November 27, 2015

RETURN OF THE NATIVE BY THOMAS HARDY

RETURN OF THE NATIVE BY THOMAS HARDY 


The works of the English novelist, poet, and dramatist Thomas Hardy unite the Victorian (c. 1840–1900) and modern eras. Chances, coincidence and accidents play an important role in Thomas Hardy's novels. They reveal him to be a kind and gentle man, terribly aware of the pain human beings suffer in their struggle for life. The first major tragic novel of Hardy is The Return of the Native, and in it he creates a new vision of life under a new horizon. The Return of the Native illustrates the tragic potential of romantic illusion and how its protagonists fail to recognize their opportunities to control their own destiny. Heroine Eustacia is a woman of vibrant sexuality. She is a self assertive and rebellious woman struggling to have a suitable place for herself in the male dominated society. Her efforts create a conflict between herself and the traditional society. The author tries to focus light on the female desires and aspirations in the novel by projecting Eustacia's frustrations in the circumscribed world of Egdon Heath. In the death of Eustacia, Hardy has tried to show the limitations of the values of the patriarchal society. Her death puts a question mark on the traditional values of the male-dominated society............???