Justified the title “the return of the native”

Justified the title “the return of the native”

         

   The title must be appropriate and significant, just as the signboard indicates the contents of shop. This title certainly seems a straightforward enough-it’s all about a native returning from somewhere, but Hardy loves its deeper meanings. He always gives titles to his novels after a good deal of consideration. As such, his titles are really appropriate, significant and suggestive, of the central theme or spirits of the novel. Most of his titles are after the names of the heroes or heroines of the novel concerned.  They are ‘A Pair of Blue Eyes’, ‘Two on a Tower’, ’Under the Greenwood Tree’, ‘and Far From the Madding Crowed’. The title ‘The Return of the Native is also a poetical and highly suggestive.

            The story of this novel revolves around a long absent native of Egdon Heath returning from the Paris and stirs up the drama. The story of this returning native is kind of like a biblical story of prodigal son but with a twist. In the story of prodigal son(Luke 15;12-35), a son loves to party and waste the money but finally partied himself out, came back home, humbly, ask for money from the family whom he had ignored long.

Egdon Heath forms the tragic background of the novel “The Return of the Native”.

  “The place perfectly accordant with the man’s nature, neither ghastly, hateful, nor ugly; neither common place, unmeaning, nor tame; but like          man, slighted and enduring; and with singularly colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony.”

All the characters of this novel belong to the vicinity of the Egdon Heath, and all the action also take place in the same heath. All those characters that have accepted and adopted completely themselves according the condition and the environments of the heath are happy, while those characters that have not been able to adopted themselves completely according to the surroundings of the heath are unhappy and came to a tragic end.

“It had a lonely face, suggesting tragically possibilities.”

Eustacia ‘queen of night’ though a native of heath, has not been able to adopt the heath as her own regional background and to adjust herself according to the condition of the vicinity, with the result that she comes to a tragic end. She cries out before her death;

“Tis my cross, my shame and will be my death.”

            The title “The Return of the Native” is quite justified, suggestive and meaningful. Clym the hero of the novel is a native of the Wessex countryside around the Egdon Heath. He migrated to Bud mouth in France to work with a diamond merchant while he was quite young. Then he went to Paris and became the manager of a big firm dealing in diamond merchant.

            He comes back home to spend his Christmas with his mother after a long time. He has become fed up with the fast going and artificial life of the Paris and longs to come back and settle down peacefully in his native countryside. Earlier he had thought the life of city is better than the life of the village. After living in Paris he has come to see that city life is not better than the rural life. He also feels tired of the flashy trade of diamonds and fined out that this does not suit his genius.

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