The Return of the Native

An Analysis of Hardy’s The Return of the Native From the Perspective of Hegel’s Tragedy Theory Contents 1    Introduction    ………………………………………………………………….…1 2    Thomas Hardy and The Return of the Native………………..……………….…2 2.1  Thomas Hardy and his Works……………………………………...….....2 2.2  The Return of the Native……………………………………..…………...3 3 Hegel’s Tragedy Theory…………………………….……………………….....3 3.1      Three Kinds of Tragic Conflicts………………………………………....3 3.2      The Reconciliations…………………………………………………...…4 3.3      Tragedy Effects……………………………………………………..…...5 4     An Analysis of The Return of the Native from the Perspective of Hegel’s Tragedy Theory……………………………    ………………………………….……..5 4.1      Tragedy from External Factors of Confliction…………………………..5 4.1.1    Environment……………………………………………………..5 4.1.2    Disease…………………………………………………………..6 4.2  Tragedy from Internal Factors of Confliction……………………………7 4.2.1    Kinship…………………………………………………………..7 4.2.2    Clym’s Spiritual Pursuing……………………………………….7 4.2.3  Eustacia’s Spiritual Pursuing……………………………………8 4.3  The Reconciliation of Conflictions……………………………………...9 4.3.1    Wildeve’s Death………………….……………………………..9 4.3.2  Eustacia’s Death …………………………………………….....10 4.3.3    Clym’s Sorrow……...………………………………………….10 4.4    The Effects of Tragedy……………………………………………………11 4.4.1 Fear………………………..……………………………...….....11 4.4.2  Mercy…………..…………………………………..………..…12 5    Conclusion……………………………………………………………….........13 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………..15 Acknowledgements An Analysis of Hardy’s The Return of the Native From the Perspective of Hegel’s Tragedy Theory 1 Introduction Thomas Hardy, one of the most famous novelists and poets in English, has made numerous masterpieces in the literature circle, being familiar to readers all over the world. In the year of 1910, Hardy had been awarded the Order of Merit. Most of his important works are of the Victorian age, which is named “golden time” by some English historians. His works explore tragic characters who are struggling against their passions and social circumstances. The Return of the Native is one of Thomas Hardy’s representative novels of “Wessex novels”, which was published in the year of 1878 and has been translated into various versions and also has been made into movie for the reason of its high position in the literature circle. Readers feel fearful and pitiful for the end of the protagonists’ tragedy in this book. As for the tragedy theory, Hegel’s can not be ignored. His tragedy theory has won high reputation for his confliction theory, even though there exist some disagreements from other scholars or philosophers’ perspective. His tragic theory has been adopted by many scholars in ancient literature, while, it is also suitable for modern literature. In this thesis, The Return of the Native will be analyzed from the perspective of Hegel’s tragedy theory from the following three aspects: the internal and external conflicts, the reconciliations of the tragic conflicts and the tragic effects. Conflict is the theme and soul of tragedy and is also the essential source of producing ideal tragic effects (Qi Shouhua, 2001). It is expected to help readers obtain a comprehensive appreciation of this tragic literature. 2 Thomas Hardy and The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy is an English writer. The Return of the Native is one of the representatives of his novels. This thesis focuses on analyzing this work. Thomas Hardy and his Works Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a famous novelist and poet of critical realism who wrote numerous masterpieces at the turn of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in England. His writing career began with poems and ended in poems, but was well-known for his novels. Harold Bloom (1987) once asserted that he was the last of the great Victorian novelists. In the year of 1910, Hardy had been awarded the Order of Merit.  Hardy was born and brought up in the southwest of England, named Dorset shire. His father was a stonemason and let him to be an apprentice to an architect when he was 16. In the year of 1862, he left his hometown to study architecture in London. Later, he found himself was not interested in architecture and began his creation of literature. Desperate Remedies (1871) was his first novel and then he began his “Wessex novels”. One year later, Under the Greenwood Tree appeared with humor of rusticity. Until 1874, Far from the Madding Crowd was published, he reached huge achievement. In the same year, he married his beloved Emma in London and several years later he returned to his hometown to spend his last life. “Hardy is most famous for his ‘Novels of Character and Environment’. This kind of novels reflects the conflict between human beings and environment