger brother
Abraham go instead. Abraham and then Tess fall sleep, with the result that their poor
horse Prince is killed in an accident with the mail cart. The death of the horse
disorganises the haggling business forthwith and penury looms large in the horizon for
the family.
It now becomes necessary for Tess to take up service with a rich relative, Mrs.
D'urbervilles, a blind and whimsical lady. Her young son, Alec, follows her about and
pesters her with his lovemaking and at last seduces her. As soon as Tess realises the true,
nature of their relations, and the full significance of the wrong that has been done to her
dawns upon her, she leaves the place in horror and disgust. No persuasion on the part of
Alec can prevent her from leaving.
At home, her life is dull and dreary. She lives within the seclusion of her home,
entirely cut off from society, till the death of her child, Sorrow, the Undesired. Then she
leaves home a second time and goes to be a dairymaid at Talbothays, a large, fertile farm
in the valley of the Great Dairies. The Dairyman is kind and considerate, nature beautiful
and fertile, and soon Tess "Rallys". It is here that she meets Angel Clare, and is wooed as
no dairymaid was ever wooed before. Soon the two become accepted lovers and are
married.
On the very first night of their wedding, the husband recounts the story of his forty-
eight hours dissipation with a stranger in London, and begs her forgiveness. He is at once
forgiven and thus encouraged, the wife proceeds with the narration of her own troubles.
She is sure of forgiveness, for she had already forgiven him for the same sin, and she was
more sinned against than sinning. But she receives the shock of her life. The husband is
not ready to forgive her. Tess with pale face falls half unconscious at his feet and weeping
bitterly begs to be pardoned. But Clare tells her that she is not the woman he loved, but
all together a different one. Forgiveness does not apply to such cases. Moreover, they
should think of their children, the shame of the mother should not be visited on their
innocent heads. Tess is stunned and stupified. After a few days the two decide to
separate. Clare gives her fifty pounds for her immediate needs and directs her to apply
to her parents whenever she likes. Then Tess, leaves for her home, and he sails
for Brazil some time later.
During the summer months, Tess could get temporary employment, now on one
farm and now on another. But with the cominu of winter she had to suffer great
difficulties. She was compelled to do the roughest-kind of work. Her money was all gone,
but her sense of self-respect did not allow her to apply to Angel's parents. She followed
the instructions of her husband to the very letter and did not write to him of her plight.
He on his part was ill in Brazil at the time and was amazed at her continued silence. He
misunderstood her silence as forgetfulness. Tess drilled onwards, towards Flintcomb-
Ash farm. Here Tess had to do the roughest kind of work in bitter cold and stinging rain.
Poor Tess endured all this, but there are limits to human endurance. Moreover, she was
worried about her husband and wanted to know his welfare. So one Sunday she walked
to Emminster to meet Clare's parents. But she met the brothers first instead of the kindly
parents. This chance encounter shattered all her hopes in that quarter and she returned
frustrated and heart-broken. Such is the irony of fate.
On her way back, Tess was attracted by the voice of a preacher preaching vehemently
in a nearby barn. Tess passed by the door and was startled to see that it vvas Alec
D'urberville in the dress of a clergy. Alec, too, observed her and the effect was paralysing.
He could preach no more. He followed her now with rapid strides and soon overlook her.
He followed her now with offers of help. He came to her at Flintcomb-Ash farm with a
marriage licence ready to marry her. Maddened by his passion for her, he gave up his
religion and all the arts of man and devil were employed to ensnare the girl. In
desperation Tess wrote a pathetic appeal to her husband likely to touch even the most
stony-hearted.
The Durbcyfields fell on evil days. The father died suddenly and the Durbcyfield's
lease on the house and allotment Was terminated. They were compelled to leave the
house and migrate to new surroundings. Joan chose Kingsberg as it was the ancient seat
of the Durbervilles. Hither Alec followed them. When starvation loomed large in the
horizon, Tess agreed to live with him. Alec took her to Sandbowfne, a gay watering-place.
To this pleasure city came Angel in search of her. Her appeal reached him late. He found
Tess dressed like a lady of fashion, and wealth. He was dumbfounded to learn the
agonising truth. He came out of the house and wandered listlessly. Tess followed him
soon after, having murdered her seducer in a fit of anger and desperation. They
wandered through the forest of fir trees for about a week in a state of idyllic happiness,
till Tess was arrested for murder and hanged. It is all a harrowing tragedy.

The Return of the Native: Introduction and

Appreciation

The Novel: Its Publication

The Return of the Native was written in 1878 when Hardy was at the height of his
power. It was sent for publication to ComhillMagazine which rejected it on the ground
that it would hurt the feelings of the lady readers of the Magazine. It was ultimately
serialised in Balgravia and was later on published in book from by Smith Elder and Co.

Contemporary Criticism of it: Its Real Greatness

At the time of its first publication it was violently criticised by the reviewers. A
number of faults were found with it. It was condemned for (a) its artificial story in which
their is much repetition and too much depends on chance and fate (b) its pessimistic and
depressing tone and atmosphere, (c) the exaggerated importance assigned to Nature,
which pushes the human actors into the background, and (d) its immoral, passionate
characters, like Eustacia and Wildeve who know no law but the gratification of their
passion. However, with the passing of time the many merits of the novel have been better
appreciated. Today not only is the novel regarded as the masterpiece of Hardy, but it is
also considered as one of the classics of the English fiction.
Egdon Heath: Its Grandeur and Significance
The opening chapter of the novel which introduces to us Egdon Heath, the principal
character in the novel, has been praised by all.
The Return of the Native is the book of Egdon Heath; without Egdon it would not
hold together. C. Duffin rightly points out, "with most of the other novels the scene
could be transposed to some other part of Wessex without vitally affecting the story; this
story could not run its course anywhere other than amid the solitudes of Edgon. Egdon
influences all the human characters, moving them to love Or to hate, to despair or to the
philosophic mind. Even pretty Thomasin, to whom it is just, 'a ridiculous old place',
confesses she could live nowhere else. And as if he had put so much life into Egdon that
he had less to expand on the human figures, Hardy has given us here a set of characters
not quite so high in the scale of being as those of Far From the Madding Crowd. The
human actors look puny in comparison with the grand Egdon. "If we place Yeobright,
Venn and Wildeve over against Oak, Boldwood and Troy, the difference will be apparent
and Eustacia, for all her splendour, is shoddy stuff to Bathsheba. Bathsheba stooped to
Troy —she would never sink to Wildeve."
The Human Actors: Eustacia
The chapter describing Egdon Heath is a classic of English prose. When Egdon has
been set before us with all Hardy's unmatched powers of description, humanity is
introduced in such a way as to leave the spell cast by the Heath unbroken. There is the
fantastic Reddleman and his unexplained, mysterious occupation. There is the old naval
officer, father of Eustacia. Then there are the mysterious figure on the barrow; and the
woman (Eustacia) momentarily queen of the solitude, then vanishing into Egdon's
shade. The opening of the novel is miraculous. It is conscious, deliberate, a perfect work
of art. The marvellous description of Eustacia is one of the glories of the novel. It is one
of the finest examples of set description in all Hardy. Eustacia herself is an otherwise
unexampled type in Hardy; a woman who lives to love, and to love in a hot, blind lustful
way—not necessarily an animal way, but a way that leads to 'anything in trousers', even
to Wildeve. For Wildeve is really unworthy, and Eustacia' intrigues with him are painfully
squalid. He has no glamour about him, but merely keeps a public-house called"Tlie Quiet
Woman." He makes even Eustacia yawn. He provokes the simile of, "a dancing master",
but is more like a tailor's dummy is his, "elegant new summer suit and light hat". In a
sense she uses him, only as an instrument, but in reality she is throughout attracted by
him, and the fact robs her of some interest.
The Reddleman
Eustacia is a strange enough personality to demand something of the fantastic and
the grotesque in her story, and this element is provided by Diggory Venn, the Reddleman,
a blood-red figure, isolated and aloof. He has his own hand to play for the winning of
Thomasin but intervenes at a number of critical points in the main plot as well. Like Oak
in Far From the Madding Crowd he is still and deep; like him he is passive and unselfish,
though more purposefully, less patiently so.
Clym and Eustacia: Their Dissimilarity
The story begins in right earnest with the return of Clym Yeobright from Paris. He
has been a diamond merchant's manager in Paris, and towards the end of the book he
evolves an educational ideal which in practice means the opening of, "a good private
school for the sons of farmers." To Eustacia the first occupation smells of heaven, though
she is not attracted at all by the other one. In his social class, Clym is a little higher from
the Wessex norm, his mother having been a Curate's daughter, and Eustacia begins at
once to think and dream about him. She goes to look at his house before he arrives and
reads into his passing good-night, "all emotional things possible." Perhaps seclusion on
Egdon produces an artificial stimulation of feelings as great as that caused by a life of
work for long hours in office, school or nunnery, except to those who, like Clym, find the
hills, "friendly and congenial." Clym is a true, "native", desiring to combine the
intellectual life with the plainest of rustic living. He is one of Hardy's pure intellectuals,
and not at all suitable as a lover and husband for Eustacia, for Eustacia's dissimilarity
amounts to positive and violent antagonism. As they meet, first at the mumming, then
by the well, and then move on to the first love scene, all handled by Hardy with beautiful
care and restraint, the impossibility at their ever living and working side by side grows
more and more evident. "It is not only that their outlook differs —that might have been
modified by education; but she is essence of woman, he of man; and to link those two
essence in a bond can succeed only if no differences arise —if differences do arise they
are irreconcilable" (C. Duffin).
The Mother-son Relation
Mrs. Ycobright, the mother of Clym, plays an important part in the story. In this way,
we have before us Hardy's own study of the mother-son relation which has since been
dealt with at length by the psycho-analysts and by the novelists like D. H. Lawrence.
Hardy is not much concerned with parents. Only in the case of Clym Yeobright's mother
and Grace Melbury's father is parental influence perceptibly exercised, and in both cases
with disastrous results. Elfride, Stephen Smith, Ethelberta, and Anne Garland all have
parents, but they are of a sensible, easy-going, accommodating kind, and play no decisive
part in directing or obstructing the lives of their children. In all these cases the actual
relation of parent and child is matter of fact, unemotional. But the relation between Clym
and his mother is stated to be a relation of love. Indeed, in one passage Hardy suggests
that the love between them is of an exceptionally exalted kind, "indestructible",
"profound." It is singularly unhappy and unfortunate in its consequences for the love of
Clym and Eustacia. Mrs. Yeobright's opposition to her son's desire to give up the
jewellery trade and take up work of real service to his fellows is partly due to her obvious
inability to follow the reasons which Clym lucidly explains to her. But the real reason is
that she does not want her son to love and marry Eustacia. She knows that he would
marry Eustacia, if he stays at home. This, as well as the love of the mother for her son, is
clearly brought out in the following dialogue :
"In that case I'll branch off here, mother. I am going to Mistover."
Mrs. Yeobright turned to him inquiringly.
"I am going to help get the bucket out of the Captain's well", he continued, "As it is
so very deep I may be useful, And I should like to see this Miss Vye .... not so much for
her good looks as for another reason."
"Must you go '?" his mother asked.
"I thought to."
And they parted. "Tliere is no help for it",murmured Clym's mother gloomily as he
withdrew. "TJiey are sure to see each other. I wish Sam would cany his news to other
houses than mine."
Clym's retreating figure got smaller and smaller as it rose and fell over the hillocks
on his way. "He is tender hearted," said Mrs. Yeobright to herself while she watched him
:"Otherwise it would matter little. How he's going on !"
He was, indeed, walking with a will over the furx.e, as straight as a Iineu as if his life
depended upon it. His mother drew a long breath, and turned to go back by the way she
had come.
The dialogue, the mode of contact, are different from anything else in the novels,
because the relation is unique, "He was", says Hardy, "a part of her." That is the strength
of the parental altitude.
Parental Opposition: Its Tragic Consequences
A second opportunity lor loving sympathy, turned instead into a cause for bitter
hostility, arises when Clym's feeling for Eustacia begins to develop. Parental opposition
to a son's choice of a wife is age-old, and is not excused by the fact that quite often the
parents are, as Mrs. Yeobright is here, right. It simply is the folly of Clym, that makes
him think that Eustacia "would make a good matron in a boarding school." Their
dissimilarity of type was so fundamental as to render a successful marriage unlikely.
Nevertheless, apart from the fact that Clym was an adult individual (not merely "a part
of her"), his mother's opposition did nothing but make things worse : in its absence there
was a possibility that Clym and Eustacia might have learnt enough from each other to
have achieved some happiness. With her opposition, it became inevitable that Clym's
divided loyalty should embitter the misunderstanding over Wildeve to a point where fate
could drive them all to tragedy."But these are the materials out of which life makes
tragedy."
After Clym's admission that he was engaged to Eustacia, his mother's opposition
reaches such an intensity that it becomes necessary for him to leave home. He goes, and
she lets him go. "The trouble with these two is that they are loo strong. One touch of
emotional weakness (call it softness, call it kindness) on either side would have brought
the whole black slructure of misery tumbling down." Mrs. Yeobright's weakness and love
is revealed only afterwards, in talking to Thomasin, and then in a pathetically blind way
: "Oh Thomasin, he was so good as a litlle boy ..... so tender and kind ..... I did not think
one whom I called mine world grow up to treat me like this ..,.s That is maternily .... to
give one's best years and besl love to ensure the fate of being despised." Things are nol
improved by Ihe bitter, 'Encounler by the Pool', of Clym's mother and Eustacia —an
indictment of the incredible unreasonableness woman can exhibit.
The Climax: Journey across the Heath
The genuine yielding .... weakness that arises from strength .... comes later, on both
sides, after Clym has married and lurned furze culler owing lo his failing sighl. Clym lells
Euslacia he musl seek reconcilialion with his mother, and about the same time Mrs.
Yeobrighl lells ihc Reddleman that she too has determined to make some effort to heal
the sorry breach. It is an indication of the central position assigned to the mother-motive
tha(f the chapler describing Mrs. Yeobright's journey across the heath to Clym's cottage
and back again stand as a climax lo the novel. The later and perhaps the more exact
climax, the scene where Clym charges Eustacia wilh infidelity and his mother's death, is
a consequence of the other one. "Tlie heath journey is man-ellously done, and is
punctuated, as it were, with the living creatures which Mrs. Yeobright, a noticing
woman ami a lover of'animals, observes by the way : those maggoty things wriggling
in the muddy pond, ihc sleeping cat, the drunken wasps on the fallen fruit, the ant's
nest, the heron flying into the sun. And there was another she did not see until it was
too late, the adder that bit her in the foot." (C. Duffin)
The Catastrophe
The well intended visit is tragically frustrated, and the stricken woman's creep back
across. Egdon is shown to us (and later to Clym) through the eyes of one Hardy's rare but
marvellous children, Johnny Nonsuch. It is by an extraordinary process of investigating
and questioning, of Christian Cantle, Diggory Venn and finally little Johnny, that Clym
tracks down the truth of what had happened on the previous afternoon. And yet not quite
the whole truth; the missing witness is Eustacia herself. Here he does question, but in
such a way as to make reply impossible or valueless. "His love for his mother has taken
complete possession of him now, had it been balanced by an equal love for his wife (but
that, in the nature of the case, was impossible) he would have been saved much raving
despair." In the end he loses'wife as well as mother, and he feels he has caused the death
of both. "The self accusation is not altogether just; yet Clym's-egoism has been
dangerously ruthless. His point of view has been 'right' in both cases, but to follow right
in scorn of consequence is stupid, and to override other less 'right' points of view is the
mark of simple strength but not of that more complicated thing, greatness." The book
closes with Clyrn thinking of his mother as a sublime saint, and preaching his first
sermon on Rainbarrow on the text, "Ask on, my mother : for I will not say thee nay."
A Grim Tragedy
It is grim terrible story, this first of Hardy's great tragedies with a single, relentless
drive to disaster. "A striking difference between Shakespeare and Hardy is that in every
one of his tragedies Shakespeare kills both hero and heroine. This may be due to his sense
of artistic finish, or to his tenderness for the children of his hand. Hardy, more cruel,
leaves, as life generally does, one alive but maimed. Yeobright is among those few who
are left not only sadder but wiser for their experience and their loss" (C. Duflln). The
tragedy is terrible but it is not depressing. In the end, Thomasin is married to the faithful
Diggory, and is destined to live happily with him. Thus the conclusion is that human lot
is not utterly tragic, some happiness is also possible.
A Great Social Document: Realism
The Return of the Native is a great, poignant iragedy, as well as a valuable social
document. Hardy has been called, "the historian of Wessex", and the novel justifies the
praise. It is a rich store-house of Wessex customs and superstitions. Egdon Heath was a
real heath which Hardy knew intimately, and life on it has been graphically and
realistically described. The rustic characters or the chorus group —the finest in all Hardy
—are true representatives of Wessex-folk and the dialect they speak is the dialect actually
spoken in that part of England. They live in nature and are one with her. Indeed, the
poetic fusion of Man and Nature is one of the glories of the book.

