The
role, function and significance of Egdon Heath with attitudes of various
characters to it.
Symbolic of Hardy’s philosophy:
RN has been called “The Book of Egdon Heath”. With most of the other novels of
Hardy, the scene could be transposed to other part of Wessexwithout
affecting the story except RETURN OF THE NATIVE where Egdon Heath is the
dominant factor. Wessex was an old name for a territory in the
south-west of England. Hardy revived this name for a region of which he
himself was a native.
Hardy’s picture of Wessex is
the most elaborate study of landscape in English Literature. No one before
Hardy has made the landscape a part of the story. He sees Egdon Heath not only
with reference to space but also with reference to time. For instance, he
points out that Heath had remained unchanged since the time of Julius Caesar.
His attitude to Egdon Heath shows a rich complexity. Egdon influences all the
characters moving them to love or hate, to despair or to the philosophic mind.
Egdon is symbolic of Hardy’s philosophy. It neither ghastly, not hateful,
common place, tame, but it is like man slighted and enduring. Egdon is
the premier and most extended instance of Hardy’s habitual personification of
Nature. Hardy himself lived on the fringes of Egdon Heath and was perfectly
with this environment. In no other novel of his does background come up as
lively and breathing as NR. It appears as a working character. Most of the
story takes place on the Heath. It symbolizes the whole cosmic order. If we
need to understand the human aspects of RETURN OF THE NATIVE, we must first
know Egdon Heath. These significant and vital features of the RETURN
OF THE NATIVE make it a Wessex novel.
The function and role of Egdon
Heath: EH is all-pervasive, without it the novel would be inconceivable, for it provides it
with the special dimension and holds the action of the novel and its
characters. The function of the EH is to emphasize the real circumstances in
which man lives. What the individual may feel about those circumstances is
irrelevant for he never escapes them. The Heath is an extended image of the Nature
of which man is a part, in which he is caught, which conditions his every
being. His life in relation it is as short-lived as the bonfires which
the peasants make of the furze that grow on the heath. The nature of human
beings is fleeting and insignificance as compared to the permanence of the
heath. It has its own life and provideslivelihood to the furze-cutters who
work on it. He shows us the heath through all the seasons of the year.
Characters
as part of the Heath: The human inhabitants of the heath are seen by Hardy
almost from an anthropologist’s point of view. When the peasants dance in
August, time seems to be telescoped; the countries slip by, and the men behave
as their ancestors did “for the time Paganism was revived in their hearts, the
pride of life was all in all.” Christian Cantle, Grandfer Cantle, Timothy
Fairway and Sam – the rustics are as much a part of Nature, and of the life of
the heath, as the toads in March that croak like big ducks. Heath influences
the principal characters of the novel especially Eustacia. She feels great
hatred for the Heath. “Egdon was her Hades.” She was an outsider on the Heath,
not born or bred there. Its environment was most hostile to her. This
environment could make a woman poet, novelist etc, but it makes Eustacia
saturnine. She longs to live a fashionable life in Paris. In talking to
Wildeve, she says, “’Tis my cross, my shame and will be my death.” Clym,
unlike, Eustacia, is the product of Egdon and its shaggy hills are friendly and
congenial to him. Heath swallows him up and absorbs him into its furze and
other creatures. If Clym is the child of heath, Eustacia is haunted by the
heath, the reddleman haunts the heath. He knows every nook and corner of
heath. The heath does irreparable damage to Mrs. Yeobright and kills her.
Thomasin thinks it an impersonal open ground. She calls it “a ridiculous old
place.” But confesses that she could live nowhere else.
How the heath influences the
plot: The influence of Egdon on the course of events in RETURN OF THE
NATIVE is considerable. --- describe chance and coincidence…
Rustics on Egdon Heath and their
lifestyle: Hardy establishes firmly his imaginative world of Wessex –
geography, landscape, folkways, agricultural pursuits as the background for his
main characters. These are rustic characters – an integral part of the Heath
through whom we become acquainted with the beliefs, customs, habits, bonfires,
the Maypole celebrations, turf and furze-cutting. All these are described by Hardy
in relation to the rustic characters represented by Grandfer Cantle, Christian
Cantle, Fairway, Humphrey, Sam, Susan Nunsuch and others. Through these
characters we learn some of the superstitions that were current at that time
such as beliefs in ghosts and witches. Susan Nunsuch, who believes Eustacia to
be a witch, pierces her with needles at the church, and afterwards makes a
waxen effigy of her, sticks pins into it and puts it on the fire to
melt. She adopts this device to bring about Eustacia’s and a little later she
dies. These rustic characters convey to us the spirit of the
country-side inWessex. They lead a conventional life. Eustacia, Clym and
Wildeve suffer but the rustics go on. Although they are men of very limited
knowledge, but have wisdom and logic of their own. One striking feature
of these rustic characters of Wessex is their zest for life and a
capacity to makejokes and enjoy jokes. They provide much humor in
the novel and are a source of unconscioushumor. Grandfer Cantle’s egotism and
vanity greatly amuse us. He says that even if he had been stung by ten adders,
he would not have lost even a single day’s work. “Such is my spirit when
I am on my mettle.” Christian Cantle amuses us by his over-whelming inferiority
complex and by his cowardice. He is afraid of ghosts and haunted places.
He complains that no woman is prepared to marry him.
Rustics as part of the
background: Rustics figures in all of Hardy’s novels except the last two, Tess and Jude
the Obscure. These characters are a part of the background. They play a
critical role and are presented here as a group. These characters are part and
parcel of Egdon Heath. They are a source of information about the principal
characters. They usually comment of the main characters and bright out certain
information and develop plot. It is actually rustics who cause development in
the life of main characters. According to one critic, the rustic characters
play an essential role, “Their part is organic, not decorative, they are much more
than the Greek chorus which they have been called. They are in fact the basic
pattern to which other characters conform or from which they differ.”
Over-emphasis of the Heath:
According to one critic, Hardy’s use of the heath as a background is not excellent.
The use of clichés and jargons make it worse. Some critics have not reacted
favorably to the prominence which Hardy has given to Egdon Heath. One critic,
for example, says, “The difficulty with the heath is the way in which it
constantly threatens to move from background to the foreground to claim an
importance.”
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