in their realistic life.” (Zhuo Qin, 2010, p2). The Return of the Native (1878), Major of the Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895), those five novels are typical “Novels of Character and Environment”, which perfectly show the conflictions between man and nature. The Return of the Native The Return of the Native is one of Hardy’s most popular novels, which reaches a high position in literature circle. The story began in Egdon Heath, a place which maintained unchangeable traditional system. Eustacia Vye was a beautiful woman born in a rich family in Budmouth. Later, she moved to Egdon Heath with her grandfather after her parents’ death. She didn’t like the life of Egdon Heath and fell in love with Wildeve, an inn’s host, in order to kill the boring life. Hearing Clym, who lived in Paris for several years, returned back to Egdon Heath, then, Eustacia turned her love to this mysterious man in a party and hoped this man would bring her to Paris. Later, they got married, but the conflictions appeared. Clym wanted to stay in his hometown to build a school for people while Eustacia wanted to get out of poor Egdon Heath. What’s more, Mrs. Yeobright didn’t like Eustacia and lived alone. Finally, the story ended in tragedy. Mrs. Yeobright died accidently by a snake. Eustacia had drowned with Wildeve in a stormy night when they tried to escape from heath. For Clym, he lived in a sorrowful life and became a missionary.  3 Hegel’s Tragedy Theory The theoretical basis of this thesis is from Hegel’s tragedy theory，which consists of three kinds of tragic conflicts, the reconciliations of the tragic conflicts and the tragic effects. 3.1 Three Kinds of Tragic Conflicts Hegel divides the tragic conflicts into the following three kinds: The first kind of conflict is caused by the simply physical natural causes. As for its property, the situation of this conflict is negative and evil. The second kind of conflict is the inner conflict caused by the natural conditions. The extent of this conflict is pretty broad, including those naturally formed (people can not choose in advance) family background, blood relations, class status, succession, other hereditary power etc. In addition, people’s natural disposition and temper and so on, for instance, someone is naturally aggressive, someone is weak, someone is petty, and someone is jealous. All in all, this conflict either refers to the natural family background as the foundation or the subjective lust produced by natural temperament as the premise. The third kind of conflict is the dissociation resulting from the contradiction of the mind (mental). In Hegel’s opinion, it is the true and also the most ideal conflict in nature. This conflict not only includes the contradictions between motive and effect, but also contains contradictions between will and objective situation. The root of theses contradictions lies in the power of spirit and the differences as well as oppositions among them. (Wang Rui, 2012, p10) Hegel considers the third tragic conflict is the most important and essential part. Hegel began with absolute mind, a mental context. From that he derived the necessity of subjective expression in to directions—toward an object and toward the contemplation of the object. Art is thus the result of the subjective immediacy of consciousness, mind, or spirit. Art serves a positive function in giving concrete, immediate expression to mental life. Beauty is the form of that expression. (Townsend, 2002, p.154) Thus, the third kind of the conflict is the most artful part, which can form the beauty of the tragedy. 3.2 The Reconciliation There are two ways to reconciliation. The first way is that both of the conflicting parties are internecine and even ruined. The second is one of the party makes a concession and withdraws the original one-sided requirements to fulfill reconciliation with the other. (Cheng Menghui, 2009) To achieve reconciliation and receive the victory of “eternal justice” is the core of Hegel’s theory of tragedy.  3.3 Tragic Effects When referring to tragic effects, Aristotle once thought that it lied in causing mercy and fear and then purifying. Hegel cites Aristotle’s tragic effects of “mercy and fear” to explain his reconciliation of conflict. Fear arises from the destruction of the ethical power and mercy is to the sympathy of victims’ ethical sense (Zhu Guangqian, 1996) People’s fear is not only from the might and oppression of the limited things in the external world but also from the power of ethics. Those people who have ethical sense place more sympathy on other’s misfortune and suffering. Thus, the tragic effects are fear and mercy. After fear and mercy, the beauty of tragedy occurs. 