Return of the Native Summary

As the novel opens, the wild landscape of Edgon Heath broods alone,
save for an old man walking home. The old man, Captain Vye, passes a
reddleman, Diggory Venn. Diggory is discreetly transporting a distressed
young woman. She is Thomasin Yeobright, humiliated that her wedding
to Damon Wildeve was halted due to an issue with the marriage licence
in a nearby community.

The truth is more complicated, though. Wildeve is still infatuated with

his former partner, the passionate and mysterious Eustacia Vye, who
lives on the heath by circumstance but wants nothing more than to
escape it. She lights a bonfire that evening to draw him to her. The fire
attracts only minimal attention, since there are bonfires all along the
heath to commemorate November 5th. Wildeve correctly interprets her
signal, and meets her. When Diggory learns of their liaison, he plans to
intervene on Thomasin’s behalf. He has long loved her, and though she
once rejected his proposal because of his lower status, he is dedicated
to ensuring her happiness, even with another man.

Just as Eustacia’s affection for Wildeve begins to wane, an exciting

prospect returns to Egdon. Clym Yeobright is a local man who has made
his way in the world as a diamond merchant in Paris. His visit prompts
Eustacia to facilitate a meeting between them, which eventually
results in a mutual attraction. Eustacia makes her disinterest known to
Wildeve, and he finally marries Thomasin.

She is disappointed, however, to discover that Clym has rejected his

cosmopolitan lifestyle in hopes of founding a school on the heath.
Hopeful that she can change his mind, Eustacia agrees to marry him.
Clym’s mother, Mrs. Yeobright, disapproves of both Thomasin's and
Clym's weddings, and is further irked that her son Clym would refuse to
exploit his intelligence and talent away from the heath. She refuses to
attend his wedding.

Clym's studies in schoolkeeping are so intense that his eyesight fails,

and he is forced to take a job as a furze cutter to generate an income.
Eustacia is further disappointed in Clym's choice of a low career, and
realizes she might never escape the heath. Her feelings for Wildeve are
reawakened, however, when she learns that he has inherited a fortune,
and plans to travel the world.

Wildeve visits the Yeobright house one day, but Clym is asleep. Eustacia
is shaken by his visit, and then confused when Mrs. Yeobrght suddenly
arrives on her own unannounced visit. Eustacia ignores her knocks, and,
believing she has been spurned by her son, Mrs. Yeobright attempts the
long journey back to her home, but passes out and dies on the heath
from a snakebite.

Clym holds first himself, then Eustacia, responsible for Mrs. Yeobright’s
death. Spurned by his grief and hatred, Eustacia returns to her
grandfather’s house, and Wildeve agrees to help her escape Egdon. She
sets an evening for her escape, and does not cancel the plan even when
 that evening proves to be impossibly stormy. That night, Thomasin,
Diggory, Clym and Captain Vye search for the missing couple, but
discover only tragedy after Eustacia seems to drown herself and
Wildeve dies in the rescue attempt. Clym, too, is wounded in his rescue
attempt, but survives.

Thomasin initially moves in with Clym and her daughter after the tragedy.
Diggory Venn returns as a wealthy and dependable farmer, and she agrees to
marry him. Clym never transcends his guilt and shame, and eventually turns to
preaching to fill his solitude.

Themes

The Heath
The heath is more than just a dramatic backdrop to the action; it is an
integral part of the plot and character development, and a constant
thematic symbol. Hardy devotes the novel's entire first chapter to
describing the timeless landscape of Egdon heath. What defines it most
of all is its timelessness - it is much bigger than any human drama, and
hence might its natural forces swallow those humans.

The heath can also be viewed as an antagonist in the story, working

against the key characters to bring about their tragic fates. Mrs.
Yeobright, exhausted by her long toil to Clym’s house, collapses in the
darkness on her return, and is bitten by a snake. Wildeve and Eustacia
both drown as they plan to flee the heath forever. Clym becomes a
preacher, extolling the virtues of a world beyond the heath. Only
Thomasin and Diggory, who are truly at ease with their surroundings,
endure. The heath is a place for lasting sentiment, not fiery passion or
intellectual ideals. Those who are able to tune to its rhythms and pace
remain. Those who feel they can live beyond its power are destroyed
by it. Eustacia views it as an explicit antagonist - "‘Tis my cross, my
shame and will be my death" - and yet falls in attempting to defeat it
(69). Most of all, the heath is an expression of Hardy's tragic sense,
which suggests that time and the world have little use for the squabbles
of humans and will thereby negate their efforts time and again.

Superstition
Superstition permeates the text, and is connected with the death of
Eustacia and possibly Mrs. Yeobright. In the most basic sense,
superstition exists through the heath locals. So tied to nature, they are
naturally drawn more towards pagan rituals than towards the
transcendent message of Christianity. They judge their lives according
to the cycles of the heath, and hence believe that strange forces
beyond their understanding rule the world.

Many locals, Susan Nunsuch most of all, believe Eustacia is a witch.

Susan brings a fearful dimension to their charge, both stabbing Eustacia
with a pen and then later making a wax effigy that she burns. Hardy
was cautious to avoid being labelled immoral, and so he never
extrapolates on Susan's suspicions, which could be based in the
possibility of Eustacia's sexuality. Both of Susan's actions are based
around witch-lore. A witch would supposedly not bleed if pricked, and
an effigy works akin to a voodoo doll, by transferring pain to another.

Eustacia's death also evokes witch-lore, since a suspected witch was

thrown in water. If she floated, she was vindicated, and if she drowned,
she was proven witch. Tragically, Eustacia floats but it brings her no
benefit, since she dies. In surviving and dedicating himself to
Christianity, Clym suggests Hardy's dismissal of such lore, though the
author never goes so far as to outright denounce any of the ancient
superstitions suggested in the text.

Tradition
One of the novel's inherent conflicts is that between the declining,
traditional attitudes of Dorset and the modern world that was replacing
it. Hardy’s work often highlighted the waning traditions and ideals of
his age, and there are many examples where custom and folklore
feature as central to the narrative. Part of the novel's appeal is the way
it records these dying customs.

For instance, Diggory Venn’s trade as a reddleman represents the dying

skills of the region:

He was one of a class rapidly becoming extinct in Wessex, filling at

present in the rural world the place which, during the last century, the
dodo occupied in the world of animals. He is a curious, interesting and
nearly perished link between obsolete forms of life and those which
generally prevail.

(6)

Though Diggory does dismiss the traditional fears - that a reddleman

stole children - he nevertheless dedicates himself to this ancient trade.

Hardy also records the decline in church attendance in rural regions

like Egdon, and discusses the history and function of the mummers. In
terms of the latter, he explains how repeated tradition can lead to
perfunctory execution and reception, as opposed to the true passion of
a regenerated custom.

There are some customs that Hardy connects to more ancient customs.
Hardy believed the November 5th bonfires were a continuance of Druid
tradition more than a commemoration of Gay Fawkes. Further, the May
Day celebrations seems to have a primal draw, since it is those which
finally bring Thomasin and Diggory together.

