Analyse the character of Clym Yeobright and comment on his role
in The Return of the Native.
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.
