The Return of the Native

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The Return of the Native is Thomas Hardy's sixth published

novel. It first appeared in the magazine Belgravia, a The Return of the Native
publication known for its sensationalism, and was presented
in twelve monthly installments from January to December
1878. Because of the novel's controversial themes, Hardy
had some difficulty finding a publisher; reviews, however,
though somewhat mixed, were generally positive. In the
twentieth century, The Return of the Native became one of
Hardy's most popular novels.[1]

Title page, Macmillan edition, 1929

Contents
Author Thomas Hardy
1 Plot summary Country United Kingdom
1.1 Alternative ending
Language English
2 Discussion
3 Character list Genre Novel
4 Adaptations Publisher Belgravia, the Magazine of Fashion
5 In popular culture
and Amusement
6 References
7 External links Publication 1878
date
Media type Hardback & Paperback
Plot summary
The novel takes place entirely in the environs of Egdon Heath, and, with the exception of the epilogue,
Aftercourses, covers exactly a year and a day. The narrative begins on the evening of Guy Fawkes Night as
Diggory Venn is slowly crossing the heath with his van, which is being drawn by ponies. In his van is a
passenger. When darkness falls, the country folk light bonfires on the surrounding hills, emphasisingnot for
the last timethe pagan spirit of the heath and its denizens.

Venn is a reddleman; he travels the country supplying farmers with a red mineral called reddle (dialect term for
red ochre) that farmers use to mark their sheep. Although his trade has stained him red from head to foot,
underneath his devilish colouring he is a handsome, shrewd, well-meaning young man. His passenger is a
young woman named Thomasin Yeobright, whom Venn is taking home. Earlier that day, Thomasin had planned
to marry Damon Wildeve, a local innkeeper known for his fickleness; however, an inconsistency in the
marriage licence delayed the marriage. Thomasin, in distress, ran after the reddleman's van and asked him to
take her home. Venn himself is in love with Thomasin, and unsuccessfully wooed her two years before. Now,
although he believes Wildeve is unworthy of her love, he is so devoted to her that he is willing to help her
secure the man of her choice.

At length, Venn reaches Bloom's End, the home of Thomasin's aunt, Mrs. Yeobright. She is a good woman, if
somewhat proud and inflexible, and she wants the best for Thomasin. In former months she opposed her niece's
choice of husband, and publicly forbade the banns; now, since Thomasin has compromised herself by leaving
town with Wildeve and returning unmarried, the best outcome Mrs. Yeobright can envision is for the postponed
marriage to be duly solemnised as soon as possible. She and Venn both begin working on Wildeve to make sure
he keeps his promise to Thomasin.
Wildeve, however, is still preoccupied with Eustacia Vye, an exotically beautiful young woman living with her
grandfather in a lonely house on Egdon Heath. Eustacia is a black-haired, queenly woman, whose Italian father
came from Corfu, and who grew up in Budmouth, a fashionable seaside resort. She holds herself aloof from
most of the heathfolk; they, in turn, consider her an oddity, and some even think she's a witch. She is nothing
like Thomasin, who is sweet-natured. She loathes the heath, yet roams it constantly, carrying a spyglass and an
hourglass. The previous year, she and Wildeve were lovers; however, even during the height of her passion for
him, she knew she only loved him because there was no better object available. When Wildeve broke off the
relationship to court Thomasin, Eustacia's interest in him briefly returned. The two meet on Guy Fawkes night,
and Wildeve asks her to run off to America with him. She demurs.

Eustacia drops Wildeve when Mrs. Yeobright's son Clym, a successful diamond merchant, returns from Paris to
his native Egdon Heath. Although he has no plans to return to Paris or the diamond trade and is, in fact,
planning to become a schoolmaster for the rural poor, Eustacia sees him as a way to escape the hated heath and
begin a grander, richer existence in a glamorous new location. With some difficulty, she arranges to meet Clym,
and the two soon fall in love. When Mrs. Yeobright objects, Clym quarrels with her; later, she quarrels with
Eustacia as well.

When he sees that Eustacia is lost to him, Wildeve marries Thomasin,

who gives birth to a daughter the next summer. Clym and Eustacia also
marry and move to a small cottage five miles away, where they enjoy a
brief period of happiness. The seeds of rancour soon begin to germinate,
however: Clym studies night and day to prepare for his new career as a
schoolmaster while Eustacia clings to the hope that he'll give up the idea
and take her abroad. Instead, he nearly blinds himself with too much
reading, then further mortifies his wife by deciding to eke out a living,
at least temporarily, as a furze-cutter. Eustacia, her dreams blasted, finds
herself living in a hut on the heath, chained by marriage to a lowly
labouring man.