Education
The Return of the Native presents a range of views on education
without ever delivering a final conclusion in the issue.

As an extraordinary resident of the heath whose intelligence allowed

him to explore the greater world, Clym is a strong proponent for
education. In fact, he wants to explore a new type of education with
the residents of the heath, and is drawn home for that purpose.
However, he confronts both reticence and outright opposition to these
noble plans, and ends up as a preacher - a vocation more associated
with tradition than modernity - than as a teacher. To some extent,
Clym is oblivious to the nature of those he wishes to educate. They are
not only not ready for his ideas, but are also fundamentally opposed to
them. Captain Vye gives a reflective instance of their skepticism when
he describes education as valuable only towards encouraging the young
to engage in offensive graffiti.
In fact, Hardy explores how Clym's natural good-looks stand in
opposition to these modern ideas of education exemplified in his
intellect:

He already showed that thought is a disease of flesh, and indirectly

bore evidence that ideal physical beauty is incompatible with
emotional development and a full recognition of the coil of things.

(109)

It is only really within the spiritual world that he is finally able to find
solace. His ideal of "instilling high knowledge into empty minds" is
unrealistic to the point of arrogance, an indicator that his learning has
not helped him to connect with his fellow man (160). Even as preacher,
his "moral lectures" maintain a didactic air that repulse some listeners.
He continues to speak but not to listen, which gives an implicit criticism
of the educational instinct.

Clym’s most significant education is what he learns on the heath - that

the world is controlled by large forces beyond our understanding.

Romantic love
The quest for romantic love amongst the nature-centered heath affects
many characters, Eustacia most of all. She is desperate to discover the
passion of romantic love. Early in the text, she expresses that she
seeks, "A blaze of love, and extinction, [which] was better than a
lantern glimmer of the same which should last long years (56). She
wants a quick burst of passion, rather than the pragmatism of a
sustaining respect and passion. This desire helps explain her tragic
demise - she is too quick to romanticize a situation, ignoring its reality.
She ignores the fact that Wildeve mostly repulses her, to twice become
attracted to him, and ignores Clym's stated intentions to justify her
acceptance of his proposal. This conflict creates a sense of
dissatisfaction that has tragic consequences.

Clym is attracted to Eustacia on so many levels, but ultimately chooses

a respectable, simple life with her. The passion and romanticism that
defined him on his return is quickly traded for a more pragmatic
personality that disappoints Eustacia. His tragic flaw here is his
blindness to what she needs, and they both pay for it.

Finally, Thomasin begins with a romantic passion for Wildeve, but

ultimately realizes the greater wisdom of pragmatism. When they
finally marry, she is no longer enamored with him, but rather has
matured to realize that she must protect her reputation over her
romantic pride.

The Oedipus complex

Clym has an intense and turbulent relationship with his mother, which
evokes the Oedipus complex, so-named by Freud because of the ancient
play Oedipus Rex. Simply put, the Oedipus complex describes an
unhealthy love-hate attraction between a mother and son.

Mrs. Yeobright has clearly had great ambitions for her son. We see her
disappointment when he reveals that he has left Paris to return to
Egdon. She cannot appreciate his return to Egdon as a step forward;
instead, she vicariously considers it as sign of failure, asking him, "But
it is right, too, that I should try to lift you out of this life into something
richer, and that you should not come back again, and be as if I had
never tried at all?" (140).

This vicarious association further explains her contempt for Eustacia.

She cannot understand that he is attracted to her instead of finer
Parisian ladies. The relationship between Clym and his mother starts to
sour after he begins to court Eustacia. He chooses to give Eustacia a
gift – a charnel pot unearthed from the burial mound – which was
originally intended for his mother. Though all of these attitudes can be
explained, they together suggest an intimate and intense connection.

Clym is aware of the challenges to his happiness, and refers to the

competing areas of his life as "antagonistic growths." Interestingly, his
relationship with his mother is the first he lists, before his wife and
vocation. He is forced into making a choice between Eustacia and his
mother, and the regrets over this situation lead to a romantic demise
for almost all involved.
 Constancy
In the novel, characters who display constancy are rewarded. Like the
unswerving firmness of the Egdon landscape, those who remain true to
their ideals endure. Diggory Venn, as example, is unwavering in his love
for Thomasin. He adapts his lifestyle and means of income to win her
affections, and patiently remains her faithful champion. Similarly,
Charley the stable boy does not waver in his affection for Eustacia. He
gives her his mummer’s role, and later cares for her despite her
attitudes towards him. Even the dim-sighted Clym can perceive
Charley's love for his wife. Similarly, the heath folk are characterized
by their adherence to unchanging tradition and folklore. They accept
the heath as timeless and constant, and their kind perseveres for that
reason.

The characters more defined by transient, changing passions - Wildeve,

Eustacia, and Clym - all suffer a tragic end. The heath, with its constancy, has
little use for such dynamic human passions.

Characters in the Novel: The Return of the Native

(A) Clym Yeobright

The Hero of the Novel
Clym Yeobright is the hero of the novel. When the story begins he is thirty three-
years old. It is his return urn which the novel celebrates. He is young and he is attractive
enough to make Eustasia fall in love with him at first sight. He has a significant place in
the galaxy of Hardy's tragic characters, like Jude, Henchard, Gabriel Oak and many
others. That Hardy himself looked with love upon the figure of Clym is revealed by his
Saying that Clym is, "the nicest among my characters."

