MEDIA

'In the very title - as in the plot - of The Return of the Native, this interplay between the region and the world, which is the characteristic movement of Hardy's fiction, is peculiarly exemplified. So is the equally characteristic inversion by which the particular symbolises the universal, for the narrow geographical confines of the heath contain clues to the eternal verities that are lost to those whose ambitions are large and unattached.' Introduction by George Woodcock (p.15),

'Art is disproportioning - (i.e distorting, throwing out of proportion) - of realities, to "show more clearly the features that matter in those realities, which, if merely copied or reported inventorially, might possibly be observed, but would more probably be overlooked. Hence, "realism is not Art".'
A note made in 1890 by Thomas Hardy. (p. 18)

The picture shows detail from 'The Silver Lining of the Cloud', James Aumonier.


THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE

Somewhere between the mythical world of Wessex and a burgeoning but natively detached new England, the setting provides a remotely shallow stage on which almost no character becomes sufficiently located within the sequence of time such that they might come to terms with their place in the world. (George Woodcock makes exceptions of Diggory Venn and Thomasin).

An interplay between traditional ways of life and inevitable social change

continuity and change
hallowed and profane
sacrosanct and secular

"Early cultures make a distinction between sacred time, which existed at the moment of creation, and profane time, into which humanity had fallen since. Early religion, by use of myth and ritual, was an attempt to transcend profane time and rediscover sacred time". - In Search of England: Journey into the English Past, Michael Wood, Penguin Group, England, 1999, (p. 69)

In respect to the English Past, Thomas Hardy is presenting a mere description of the life and times in which he lived. Sadly lacking the sophisticated sense of irony and satire found in the work of many of his contemporaries, Hardy's The Return of the Native turns out to be something of a triumph for the common people. The interplay of continuity and change, no doubt significant on the larger stage of life, is little more than the fleeting ephemeron of daily life to the natives of the heath.

Clym Yeobright
"In Clym Yeobright's face could dimly be seen the typical countenance of the future."

"The truth seems to be that a long line of disillusive centuries has permanently displaced the Hellenic idea of life, or whatever it may be called. What the Greeks only suspected we know well; what their Aeschylus imagined our nursery children feel. That old-fashioned revelling in the general situation grows less and less possible as we uncover the defects of natural laws, and see the quandary that man is in by their operation.
    The lineaments which will get embodied in ideals based upon this new recognition will probably be akin to those of Yeobright. The observer's eye was arrested, not by his face as a picture, but by his face as a page; not by what it was, but by what it recorded. His features were attractive in the light of symbols, as sounds intrinsically common, become attractive in language, and as shapes intrinsically simple become interesting in writing." The Return of the Native. James Hardy


It is debatable whether Hardy was expounding a world view of continuity and change through his portrayals of a mythical Wessex countryside. After all, he was first and foremost an artiste, a writer and a poet (having forsaken his career as an architect). What seems likely is that Hardy was willing to draw context from the spirit of the times, so to provide a picture of an English community in the face of its own contingency, and amid the furore of its own ruminations and cogitations. Wessex is not occupied, but rather preoccupied. The wider world may impinge only in so as much as it is minding its business. In this community, Clym Yeobright will make no great headway.

That the characters are left with little to celebrate in the end provides good reason for the wider world not to take more than a passing interest in Egdon Heath. The juxtaposition of continuity and change is clearly evident, but not expressly embodied in any particular person or event, as might be the case with a Dickens novel. The characters are primarily contradictions to themselves. They are shallow people. Ultimately, Clym Yeobright, initially the novel's foremost hope, is unable to countenance a propitious outcome. And this in itself is no great tragedy. Clym has already relinquished his promising career in Paris to return to the Heath with a mind for new ideas. In this event, the future turns out not so much unfavourable as insignificant. The burgeoning new England simply rolls on in consort with the mythical old England, which, nevertheless, is time immortal only in so much as 1066 has long become relegated to another part in the story, as distant to the Wessex countryside as the theories that Clym Yeobright has brought back from Louis Phillipe's Paris. As far as Egdon Heath is concerned there is and has always been only one England. And this in itself is no great deal either.

