Book III, Chapters 1-4
Book III, Chapters 1-4
Summary
Book III, "The Fascination," begins with a more detailed description of Clym Yeobright than we have yet been given. Clym is a thoughtful and morose young man, who tolerates life rather than truly enjoying it. It was believed from Clym's youth that he had great potential, and he became something of a local celebrity, widely discussed among the peasants. The narrator's investigation of Clym's personality and history is interrupted by a discussion among the peasants about why Clym has remained in Egdon Heath for so long. Clym himself happens on this discussion, and reveals his plan, to the disbelief of the locals: he is dissatisfied with his work as a diamond merchant in Paris, and wants to return permanently to the heath, to start a school for the local children. He is motivated in this by his native love of the heath and its inhabitants, for whom he is willing to sacrifice his personal financial advancement.
Clym's mother, Mrs. Yeobright, is at first confused and then angry when Clym reveals to her his plan not to leave Egdon Heath again: "It is right," she says, "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 not tried at all." Their argument over Clym's future is interrupted by a local boy, Sam, who arrives to tell them that in church that morning Susan Nonsuch had pricked the mysterious Eustacia Vye with a knitting needle, to break the imagined spell that the "witch" had cast over her son Johnny.
Clym soon has an opportunity to speak with Eustacia directly. He goes to her house, Mistover Knapp, to help some of the locals fish a bucket out of the Vye well. Afterwards he and Eustacia meet, and her beauty entrances him. He begins a schedule of reading throughout the day--in preparation for his duties as a schoolteacher--and visiting Eustacia at night; his mother, unsurprisingly, disapproves. She believes that he is ruining his life by staying in the heath, and that he is only staying because of his infatuation with Eustacia; in the course of their argument, Clym maintains his composure, but Mrs. Yeobright becomes furious and abusive. Despite her vociferous disapproval, however, Clym continues to meet with Eustacia. One night, while watching an eclipse, they discuss their future together. Even though he feels that she loves him "as a visitant from a gay world," as a means to escape from the heath to Paris, he still proposes marriage to her; and eventually she accepts, although not without first expressing her preference for leaving Egdon Heath and moving to Paris.
Commentary
As has been noted, The Return of the Native is a peculiarly modern book. It is, indeed, almost prophetic in its characterization of the modern attitude, which is typified by Clym and shared to a certain extent by Eustacia. Hardy calls Clym's face "the typical countenance of the future." He explains that Clym's face evidences "the view of life as a thing to be put up with." Clym is afflicted with a peculiarly modern world-weariness that has replaced the "zest for existence which was so intense in early civilizations." With the growth of knowledge that accompanied the flowering of the modern era, Hardy writes, "old- fashioned reveling in the general situation grows less and less possible as we uncover the defects of natural laws." This is a complaint that has been echoed and re-echoed throughout the 20th century: modernity--characterized by the burgeoning of civilization, complication and knowledge--robbed life of originality and vitality. The Return of the Native, to a certain extent, celebrates the pagan and the primitive while mourning the emerging modern cynicism that, in Hardy's view, makes life a thing to be tolerated rather than celebrated. Hardy has a definite tenderness for the primitive lifestyles, the earthy humor, the superstitions and the incessant celebrations of the working people who live on the heath; they represent a dying breed, vanishing in the face of modernity.
Indeed, the humor with which the locals are treated contrasts sharply with Clym's stoic dourness. Just after Hardy's exposition of Clym's typically modern attitude, we are given a scene of relaxed comedy, in which Timothy Fairway is clumsily cutting the hair of the local workers. Hardy pokes fun at the rustic practice, but a certain fondness peeks from behind his gentle irony: "A bleeding about the poll on Sunday afternoons was amply accounted for by the explanation, 'I have had my hair cut, you know.'" Hardy often treats the locals ironically, and exploits them for comic effect, but he never passes vicious judgment on them, or looks down on them for their ignorance and superstition.
The narrator's ironic voice, which he employs regularly throughout the novel, is an intriguing betrayal of personality from a narrator who generally seems emotionally removed from the events of the plot. He uses his irony to denote a humorous or ridiculous attitude in his characters, without referring to these qualities overtly. His irony is yet another instance of his refusal to speak in a consistent tone, or from a consistent perspective. At times he is all- knowing, as when he renders a lengthy disposition on Clym's psychological makeup. At other times he is reticent, revealing gradually and coyly what an omniscient narrator might have revealed instantly, as when he describes Eustacia only obliquely until she reveals herself to Damon Wildeve. Hardy layers his narrative not only via irony, but also by speaking in many voices (another method typical of modern narratives): he writes from many perspectives, allowing himself the luxury of omniscience while preserving the integrity of each character through a rendering of their own perceptions, and a use of their own voice.
