Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

121. Fatalism versus Faith in Hardy's The Return of the Native!

             Hardy uses the concept of fate to show how circumstances serve to destroy Clym and Eustasia's quest for happiness. Ironically, Eustasia marries Clym Yeobright because she believes he will rescue her from her provincial environment; however, she soon laments her husband's plans to abandon his diamond business in Paris in order to become a teacher for the youths in the Egdon precinct. As fate would have it, Clym no longer cares for his for diamond sales, and considers it "the idlest, vainest, most effeminate business that ever a man could be put to" (175). Consequently, the young bride suffers the loneliness and isolation unique to those with dreams and aspirations of higher sentiment. The contrast in their characters is obvious. Hardy expresses the difference in the following passage" "Take all the varying hates felt by Eustacia Vye toward the heath, and translate them into loves, and you have the heart of Clym" (178). Her circumstances worsen when Yeobright experiences partial blindness from preparing his teaching lessons by lamplight so many evenings. No longer able to read, Clym becomes a field hand earning his living as a furze cutter (253). Hardy describes Clym the laborer as a "man from Paris" who "was now so disguised by his leather accoutrements "and "by the goggles that he was obliged to wear over his eyes" that his dearest friend might not even recognize him (253). Eustasia is appalled by the very idea of her husband, whose affluence and refinement at one time inspired hopes of a sophisticated existence in France, now find fulfillment as a common laborer. When talking to Wildeve, Eustasia uses an allusion to one of Christ's sayings to describe how unfortunate her circumstances have become: "The marriage is no misfortune in itself. It is simply the accident which has happened since that has been the cause of my ruin. I have certainly got thistles for figs in a worldly sense, but how could I tell what time would bring forth?" (283). Ironically, from the start, fate stands in the way of Eustasia's marriage because the license was made out for Budmouth instead of Anglebury, where she and Wildeve travel to be wed. In desperation, Eustasia realizes that Wildeve entertains no such plans, even after she proposes to him. Wildeve only uses the mistaken license as an excuse to spend time with her, and for it, Eustasia suffers public scorn for not returning home immediately. Wildeve's insensitivity severs their relationship, and Eustasia once more suffers loneliness and isolation until she meets Clym, newly arrived from France. Her prospects for escape brighten when she marries Clym, but now her dreams are once again shattered by her husband's blindness. Ironically, she must now assume the position as caretaker of her handicapped spouse. She must play nursemaid to a man who derives his sole sense of dignity from the meanest of occupations. Sadly, the young bride foresees no end to her daily trials, and slowly falls into a state of despair. Circumstances worsen when Wildeve visits Eustasia's home while Clym is sleeping from his morning's labor. Fearing that her husband will awaken and suspect an affair, she quietly dismisses Wildeve at the back of the house, surprisingly just as Clym's mother knocks on the front door on what is her first visit to her son's new home. Trapped, Eustasia bids Wildeve adieu and returns to welcome her mother-in-law, only to arrive a moment too late. Humiliated, Clym's mother departs angrily after seeing her daughter-in-law peering at her from the front window yet denying her admittance. The despair of rejection, the strain of walking alone several miles to her home, and the sting of an adder induce the unfortunate death of the embittered mother. Consequently, Eustasia feels responsible for the loss of Mrs. Yeobright's life, although her motives prove honorable. At this moment, she tells Wildeve, "This is your first visit here; let it be your last" (285). In this respect, Hardy creates a series of unforeseen events that leave Eustasia in a state of hopeless desperation. In a fit of misunderstanding and rage, Clym accuses her of subterfuge, infidelity, and murder. Like Juliet's crying for mercy in the clouds, Eustasia exclaims, "O, you are too relentless—there's a limit to the cruelty of savages! I have held out long—but you crush me down. I beg for mercy—I cannot bear this any longer—it is inhuman to go further with this! If I had—killed your—mother with my own hands—I should not deserve such a scourging to the bone as this. O,O! God have mercy upon a miserable woman! . . . You have beaten me in this game—I beg you to stay your hand in pity!"(330). This soliloquy, like Juliet's exclamation that "the heavens should practice stratagems," forces the heroine to undergo a form of psychological death-and-rebirth which compels her to leave Clym and return to live with her grandfather, where her emotional transformation will commence.