Love And Marriage In Novel The Return Of The Native

Abstract:

This study represents a concept of love and marriages in novel The Return Of The Native Egdon heath represents the rustic past before human intrusion and also adds to the sense of separation suffered by those already remote in human relationships, such as Eustacia and Wildeve. This thematic concern of rural life is also mentioned to as a dying past when Venn’s profession as a reddleman is described as being all but jobless with the later arrival of the railway. The theme of failed marriage is a central one as each of the main characters (Wildeve, Eustacia, Thomasin and Clym) suffers from the relationship they board upon. For Thomasin, her marriage to Wildeve occurs because of the anxiety of what others will say about her after Wildeve all but rejected her at the start of the novel. She marries, then, for the sake of established moral values and so as not to take disgrace on her family. It is plain that marrying for such a reason is criticized as their relationship smashes. Eustacia is seen to marry Clym mainly because she is in love with the idea of love in a mental sense and because she first respects him as having a ‘golden halo’ around him. He signifies her future dreams of culture and modernism, and because she is blinded by the concept of romance, she fails to see the reality of marriage. This mainly negative perception of marriage is evaluated against a little, however, as closure is brought about when Thomasin weds altruistic Diggory Venn.

Key Words:

Thomas Hardy, Theme, Love, Marriage, Clym, Eustacia, Wildeve, Thomasin, Diggory.

1. Introduction:

This part of term paper describes the love and marriage in the Novel The Return of The Native written by Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native is a masterpiece of Hardy in which he has defined his philosophy critically in The Return of the Native, come across several characters who looks to face hardships, sprints and disaster according to the viewpoint of Hardy. The Victorian novel often attentions on protruding, relevant issues of the time throughout which it is written. These matters can range from period, ambition, and gender to love, sexuality, and wish. Hardy’s life overstresses two centuries. He is a huge standing on the combined of the Victorian Era and the twentieth century.

1.1: Background of the Present Study:

The present study explores not only show love and marriage between imaginary characters but also displays the condition of woman in society and their sorrows. These themes cannot be unnoticed. In one way or another, they played a very important part in shaping the character. Authors of the Victorian era carried insight on these often-controversial subjects. Through the characters in their novels because of the occurrence of these matters in the Victorian novel, authors often have touching views and visions. Hardy’s Return of the Native is the only one that structures a couple who has married for love, not social development or control, and who is happy inside this union based on romantic love. As a Victorian novelist, Hardy observes several of the same issues that another novelist of the era explores. Hardy’s Return of the Native offers a love and marriage relationship in Eustacia and Clym. As a modern novelist, though, Hardy does much more than purely show the unity of these kinds of relationships; he also discovers the properties of modernity on each coupling, as well as offering a depiction as a modern couple whose union is based on love and respect.

1.2: Statement of Purpose:

The present study focuses on love and marriage Representations in The Return of The Native. This novel represents different types of love and marriages.

1.3: Objectives of the study:

The objectives of present study are given below.

• To highlight Love and Marriage Representations in The Return of The Native.
• To highlight the roles of Woman regarding Love and Marriage in The Return of The Native.

1.4: Research Questions:

Q1: What types of Love and Marriages have been introduced in Novel The Return of The Native?

Q2: Was Marriage an important social concern in Victorian Age?

1.5: Delimitations:

The study restricts to only one Novel The Return of The Native which represents the theme of Love and Marriage. Destiny, fate and chance are the themes of this novel. In The Return of the Native, marriage is depicted at the mercy of a group of materialistic and emotional forces that threaten to invalidate it as a healthy or even genuine human relationship. Marriage for Hardy, in short, is more of a trap and a delusion than a sacred state or hallowed relationship.

2. Analysis:

The present research examines the theme of Love and Marriage in The Return of The Native. The Victorian novel frequently focuses on prominent, related issues of the period during which it is written. These matters can series from class, determination, and gender to love, sexuality, and desire. In Thomas Hardy’s novel The Return of the Native, Hardy delivers his opinions on desires and idealistic love. Hardy explores the thoughts of desires for social rank and possession versus romantic wishes through the numerous relationships in the novel; in doing so, he observes the suggestions of modernity within these relationships. There are a number of significant couplings within The Return of the Native. The utmost obvious of these are Eustacia and Clym, Eustacia and wildeve, and Thomasin and Diggory Venn. The first, Eustacia and Clym offers as a clear portrayal of a marriage that is inspired by a desire for social accomplishment. When Eustacia hears of Clym’s return from Paris, she directly romantics her image of him, imagining him as a rich man of the world who has the skill to move her gone from the heath, thus inspiring her social standup. When Eustacia hears two man speaking about clym arrival to the Heath, she immediately starts to imagine, thinking,

“A young and clever man was coming into that lonely heath from, of all contrasting places in the world, Paris. It was a man coming from heaven”.

Although Eustacia has not ever met or even seen Clym, she expected that because of his time spent in Paris he is classy and wealthy, two abilities she seems around all others. She oaths to form a connection with Clym, and succeeds in marrying him. Eustacia’s desire to marry Clym for social development. Much as Eustacia gets Clym as a way to raise her social status.