His Simplicity: Lack of Ambition

Clym's father was an humble farmer, but his mother, Mrs. Yeobright, the daughter
of a Curate came of a superior family. Clym has inherited the native simpli'city of his
father."Like him", says Mrs. Yeobright, "you are getting weary of doing well." In him,
we find an inborn love for simplicity. The sophistications of life are not liked by him. "I
cannot enjoy delicacies", he says, "good things are wasted upon me." Another notable
trait of Clym's character is his lack of ambition. As the manager of a diamond
establishment in Paris, he had lived in the midst of a highly refined and ambitious circle;
had be been ambitious, he would have striven hard to attain worldly success. But his
inborn love of simplicity and lack of ambition drew his back to his native health.
Relentless and Self-Centred
 From his father, Clym has also inherited his self-sacrificing nature, his willingness
to work for the welfare of others, and his tenderness and kindness. From his mother, he
has inherited his egotism and relentlessness. Thus heredity has played a significant role
in contributing to the tragedy of his life by bestowing upon him contradictory qualities.
It is for this reason that he is such a source of unhappiness and pain for Mrs. Yeobright,
for Eustacia and for himself. Simple and unambitious, Clym is also egotistical;
tenderness and kindness of heart is strangely blended in him with firmness. "You will
find", says Mrs. Yeobright to Eustacia, "though he is as gentle as a child with you now;
he can be as hard as steel."
A Promising Boy
As a child, Clym was promising. Much was expected of him. He had made himself
known to many as an artist and a scholar, and, "an individual whose fame spreads three
or four thousand yards in the time taken by the fame of others similarly situated to travel
six or eight hundred, must, of necessity, have something in him." "It was evident that if
he was to be crowned with success in life, it would be in an original way, and if doomed
to march to his ruin, he would do so in an original manner." All expected great things
from him, it was certain that he would not remain in the circumstances in which he was
born.
His Unpractical Idealism
Clym, the young man going to Paris appeared to take a step towards a successful life,
but in Hardy life offers only to deny. Clym's idealism and his unpractical nature are his
ruin. He' leaves his job and begins his mission of educating and improving the people of
Egdon. The relatively advanced intellect of Clym only hastens his misfortunes. He is a
man much before his time. "Tlie rural world was not ripe for him. A man should be only
partially before his time ........ In the interest of renown, the fonvardness should lie
chiefly in the capacity to handle things." Clym's unpractical idealism prevents him from
seeing and realising that the people of Egdon are not yet ripe for a favourable response
to the changes contemplated by him.
Lacks Sense of Proportion
Clym does not possess well-proportioned mind of a prudent and successful man.
He is carried away by his own theories and pre-conceived notions. Therefore Clym,
"Preaching to Egdon folk that they might rise to a serene comprehensiveness without
going through the process of enriching themselves, was not unlike arguing to ancient
Chaldeans that in ascending from earth to the pure Empyrean it was not necessary to
pass first into the intervening heaven of ether." Had Clym been less idealistic and more
practical, he would have been mediocre, but more successful and happy. With the
intuitive grasp of a woman, Eustacia gives a correct estimate of Clym's lack of proportion
: "He is an enthusiast about ideas and careless about outward things." His enthusiasm
about ideas prompts him to leave his business as something idle, vain and effeminate,
and lunch his noble mission of educating the Egdon-folk. Clym's sincerity is not to be
doubted, but it is a misplaced and misdirected sincerity. "I get up every morning and see
the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain, as St. Paulsays, and yet there am I,
trafficking in glittering splendours with wealthy women and titled libertines, and
pandering to the meanest vanities........ I, who have health and strength enough for
anything." He, therefore, gives up his job, and returns to Egdon to do his duty towards
the suffering humanity of Egdon with such tragic consequences. Such people can hardly
do well in life.
Countenance of the Future
The inner struggle of Clym....... the struggle between the opposing forces of
simplicity and egotism, tenderness and obstinacy......has left its impression on his face
also. He is torn within. In him "an inner strenuousness was preying upon an outer
symmetry and they rated his look as singular." Thought, that disease of the flesh, slowly
but steadily and relentlessly, casts wrinkles on his face. "The mind within was beginning
to use it as a mere waste-tablet on which to trace its idiosyncracies as they developed
themselves." His is a face indicative not of the years passed, but of the experiences
encountered: it conveys, "less the idea of so many years as its age, than of so much
experience as its store." His is a face that foreshadows the countenance of the generations
to come: "In Clym Yeobright's face could be dimly seen the typical countenance of the
future...... Tlie view of life as a thing to be put up with replacing that zest for existence
which was so intense in early civilization, must ultimately enter so thoroughly into the
constitution of the advanced races that its facial expression will become accepted as a
new artistic departure ..... Wlial the Greeks only suspected we know well, what their
Aeschylus imagined our nursery children feel.... The lineaments which will get embodies
in ideals based upon this recognition will probably be akin to those of Yeobright .... His
features were attractive in the light of symbols as sounds intrinsically common become
attractive in language, and as shapes intrinsically simple become interesting in writing.
His face, interested one not as a picture, but as a page ; not by what it was, but by what
it recorded .... As for his look, it was a natural cheerfulness striving against depression
from without and not quite succeeding. Tlie look suggested isolation, but it revealed
something more. As is usual with bright natures, the dirt that lies ignominiously
chained within an ephemeral human carcass shown out of him like a ray."
His Tragic Grandeur
Clym's idealism is the tragic flaw in his character. His good qualities as well as his
shortcomings owe their origin to this idealistic strain. His simplicity, his desire to be of
use to others, his wholehearted dedication to his cause, his kindness and tenderness, his
spirit of self-sacrifice, all result from his idealism, and from it also result his
impracticability, obstinancy, and lack of balance. The tragic flaw in Clym's character,
combined with such "chance' events as his marriage with Eustacia, loss of eyesight,
Eustacia's meeting with Wildeve, and the "closed-door' scene, paves the way for his ruin.
As miseries after miseries are heaped upon him, he rises to the grandeur of a tragic hero.
His words spoken at the death of his mother show the fortitude and calm of a man who
has risen above human pleasure and pain: "if there is any justice in God let Him kill me
now. He has nearly blinded me, but that is not enough. If he would only strike me with
more pain, I would believe in Him."Similarly, when Eustacia also dies, Clym says : "They
say that a time comes when men laugh at misery through long acquaintance with it.
Surely that time will soon come to me." On such occasions, Clym acquires a grandeur
and majesty which reminds us of the lonely grandeur of Egdon Heath of and majesty
which reminds us of the lonely grandeur of Egdon Heath of which Clym is the child or of
King Lear in Shakespeare's well-known tragedy.
(B) Mrs. Yeobright
A Woman of Character
Mrs. Yeobright, the mother of Clym, is a woman of character, firm and determined.
She is also a tragic character who, in the end, dies broken-hearted. She is middle aged,
and, it is said, Hardy drew her after his own mother. The daughter of a curate, she regards
herself as superior to the Egdon folk among whom she is obliged to live, owing to her
marriage with a native of Egdon. It appears that the solemn Egdon Heath has cast its
tragic shadow on her also. The dominating influence of Egdon on the characters of the
novel is seen in the very face of Mrs. Yeobright. The isolation, solitude and melancholy
emanating from the sombre Heath are concentrated in her face.
Superiority-Complex in Her
Mrs. Yeobright possesses strongly marked qualities of character. Hardy compares
her to the plannets which carry their atmosphere along with them in their orbits. Her
influence is felt wherever she goes. As the daughter of a curate, she dreamed of making
something of life, but Fate obliged her to marry a small farmer. She has, "well formed
feature of the type usually found where perspicacity is the chief quality enthroned
within...... The air with which she looked at the heath-men betokened a certain
unconcern at their presence ..... thus indirectly implying that in some respect or other,
they were not up to her love." She has thus a feeling of her own superiority and the reason
is obvious : "though her husband had been a small farrrer she herself was a curate's
daughter, who had once dreamt of doing better things." The consciousness of her social
superiority has given to Mrs. Yeobright an air of reserve and a feeling of pride in her
family. She is not very communicative. This sense of family pride asserts itself when she
turns down the proposal of Venn to marry Thomasin; it again prompts her to forbid the
bans for the marriage of Thomasin and Wildeve, and it is again responsible for causing
her that anxiety which she experiences when Wildeve does not marry Thomasin. Tims
Mrs. Yeobright lives more by what she thinks others may think of her than by what she
thinks of herself.
Her Firmness and Determination
The most remarkable feature of her character is her determination and firmness.
She is a strong, determined character. It is tru'e that life does not offer her the
opportunities to cultivate these inborn qualities of character: circumstances rather
hamper their development. Her very strength becomes a source of weakness. Such are
the circumstances of her life. "The malignant destiny, operating through chance, not only
prevents the growth of these qualities but at each step of her life, baffles, confounds,
shatters and ultimately vanquishes her, making all the while her very strength her
weakness." She herself suffers, and makes others suffer only because she is so
determined and firm. It is the very strength of her character which makes her so
unyielding in her quarrel with her son, and which comes in the way of a reconciliation.
A Loving Mother
The tragic weakness of Mrs. Yeobright's character is her boundless love for her son.
Clym is regarded by her as a part of her own self. She has sacrificed her all for his sake,
placing all her hopes of happiness on him alone. Great is her anxiety on finding her son
fallen into the snares of Eustacia. She is a shrewd judge of character. She understands
well the real nature of Eustacia. She is \vorried not because she is jealous of Eustacia,
but because she realises that Clym would never be happy with such a proud, wilful and
impulsive woman. She tries her best to prevent his marriage but here also she is defeated
by cruel destiny. Clym marries Eustacia against the wishes of her mother. Such is her
love for his son that even this disobedience on his part is forgiven and forgotten by her.
She goes out to seek reconciliation with Clym but chance again intervenes to make her
life a tragedy. Thinking that her son has closed his doors against his mother, the old
woman returns almost broken-hearted. Unable to walk, totally exhausted, she crawls
back only to meet her death.
Her tragic Grandeur
The tragedy of Mrs. Yeobright is thus the tragic of well-meaning intentions
frustrated by cruel chance. In her death, it is the mother's heart throbbing within her,
which lends to her a tragic grandeur. In her death she rises to the height of tragedy. Her
tragedy brings to us a sense of waste. All that was good in her —
her motherly love, her strength of character, resoluteness, determination, family
pride-comes to nought; it rather becomes instrumental in causing her tragic death. The
tragedy of so noble, so wise a character arouses the tragic emotions of pity and fear in
ample measure. "Call her to mind, think of her, what goodness there was in her, it showed
in every line of her face....... never in her against moments was there anything malicious
in her look. She was angered quickly, but she forgave just as readily, and underneath her
pride there was the meekness of a child." This is very correct estimate of her character.
She retains her grandeur and strength of character upto the very last. We admire her for
her beroic strength, and we pity her for her tragedy and suffering.
(C) Wildeve
The Villain of the Piece
Wildeve, endowed with the most attractive personality, is a character given to a low
sensuality. He is the villain of the novel, if any human actor can be called a villain. He is
instrumental in bringing unhappiness to Thomasin, and is also responsible for leading
Eustacia to her ruin. At one time an engineer, Wildeve has at the time of the opening of
the novel, reduced himself to the position of an inn-keeper,Though possessing a
channing exterior, he has nothing channing about his character.
His Fascinating Personality
Wildeve has been presented by Hardy as a young man with an attractive outward
form; he possesses well-polished tastes, is fond of fine dress, has a gift of the gab,
and,"altogether he is one in whom no man would have seen anything to admire and in
whom no woman would have seen anything to dislike."He is a sort of ladykiller.
Thomasin loves him, and Eustacia, the queen of night is facinated by him. Love as
physical lust is the Achilles' heel of Wildeve.
Some Redeeming Traits
Though at first sight Wildeve seems a Villain, yet he has many redeeming traits in
his character. A spirit of adventure and love of independence characterise him even as
an inn-keeper. He can work hard when he likes, and the, "Wildeve's patch"....... the
plot of Egdon land brought under cultivation by him after long and laborious
years.......stands as a testimony to his capacity for hard work. He is ready to migrate to
America, a clever, learned fellow in his own way..... almost as clever as Clym Yeobright
used to be. He was brought up to better things than keeping an inn. Wildeve's qualities
of character, his graceful personality, polished manners, and love of adventure impress
themselves upon the minds of readers, even when they condemn him for his various
faults.
Cause of his Downfall
The chief cause of his down-fall, as diagnosed by himself, is "the curse of
inflammability." This is his greatest fault. He himself holds it responsible for his
downfall, from an engineer to an innkeeper, though others, like Oily Dowden, are of the
opinion that "he has come down by being too outwardly given." Another trait of Wildeve,
which accounts for the tragedy of his life, is his sensitiveness; he knows that he is, "cursed
with sensitiveness', it is both his weakness and his strength. There is something of the
soldier in him. He finds the greatest impetus to action when he is confronted with
difficulties. Says the novelist, "To be yearning for the difficult, to be weary of what
offered itself: to care for the remote, to dislike the near, it was Wildeve's nature always.
Tins is the true work of the man of sentiment..... He might have been called the Rousseau
of Egdon."
The Touch of Romance
He may be sensual, but his is an adventurous and romantic sensuality. Whenever
Wildeve is faced with obstacles in the way of his love, he makes greater efforts to get the
object of his desire, "for obstacles were a ripening sun to his love." He first turns from
Eustacia to Thomasin, but when the licence-complication in the way of marriage arises,
his interests are again directed to Eustacia. He prefers Eustacia to Thomasin, for
Eustacia's capricious and impulsive temperament appeals more to his romantic and
adventurous nature.
His Character: The Cause of Tragedy
However, the evil in Wildeve's nature is fully revealed when he leaves Thomasin even
after marriage and turns again to Eustacia, who is now married to Clym. There is, no
doubt, that it cannot be denied that chance plays its own part in Wildeve's life to make it
a tragedy. The sudden return of Clym from Paris to be his rival in love, the chance
meeting with Eustacia at the dance, the chance fortune inherited by him, all contribute
to his ultimate tragedy. But in Wildeve's case character is also destiny. His own villainy
and evil contribute a great deal to his tragic end.
(D) Thomasin Yeobright
A Foil to Eustacia
Young and pretty Thomasin, the niece of Mrs. Yeobright, is one of those women
characters of Hardy who suffer long and silently. She is presented as a contrast to
Eustacia. Her beauty, which is as appealing as Eustacia's, is combined with mildness,
lack of pride and rebelliousness, respect for social conventions, and a calm, patient and
faithful love : Eustacia's beauty, on the other hand, is impulsive, capricious, wayward and
rebellious. Thomasin's character finds its counterpart in Venn's. Like Venn, she is
faithful, honest, practical and rational in her approach to life's problems: like him, she
suffers in silence.
Delicate and Artistic: Bird like
Her sweetness and humility seem to have been inherited by her from her father, a
musician who died in the prime of life. There is something delicate and artistic about her.
Says the novelist: "All similes and allegories concerning her began and ended with
birds. Tliere was as much variety in her motions as in their flight. Wlien she was
musing, she was a kestrel, which hangs in the air by an invisible motion of its wings;
when she was in a high wind, her light body was blown against trees and banks like a
heron's; when she was frightened, she darted noiselessly like a kingfisher, when she
was serene, she skimmed like a swallow."
Patient and Prudent
 Thomasin has sweet, honest, and pretty face........"a face suggestive of hopefulness,
but clouded at times with anxiety and grief." As Hardy remarks: "Tlie groundwork of the
face was hopefulness, but over it lay a foreign substance ....... anxiety and
grief." Through her character, as through that of Venn, Hardy suggests the melioristic
possibilities, that men can make the best of the worst by adapting themselves to their
circumstances, by overcoming chance and crass casualty through their prudence,
patience, calm and tact.
Her Humility: Gentleness
The most distinguishing feature of Thomasin's character is her humble, gentle
nature. She is soft and yielding. Her gentle nature can easily be influenced by Mrs.
Yeobright, by Clym, as well as by Venn: she is easily influenced even by Wildevc. This
mildness is both her strength and her weakness. She had no pride and rcbeHiousness in
her. She shows remarkable patience and calm in her love of Wildeve. When Mrs.
Yeobright is angry with Wildeve, she entreats her aunt not to be harsh with him, and to
