Themes and motives in The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Presented by Tamanna, Marufa and Sayma
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Department of English, Uttara University
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Themes and motives in The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Presented by Tamanna, Marufa and Sayma
- 3. Presented For: Monir Hossen Lecturer Department of English E-mail: monir.eng.cou@gmail.com Presented By: Tamanna Sultana ID: 2173181030 Marufa Akter Shorna ID: 2173181053 Sayma Sultana ID: 2173181034 Batch: 44th Semester: Summer-18
- 4. Introduction Themes & Motifs The theme is the subject of a talk, a piece of writings, a person’s thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic or take- away message. A motif is a distinctive feature or repeating idea in an artistic or literary composition The Return of the Native is the interplay between evitable social change and traditional ways of life and its plot is concerned with the fate of those who become involved.
- 5. Themes & Motifs Love Man & Nature Fate FamilyIsolation Tradition Superstition Marriage as a trap
- 6. LOVE Love in The Return of the Native is often not all that romantic or even nice. In fact, love is a fantasy for many of these characters. Characters fall in love based on their romanticized vision of another person, not on reality. Eustacia is blinded by her longing for paris when falls for Clym . Eustacia seem bored by the idea of happy, conflict-free love. They clearly agree with Shakespeare’s thoughts on how “ the course of true love never did run smooth ”“
- 7. Man & Nature “Man and the nature” is arguably the central theme of the novel. The characters & the Heath have an interesting relationship in which people and the Heath reflect each other’s moods. This is a book about how man exists within nature. In fact, Man doesn’t live side by side with nature as equals at all. Nature is downright Darwinian- “Everything boils down to survival, competition, and evolution.”
- 8. Fate is a leading theme in this fiction. From the very beginning , the description of Egdon Heath as an enduring, immemorial setting. At one despairing moment, Eustacia thinks of death as a release if the "satire of Heaven" should continue much longer. Just before she commits suicide, she loudly laments her lot, ranting against the bitterness and injustice of her fate.Eustacia are ill- used by fate. Clym is thwarted, both professionally and personally. Mrs. Yeobright is fearsomely judgmental, but also unlucky, a victim of an ominous web of circumstances that lead to despair and death. Fate
- 9. Families in The Return of the Native can be vicious. No one can hold a grudge quite like a family member and no one an offer up loyalty quite like one either. The family relationship at the heart of this novel is the intense, strained bond between Clym and his mother. Their relationship comes to a breaking point when Clym fails to meet his mother's expectations for him and he marries Eustacia. But the other families here are also far from neat and tidy. Family
- 10. Isolation In The Return of the Native we get frequent images of people walking alone. And while they're alone, they are generally silent and are often swallowed up by the heath. The entire world of this novel is a very lonely one. It is both isolated and isolating. We get a strong sense of distance from the outside world, living presence of history on the heath and the antiquated customs and ideas of the heath residents. But isolation impacts characters on a highly individual level as well. Isolation is a root source of emotional turmoil (especially for folks like Eustacia) or dissatisfaction and sadness.
- 11. Superstiti0n Superstition permeates the text, and is connected with the death of Eustacia and possibly Mrs. Yeobright. In the most basic sense, superstition exists through the heath locals. Many locals, Susan Nunsuch most of all, believe Eustacia is a witch. Eustacia's death also evokes witch-lore, since a suspected witch was thrown in water. If she floated, she was vindicated, and if she drowned, she was proven witch. Tragically, Eustacia floats but it brings her no benefit, since she dies.
- 12. Hardy's pessimism about individual human destiny extended to social institutions as well, and no aspect of his novels was more controversial in his time than his views of marriage. In his fiction, however, Hardy drew steadily away from this idealization of. Mrs. Yeobright exerts a slightly different form of this sort of prejudice against Eustacia as a potential wife for Clym, judging her to spring from questionable origins and to be inferior as a person of very limited means. But the institution of marriage, as Hardy portrays it, is also buffeted by other powerful forces. There is, for example, egotistic competition. And finally, money and ambition are seen. Eustacia's fascination with Clym is repeatedly portrayed as grounded on the glamor and luxury she expects him to provide her with in Paris Marriage as a trap
- 13. Egdon Heath definitely operates based on tradition and expectations for certain groups. We witness the rules and norms of such a traditional society: Mrs. Yeobright embarrasses her family when she refuses to support Thomasin's engagement; Eustacia is shunned and is even persecuted as a witch; Clym is seen as a disappointment for returning home. Society is a harsh judge in this book, given how much Egdon is ruled by the past and by very old customs and ideas. Egdon may be ruled by tradition, custom and it's debatable whether or not tradition will be able to hold back change forever. Tradition Type a message...
- 14. Related Quotes “It is the effect of marriage to engender in several directions some of the reserve it annihilates in one.” “To be loved to madness--such was her great desire. Love was to her the one cordial which could drive away the eating loneliness of her days. And she seemed to long for the abstraction called passionate love more than for any particular lover.” “A blaze of love and extinction, was better than a lantern glimmer of the same which should last long years.” “Why is it that a woman can see from a distance what a man cannot see close?”