In Return of the Native, Hardy discovers the ways in which modernity complicates this sort of marriage. The Clym that Eustacia marries does not living up to the clym of her fantasies. Modern and advanced, Clym has little worry for material luxury and prosperity, instead focusing on his desire to teach the people of heath. This disturbs the marriage, as clym truly does love Eustacia yet wastes to compromises his modern principles. Eustacia’s realization that Clym has no intention of returning to Paris with her breaks her image of Clym as a worldly, sophisticated gentleman. She confesses her disappointment first to Mrs. Yeobright, saying,

“And if I had known then what I know now, that I should be living in this Wild Heath month after marriage, I should have thought twice about agreeing”.

Shortly, afterward, she exposes to Clym that she is shocked by his choice of profession, telling him,

“But it is so dreadful a furze-cutter! And you a man who have lived about the world, and speak French, and know the classics, and who are fit for what is so much better than this”.

Here, Eustacia’s wish for social advancement and wealth is disallowed by Clym’s modernity.

The relationship between Eustacia and Damon Wildeve is extremely different from that Eustacia and Clym. These two characters act as however they are passionately in love, yet it seems as though “act” is the main word in this relationship. Both wildeve and Eustacia are explosive and emotional characters, and seem to devote much of the novel acting to notions and trying to make each other jealous. It is though possession and opposition are the driving forces behind this relationship. When Wildeve and Eustacia see on the Heath after his near-marriage to Thomasin, Eustacia tells Wildeve that she has got that he did not marry the other women,

“And I knew that it was because you loved me best, and couldn’t do it”.

Eustacia’s desire at Wildeve return lies in her “Victory” over Thomasin, and not out of honest love for Wildeve. She practically confesses that her love for Wildeve is superficial, telling Diggory Venn that,

“I should have cared nothing for him had there been a better person near”.

In Hardy’s novel the dynamics of Eustacia and Wildeve’s relationship are double-sided; Eustacia is not the only actor in the game. Wildeve as well as views their relationship as a display of power, or more precisely, possession. Hardy’s early description of Wildeve is the most precise and self-explanatory design of his character; Hardy writes,

“He was quite a young man, and of the two properties, form and motion, the latter first attracted the eye on him. The grace of his movement was singular: it was the pantomimic expression of a lady killing career”.

In this relationship, both Eustacia and Wildeve are inspired not by love, but by a desire to enjoy one another, to apply their control over each other. As a modern novelist, Hardy forbids this type of relationship, viewing through the final demise of not only Wildeve and Eustacia’s relationship, but also the characters themselves, that modernism denies a relationship of possession.

As such, of each of the Victorian novels, Hardy’s Return of the Native is the only one that structures a couple who has married for love, not social development or control, and who is happy inside this union built on romantic love. That couple is, of course, Thomasin and Diggory Venn. Hardy’s novel shows the modern couple as one whose marriage is based on love and respect, as well as viewing the progression of such a relationship. At the start of the novel, Diggory Venn is transporting Thomasin back to her aunt after her failed to attempt a marriage to Wildeve. When he meets Captain Vye along the way asks if the woman in the wagon Diggory’s wife, he replies by saying,

“My wife! She’s above mating with such as I”.

At this point in the novel, it seems that social status will stand in the means of this relationship, especially when reader studies of Diggory’s proposal to Thomasin two years previous. However, even though Thomasin decays Diggory’s proposal, she does so with a great agreement of respect and courtesy to him, saying,

“you must not be call me for laughing when you spoke; you mistook when you thought I laughed at you as a foolish man. I laughed because the ides were so odd, and not you at all”

Here, Thomasin seems to be denoting to the fact that humanity has instilled in her the idea that marrying “beneath” oneself is ignored of, and that she still admires and respects Diggory Venn’s character. And at the end of the novel, Thomasin does certainly come to love Diggory Venn, despite Clym’s objection that she should marry a “professional man” from the town. Thomasin replying by telling that she, like him, he has been kinder to me than anyone else, and has helped me in several ways that I don’t know of. Here Hardy displays a typically modern relationship that is based on simply romantic love and respect. Hardy’s view of love and marriage has a long passage of development. His work throughout the period of writing his rustic novels were mixed with plenty of disastrous factors. However, most of these novels have their endings in a reunion to the satisfaction of all.

3. Conclusion:

The results of analysis have shown that, when one thinks of marriage, images of pleasure, faithfulness, and absolute love derive to mind. Marriage are not for agreeing two lovers to a achieve personal goals, but rather for faithful buddies to live the rest of their lives together. In The Return of The Native, Thomas Hardy offerings the reader with two couples of love that marry to complete personal goals, not because of a mutual love and a desire to obtain a lifetime soul mate. Hardy exposes the true motives leading the members in the novel marriage associations: Eustacia, Clym, Thomasin, and Wildeve marry to transmit out their separate plans for future, rather than for love of one another. And as a human being, one can’t disturb the natural rules to attain their aims. For that if people want to reach their goals, they need to follow the common regulation and they need to find a correct way to realize them. However, Eustacia who tries hilariously to get close to her dream just disregards the situation at that time. She has a rowdy personality and she is too determined to live in the world, so she I doomed to be unsuited with the society. In conclusion, it’s known by present people that live melodiously with nature, human beings and civilization are extremely important. People must act in principles and pay attention to the external world, so they can live happily in this world and understand their dreams.

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