The Character of Eustacia Vye in the Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

825 Words2 Pages

The Character of Eustacia Vye in the Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Analyse Hardy’s presentation of Eustacia Vye in Book One in the light of this comment. In “Return of the Native” we first come across the character of Eustacia Vye in Chapter 7. In this chapter Hardy gives us an in depth description of the character, for example we learn that she “was the raw material of a divinity”. Here Hardy is comparing her to a godlike figure which immediately gives us an impression of a character that is above the rest of the characters of the heath. Further divine imagery is used throughout this chapter, other examples are, “On Olympus she would have done well with a little preparation”, “In heaven she will probably sit between the Heloises and the Cleopatras.” And “She had the passions and instincts which make a model goddess, that is, those which make not quite a model woman.” All of these add together to present her as something not of this world, this in a way shows the audience how she doesn’t belong with the ‘lower’ members of society. In a way Hardy is also ambiguous about the presentation of Eustacia, as he seems to be torn between her divinity and her humanity. This is particularly apparent in the quote “She had the passions and instincts which make a model goddess, that is, those which make not quite a model woman.” Although we are presented with a goddess like character, we also know how she is human as we learn about her past, that she is an orphan and how Egdon is not really her native birthplace, but instead she is presented as the native of a seaside resort, this could be an attempt to make the character appear mo... ... middle of paper ... ... In class we could not decide whether or not we actually liked her, but the criticisms painted her not only as a tragic figure, but also as a tragic figure that had no part in her own tragedy. In other words, the criticisms seemed to say that Eustacia was a sad victim of circumstance and fate; she was a brilliant woman stuck in a confining atmosphere. As one critic says, “Eustacia finds her potential for effective activity cripplingly limited…emotional power over other individuals is the only kind of influence [she] can exercise.” I found myself feeling sorry for her despite the fact that she is immature, impulsive, manipulative and completely selfish. Perhaps these character traits would disappear had she been allowed to express herself in an atmosphere, and with people, equalling her brilliance and passion.

Open Document