let her tackle him. She is both constant and sincere in her love : she is not a victim of any
whims or capriciousness as Eustacia is. Her determination and her practical wisdom give
her the strength to suffer long in silence, and her tact and prudence enable her ultimately
to win happiness.
A Commonplace Character
Thomasin certainly does not attain to that grandeur which belongs to Eustacia,
....."the Queen of Night'. Eustacia's life ends in tragedy, but she attains a tragic grandeur
which makes her unforgettable. Such tragic heights do not belong to Thomasin, who
seems a commonplace, mediocre character. We cannot forgive her for her rejection first
of Clym and then of Diggory Venn. Had she accepted any one of the two, much tragedy
and suffering would have been avoided. Moreover, she is a weak character and lacks the
power and the ambition to mould life in accordance with her heart's desire. Her
compromise with life is best illustrated by her attitude to Egdon. Eustacia' always regards
the health as her cross, but to Thomasin, "there were not, as to Eustacia, demons in the
air, and malice in every bush and bough. The drops which lashed her face were not
scorpions. Egdon in the mass was no monster, but impersonal open ground." Here is a
life of calm acceptance and tactful adjustment, and in Hardy's philosophy that is the way
in which we can make the most of this sorry life of ours.
(E) Diggory Venn, The Reddleman-His Role
and Significance The Wisest Character in the Novel
Diggory Venn, coloured red all over, is the representative of an old profession, and
so also the representative of an old world existence. He was once a prosperous dairy
farmer. He is still young with blue eyes and handsome figure. It was his rejection by Mrs.
Yeobright as a suitor to the hand of Thomasin that compelled him to take to the
profession of a reddleman, for,"Rejected suitors like to roam about", as he does as a
reddleman. He is faithful in love, generous and kind, but also . Hrewd and clever. Indeed,
he is the wisest character in the novel, who sees through all others, and is able to
manipulate them, not for his own good, but for the good of his beloved, Thomasin.
Tactful, wise, patient, and generous, he is one of those characters who succeed in life,
and attain to happiness in the end.
His Helpful Nature: His Pivotal Role
 Venn, the reddleman, looks fantastic and we may be inclined to call him a minor
character but in reality he is the pivot around which the plot of the novel revolves. The
action and the movement of the plot are made possible through the strategy of Venn. He
appears at unexpected moments and places, and his sudden appearances have a "Jack-
in-the box" effect. He seeks to help Thomasin through what he calls his "silent system".
Through it he compels Wildeve to stay at home, and so helps Thomasin. It is he who
brings Thomasin and Wildeve together and compels Wildeve to marry her by offering
himself as a possible husband for Thomasin, at a crucial moment. Later on, he gambles
for Thomasin's guineas, wins them and delivers them to her. However, in this matter he
unknowingly commits a mistake and so becomes the cause of much quarrel and
misunderstanding. He is thus seen to be as much a victim of the irony of life as other
characters in the novel.
His Love: Sincere and Faithful
Venn is the shrewdest of all the characters of the novel and he is superior to them all
in moral stature as well. He is without doubt one of the finest characters of Hardy. There
is a pathos attached to the silent perserverance with which he waits and wins Thomasin's
love ultimately. We can think of no higher conception of love than that of Venn's who
subduing his personal emotions tries to help his beloved and make her happy even at the
risk of ruining his own happiness. He is a true and sincere love, free from even a trace of
that selfishness which is generally the basis of life in this world. His disinterestedness
well deserves respect and admiration.
His Honesty and Nobility
As Clym says, he is an honest man and at the same lime an astute man, a very rare
combination. He has a lot of experience of the world. He is clever in the worldly sense of
the term, yet he does not misuse his cleverness. He uses his cleverness not for his own
good, but for the good of others.
His Ultimate Happiness
He has a calm temperament, presence of mind and clever thinking, although he has
no education. He i.; also considerate and discreet. In the end, he is shown happy and
contented, dancing, enjoying and drinking. In this way, he provides an element of
meliorism in the world of this grim and terrible tragedy.
(F) Eustacia Vye-The Causes of her Tragedy
While Tess represents Hardy's method of painting a character by light skillful
touches, metaphorical illuminations and apt comparisons, Eustacia Vye is an example of
character portrait through set-description. She is also an example of the tragedy of
environment and of man's rebellion against fate. Remove Eustacia from Egdon Heath
and set her in Paris and there would be no tragedy. Or if Clym had not been such an
idealist and gone back to Paris there would have been no trugedy. Or if Eustacia had not
been so ambitious, so passionate, so rebellious, had she been a quiet girl like Thomasin,
then also there would have been no tragedy. Eustacia's tragedy represents Hardy's view
of life and man's helpless struggle against fate.
Personal Charm
Eustacia's great personal beauty is responsible for the tragedy of Clym, Wildeve, and
also the death of Mrs. Yeobright. The superstitous women of Egdon Heath look upon her
as a witch. Certainly she is an evil influence in the life of everyone in the novel. Her beauty
is described with great poetic power by Hardy. The chapter dealing with her personal
charms is one of the most glorious in all Hardy. She has fair complexion and is soft as a
cloud. She has dark and passionate eyes and beautiful mouth with sensuous lips. Her
musical voice, graceful motions, dignified and queenly bearing, make her look like a
goddess of Greek mythology. She reminds one of the lotus eaters and Cleopatra, of roses,
rubies and tropical mid-nights.
Her Capricious Nature
Eustacia Vye is capricious and inconsistent. She is a woman of changing moods.
She is inconsistent. First, she loves Wildeve then abandons him for Clym, breaks
Wildeve's marriage with Thomasin and then later herself brings about the marriage.
As Dufiin points out, she loves too hotly and passionately to love long and faithfully. She
herself feels this and is afraid that her love for Clym will not last long.
Self-centred and Self-willed
Eustacia has the elemental desire for happiness and she is willing to sacrifice every
other consideration and the happiness of every other person for her own pleasure and
satisfaction. She is determined to be happy at all cost. She is incapable of any selfless
feeling. Even her love for her Clym, though sincere and deep, is a form of self-love. She
does not care for Clym's happiness but for her own. She could have made Clym happy by
showing greater love for his mother. But she was not willing to pocket her own pride for
his sake. Similarly, when Clym becomes blind, she is more sorry for herself than for Clym
and feels angry and hurt when she finds Clym singing cheerfully and submitting patiently
to his fate.
Lack of Moral Sense
Eustacia acts upon instinct and impulse. She is guided by passion. She has no faith
in moral principles as such and she has no sense of moral obligation or duty, if it goes
against her happiness. When she attracts Wildeve to herself and is responsible for the
breaking of his marriage with Thomasin, her action is immoral, but she justifies her
action merely because it gives her amusement. She does not care for the ruin of
Thomasin's life. She does not believe in fidelity for fidelity's sake.
The Influence of Heredity on Her Character: Early Training
Eustacia had French blood in her and this is responsible for her passionate character
love of beauty and pleasure, her sensuousness and desire for love. Her father was a
bandmaster at Budmouth and led an extravagent life. He has a drunkard and died in.
debt. The daughter inherited many of the qualities of her father.
At Budmouth, Eustacia was surrounded by gaity and pleasure. She saw gallant
soldiers and music, and dance and love-making, etc., and all this deepened her iove of
pleasure. Her education was very moderate and did not develop her intellectual, moral
or spiritual nature. It only supplied her with heroes like Napoleon whom she admired.
She wanted to conquer hearts and reign like a queen in society. This was her ambition.
She has two desires (1) to be the object of a great love and (2) to go to Paris and lead
a life of luxury and enjoyment. She wants music, poetry, romance and passion. Without
these she feels life is not worth-living. She wants to live in a blaze of splendour, not to
flicker like a tiny lamp. When at the end of the novel she finds that these desires cannot
be satisfied, she commits suicide.
Her Melancholy
In Egdon Heath, she is gloomy, because her life is dull. She has no society and no
amusement. She flirts with Wildeve just because she wants some excitement. She hates
Egdon. She has caught only its vapours, and regards it as her prison and as her Hades.
She has a contempt for the people of Egdon and refuses to submit to her fate.When
there is quarrel between her and Mrs. Yeobright, she is as scornful and sharp in her
tongue as Mrs. Yeobright. When there is quarrel between her and Clym she does now
show a sense of guilt or repenlence, but replies to him with great spirit and defiance.
Her Superiority
She is more cultured and refined than the people of Egdon, except Clym, and she,
therefore excites our admiration and that of Wildeve, of Clym and everyone else. Only
ignorant people like Susan Nunsuch regard her as a witch.
Causes of Her Tragedy
(a) Environment. There is complete opposition between her character and her
environment. She hates Egdon Heath and it proves to be her doom. It was her fate which
brough her there. The death of her parents and her grandfather's preference and taste
brought her to Egdon. All her life she struggled against Egdon but she did not succeed,
and ultimately found her grave in one of its pools.
(b) Clym's Idealism. Fate made her fall in love with Clym's a man whose character
was just he opposite of hers. She was worldly, he was unworldly. She was sensual, he was
intellectual. She did not care for the beauty of nature, he adored it. She hated man and
had no desire for social service, he loved mankind and dedicated his life to the service of
society. She was selfish and self-centred, he was selfless and self-sacrificing. She was
thoughtless, he was thoughtful. This opposition of character was her misfortune and
while ii satisfied one of her two great desires, it left the second unfulfilled, and this led to
the tragedy.
(c) Hatred of Mrs. Yeobright. This was due partly to the contrast of character
between the two women and partly to her own pride and passion. Her instinctive action
in not opening the door was the result of a perversity of mind and a blind impulse. The
action was fatal to her happiness. It is true there was a misunderstanding, for she thought
that Clym was awake. But she felt a deep impulse not to open the door, only because she
hated Mrs. Yeobright.
(d) Her Lack of Frankness. Eustacia never told Clym all about her secret desires and
passions. Hence Clym never quite understood the intensity of her desire for pleasure and
even after marriage he thought that she might be a good teacher in his ideal school.
Similarly, she did not understand the intensity of his idealism. Hence even after marriage
she led a lonely life and sought pleasure stealthily, almost with a sense of guilt. Nor that
she was afraid of Clym, but she was not sure of perfect understanding. Women in Hardy
often keep secrets from lovers and husbands and this often leads to tragedy. In this novel
also, if Eustacia had frankly told Clym immediately that she had not opened the door
under the impression that he was awake, the whole cf the subsequent tragedy might have
been averted.
(e) Chance. The revelation of the secret by Johny Nunsuch was a matter of chance.
His presence near Clym's house, his talk with Mrs. Yeobright, his observation of
Eustacia's face outside the window, are all matters of chance.
 (f) Her Nobility. Why did Eustacia not go with Wildeve to Paris as was arranged
between them ? The reason is that she loved Clym and could not tolerate the idea of
leaving him as the mistress of such a worthless man as Wildeve. Since there was no other
way of realising her desires, Eustacia had no alternative to suicide.
Conclusion
The death of Eustacia creates a feeling of pity and a sense of waste. Fate was really
cruel to her. She was like a rat in a cage, Her tragedy is to some extent universal. We are
all like her, the victims of cruel destiny. Her only fault was that she wanted to be happy
at any cost. The weaknesses of her character and her opposition to her environment were
due to forces beyond her control. It is a soul's tragedy, the anguish of her soul makes us
feel that she had her faults, no doubt, but she suffered more than she deserved.
(G) Egdon Heath, As an Over-Character
Its Importance
Egdon Heath is not merely the tragic background to the story of the Return of the
Native but almost a living over-character determining the plot, dominating the
characters and playing a decisive role in the lives of Men and Women who inhabit it. It
is the novel of Egdon Heath.
Study from Life
Egdon Heath is a real place in Wessex and the description of it is a study from life.
It is a masterly description. Hardy knew it from his childhood because he lived near it
and he loved it with all the intensity of his soul, as Clym loves it in the Return of the
Native. He knew every corner of it.
Description
The Return of the Native starts with a description of Egdon Heath. "It is a face on
which time makes but little impression." It is vast, colossal, stretching like a huge giant.
It is dark. Night descends earlier on Egdon Heath and dawn appears a little late. It is
gloomy and it seems to exhale darkness. It is a friend of the storm and the wind. It is
uncultivated and barren and nothing but ferns, furze, lichen and prickly shrubs grow on
it. Its face is haggard. Here nature is in its wildest aspect. It is monotonous and dull.
Civilisation is its enemy. It has resisted all attempts at cultivation. Its chief characteristic
is its unchanging character. Whatever else changed in the world, Egdon Heath remains
exactly as it has ever been. On its face many tragedies have taken place, but they were so
many bubbles in the ocean of its life.
The novel describes Egdon Heath in various seasons of the year and in various hours
of the day and night. Hardy describes the sights and sounds of Egdon Heath in minutes
detail —the changing colour of itsleaves, the shape and colour of its flowers and
fruits and berries, its hollows and mounds and vallies, the insects, the birds and
the animals, that inhabited it, especially the heath croppers of which Johnny Nunsuch
was so much afraid. The roads that pass on through Egdon Heath, the Old Roman graves
and historical relics are all described with fidelity. The adder that bites Mrs. Yeobright is
a part of it and the pool in which Eustacia is drowned is also provided by it.
Of the sounds of Egdon Heath the most important is the sound of the wind seeping
through the heath hells at night. The sound is weird and fearful and intensifies the horror
of the scene.
Tragic Background
It is a fitting background to the tragic story of the novel. It creates a tragic
atmosphere and produces in the reader the emotional mood necessary for a tragedy. It
harmonizes with the general tragic impression and intensifies it. Most of the scenes take
place either at night or in twilight or in "Lunar Eclipse."
Symbolic Value
It is a symbol of those unseen forces of the universe which govern human life. Nature
moves on its appointed course with absolute punctuality without any care for human
suffering. It is the silent, and ironic spectator of the tragedy of human life. There is a
contrast between the vastness and unchanging character of the Heath aod the smaJiness
and changing nature of human life. Men appear like insects as compared to the vast
Egdon Heath, insignificant and vain. Again and again Hardy emphasizes the littleness of
the universe and the fatality of his struggle against these forces.
Effect on Characters
Egdon heath influences all the characters of the play. Eustacia hates it and calls it
her Hades, her cross, and it proves to be her death. It makes Eustacia gloomy, self-
centred, rebellious and bitter. It makes her sound hungry for pleasure and makes her
desperately hungry for amusement which is so scarce on Egdon Heath. It is the very
antithesis of her desired and aspirations and she longs for the wider, more varied and
gayer life of a city, like Paris. She fights ajainst Egdon Heath but is ultimately crushed by
it and meets her watery grave in one of its pools.
Clym loves Egdon Heath as much as Eustacia hates it. He is the "native' of the soil
and very object appears to him friendly. He is sufficiently an intellectual to appreciate its
dark and mysterious beauty. He has knowledge and artistic sense enough to observe and
enjoy its truth and beauty. The conflict of character between Eustacia and Clym is best
illustrated by their different attitudes toward Egdon Heath. When he grows blind, Egdon
Heath provides him with an occupation. It makes him a philosopher and a poet.
Wildeve dislikes Egdon Heath because it is too dull. But otherwise he does not care
much about it. Hatred of the place is a point of affinity between Wildeve and Eustacia.
However, Thomasin is quite at home in Egdon Heath. She would be unhappy
anywhere else. To her it is a familiar old place. But she cannot appreciate its beauty as
Clym can.
Diggory Venn is a practical man and does not care much for nature. But he knows
Egdon Heath intimately and is a frequent visitor to it. He makes good use of it.
The Rustic Character are the products of the heath like its flowers and insects. They
are a part of it. They have the innocence, the simplicity, the cheerfulness, as also the
crudeness, of primitive, human nature.
Effect on Plot
The plot of the Return of the Nativecannot be imagined except in Egdon Heath. It
provides us with picturesque and impressive scenes like Eustacia standing on
Rainbarrow in the twilight, the rustics singing and dancing around the bonfire, etc. It
also provides the love signals, a pebble thrown into a pond or a moth thrown through a
window. The fantastic reddleman, the tiring journey of Mrs. Yeobright to Clym's house
and back, the last night of Eustacia, and her wandering through the dark, the tragic pool,
the Maypole Ceremony, these are all characteristic of Egdon Heath. In fact the whole
story hinges round the heath. The reddleman makes good use of it his fight against
Wildcvc. The tragedy would not have taken place without the Heath.
As all the events take place in Egdon Heath, it provides unity of place to the novel.
Conclusion
It will therefore not be an exaggeration to say that, "it is the Heath alone in its
changing moods and unchanging majesty that is Hardy's chief character in the Return of
the Native." It dominates character and action; it is, "like a gloomy stage hung for
tragedy."