At this point, Wildeve reappears; he has unexpectedly inherited a large

sum of money, and is now in a better position to fulfill Eustacia's hopes.
He comes calling on the Yeobrights in the middle of one hot August day
and, although Clym is at home, he is fast asleep on the hearth after a
gruelling session of furze-cutting. While Eustacia and Wildeve are
talking, Mrs. Yeobright knocks on the door; she has decided to pay a
courtesy call in the hopes of healing the estrangement between herself "Unconscious of her presence, he still
and her son. Eustacia looks out at her and then, in some alarm, ushers went on singing." Eustacia watches
her visitor out at the back door. She hears Clym calling to his mother Clym cut furze in this illustration by
and, thinking his mother's knocking has awakened him, remains in the Arthur Hopkins for the original
garden for a few moments. When Eustacia goes back inside, she finds Belgravia edition (Plate 8, July 1878).
Clym still asleep and his mother gone. Clym, she now realises, merely
cried out his mother's name in his sleep.

Mrs Yeobright, it turns out, saw Eustacia looking out the window at her; she also saw Clym's gear by the door,
and so knew they were both at home. Now, thinking she has been deliberately barred from her son's home, she
miserably begins the long, hot walk home. Later that evening, Clym, unaware of her attempted visit, heads for
Bloom's End and on the way finds her crumpled beside the path, dying from an adder's bite. When she expires
that night from the combined effects of snake venom and heat exhaustion, Clym's grief and remorse make him
physically ill for several weeks. Eustacia, racked with guilt, dares not tell him of her role in the tragedy; when
he eventually finds out from a neighbour's child about his mother's visitand Wildeve'she rushes home to
accuse his wife of murder and adultery. Eustacia refuses to explain her actions; instead, she tells him You are no
blessing, my husband and reproaches him for his cruelty. She then moves back to her grandfather's house,
where she struggles with her despair while she awaits some word from Clym.
Wildeve visits her again on Guy Fawkes night, and offers to help her get to Paris. Eustacia realises that if she
lets Wildeve help her, she'll be obliged to become his mistress. She tells him she will send him a signal by night
if she decides to accept. Clym's anger, meanwhile, has cooled and he sends Eustacia a letter the next day
offering reconciliation. The letter arrives a few minutes too late; by the time her grandfather tries to give it to
her, she has already signalled to Wildeve and set off through wind and rain to meet him. She walks along
weeping, however, knowing she is about to break her marriage vows for a man who is unworthy of her.

Wildeve readies a horse and gig and waits for Eustacia in the dark. Thomasin, guessing his plans, sends Clym
to intercept him; she also, by chance, encounters Diggory Venn as she dashes across the heath herself in pursuit
of her husband. Eustacia does not appear; instead, she falls or throws herself into nearby Shadwater Weir. Clym
and Wildeve hear the splash and hurry to investigate. Wildeve plunges recklessly after Eustacia without
bothering to remove his coat, while Clym, proceeding more cautiously, nevertheless is also soon at the mercy of
the raging waters. Venn arrives in time to save Clym, but is too late for the others. When Clym revives, he
accuses himself of murdering his wife and mother.

In the epilogue, Venn gives up being a reddleman to become a dairy farmer. Two years later, Thomasin marries
him and they settle down happily together. Clym, now a sad, solitary figure, eventually takes up preaching.

Alternative ending

In a footnote towards the end of the novel in some compendium editions, Hardy writes:[2]

The writer may state here that the original conception of the story did not design a marriage
between Thomasin and Venn. He was to have retained his isolated and weird character to the last
Thomasin remaining a widow ... But certain circumstances of serial publication led to a change
of intent. Readers can therefore choose between the endings, and those with an austere artistic code
can assume the more consistent conclusion to be the true one.

