Examine Hardy’s vision of
Life underlying The Return of the Native.
Hardy
has a very pessimistic philosophy of life as his characters seem to have little
control over their own lives. Hardy saw external circumstances and
uncontrollable internal urges as controlling human actions. In this aspect we
find that the vision of life that Hardy gives in The Return of the Native is
essentially tragic and in characterization Hardy is similar to the Greek
tragedians.
The Return of the Native shows man as the helpless plaything of invisible powers, ruthless and indifferent. In this novel Hardy embodies the idea that man lives in an indifference of universe. Critics usually refer Hardy’s themes as expressing a fatalistic view of life, that is to say a view of life which depicts human actions as subject to the control of an impersonal force perhaps called destiny or fate which is independent of both man and man’s god.
The characters in Hardy’s novel do not have control over their lives. First of all, Hardy believes that characters are governed by fate. In The Return of the Native Hardy symbolises this ‘fate’ by his presentation of chance and co-incidence.The Return of the Native is the tragedy of Clym, Clym’s mother, Eustacia and Wildeve. Hardy as a rule emphasizes the fact that even those characters whom would call wicked are so much the creatures of circumstance that they are far more to be pitied than to be blamed.
There is nothing impractical or impossible or ignoble about Clym’s decision to start a school on Egdon Heath. But destiny must intervene to prevent him from succeeding in his purpose. He disregards his mother’s opposition to marry Eustacia Vye. He becomes semi-blind which forces him to become a humble furze-cutter. Again we find that Clym finds himself in a difficult situation for which he is no way deliberately responsible. Hardy thus describes Clym’s situation “three antagonistic growth had to be kept alive, his mother’s trust in him, his plan for becoming a teacher and Eustacia’s happiness.”