The Title of the Novel: Its Significance in The

Return of the Native
A good title must be appropriate and significant. Just as a signboard indicates the
contents of a shop, a good title should indicate the substance or the basis theme of a
nowel is the story of the tragic consequences of the return of Clym Yeobright who is a
native of Egdon Heath.

Clym Yeobright was born and bred up on Egdon Heath. He is its native. He loves the
Heath, and is permeated through and through with its influences. He finds the hills
congenial and friendly, and its very spirit is in his blood. His playthings have been the
flora and fauna of Egdon, and he is as familiar with the face of the ancient Heath, as one
is with the face of a close relative. He is the son of Egdon, Egdon is in his blood, and he
cannot remain happy away from it.
As Clym, the native of Egdon, was a promising lad, he was sent to Paris so that he
may prosper and rise in life. There he became the manager of a big diamond business.
He was doing well there, but still he did not feel happy and satisfied. He felt bored and
tired in the artificial and unnatural life of the city of Paris. He did not feel at home there.
He felt that in Paris, "he was pandering to the meanest vanities" of libertines and
shameless women. The call of Egdon was too strong for him and he returned.
The return of Clym to his native Egdon causes much sorrow, suffering in the life of
at least five people —Clym himself, Eustacia, Wildeve, Mrs. Yeobright and Thomasin.
Clym was disgusted with the life at Paris, and he intended to devote the rest of his life to
the education of the Heath-folk. He intended to stay for ever in his birthplace to start a
sort of school for the education of the rustics. This is a noble end, indeed, but it too
idealistic and is bound to result in frustration and disappointment. The illiterate Egdon
people would never have appreciated his nobility or his attempts at education them. In
order to put his plan into practice, he studies hard late into the night. The result is that
he grows-semi-blind, and is obliged to take to the humble work of a furze-cutter to
support himself. This is a great tragedy, and Clym's suffering can better be imagined than
described.
But this is not all. His return brings tragedy in the life of others also. Eustacia, the
Queen of Night, falls in love with him and marries him in the hope that he would take
her to Paris, and in this way her craze for city life would be satisfied. She is disgusted
with Egdon, regards it as a Hell, and yearns for the pomp and glitter of city life. When
she finds that Clym has no intentions of returning to Paris, her frustration knows no
bound. She turns once again to Wildeve, and plans to elope with him. The result is that
both of them are drowned in the dark and stormy night.
Thus is cut short the career of the beautiful.Eustacia, and of Wildeve, the Rousseau
of Egdon. Had Clym not returned, Eustacia would have married Wildeve, and all would
have been well. As it is, his return makes Wildeve marry Thomasin, and the two ate
incompatible by their very natures. Wildcve does not remain faithful to Thomasin for
long, and makes love to Eustacia again. Thomasin suffers silently as long as he lives, and
finally has to suffer the pangs of Widowhood. Her life would have been a long tale of
misery, had not there been the faithful Diggory to marry her and thus bring a ray of
sunshine into her dark life.
Again, it is the return of Clym to Egdon, that brings him into direct conflict with Mrs.
Yeobright, his mother. Mrs. Yeobright loves her son deeply and devotedly. She lives for
him alone. A wise and shrewd woman, she knows that Eustacia would never make a good
wife to him. She, therefore, warns Clym against a hasty marriage with her. She strongly
objects to their marriage. The result is that the two quarrel violently, and finally separate
and live apart. The result is that both of them suffer acutely, but silently. Their suffering
is terrible. When Mrs. Yeobright comes to know that her son has turned a furze-cutter,
she relents and goes to his cottage to be reconciled. But cruel Destiny has willed
otherwise. The door of Clym's house remains closed in her face, she turns back
disappointed and exhausted, and dies on the Heath.
Thus the novel narrates the story of the tragic consequences of the return of Clym to
Egdon, his native place. Hence the title is appropriate.

"The Return of the Native" as a love-story

Hardly was a modern so far as his thought or philosophy is concerned, but the form
of his novel is traditional. His plots arc all old fashioned. All of them turn on love. In all
of them, we find the conventional love-triangle. Hardy's novels are all basically love-
stories.

This is also true of the Return of the Native. It is also a love-story. And in it, there is
not merely a love-triangle, but a- rhomboid (a four cornered figure) with a tail. The love
triangle in the novel may be represented as follows:
Eustacia-Clym Yeobrighl
Wildeve-Tliomasin-Venn
Both Clym Yeobright and Wildeve love Eustacia, and both Wildeve and Venn love
Thomasin. Thus there is a double love-story, the path of the lovers cross, and the result
is much sorrow and suffering, and ultimately tragedy. Love, in the present novel, as in
other novels, is a lord of terrible aspect, a source of tragedy rather than of happiness. A
detailed consideration of the love-triangle would make the point clear.
Clym-Eustacia-Wildeve
 Long before the novel opens, Wildeve and Eustacia have been in love with each
other. They meet frequently on the Rainbarrow near Eustacia's home, and the sound
produced by the dropping of a stone in the nearby pond is used as the signal of love. But
their love is neither true nor sincere. They are strangely fascinated and drawn towards
each other, and yet they are unfaithful to each other. The fact is that isolation in Egdon
Heath has made Eustacia love-hungry, and she turns to Wildeve because there is no other
more worthy object of love on the desolate heath. Wildeve too loves her because she is
the most beautiful woman on the heath. However, as she is proud, hot and impulsive, he
turns to pretty Thomasin who is the very opposite of Eustacia. He is a sort of lady-killer
and likes to make love to a number of women at one and the same time.
On her part, Eustacia is equally capricious and changeable. She, too, transfers her
love to Clym as soon as he returns to Egdon. She is disgusted with Egdon, yearns for the
pomp and glitter of city life, and loves Clym because she thinks he would take her to
Paris. However, her dream is frustrated. Clym has his own plan of educating the rustics,
studies for long hours loses his eye-sight, and is compelled to take up the humble work
of a furze- cutter. This is a great humiliation for Eustacia. At this juncture, Wildeve again
crosses her path. The two dance on the village green, and Wildeve comes to meet her
secretly at her home. The visit results ifi the tragedy of the closed door and the death of
Mrs. Yeobright.
When Clym comes to know of the circumstances which led to the death of his
mother, he is, quite naturally, angry with his wife. There follows a violent quarrel, and
Eustacia leaves her husband and comes to live with her grandfather. Unable to tolerate
life on Egdon, she decides to elope with Wildeve. They leave home on the night of the 6th
of November. It is absolutely dark and a furious storm is raging. Eustacia falls into a pond
and is drowned. Both Wildeve and Clym jump into the pond to save her. Wildeve is
drowned, while Clym is saved by the reddleman.
In this way, Clym-Eustacia-Wildeve love-triangle results in tragedy for all
concerned. Eustacia and Wildeve come to a tragic end. Clym's love for Eustacia is the
direct cause of the tragic death of Mrs. Yeobright. No doubt, Clym lives in the end, but
his is a life in death. He live haunted by a sense of guilt that he is responsible for the
death both of his wife and his mother.
Wildeve-Thomasin-Diggory
Wildeve-Thomasin-Diggory Venn have-triangle, on the other hand, ends more
happily, largely, as a result of the patient and forbearing nature of Thomasin. Diggory
Venn had loved Thomasin from the very beginning, but Thomasin rejected him for three
reasons. First, because she did not love him, secondly, because she loved another person,
and thirdly because her aunt, Yeobright, did not agree to her marriage with Diggory, by
far their social inferior. Diggory was much frustrated. He was a small dairy farmer but
dis-appointment in love led him to give up his farm and adopt the profession of a
reddleman.
When the story opens we find the poor Thomasin has been jilted by Wildeve at the
eleventh hour. They had gone to be married, but it was discovered that there was some
technical flaw in the marriage licence and so they could not be married. This is a great
humiliation for Thomasin. Instead of returning home with Wildeve after the unfortunate
event, she returns in the van of Diggory. In Egdon all supposed that they, Wildeve and
Thomasin, were duly married, and so the Wessex folk even came to the Quiet Woman
Inn to congratulate them.
 Wildeve, instead of acting honourably and marrying Thomasin at the earliest, turn
once again to Eustacia who is gratified to have her lover back. Diggory does her best to
help Thomasin. He adopts his, "silent system", to scare away Wildeve from Eustacia, and
keep him at home in the evening. At a critical moment, he offers himself to Mrs.
Yeobright as a possible suitor for Thomasin. The result is that Mrs. Yeobright is able to
talk to Wildeve from a position of strength, and to tell him frankly that if he does not
marry her at an early date, there is another lover waiting to marry her. However,
Thomasin is determined to marry Wildeve for, "her pride's sake". It is only though
marriage with that she can wash off the disgrace from her fair name.
It is the return of Clym to Egdon that makes matters easier for Thomasin. Eustacia
falls in love with him, and writes to Wildeve telling him that she no longer wants him,
and he may marry Thomasin, if he so desires. The result is that Thomasin and Wildeve
are married. But Wildeve does not remain faithful to her for long. He meets Eustacia by
chance, dances with her and then visits her secretly, first in the evening, and then in the
day. Thomasin knows all this, and suffers deeply as a consequence.
Melioristic Note
However, her patience, tolerance, humility and prudence are rewarded in the end.
Wildeve and Eustacia are drowned in the pond on the might of the 6th of November, and
in this way she becomes a widow. The faithful Diggory still loves her and continues to
court her. The episode of the lost glove touches her heart deeply. She now realises the
sincerity and depth of his love. The result is that she now accepts him, and the two are
duly married. We may be sure that the two lived happily logether ever afterwards.
Thus the love story of Thomasin end;, happily. Through her the novelist has
introduced an element of meliorism in the novel. Life is tragic, and love is a cause of
sorrow and suffering, but we can get some happiness even out of human life, if we are
sufficiently gentle, humble, patient and forbearing like Thomasin and Diggory Venn. It
is in this way that the tragedy of human life can be ameliorated or softened a little.