Discussion
With its deeply flawed heroine and its (for the time) open acknowledgement of illicit sexual relationships, The
Return of the Native raised some eyebrows when it first appeared as a serial in Victorian Britain. Although he
intended to structure the novel into five books, thus mirroring the classical tragic format, Hardy submitted to
the tastes of the serial-reading public sufficiently to tack on a happy ending for Diggory Venn and Thomasin in
a sixth book, Aftercourses. In Hardy's original conception, Venn retains his weird reddleman's character, while
Thomasin lives out her days as a widow.[3]

Hardy's choice of themessexual politics, thwarted desire, and the conflicting demands of nature and society
makes this a truly modern novel. Underlying these modern themes, however, is a classical sense of tragedy:
Hardy scrupulously observes the three unities of time, place, and action and suggests that the struggles of those
trying to escape their destinies will only hasten their destruction.[4] To emphasise this main part he uses as
setting an ancient heath steeped in pre-Christian history and supplies a Chorus consisting of Grandfer Cantle,
Timothy Fairway, and the rest of the heathfolk. Eustacia, who manipulates fate in hopes of leaving Egdon
Heath for a larger existence in Paris, instead becomes an eternal resident when she drowns in Shadwater Weir;
Wildeve shares not only Eustacia's dream of escape, but also her fate; and Clym, the would-be educational
reformer, survives the Weir but lives on as a lonely, remorseful man.

Some criticsnotably D. H. Lawrencesee the novel as a study of the way communities control their misfits.
In Egdon Heath, most people (particularly the women) look askance at the proud, unconventional Eustacia.
Mrs. Yeobright considers her too odd and unreliable to be a suitable bride for her son, and Susan Nunsuch, who
frankly believes her to be a witch, tries to protect her children from Eustacia's supposedly baleful influence by
stabbing her with a stocking pin and later burning her in effigy. Clym at first laughs at such superstitions, but
later embraces the majority opinion when he rejects his wife as a murderer and adulteress. In this view, Eustacia
dies because she has internalised the community's values to the extent that, unable to escape Egdon without
confirming her status as a fallen woman, she chooses suicide. She thereby ends her sorrows while at the same
timeby drowning in the weir like any woman instead of floating, witchlikeshe proves her essential
innocence to the community.[5]

Character list
Clement (Clym) YeobrightA man of about thirty who gives up a business career in Paris to return to
his native Egdon Heath to become a schoolmaster to the poor and ignorant (Hardy himself gave up a
successful career as a London architect and returned to his native Dorchester to become a writer). "The
beauty here visible would in no time be ruthlessly overrun by its parasite, thought." Clym is the "native"
to which the book's title refers.
Eustacia VyeA raven-haired young beauty, of half-Italian ancestry, who chafes against her life on the
heath and longs to escape it to lead the more adventure-filled life of the world. Some of the heathfolk
think she is a witch. Hardy describes her as "the raw material of a divinity" whose "celestial
imperiousness, love, wrath, and fervour had proved to be somewhat thrown away on netherward Egdon."
Mrs. YeobrightClyms mother, a widow of inflexible standards. Thomasin has lived with her for many
years, but Clym is her only child. She strongly disapproves of Eustacia.
Thomasin (Tamsin) YeobrightClyms cousin and Mrs. Yeobright's niece, a young girl of gentle ways
and conventional expectations. In Hardy's original manuscript, Wildeve tricks her with a false marriage
to seduce her. "Mrs Yeobright saw a little figure...undefended except by the power of her own hope."
Damon WildeveEustacia's former lover and Thomasin's first husband. He is an ex-engineer who has
failed in his profession and who now keeps an inn, "The Quiet Woman"so-called because its sign
depicts a decapitated woman carrying her own head. He has a wandering eye and an appetite for women.
"A lady killing career."
Diggory VennA resourceful man of twenty-four and a reddleman (a travelling seller of reddle, red
chalk used for marking sheep). He selflessly protects Thomasin throughout the novel despite the fact that
she refused to marry him two years before. He keeps a watchful eye on Eustacia to make sure Wildeve
doesn't go back to her. At the end, he renounces his trade to become a dairy farmer like his father, and in
doing so loses the red skin. He is then seen as a suitable husband for Thomasin. Venn's red coloration and
frequent narrative references to his 'Mephistophelean' or diabolical character are symbolic and important.
In one particularly significant chapter ("The Morning and Evening of an Eventful Day"), Venn displays
an increasingly unlikely string of good luck, repeatedly rolling dice and defeating a rival. This event
makes Venn something of a deus ex machina, as well as a quasi-magical figure. While Hardy abandons
these aspects of Venn's character by the end of the novel, during his 'reddleman' phase, Venn lends
elements of magical realism and what modern readers would understand to be superheroic elements to
the novel.
Captain DrewEustacias grandfather and a former naval officer (renamed Captain Vye in later
editions).
Timothy FairwayA sententious man of middle age who is greatly respected by the other heathfolk.
Grandfer CantleA somewhat senile and always lively ex-soldier of about sixty-nine.
Christian CantleGrandfer Cantle's fearful and timid thirty-one-year-old son.
HumphreyClym's eventual colleague, a furze cutter (furze is a low, prickly shrub more commonly
called gorse).
Susan NunsuchEustacia's nearest neighbour and bitterest enemy who convinces herself that Eustacia's
witchery has caused her son's sickliness. In a memorable scene, Susan tries to protect him by making a
wax effigy of Eustacia, sticking it full of pins, and melting it in her fireplace while uttering the Lord's
Prayer backward. Eustacia drowns later that night.
Johnny NunsuchSusans son, a young boy. He encounters Mrs. Yeobright during her fatal walk home
and, in obedience to her wishes, reports her last words to Clym: I am a broken-hearted woman cast off by
my son.
CharleyA sixteen-year-old boy who works for Captain Drew and who admires Eustacia, largely from
afar.
Egdon HeathThe setting for all the novel's events; considered by some critics to be the leading
character as well.[6] It is profoundly ancient, the scene of intense but long-forgotten pagan lives. As its
tumuli attest, it is also a graveyard that has swallowed countless generations of inhabitants without
 changing much itself. To Thomasin, Clym, and Diggory, it is a benign, natural place; in Eustacia's eyes, it
becomes a malevolent presence intent on destroying her.

