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Book 1, Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Return of the Native, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humans vs. Nature
Modernity vs. Tradition
Class and Morality
Deception
Summary
Analysis
Winter arrives in the heath, leading to many cold and dark days. Eustacia sits inside and listens to her grandfather, Sam and Humphrey discuss Clym’s return to Egdon. She learns that Clym works as a jeweler in Paris and that he is extremely intelligent. She also hears that both of his parents were born well off, though his father is now dead. Shortly afterward, their conversation switches to the topic of Thomasin’s marriage, or lack thereof. Apparently, Thomasin is sick, and nobody has seen her since the day of her aborted wedding.
Eustacia, who normally never interacts with anyone except Wildeve, demonstrates her interest in Clym by sitting and listening to others talk about him. Additionally, despite Wildeve’s promises to Mrs. Yeobright, it seems that he still hasn’t married Thomasin. This suggests that he is still holding out hope for Eustacia, though she appears to have moved on from him in favor of Clym.
Themes
Eustacia is bored by the talk of Thomasin and instead begins to fantasize about Clym and the life they could lead together in Paris. While doing so, she takes a walk out on the heath. She heads toward Blooms-End, the home of the Yeobrights. Eventually, she comes to a “removed spot to which was about to return a man whose latter life had been passed in the French capital—the centre and vortex of the fashionable world.”
Eustacia cares little about those who live around her and finds her thoughts drifting to self-serving fantasies. Before she even meets Clym, she’s already imagined what he can do for her. In her mind, he is a completely romantic figure, which is reflected in Hardy’s romanticized description of Paris as “the centre and vortex of the fashionable world.”
Themes
