The novel, The Return of the Native, explores the clash between the inevitable
social change and a traditional way of life. Set in imaginary landscape of
Wessex, the story concerns Eustacia Vye, Mrs Yeobright, Thomasin, and Damon
Wildeve - and how Clym Yeobright, the returning native of the title, affects
each of their destinies, an his own. The brooding menace of Egdon Heath in
Dorsetshire opens Hardy's novel of tragic passion. Eustacia Vye, willful and
longing for the excitement of city life, awaits her lover on the forbidding
moor. She married Clym Yeobright, newly returned from Paris, thinking he would
take her there, but Clym is content as the country schoolmaster. With her dreams
thwarted and confused circumstances that lead her to believe she has caused the
death of Clym's mother, not even her affair with reckless Damon Wildeve can keep
her from sinking into the despair that leads to her death by drowning. Once
again Hardy creates a masterful net of destiny from which his tragic characters
cannot escape. Clym affected each of their lives in a different way. Before
returning to Wessex, Thomasin was going to marry Wildeve. But Wildeve and
Eustacia secretly liked each other. Mrs. Yeobright wanted Thomasin to marry Clym
when he returned. But Thomasin liked Wildeve. So when Clym returned, he fell in
love with Eustacia. She also loved Clym, and persuaded Wildeve to marry Thomasin.
Then Eustacia and Clym got married. Mrs. Yeobright did not approve of any of
these marriages. After a while, Clym's eyesight grew weaker and weaker until he
was force to become a spur's cutter. This made Eustacia mad because she thought
she would never see Paris now. Suddenly, the feelings Eustacia and Wildeve had
for one another grew stronger, and they began seeing each other again. All the
while, Tomasin was feeling lonely. Her husband was not spending any time with
her. Mrs. Yeobright felt as if she was being cast off by her son. When she went
to visit him, but no one would let her in. She died on her way home. Rumors went
around that Eustacia would let her in because she had a man in the house with
her. So Eustacia left Clym, and went to her grandfather's house. She and Wildeve
later decide to run away with each. But before they could live happily ever
after together, they died. So in the end, if he had not returned, things may
have turned out different. Cylm and Thomasin would have gotten married, and they
and Mrs. Yeobright would have moved to Paris. Eustacia and Wild eve Would have
also gotten married. The Return of the Native, by Thomas Hardy, achieves the
intensity of classical Greek tragedy in its depiction of a pitiable human
struggle against relentless fate. The author's somber view of human existence is
expressed both in the superb opening description of Egdon Heath and in the
tragic lives of Clym Yeobright, the returned native of the heath, his cousin
Thomasin, Damon Wildeve, his mother Mrs. Yeobright, and Eustacia