The Role of Chance in "The Return of the Native"

Chance plays an important role, even an exaggerated role, in the novels of Thomas
Hardy. Many things which are mysterious and sudden, which cannot be accounted for in
any natural way, take place. The unexpected often happens and always it is the
undesirable unexpected. Such chance events are heavy blows aimed at the head of
Hardy's protagonists and they send them to their doom.

Hardy's plots are dominated by chance events. This is also true of the Return of the
Native. In this novel also there are many things which happen at the wrong moment,
when they are least expected to happen, and the result is sorrow, suffering, and tragedy
for all concerned. For example,
(1) Clym's coming across Eustacia by chance as he returns home with his mother
and Thomasin, leads to their sad and tragic love.
(2) It is just a matter of chance that Diggory is a few minutes late in coming to
propose for Thomasin's hand. Wildeve reaches before him and is accepted. Had Diggory
reached earlier, he would have married Thomasin and Wildeve would have married
Eustacia. Much sorrow and suffering would have been avoided in this way.
(3) It is by chance that Christian meets some friends and goes with them to the Quiet
Woman. It is by chance that he wins at the game of dice. The result is that Wildeve comes
to know that he has Thomasin's guineas on him, and he wins all of them from him.
(4) It is just a chance that Wildeve comes to Eustacia's house exactly at the moment
that Mrs. Yeobright also reaches there.
(5) It is just a chance that Clym moves, and mutters "mother", in his sleep, just at
the moment Mrs. Yeobright knocks at the door. The result is that Eustacia supposes that
her husband is awake, and so she does not herself open the door. This leads to the death
of Mrs. Yeobright, and the separation of Clym and Eustacia after a violent quarrel.
(6) It is just a chance that Johnny Nunsuch repeats the dying words of Mrs.
Yeobright, exactly at the moment that Clym reaches the cottage of Susan Nunsuch.
(7) The chance meeting of Wildeve and Eustacia in the fair leads to their dancing
together, and the renewal of their love.
(8) It is just a chance that Clym's letter of reconciliation does not reach Eustacia in
time.
Thus it becomes clear that the plot of the riovel is heavily overloaded with chance
events. Too much depends on chance. This introduces an element of artificiality into the
novel. Indeed, this is one of the pieces of criticism levelled against the novel as a work of
art.

Heredity and Environment: Their role in the Novel:

The Return of the Native
A child is a bundle of unrealised possibilities. He comes into this world ready fitted
with a number of instincts, impulses, traits, tendencies, disposition, etc., which he has
derived from his parents and through them from his grand parents, and even from his
remote ancestors. Soon after birth he is also subjected to a number of influences from
the environment in which he happens to have been born. The nature and moral
principles of the parents, their financial position, the size of the family, society and social
conventions, all influence the growing child. Thus his life and character are the resultant
of the action and interaction of heredity and environment. In all his major novels, Hardy
displays a keen interest in these two formative influences i.e., heredity and environment.

The Importance of Environment

All the critics of Hardy have recognised the importance of heredity and environment
in his works. Thus Compton-Rickett observes : "His figures are elemental forces : they
are the natural expressions of sleepy woodland places, gaunt, austere hills, purling
streams, lonely open spaces." Stressing the influence of environment on character,
Grimsditch in his well-known book, "Character and Environment in Hardy", remarks :
"Destiny subjects his (man) to a number of external influences, the sum total of which
make up his environment and this plays a large part in the development of his character."
The Unfavourable Early Environment of Eustacia
Environment has considerable influence in the formation of Eustacia's character.
She had passed the formative years of her life in the fashionable watering city of
Budmouth. The glitter of the town, its fashions and its artificiality, have entered her very
soul and her one passion in life is to go to a city like Paris and there enjoy life to its full.
The early memories haunt her through life and lead to her undoing. It is for this reason
that she reacts unfavourably to her later environment, Egdon Health. She cannot adjust
herself to these changed surroundings. She considers it her Hades, her prison, and wants
to get out of it as early as possible.
Inherited Traits
Equally far reaching is the influence of Heredity on the formation of Eustacia's
character. Her father was a bandmaster and it is from him that she has inherited her
passion for love and life. It is for this reason that the lure of the town is too much for her.
She craves for the frivolous amusements of the town ...... the dance, the song and the gay
parties.
Environment and Heredity Determine Character
It thus becomes clear that both environment and heredity play an important part in
the formation of Eustacia's character. The interaction of these two factors determines the
character, life and suffering of Eustacia. It is environment and heredity which also
determine the character of Clym. From his father he has inherited his simplicity and lack
of ambition, and from his mother, her firmness and strength of character. Bred and
brought up in Egdon he is in tune with environment, and reacts unfavourably to his Paris
environment.
Therefore, he gives up his job in Paris and returns to Egdon. It is his return which
causes such suffering and tragedy in the lives of all the important characters in the novel.
Thus it is seen that in The Return of the Native, heredity and environment
determine character and lead to tragedy.

The Return of the Native" as a Work of art ; Its

faults
The Return of the Native belongs period of Hardys maturity as an artist. With Tlie
Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'ubervilles and/ude the Obscure, it occupies a
significant place among Hardy's novels. It has its own excellencies and shortcomings as
a work of art.

Its Merits
1. The great merits of the novel are :
(i) The architectonic quality of the plot.Its plot has proportion, symmetry and
unity : carefully planned plot of the novel is a proof of Hardy's artistic maturity.
 (ii) The grand treatment of Nature.Hardy does not treat nature as a mere
background to human drama, but as an independent identity —an over-
character casting its influence on human beings.
(iii) The dramatic construction of its plot without any superfluity.
(iv) The artistic use of the devices of parallelism and contrast.
(v) There are a number of highly poetic scenes such as the one in which Wildeve
and Diggory gamble in the light of the glow-worms.
(vi) Hardy's use of poetic prose in the opening chapter and in the description of
Eustacia.
(vii) The poetic power displayed in raising the atmosphere and the characters to
tragic heights, and in imparting tragic grandeur to them.
(viii) The picturesquencess and freshness of st'ch scenes as Eustacia on the
Rainbarrow, or the bonfire on the 5th of November.
Its Faults
2. The novel has been critised for the following faults :
(i) Excessive introduction of "chance'which makes the plot artificial and
unnatural.
(ii) The introduction of sensual characters like Eustacia and Wildeve.
(iii) Use of dialect.
(iv) Repetition of situation.
(v) Too much importance attached to nature.
(vi) The dark pessimistic note on which the novel ends.
In Defence of Hardy
3. However, these charges may be explained away as follows:
(i) "Chance' has a significant part to play in Hardy's view of life, and its frequent
introduction in the novel instead of leading to artificiality, presents a picture of
life in perfect agreement with his philosophy of life. Many events happen by
Chance in our day to day life as well.
(ii) Judged from the Victorian standards of morality, such characters as Eustacia
and Wildeve may be branded as sensual, but they are true to life. Moreover,
Hardy does not extol their sensuality, but presents it as a tragic flaw of their
characters. It brings about their ruin.
(iii) The use of dialect introduces realism. It enables Hardy to portray Wessex life
realistically. It is an artistic merit.
(iv) What has been called repetition is just Hardy's artistic use of parallelism and
contrasts. There are a number of love stories, and in they way the love-theme
has been studied from different angels. Variety has been imparted in this way.
 (v) The significance attached to Nature is in keeping with Hardy's view of life. He
does not, by presenting Nature's vastness, represent the victory of the inanimate
over the animate. Rather, the fusion of the natural and the human is one of the
glories of the novel.
(vi) The pessimistic note of the novel is not something unexpected from a tragic
artist like Hardy. The melioristic strain — marriage of Thomasin and Venn —
added on request from the editor of the magazine in which the novel appeared
serially, lessens the tragic gloom, but does not take away from the tragic
intensity of the novel.

Clym's Tragedy: a tragedy of un-practical idealism

in The Return of the Native
Clym is the hero of the Return of the Native. It is his return from Paris, which leads
to tragedy in his own life, in the life of Etistacia, and in the lives of Wildeve and Mrs.
Yeobright. His return to his native heath and its tragic consequences are the theme of the
novel.

Aristotle had laid down that a tragic hero must be a man of eminence, an exceptional
individual, and Shakespeare, too, follows this very dictum. But Clym is no exalted
personage. His father was a humble farmer, he belongs to the lower stratum of society,
and takes to the humble work of a furze-cutter to earn his living. His station in life is
humble, but his tragedy is an poignant and intense as that of any king or any character
drawn from the highest ranks of society.
Tragedy in his life is brought about by his unpractical idealism. Unpractical idealism
is the "tragic flaw' of his character. Clym is an uncompromising idealist, unrelenting in
the pursuit of his ideals without taking into consideration the realities of a particular
situation. He gives up his lucerative job in Paris and returns to Egdon with his Utopian
scheme of educating the rustics of the heath. He does not realise that the natives of Egdon
care only for money, for material advancement and do not care for, or realise the value
of, intellectual development. They do not care for study, and it will never be possible to
educate them. Thus his idealistic plan is doomed from the very beginning, but Clym has
no understanding of his situation. As Eustacia puts it, "He is an enthusiast about ideas,
careless about outward things."
As an idealist, Clym is sincere, selfless and firm of purpose, but he has no
understanding of life or of human nature. Just as he fails to understand the nature of the
Egdon-folk, so also he fails to understand the character of Eustacia. He fails to realise
that she will never be happy in Egdon, and that she will never make a suitable school
teacher. He fails to realise that she yearns for the pomp and glitter of city-life, which he
himself despises and has given up.
It is Clym's unpractical idealism which results in tragedy in his own life and the life
of the other principal characters of the novel. His idealism is responsible for his tragedy
to a very great extent. But it must also he remembered that chance also plays an
important role in bringing about the tragedy. It is chance as well as his own character
which are responsible for tragedy in the novel.

Hardy's skill in plot-construction in the Novel: Its

merits and demerits
The plot of the return of the Native has all the characteristic features of a typical
Hardy-plot. For one thing, the plot is old fashioned. It is based on the conventional love-
triangle i.e., two women loving one man or one man loving two women. The plot is made
up of two love stories which are closely inter-linked to form a single whole. The two
stories cross each other at several places. Indeed, in this novel, as C. Duffinpoints out,
there is not merely a love-triangle but a rhomboid (a four cornered figure) with a tale.
Clym and Wildeve both love Eustacia, and Wildeve and the Reddlcman both love
Thomasin. Thus the love situation is more complicated than in the other novels of Hardy.
The reddleman plays a significant role in both the stories and is an important connecting
link.

