How
is the man-nature relationship presented in The Return of the Native?
Or,
“Egdon
Heath is almost like a character in the Return of the Native.” Elucidate.
Or,
Comment
on Hardy's treatment of Egdon Heath in The Return of the Native.
Or,
Comment on Hardy's treatment of nature in The Return of the Native.
Or,
Comment on Hardy's treatment of nature in The Return of the Native.
"Man and the Natural World" is arguably the
central theme in Hardy’s The Return of the Native. The heath in The Return of the Native functions as its own character in
addition to being an evocative backdrop that has some sort of psychic link to
the characters. The characters and the heath have an interesting relationship
in which people and the heath reflect each other's moods. So, the heath is
doing a whole lot at once – it reflects the characters, and yet also has
features, feelings, even dialogue (such as with the "wind" that seems
to speak).
However, this is a book about how man exists within nature and not just alongside of it . In fact, man doesn't live side-by-side with nature as equals at all; the heath is not the friendly or romantic place that the highly-romantic language might imply. Instead, Hardy depicts people as small and even overwhelmed by nature. Nature is downright Darwinian – everything boils down to survival, competition, and evolution. Of course, this is rather fitting given the impact Darwin and his ideas had on nineteenth-century thinkers and people like Hardy.In ‘The Return of the Native’ Egdon is the scene of the story, she dominates the plot, she determines the destiny of the character. She is an antagonist of the novel and almost all major characters except the rustics are more or less victims to her wrath.