4 An Analysis of Hardy’s The Return of the Native from the Perspective of Hegel’s Tragedy Theory In this thesis, Hardy’s The Return of the Native will be analyzed from the perspective of Hegel’s tragedy theory from the following three aspects: the internal and external conflicts, the reconciliations of the tragic conflicts and the tragic effects. 4.1 Tragedy from External Factors of Confliction External factors of confliction come from Hegel’s first kind of conflict. In The Return of the Native, there are two external factors, environment and disease. 4.1.1 Environment The Return of the Native is born in the circumstance of Egdon Heath, which is a traditional and old heath. All the tragedy happens in this gloomy heath, and no action takes place outside the boundary of this heath. When other things sank brooding to sleep the heath appeared slowly to awake and listen. Every night its Titanic form seemed to await something; but it had awaited thus, unmoved, during so many centuries, through the crises of so many things, that it could only be imagined to await one last crisis—the final overthrow. (Hardy, 2011, p.54) At the beginning of The Return of the Native, the environment descriptions foreshadow the tragic ending to readers. In The Return of the Native, the female protagonist, Eustacia tries her whole life to escape from the poor Egdon Heath to a rich place. Clym returns back to the heath in order to run a school to change its educational condition. Wildeve comes to Egdon Heath and wants to take Eustacia out of there. They all disobey the traditional heath and the conflicts between human beings and nature appear. All those who attempt to get rid of Egdon Heath or try to change the Egdon Heath will be punished. Thus, the tragedy is inescapable. 4.1.2 Disease Disease is a disorder in a system or organ that affects the body’s condition and has a recognized cause, which is a kind of physical defect. It belongs to Hegel’s first kind of tragic conflict. In The Return of the Native, Clym has disease in his eyes and nearly blind. “Clym’s physical health and good looks are fated to be short-lived because he worries too hard about himself and about the whole human race” (Williams, 2005, p.91). Because of his eye disease, he has to cut furze on the heath and just earn little money, which is far away from his dream of running a school for the people there. Till the final of the story, his still has poor eyesight. The eye disease is a negative situation, which becomes the catalyst of his failing to run a school for others.  4.2 Tragedy from Internal Factors of Confliction Internal factors of confliction are from Hegel’s second and third kinds of tragic conflict. In this thesis, they are kinship, Clym’s and Eustacia’s spiritual pursuing. 4.2.1 Kinship As for kinship, one kind of natural conditions, it belongs to Hegel’s second kind of tragic conflict, adopted to analyze the relationship among Mrs. Yeobright, Clym and Eustacia. Eustacia is a woman who lives in Egdon Heath but her heart never belongs to it. She has no friend and seldom communicates with others. In heath people’s eyes, she is an odd woman. Mrs. Yeobright once asserted that “Miss Vye is to my mind too idle to be charming. I have never heard that she is of any use to herself or to other people. Good girls don’t get treated as witches even on Egdon” (Hardy, 2011, p.203). While Eustacia and Clym fall in love with each other after the party and they decide to get married to each other. Mrs. Yeobright, a widow, absolutely objects to the marriage of them, which makes her beloved son leave her and let her alone. Therefore, conflict appears between Clym and his mother. 4.2.2 Clym’s Spiritual Pursuing In Hegel’s opinion, the contradiction of mind is the true conflict, which is the essential and final reason that leads protagonists to tragic ending (Sun Yunkuan, 2010). For Clym’s spiritual pursuing, it consists of three parts. Firstly, at the beginning, Clym is a passionate young man who gives up his rich Paris’ life and returns back to Egdon Heath to run a school to change people’s mind. Mrs. Yeobright once blames Clym for his wild mind and considers his plan as a castle in the air. His passion is restrained because of his eye disease and he can only make a living by cutting furze on the heath at that time. But he can not stop dreaming of building a school to moralize others. Clym’s life is far away from his dream, which causes his sadness. Secondly, Clym’s contradiction of mind is related to Mrs. Yeobright and Eustacia. On the one hand, Clym wants to own his beloved Eustacia and get married to her. On the other hand, he should show respect, obedience and filial piety to his beloved mother. The two complex factors bring about deep consideration to him and force him to make a decision. The contradiction of selection causes torment in his heart. In order to pursue his beloved Eustacia, he has to be aloof from his mother, which makes him sorrowful. His pursuing of being a good husband and an obedient son can not happen simultaneously because of the conflict between Eustacia and Mrs. Yeobright. The last part is about Clym’s regret to Eustacia. Clym scolds and hates Eustacia for his mother’s death, which sharpens the contradiction between them and forces Eustacia to leave away. After Eustacia’s departure, he suffers deep sorrow. He still loves Eustacia, but his action and speech to her leads to an unalterable tragic ending—Eustacia’s death. The confliction of love and hate to Eustacia produces Clym’s sorrow.  