"Of course, in the end it would be English - the lower-class language - which would win out. But it took nearly three centuries for Englishness to re-emerge as the national culture: a movement signalled by the revival of English vernacular literature in full power in the 14th century - a demonstration of the ability of English to stay underground and metamorphose. Today we are still an English nation, not French." - In Search of England, Michael Wood (p. 18)


While The Return of the Native encompasses the interplay between inevitable social change and traditional ways of life, it should not be forgotten that Thomas Hardy's publications primarily comprised popular fiction. The stories pertain as barely resolved fables interspersing the melodrama of the ballad tradition with the symbolism of the modernist fiction. Much of Hardy's work from this period was introduced to the public in a serial fashion so it is also conceivable that the characterisations within the narrative may have been influenced or shaped by a populist reception (although this is not borne out by any clear evidence). The narrative continues to provide as mere stories. And yet these stories do tell us something about the impact of change - that change is not clearly a black and white phenomenon that can be easily negotiated from a distant pedestal upon a disinterested populace in the face of an unknowing and uncertain tradition - that the sequence of everyday life may be shallow and insignificant but this does not reduce the severity of the substance that might arise within the course of an everyday life, a disinterested populace can sometimes be no small thing - that writing change does not greatly dispel the onward thrust of continuity (and, very importantly, vice versa) - that the world is also flat just as it is round, and that change may manifest itself most powerfully within the materialization of continuity.

In The return of the Native, Thomas Hardy leaves us with a motley cast of characters, somewhat shaped but by no means prevailed over by Clym Yeobright's return to his home region. Despite the sombre tone of the narrative, with the community as the setting, we are left with some strong semblances that may typify the everyday life we encounter in the modern world. We observe, in particular, persistence through defeat. We are left with the impression of a mythical England which has certainly not gone forever (not pretty, mind you, but then in retrospect nor were the achievements of the mid-20th century, probably one of mythical England's greatest hours). We are also reminded that England itself has struggled to realise a mythical past, just as its compatriot nations Ireland, Scotland and Wales have struggled to endorse their own status within the legacy of a Great Britain and the dominion of a United Kingdom. In the late 19th century, Thomas Hardy could not have foreseen such facets of a modern life. In his own lifetime, the myth of a Great Britain would loom larger than life. And yet, over the course of time, the modern world would tend to reinforce the valency if not instate the significance of the kind of everyday communities that feature so prominently in Hardy's Wessex countryside. His heath community does not only appear rudimentary and austere simply because it exists in a rural and rustic setting. Given new context as a life and times, Hardy's portrayal of daily life is quite easily staged in a modern setting.

"This is the wonder of Hardy's novels and gives them their beauty. The vast unexplored morality of life itself, what we call the immorality of nature, surrounds us in its eternal incomprehensibility and in its midst goes on the little human morality play, with its queer frame of morality and its mechanical movement; seriously, portentously, till some one of the protagonists chances to look out of the charmed circle, weary of the stage, to look into the wilderness raging round. Then he is lost, his little drama falls to pieces, it becomes mere repetition, but the stupendous little theatre outside goes on enacting its own incomprehensible drama, untouched." - D H Lawrence (p. 19)

A History of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr A History of Modern Britain (Macmillan)

"We moved from being on the edge of defeat, to the edge of bankruptcy, to the edge of nuclear annihilation and the edge of the American empire, and came out on the other side to find ourselves on the cutting edge of the modern condition, a post-industrial and multi-ethnic island, crowded, inventive and rich."

"British people have been important in bringing answers, just as they were seminal in the development of the Web, and in creating modern music and television. We have become a world island in a new way.

In the period covered by this book, the dominant experience has been acceleration. We have lived faster. We have seen, heard, communicated, changed and travelled more. We have experienced a material profusion and perhaps a philosophical or religious emptiness that marks us off from earlier times."


I thought this to be appropriate time to make note on the publication. It appears the book will not be in our bookshops for much longer.

Marr book urgently withdrawn - 8 Mar 2009 (Guardian)
Marr's book recalled as legal issues prompt urgent removal from ... (Scotsman)


My introduction to Andrew Marr: Ruling Britannia: The Failure and Future of British Democracy, Andrew Marr, Michael Joseph (Penguin), 1995. The link to Wiltshire Virtual library is for example only. I first found Marr's book in my local public library in New Zealand.