The Return of the Native

Social class determines the appropriateness of marriage partners in The Return of the Native. Women ought not to marry beneath themselves. The women in the novel share rigid ranks. With mobility only possible through marriage, their primary tools are charm and manipulation. The men’s ranks rise and fall with their pursuits and their ability to gain. The women, whose choices are limited by the available men, play the marriage game.

Eustacia, better educated than any woman in Egdon Heath, captures the only man likely to compare with her as a mate, Clym Yeobright. But until he arrives on the scene, she plays the temptress to Wildeve, an innkeeper who does not use his education as an engineer. Her grandfather, a naval captain, enjoys status for his military service. We know nothing about Wildeve’s background, and only when he inherits a fortune does he rise to Eustacia’s level. Clym’s loss of profession casts a lower status upon her as his wife, all hope of the glamour of a Parisian lifestyle dashed and destroyed.

Thomasin refuses the marriage proposal from Venn. She likes him well enough, but her aunt would not consider him “professional” enough for her. She has two men available to her: Clym, her cousin, presumed equal by the community but remote in Paris, and Wildeve, an innkeeper. She accepts Wildeve even though her aunt, Mrs. Yeobright initially resists. When the marriage doesn’t occur, Thomasin, a disgraced woman whose reputation can only be salvaged by marriage, marries Wildeve. After Clym returns from Paris, Thomasin postpones telling him about her jilting, embarrassed by the humiliation for the family. Wildeve leaves her a wealthy widow. She accepts Venn when he rises to the status of a dairy farmer with 80 cows.

Mrs. Yeobright, a cleric’s daughter, married beneath herself, but claims status through her husband, a man who enjoyed music. She sets the standard for her niece and her son and most vociferously articulates the social norm for Egdon Heath. She will, however, invite the community into her home. They come to the Christmas party and she and her son wait on them. When Clym marries Eustacia against her wishes, she elevates the issue of acceptance and visitation to the extreme, leading to the tragic conclusion.

These concerns fail to disrupt the life of the locals. They congregate around the bonfire, sing at the Quiet Woman when they think Thomasin and Wildeve have married, and dance at the Christmas party and around the maypole. They raffle to win gowns for their women. They distinguish themselves by their dialect and their good cheer, drinking, singing, and dancing. They serve as a chorus commenting on the intrigues surrounding the upper class, and they share a self-satisfaction denied to their superiors. Clym wants to raise them with his educational system, but they have no interest.