4.2.3 Eustacia’s Spiritual Pursuing Eustacia, a beautiful and sexy lady, wants to live a colorful life materially and spiritually. However, she regards herself as an abandoned woman in this desolate Egdon Heath and is intensively eager for a kind of grand love to rescue her out of this situation (Du Ye, 2011).  In her boring life, firstly, Wildeve appears who owns the same thought as Eustacia’s that Egdon Heath is a place not suitable for living. But, he is not Eustacia’s true lover for he marries another woman, Thomasin, Clym’s cousin. Later, Clym turns up in her life, which rekindles her hope of love and the dream of leaving Egdon Heath to some prosperous places, just like Paris. Eustacia’s aspiration of obtaining Clym’s love is as equally strong as her aspiration of escaping from Egdon Heath (Zhang Liang, 2011). The conflict emerges for Clym will stay in the heath forever and can not bring Eustacia to Paris. It leads to a contradiction in Eustacia’s mind—whether she should choose the material life of living in rich Paris or the spiritual life of owning Clym’s love. However, Eustacia is an arrogant, selfish and strange person. Arrogance of bones is one of her most typical characteristic, thus, she does not let terrible things or people to make her feel unsatisfied. The bleak Egdon Heath, the contemptuous heath people around her let her feel sick. She struggles for getting out of this situation. 4.3 The Reconciliation of Confliction In The Return of the Native, it contains two kinds of reconciliation of confliction. Wildeve’s and Eustacia’s death belong to the first kind that both of the conflicting parties are internecine and even ruined. Clym’s sorrow belongs to the second kind that one of the parties makes a concession and withdraws the original one-sided requirements to fulfill reconciliation with the other.     4.3.1 Wildeve’s Death Wildeve, an unfaithful man, is not satisfied with present situation in Egdon Heath, though he has Thomasin as his wife and an unborn child. He still has frequent affiliation with married Eustacia and attempts to help her leave Egdon Heath, the place where he does not like. Wildeve has violated two parts of Egdon Heath’s rule. Firstly, it is his unstable affection with two women, one is his wife Thomasin, the other is Eustacia. For a man, he should play an important role in having responsibility for family and keeping his family in harmony but he does not perform it in this way. Secondly, he attempts to leave Egdon Heath to dream for another romantic life with Eustacia. Egdon Heath’s convention is unaltered. Wildeve’s behavior causes the conflict with it. But both of them do not make compromise with each other. Destruction appears. Then, it needs reconciliation to eliminate the conflict. Wildeve is drowned on the way out of Egdon Heath with Eustacia. After the death of Wildeve’s death, the Egdon Heath returns to calmness. 4.3.2 Eustacia’s Death When people whose minds are extreme pursue their dreams, they will suffer more (Woodcock, 1878). Eustacia is one of this kind of people, who persists in holding extreme mind of escaping from the Egdon Heath. Though she is Clym’s wife and loves him, Clym can not help her get away of the poor and sterile place. The night comes. Eustacia makes preparation and runs away from Egdon Heath quickly to the place she dreams about with her lover Wildeve under Egdon Heath’s nose. The heath becomes angry, at that night, storm never stops until they two are drowned in a torrential river. The death of Eustacia is inevitable, for Egdon Heath’s never changeable convention and Eustacia’s never yielding to it. This is also the first kind of reconciliation—both of the conflicting parties are destroyed. Later, after Eustacia’s death, the conflict between her and Egdon Heath disappears. This is the reconciliation of human beings and nature. 