Book III, Chapters 5-8
Summary
Again, Clym Yeobright fights with his mother over his career plans, and his relationship with Eustacia Vye. Their fights, which have gone on for a while, escalate to the point where Mrs. Yeobright implies that Clym is no longer welcome in her house. Despondent, Clym meets with Eustacia, and during their walk on the heath they plan to marry very soon, and so live in a small, isolated cottage on the heath until Clym is prepared to move to the busy port town of Budmouth, where he will go through with his plan of starting a boarding school. Accordingly, Clym obtains a cottage, and moves out of his mother's house; she continues to refuse to reconcile herself with him, and tells him she will not come to see him after the wedding. The day of Clym's departure, Mrs. Yeobright is visited by her niece Thomasin, who tries unsuccessfully to convince her to forgive Clym. Thomasin also tells Mrs. Yeobright that Damon Wildeve, her new husband, is reluctant to give her any spending money, and Mrs. Yeobright promises to send Thomasin her share of her inheritance, 50 guineas.
The day of Clym's wedding finds Mrs. Yeobright at her home, Blooms-End. She is visited there by Damon Wildeve, who was also absent from the wedding: Eustacia's marriage has rekindled his old passion for her, and he is jealous. Damon inquires after the "article" that Thomasin has asked him to fetch from Mrs. Yeobright, but Mrs. Yeobright, unwilling to give Thomasin's inheritance money to Damon, refuses even to tell him what the article is. Instead, she sends the inept Christian Cantle to bring the money to Thomasin; since both Thomasin and Clym are at Mistover Knapp celebrating the wedding, she gives Clym's share of the inheritance to Christian as well, to be brought to Clym.
On the way to Mistover, however, Christian falls in with a group of locals headed to Damon's inn, the Quiet Woman, to enter a raffle for a valuable piece of cloth. Christian too enters the raffle, and proves himself uncharacteristically lucky by winning the toss of the dice for the cloth. He inadvertently tells Damon that he is carrying Thomasin's money, and Damon becomes resentful; he awaits the opportunity to claim the money for his own. This opportunity comes when, on the walk to Mistover Knapp, Damon and Christian begin gambling; Damon proves the luckier man, and takes all the money--50 guineas belonging to Thomasin, and 50 belonging to Clym--from Christian.
The scene was witnessed by Diggory Venn, who in turn challenges Damon to a match of dice-throwing. The two men gamble until surrounded by pitch darkness; eventually, Diggory wins all the money back from the frustrated Damon. Not realizing that 50 guineas belong to Clym, he immediately gives all 100 guineas to Thomasin, who--unaware of the actual size of her inheritance--also does not recognize the mistake.
Commentary
Among the many love triangles in The Return of the Native, the least obvious is the triangle established between Clym, Eustacia and Mrs. Yeobright. As the arguments between Clym and his mother continue, it becomes clear that there is an element of jealousy in Mrs. Yeobright's hatred of Eustacia. She proves herself incapable, at the beginning of Chapter Five, of adducing any rational proof of Eustacia's unsuitability; indeed, in the course of the argument, she becomes increasingly jealous and irrational, essentially asking Clym to choose between a marriage and his mother. Love, for many of the people throughout this novel, is more accurately characterized as possessiveness. And it is evident that Mrs. Yeobright, as much as Eustacia, wants to possess Clym. "You give up your whole thought--you set your whole soul--to please a woman" she complains to Clym. And she is shocked at his correctness when he inverts her complaint: "I do. And that woman is you." There is a striking similarity between their argument and a lover's quarrel: "You think only of her," Mrs. Yeobright complains, "You stick to her in all things." The idea that Clym can love only one person is a jealousy typical of love affairs, not of family relationships; but Mrs. Yeobright cannot reconcile herself to sharing Clym's love, and she eventually proclaims "I wish that you would bestow your presence where you bestow your love." The reader will recall that the first book in the novel is called "The Three Women," a parallel between Eustacia, Thomasin and Mrs. Yeobright that becomes clearer by this point in the novel, with the revelation that Clym's mother, like the two younger women, is inserting herself into a love triangle, and is consumed, as the others are, with possessiveness and jealousy.
One of the more interesting and revealing episodes in the novel is the gambling match between Diggory Venn and Damon Wildeve. It is interesting, of course, because it serves to explain the confusion behind the delivery of the 100 guineas, which later in the novel drives an even deeper wedge between Clym and his mother. But it is also crucial because of the shadow it casts over Diggory's character: up to this point in the novel, although Diggory has often appeared as a ghost or demon--he is initially taken for a ghost by Johnny Nonsuch and mothers invoke "the reddleman" when threatening naughty children--he has acted in a more or less benevolent manner--if perhaps more self-serving than might be immediately apparent. Here, however, this fantastical appearance seems to be borne out in action: the red man shows remarkable skill in manipulating the dice, which Christian Cantle-- superstitiously but perhaps correctly--calls "the devil's playthings." Rising unexpectedly out of the heath, preternaturally lucky at dice, Diggory is unbothered by the descent of darkness and unfazed by the encroaching of the nighttime denizens of the heath. He seems, truly, a supernatural character.