We get in the novel the conventional villain and the conventional lover, faithful and
devoted, ready to help the object of love even at the cost of his own happiness. Wildeve
is the villain of the piece, and reddleman is the faithful lover, helping his beloved,
unknown and unseen, and ultimately winning her love by his devotion and sincerity. The
end of the Thomasin-reddleman love story is conventional. The villain is ultimately
defeated, and the lovers are happily married.
The plot of the novel is dramatic. There is nothing superfluous in it. The story moves
straight, without any digressions and side issues to the catastrophe. It is a novel
constructed in scenes. As a building rises brick by brick, so also the plot of the novel is
constructed scene by scene, each scene carrying the story a step forward towards the
Catestrophe. The story opens with the masterly description of Egdon Heath, then there
is the bonfire scene to be soon followed by the poetic description of Eustacia standing
alone on the Rainbarrow. Wildeve and the reddleman gambling by the light of the glow-
worms, the journey of Mrs. Yeobright across the heath, Wildeve and Eustacia dancing in
the moonlight, etc., are some other memorable scenes in the novel.
The novel is also dramatic in the sense that there is much in it that is sensational,
thrilling, and melodramatic. Indeed, this is one of the criticism brought against the novel.
Wildeve is the conventional villain of a melodrama, well-dressed and handsome, making
love to two women at one and the same time, ultimately eloping with one of them and
deserting the other, and meeting his death by drowning. There are broken marriages,
impersonations, casting of magic spells, etc., all lifted directly from a melodrama. The
various tricks which the reddleman employs to frighten Wildeve arc melodramatic.
Indeed, critic after critic has commented on the Jack-in-the box effect produced by his
mysterious and sudden appearances at unexpected places.
Another fault of the plot of the novel, is the excessive use made of chance and
coincidence. The Catastrophe in a novel must be inevitable and natural. It must follow
logically from the events that have gone before. But in Tlie Return of the Nativeexcessive
role is assigned to chance; too much depends upon chance events. Chance events like
Clym's murmuring in his sleep, "mother', just when Mrs. Yeobright knocks at the door,
the chance delay of Clym's letter of reconciliation to Eustacia, are only two instances out
of many. The result is that the plot of the novel looks artificial and unnatural.
Another fault of the plot is its double-ending. Wildeve-Eustacia story has a violent
end, and the Catastrophe is terrible. It is tragedy "wrought to the uttermost''. Some say
it is too depressing and pessimistic. Reddleman Thomasin story, on the other hand, has
a happy end, and ll has been said that it weakens the tragic intensity of the main plot.
However, we cannot agree with such views. By showing Thomasin and reddleman happy
and contented at the end, the novelist has introduced a note of meliorism in the novel.
In this way, he has shown that some limited happiness is possible even in this sorry life
of ours, only, like Thomasin, we should have patience, prudence, and forbearance. Thus
the happy end enables the novelist to present his view of life faithfully and truthfully. The
double-ending is not a fault, but a great artistic merit.

The grandeur and majesty of Mrs. Yeobright as a

tragic figure in the Return of the Native
Shakespeare, following the lead of Aristotle, always selected men and women of rank
and status as his tragic heroes and heroines. They are all exceptional individuals; it was
supposed the fall of such a person alone arouses the tragic emotions of pity and fear, and
has a Kathmtic' effect. But Hardy chooses his heroes and heroines from the humblest
ranks of society, and yet the effect is equally "Kathartic".

Mrs. Yeobright, for example, is a woman of humble status and rank. She is the wife
of a poor farmer, and there is nothing exalted, high, or exceptional about her. Yet, such
is the art of Thomas Hardy, that at the moment of tragedy, she rises to the heights of
tragic grandeur. The effect is "Kathrtic' in the true sense of the word, and the final
impression created one of immense waster of noble, human material.
This is so because Mrs. Yeobright though humble and poor, has many features of
character which are the source of her greatness and glory. She is a woman of strong,
determined character, and the novelist shows that it is her very strength which becomes
a weakness in her relations with her equally strong son. The tragedy is brought about by
a conflict between these two strong wills, and the result is terrible in its consequences.
She is an affectionate mother who loves her son intensely and passionately and he is a
part and parcel of her very being, and she lives for him. It is the very force and intensity
of his mother-love that raises her to heights of tragic grandeur and majesty.
Mrs. Yeobright is a wise, shrewd and intelligent woman who has also a penetrating
insight into human nature and character. She has a true understanding of the character
of Eustacia, and knows that her son can acner he happy; with such a wife. Therefore, she
does not want that he should marry her. The resuft is a fierce quarrel with the son who
leaves her, and goes to live away from her. Mrs. Yeobright remains a lonely, forlorn figure
at home, detested by the son to whom she had given the best years of her life, and without
whom she cannot live. We cannot help but pity her.
Though Mrs. Yeobright is strong and firm. She is also gentle and humble. It is she
who makes the first move towards a reconciliation. She goes a long distance in scorching
sun to meet her son, and talk matters over with him. But crue! destiny has willed
otherwise. She finds the door of her son closed against her. She trudges homeward,
exhausted and thirsty, is stung by a snake, and dies on the heath, a broken-hearted
woman cast off by her own son. The very embodiment of motherhood, she rises to tragic
height of grandeur and majesty at the moment of her death. Hers is the tragedy of an
innocent, loving mother done to death by cruel destiny.
Mrs. Yeobright death produces a feeling of pity, a sense of tragic waste. The real
tragedy is not that Mrs. Yeobright dies, for man must dies one day. The real tragedy is
that so much of noble human material is wasted. The waste of such love, such strength,
such prudence, etc., is the real tragedy.

"The Return of the Native" a tragedy of character

and environment Hardy, Shakespeare of the
English Novel
Hardy has been called the Shakespeare of the English novel and the four great
Hardian tragedies, Tess of the D'ubervilles, Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of Casterbridge
and The Return of the Native have been likened to the four great Shakespearean
tragedies. But Hardy's conception of tragedy is radically different from that of
Shakespeare.

Hardy's Tragic Hero

In a Shakespearean tragedy, as Bradleyhas pointed out, the tragic hero is a man of
high rank and position. He may belong to the royal family or he may be some great
general and warrior indispensable for the state. He is not only exalted socially but he has
also some uncommon qualities of head and heart. He is in short a rare individual. When
such a person falls from greatness and his high position is reversed, the result is
"Kathartic'. His fall exciates the tragic emotion of terror and the readers are purged of
the motion of self-pity.
This was the traditional concept of Tragedy upto Hardy. But Hardy has how own
concept, he is the innovator of a new form of tragedy, His tragic hero and heroines are
no exalted personages. They are neither kings nor queens. They belong to the lowest
ranks of society. Thus in the present novel, Clym is humble by birth, and he takes to
furze-cutting as his profession, and Mrs. Yeobrighl is the wife of an humble farmer. But
these humble people have exceptional qualities of head and heart which raise them above
the common run of mankind. Thus Clym is the idealist, and Mrs. Yeobright is prudent,
strong and loving.
Hardian Tragedy: Apotheosis of the Human Spirit
When these humble heroes and heroines of Hardy suffer and fall from grace the
effect is as "Kalhurtic' as that of a Shakespearean tragedy. A Hardian tragedy is an
apotheosis of the human spirit. It reveals to us the essential nobility and heroism of the
human soul. The nobility of Mrs. Yeobright is brought out by her death, and Clym suffers
because of his idealism.
Tragic Waste in Hardy
 Like a Shakespearean tragedy, a Hardian tragedy .also creates the impression of
tragic waste. Evil is eliminated in the long run, but always at the cost of much that is good
and desirable. The real tragedy is this waste of good. Much good is wasted when Eustacia
comes to a tragic end. Similarly, the real tragedy is not that Mrs. Yeobright dies, but that
in her death so much of love and prudence are wasted.
Hardian Tragedy, Elevating
But Hardian tragedy does not discourage or cause despair. "It is elevating and
stimulating. It does not shake our faith in life, all the more it strengthens us; it does not
make us light-hearted, but makes -us wiser and better." Thus, The Return of the
Native, is not depressing. Hardy has introduced a note of meliorism by showing the
happy end of Thomasin's love story.
No Tragic Flaw in Hardy
The Shakespearian hero has some fault of character, some strong tendency to act in
a particular way, which is the cause of his undoing. Bradley has called this weakness of
the hero as the "tratic flaw' of his character. This tragic flaw results in the fall of the hero,
it is the cause of the tragedy. Though at a later stage the course of action is complicated
by other factors — chance, abnormal state of mind, some supernatural force, etc.-yet
primarily action issues out of character. Character is responsible for tragedy.
"Character is Destiny in Shakespeare." But this is not so in Hardy. His Tragic heroes
and heroines are free from any 'tragic flaw' in the Shakespearean sense. They do not have
any obsession or a marked tendency to act in a particular way. Thus the tragedy of Clym
and Eustacia is the result of chance to a very great extent. Mrs. Yeobright's death is also
brought about by chance events.
Destiny, and Not Character, the Cause of Tragedy
"Character may be destiny" in Shakespeare, but in Hardy, "Destiny is Character." In
all his novels, chance events happens throughout. Fate expresses itself as chance.
However in the. Return of the Nativecharacter too plays a significant role in bringing
about the tragedy. Eustacia' tragedy results from her excessive love of the glittering city
life and from her extreme hunger for love. Isolation in Egdon makes her rebellious,
morose and gloomy. It intensifies her hunger for love, and for the pleasures of city life.
Similarly, Clym's idealism is responsible to a very great extent for his tragedy. He is
unpractical and lacks worldly wisdom. Character and environment play a larger part in
causing tragedy in this novel, than in other novels.
Considered as a tragedy, TJie Return of the Native has other peculiar features as
well. For one thing, while in a Shakespearean tragedy both the hero and the heroine die
at the end, in this novel the heroine, Eustacia, alone dies, and the hero lives on a life of
deep anguish, virtually a life-in-death. This is another instance of the relentless cruelty
of destiny.
Secondly, the Return of the Native has a double-ending. While Eustacia, Wildeve
and Mrs. Yeobright come to a tragic end and Clym too suffers terribly, the end of
Thomasin's love-story is a happy one. We find her in the end married to the faithful Venn,
and likely to enjoy a happy life ever afterwards. In this way, the novelist has introduced
a note of meliorism in the novel. He has thus shown that a limited happiness is possible
even in this sorry life of ours. The happy end of the Thomasin story does not reduce the
tragic intensity of the Catastrophe, rather it enables the novelist to present his vision of
life truthfully and honestly.
"The Return of the Native": A novel from the pen
of a poet
Thomas Hardy was a born poet. He was a poet first and a novelist afterwards. Quite
naturally, his novels are rich in the poetic element.

In The Return of the Native this poetic element is seen in his masterly use of poetic
prose. Thus the opening chapter of the novel, describing Egdon in all its glory and
grandeur, is one of the finest examples of poetic prose in the English language. Equally
poetic is the set description of Eustacia as Queen of the Night. Both these piece of
description have the cadence and rhythm of poetry. The imagination at the back of the
pen, is the imagination of a born poet. Vivid, poetic similes and metaphors come out of
Hardy's pen as do sparks from a Chimney fire. His images have the frequency and quality
of poetry, rather than of prose. The very conception of Eustacia's character is poetic and
only a poet could have imparted epic grandeur and majesty to a desolate heath.
The poetic element in the novel is also seen in various love-signals used by the lovers.
Thus the bonfire at the Rainbarrow is signal of love to call Wildeve, and he announces
his arrival.by throwing a stone in the pond like the, "flounce of a frog". Later on, he uses
a moth as a signal of love. Equally poetic is the use of an eclipse of the Moon to mark the
time for a tryst of love.
However, the poetic element in the novel is best seen a number of poetic scenes
scattered all up and down the novel. These poetic scenes serves:
(a) To introduce an element of widerdness. The poetic scene describing Wildeve and
Diggory Venn gambling on the dark, lonely Egdon, under the light of glow-worms,
present a wicrd. almost uncanny effect. The heath croppers look on ama/ed.
(b) To heighten the pathos and to present a character in poetic terms. The entire
scene describing the last journey of Mrs. Yeobright to Clym's house, her return as a
broken-hearted woman, and her tragic death, present the tragedy in such an intensified
way as to move the hearts of the readers. The journey is vividly and poetically done.
(c) To express typically Hardian Humour, a humour iroaical, almost gruesome. For
example, the scene describing Venn's meeting Wideve at the Rainbarrow.
(d) The scenes providing rustic humour. The scenes presenting the chorus of rustics.
Grandler Canlle, Christian, Humphrey, Timothy and other Egdon-folk at the
Rainbarrow. The bonfire scene provides humour and, though the conversation of these
rustics, presents before us the events related to the leading characters of the novel. It is
the finest example of rustic humour.
(e) The scene in which Charley holds the hand of Eustacia for fifteen minutes is both
ridiculous and pathetic.
(f) The t.agic scenes on the fatal night of November sixth. Eustacia's going out into
the stormy Egdon, has been presented in such a way as to raise her to tragic heights. Her
last, hopeless wandering on the dark heath reminds us of King Lear on the stormy heath,
and the elemental powers of nature hovering over his white heat in all their fury.