4.3.3 Clym’s Sorrow “If you keep silent to social convention, in the long run, you will be happy and safe; one the contrary, if you are full of passion and individual will, you will want to escape or even causing death.” (Lawrence, 1985, p145). At the beginning, Clym is a passionate and ambitious person. He wants to build a school to change heath people’s mind. But at that time, it is difficult to fulfill his dream because of the unchangeable social condition in Egdon Heath. First of all, the eye disease comes to hinder his dream. Later his mother’s and wife’s death cause him into deep sorrow. Putting the memory of his beloved into his heart, Clym realizes his one-sidedness of perusing and becomes an ordinary preacher in Egdon Heath to spend his last life. His idea changes and Egdon Heath admits his change. Thus, the reconciliation between Egdon Heath and Clym comes into being. This is the second kind of reconciliation of conflict, which has less destructive power than the first kind. 4.4 The Effects of Tragedy  In Hegel’s tragedy theory, the effects of tragedy consist of fear and mercy. After the fear and the mercy, the beauty appears. 4.4.1 Fear In the world, there are numerous substances causing individuals to fear. They fear for the huge animals, the fierce robbers, the vicious power of underworld, and the terrible battles and so on. The most fearful element in The Return of the Native comes from the nature, the old, bleak Egdon Heath, which is the eternal power. Under the power of Egdon Heath, anyone who is not obedient and loyal on it will be punished. At the end of the story, the eternal power is the winner and the whole heath returns to peace after the reconciliations—Wildeve’s and Eustacia’s death and Clym being a preacher. Though the story is over, the feeling of fear for the powerful nature still remains in readers’ mind, which gives them profound consideration. Nowadays, the conflict still exists between human beings and nature, which causes people to fear for the future. With the development of the society, humans become greedier than before to exploit useful materials from nature for themselves and do great harm to the nature. The resource of nature is limited, and humans will receive nature’s counterattack. It is high time for human beings to be harmonious with nature and keep sense of fear to the power of nature to avoid nature’s revenge on humans in the future. 4.4.2 Mercy Mercy is a kind of readers’ or audiences’ emotional resonance mostly from tragic stories. They manifest their mercy to the individuals’ tragic endings in stories. In The Return of the Native, the mercy is related to Mrs. Yeobright, Wildeve, Eustacia and Clym. Firstly, the mercy is to Mrs. Yeobright. Before Clym and Eustacia’s marriage, Mrs. Yeobright owns a happy and satisfying life. His son just comes from prosperous Paris and is admired by heath people. But later, her life is changed for her son makes a choice of his wife and discards her. The old woman feels lonely and solitary. She calls someone to send half of her property to Clym, but receives nothing in return. Actually, the money goes into Wildeve’s pocket because of his trick. She confuses a lot and considers that her son does not forgive her for her attitude towards Eustacia. Thus, she makes the first step to compromise with his son and pays a visit to his son far away from her home. When Mrs. Yeobright is in front of Clym’s house, there is no response for the knocking of the door. Then she leaves away with depression and sorrow. What’s more, she dies for the biting of a snake. Her death lets individuals produce mercy to her: on the one hand, she dies miserably with nobody nearby; on the other hand, she does not know that her son also misses her deeply but she has no chance to know it for the misunderstanding between them. Secondly, it is the mercy to Wildeve. He could have been living with his wife, Thomasin and his child happily by staying in Egdon Heath. But he chooses to get away of the poor heath with his lover Eustacia and both of them are in tragic ending of being drowned for they disobey Egdon Heath. What a pity for Wildeve. Thirdly, the night queen—Eustacia. It is to be regretted that a beautiful, charming, passionate woman is punished to death under the power of nature. She is just like the queen that takes control of two men’ heart, Clym and Wildeve and makes readers feel envious and admire her. Moreover, the infertile Egdon Heath becomes charming with the embellishment of Eustacia’s beauty and mystery. But the beauty is broken as Eustacia breaks the calmness of Egdon Heath. Finally, the mercy relates to Clym. His emotion is changeable. From the beginning of passion to the end of quietness, he also suffers regret, sorrow, hopelessness between these two periods. Though finally Clym lives harmoniously with Egdon Heath and becomes a preacher, not like Eustacia and Wildeve’s dead ending, where is his initial dream? He sacrifices his dream of running a school for changing heath people’s mind to live in Egdon Heath peacefully. It also causes individuals to feel sympathy to him.