What bears consideration, in this context, is the fantastical nature of the entire novel. The Return of the Native is in most senses a naturalistic novel: the fantastical is invoked, but mainly in terms of folk superstitions. The novel strives for accuracy in portraying human lives, and limits itself to conformity with natural laws. And yet, the gambling episode signals that there is also a great deal in this novel that depends upon remarkably unusual circumstance. The following series of circumstances is the prime example: Christian, walking on the vast and trackless heath, just happens to run into a group bound for gambling; he happens to win; he happens to lose badly to Damon; Diggory Venn happens to be watching; and Diggory, in turn, wins dramatically against Damon. This string of events suits the purposes of poetic justice, and furthers the impending conflict between Mrs. Yeobright and Clym, but--taken together with the string of just-missed opportunities, lucky or unlucky coincidences and fortuitous bounces that fill the novel--seems beyond the bounds of the purely realistic. Perhaps The Return of the Native should be read as an experiment with human emotions and character that takes place in a laboratory setting designed by Hardy; in this world, events depend not so much on a naturalistic reality of causation but rather on a realism of emotional reaction.
Book IV, Chapters 1-4
Summary
Summertime finds Clym Yeobright and his new wife Eustacia installed in their cottage on the heath; they are happy for the meantime, but Eustacia has not given up her ambitions to move to Paris, while Clym remains dedicated to becoming a schoolteacher on the heath. Mrs. Yeobright has become resentful because she has not received any recognition from Clym that he has received the money she sent to him. When she learns from Christian Cantle that Damon Wildeve won the money at dice--what she does not know, of course, is that Diggory Venn won the money back, and gave it to Thomasin--she confronts Eustacia, believing that Damon, Eustacia's former lover, has given her the money privately to regain her favor. Mrs. Yeobright's suspicion is incorrect, and Eustacia is indignant. They have an angry argument, during which Eustacia proclaims that she would not have married Clym if she had believed they were really going to live in a cottage on Egdon Heath rather than move to Paris. Although the confusion over the money is soon resolved when Thomasin is consulted, the rifts between Clym and Eustacia and between Clym and Mrs. Yeobright have grown too deep to bridge easily.
A further misfortune strikes Clym: his incessant studying by dim light has ruined his vision, and he can no longer read, at least temporarily. Deprived of his studies, he takes interim work as a furze-cutter (furze is a prickly bush prevalent on the heath). Eustacia is appalled at his new choice of work, and at his ability to find contentment in manual labor. Indeed, Clym appears truly happy: he loves the heath and appreciates its subtler beauties, and he does not believe that manual labor is any less noble than his previous occupation, selling diamonds. The couple have a confrontation over what Eustacia sees as Clym's lack of ambition, and the two realize that their love is beginning to fade away.
In an effort to stave off her feeling of disappointment and depression, Eustacia goes to a country dance. She has difficulty incorporating herself into the atmosphere of almost pagan revelry until she comes upon Damon Wildeve, who by coincidence is also at the dance. They dance together, and Eustacia reveals how unhappy she is in her marriage. They walk back to the heath together, where they are met by Diggory Venn and Clym; although Clym's poor eyesight prevents him from recognizing Damon, Diggory deduces that Damon once again has designs on Eustacia. In order to dissuade Damon from visiting Eustacia, Diggory sets out on a policy of less-than-subtle intimidation. When Damon tries to meet Eustacia, Diggory calls Clym's attention to their trickery by creating loud noises; he sets snares to trip Damon, and even fires shots at him, in order to scare him away from Eustacia's house. These crude efforts prove effective in temporarily frightening Damon. Diggory also visits Mrs. Yeobright, and convinces her to make up to her son and daughter-in-law; at the same time, Clym resolves to reconcile himself with his mother.
Commentary
Clym, as has been noted, represents to the mind of the narrator the typical modern man: he is philosophically and intellectually progressive, but he is also portrayed as stoical and largely joyless. From this vantage point, Clym's physical misfortune could be said to be his psychological and moral salvation: when he loses his eyesight, he responds with more than his characteristic stoicism--as the title of the second chapter has it, "He Is Set Upon by Adversities; but He Sings a Song." Clym is a scholar, not a singer. Until this point in the novel, sobriety in all things has been his golden rule. But it seems as if, by resigning himself to his fate, he has developed a kind of joy that was previously foreign to him: we read that "a quiet firmness, and even cheerfulness, took possession of him."