Adaptations
The Return of the Native was filmed for Hallmark Hall of Fame and broadcast on television in 1994. It was
filmed in Exmoor National Park. The film stars Catherine Zeta Jones as Eustacia Vye, Clive Owen as Damon
Wildeve, Ray Stevenson as Clym Yeobright, and Joan Plowright as Mrs. Yeobright. Jack Gold directed.[7]

In 2010 an film adaptation of The Return of the Native was directed by Ben Westbrook. It is set in the
Appalachian Mountains in the 1930s during The Great Depression.[8]

The novel has also been adapted for the stage several times.

In popular culture
Monty Python's 1973 record, Matching Tie and Handkerchief includes a sketch called "Novel Writing".
In the sketch, a crowd gathers to watch Thomas Hardy begin his latest novel while an enthusiastic sports
announcer provides a running commentary. The novel is The Return of the Native.
In the early 1970s, Granada Television produced a half-hour documentary in its "Parade" art series
entitled Egdon Heath in which an actor portraying Gustav Holst walks across the barren heath while the
music from his tone poem Egdon Heath is playing, and sees scenes and characters from novel which
inspired the music.
In J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye this novel is mentioned by Holden Caulfield. Caulfield
singles out the character, Eustacia Vye, a wild-spirited and confident woman, who is portrayed as an
outsider in the community. Holden indicates that he likes a book that makes you feel as if the author is a
friend that you could call. He adds that hed like to call Thomas Hardy, and also that he likes that
Eustacia Vye. Later he wonders what a nun would think of her.[9]
In 1993, the British traditional singer Johnny Collins recorded Diggery Venn the Raddle Man (sic) on his
album Pedlar of Songs.
In 1994, the Seattle band Thrones released a single entitled "Reddleman".
The band The Rainmakers released a song called "Reddleman Coming".
The indie band Nightmare of You's 2009 CD Infomaniac contains a song called "Eustacia Vye".
In the 1967 Indian film Raaz, station master, in the beginning of the movie, at the railway station is
reading this novel.
Musician Patrick Wolf's song "House" references the novel.

References
1. Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy (Norman Page, editor). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press,
2001, pp. 3757.
2. Hardy, Thomas (1995). The return of the native. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. p. 328.
ISBN 1853262382.
3. Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy, ibid.
4. Asquith, Mark. "A drama of grandeur and unity: Egdon Heath in The Return of the Native". The English
Review, 14.1 (Sept 2003): 21(3)
5. Malton, Sara A. "The woman shall bear her iniquity: Death as social discipline in The Return of the
Native". Studies in the Novel, Summer 2000.
6. Asquith, Mark. ibid.
7. [1] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110977/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1) The Return of the Native IMDb Movie
database listing
8. [2] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1756821/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_1) The Return of the Native IMDb Movie
database listing
9. Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little Brown and Company. 1951 page 19 & 110
External links

The Return of the Native at Project Gutenberg (text)

The Return of the Native public domain audiobook at LibriVox
Review of The Return of the Native 2010 by Jason Lockard, Rogue Cinema magazine
[3] article on the 2010 adaptation of The Return of the Native by Betty Cortus, Thomas Hardy Forum
The Return of the Native: original holograph manuscript. A UCD Digital Library Collection.

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