Discuss "Heath" as a character within the novel return of the native

Hardy is called the writer of Nature. His novels are abudent with nature. Nature plays an
important role in all his novels. In this novel The Return of the Native, he has presented Egdon
Heath as a living character. Egdon Heath is a village in which the whole incidents of the novel
take place. It is one of the most prominent figures in Hardy’s The Return of the Native is not a
human character, but the physical landmark- Egdon Heath. The heath's central role is obvious
from the beginning. The novel opens with an extensive description of the heath at dusk. Hardy
begins by saying: “A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight,
and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by
moment”.

The Return of the Native has been called “The Book of Egdon Heath”. Hardy does a great
job at extensively describing Egdon heath for his readers. He even brings the heath alive: “The
somber stretch of rounds and hollows seemed to rise and meet the evening gloom in pure
sympathy, the heath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it.” The heath
proves physically and psychologically important throughout the novel: characters are defined by
their relation to the heath, and the weather patterns of the heath.
Even though the main story focuses on the relationships between Eustacia Vye, Clym
Yeobright, Wildeve and Thomasin, the Heath is the central figure. Many of the events occur on
or around Egdon Heath, and equally as important as all of the characters have their own special
relationship with the heath. Indeed, it almost seems as if the characters are formed by the heath
itself: Diggory Venn, red from head to toe, is an actual embodiment of the muddy earth; Eustacia
Vye seems to spring directly from the Heath, a part of Rainbarrow itself, when she is first
introduced, Wildeve's name might just as well refer to the wind-whipped heath itself. But,
importantly, the Heath manages to defy definition. It is, in chapter one, "a place perfectly
accordant with man's nature." The narrator's descriptions of the Heath vary widely throughout
the novel, ranging from the sublime to the gothic.
Egdon influences all the characters moving them to love or hate, to despair or to the
philosophic mind and they are described in relation to their environment. When Clym moves out
of his mother’s house, the fir and beech trees are described to be “suffering more demage than
during the highest winds of winter … the wasting sap would bleed for many days to come”.
Clym is a product of Egdon Heath and comes back to it, even after spending eight years of his
life in a luxurious city, Paris. Therefore, Heath accepts him heartily. Even in his adversity, Heath
absorbs him into its furze, so that he becomes an indistinguisable part of Heath. Clym also shares
some of the Heath's qualities, especially his strangeness and remoteness.
The Heath is very sensitive and can never excuse anyone wo shows disgrace to it. The two
most resistant characters to the Heath are clearly Eustacia and Wildeve. Eustacia remains
dissatisfied with her life on the Heath. She feels a deep hatred for it. She is an outsider and
therefore, is totally unaware of the subtle beauties of the Heath. Much of her discontentment with
her life and much of her unhappiness is due to her life in Egdon Heath. She longs to live a
fashionable life in Paris, but the loneliness of the Heath makes her miserable. She tells Wildeve:
"It (Heath) is my cross, my shame and will be my death".
Her words prove prophetic, as the Heath becomes the cause of her death, and punishes her for
her hatred towards it. Thus like Eustacia Heath is also selfish and indifferent to her because;
"Nature has its own will and it affects man in its way".

Egdon Heath is selfish,sensitive,and responsive.it feels ,it speaks ,it rewards and it punishes.
Wildeve tries to ward of Heath's pull and attempts o leave the Heath along with Eustacia but he
could not succeed because Heath stops and punishes him to death.
Demon Wildeve is also a restless figure. He seems unfit for such places. He is all the time in
search of opportunities to go abraod. In the end, he plans to go away but he also drowns with
Estacia.

Egdon Heath is also an absolute cosmic power. No one can move out of it and if anyone tries
to escape, it does not let him to. Wildeve tries to repel its attraction and attempts to leave the
Heath, along with Eustacia. But they could not succeed in their plan, because the Heath stops
them and brings them to their death. However, Egdon Heath is friendly to those who love it and
are satisfied with their lives in it, such as Clym Yeobright and Reddleman.
If Clym is the child of Heath, the Reddleman is its spirit. The Reddleman knows every nook and
corner of the Heath, because it is his very home. Heath is also kind to him and he does not feel
lonely in it. He makes use of the Heath as a companion against Wildeve, whom he looks upon as
his enemy. Thomasin is also satisfied with her life in the Heath. Though she call it " a ridiculous
old place" , yet she confessed that she could live nowhere else. Heath also appreciates her
attitude and rewards her in the form of Reddleman.
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.

Different characters of the novel have different attitudes towards Egdon Heath. Thomasin is the
daughter of it. She is a part and parcel of it. She like it like her mother. She seems a flower of
Egdon Heath. She love it to the depth of her heart. We see that she is blessed all the time. When
she is going to be married with a rascle like Demon Wildeve, it saves her from him. She becomes
wife of a sincere person like Reddleman.
Reddleman is a part of Egdon Heath. His work is related to pastorals like Egdon Heath. He sings,
walks and enjoys every bit of life here. He is the true reflection of rural England. He is sincere,
loyal and sympethetic toward Egdon Heath and its inhabitant. So we see he leads a happy life in
the end of the novel.

Egdon Heath becomes indifferent and sometimes hostile to human beings. Mrs. Yeobright is
killed by an adder. In her case, Egdon Heath plays the role of a cruel. It also takes her son away
from her. She spends the last few years of her life in agnoy. She sufferes from deep sorrows.

To conclude, we can say that Hardy has presented Egdon Heath as a character that participates in
the action of the story and supports those like it and takes revenge from those who dislike it.
 (2) 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.
(3)
(4) (5)Clym Yeobright ,the hero,is indeed the product of Egdon heath and its shaggy hills are
freindly to him.even in his adversity Heath absorbs him into its furze so that he becomes an
indistinguishable part of Heath.
(devil) the Reddleman haunts the heath. He knows every nook and corner of Heath.he does not
feel lonely in it so Heath rewards him his beloved 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
(7) (8)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 ,and yet falls in attempting
to defeat it . 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.

At this point Hardy's points get more clear:

Egdon heath has strong control on the course of events in the novel.many crucial and key events
occurs in the Heath. Many crucial events occur in the Heath. Eustacia and Wildeve meet on the
Rain-barow, where the Egdon folk gather on the fifth of November to light a commemorative
bonfire. The game of dice , between Wildeve and Christian Cantle and later between Wildeve
and the Reddleman also takes place in the Heath. This game has much importance because it
leads to a quarrel between Eustacia and Mrs Yeobright. Mrs. Yeobright dies on her homeward
journey through the Heath.Finally , the rain and storm in Heath becomes the cause of Eustacia's
death , in a mysterious way.

As a Naturalist writer, Hardy's focus on elements of nature which control and often punish
humans is overwhelming in Native. Eustacia and Wildeve long to escape the drudgery of the
heath, but in the end, nature draws them back in death to the heath. Characters who do not fit the
plainness or barrenness of the heath do not fare well there. At the novel's end, Clym lures
followers to his non confrontational lectures in the open air because they feel pity for the man
from whom the heath had taken so much.In conclusion the heath plays a very important role
within the novel, it is not only the setting or the background, but every character is in some way
interwoven with it, whether they are fighting against it or living in perfect harmony with it.
In short Egdon Heath significantly convey's Hardy's concept of nature that nature is always bent
upon undoing what man wants to do

Hardy’s description of the Heath has “a symbolic overtone with philosophy”. “It had a lonely
face suggesting tragical possibilities.” It neither ghastly, not hateful, common place, tame, but it
is like man slighted and enduring. Edgon 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 The Return of the Native.