The Return of the Native

The women in the Yeobright home prepare for Clym’s arrival, and Thomasin climbs into the loft where they store apples. Mrs. Yeobright laments that Thomasin and Clym were not a match. Thomasin regrets that people consider her a lost woman and asks, “Why don’t people judge me by my acts?” (111). Finished with the apples, the women walk out to gather the holly berries, and Mrs. Yeobright asks if Thomasin will accompany her to meet Clym when he arrives. She says she must as a demonstration that she will be marrying Wildeve “for my pride’s sake” (112). Mrs. Yeobright questions whether Thomasin still feels the same way about Wildeve and admits to telling him that he stands in the way of another lover. This could be Venn or Clym. Clym had at one time been attracted to Thomasin, and he returns without knowing about the Wildeve marriage incident. The aunt says the marriage should not have been kept a secret. Thomasin, who thinks her story makes her “not worthy to be his cousin” (113), says she will tell him herself in a week or two. She will not let her story stand in the way of the Christmas party.

On her walk near Blooms-End, Eustacia passes two women and a man. She steps aside to let them pass, and the man says “Good-night.” She follows closely enough to overhear their conversation. Although too dark for her to see him, it sets her imagination in motion. She does, however, wonder how the tastes of the man behind the voice “saw friendliness and geniality in these shaggy hills” (115). She asks her grandfather why they never were friendly with the Yeobrights, and he replies that they are too countrified for her. Eustacia says she thought Mrs. Yeobright was a lady, a curate’s daughter. Her grandfather says she probably adapted to her husband’s ways.

Eustacia has already left the heath for Paris in her mind, and she has a dream in which she dances with a partner in armor who leads her aside, removing his casque to kiss her, and she awakens to a cracking noise, crying aloud, “O that I had seen his face” (116). She then begins a daily walk in the hills, hoping to see him. After five days, she decides to give up.

On December 23, Eustacia still has not seen Clym’s face. She can’t imagine that a man accustomed to life in Paris will stay long, and to linger all the time at his house would be unseemly. Most provincial girls and men meet at church, but in Egdon Heath people prefer to visit each other’s houses, drinking mead. That evening, sitting by the fire in the dining room, Charley taps on the door, asks to come in, and requests that Captain Drew allow the mummers to rehearse their parts in his fuel-house.

The mummers rehearse Saint George, about the enemy of the Turkish Knight. Eustacia hears them say their first performance will be at the home of Mrs. Yeobright to celebrate Clym being home for Christmas. Charley plays the role of the Turkish Knight. Eustacia shows Charley she knows his lines and asks if she can play his part for one night. She says she can get boy’s clothes and offers Charley money. Rather than money, he wants to hold her hand for half an hour. Eustacia agrees to 15 minutes. Charley comes for payment, and she wears a glove. She agrees that isn’t fair and removes it. He only uses eight minutes. She tells him he must use up the rest of the time within a week and then asks him to watch her do her part. She emerges in costume and performs. Charley remembers the touch of her hand. Eustacia tells him her plan to explain why he is missing. She will arrive five minutes late and say he can’t come. Charley asks for one minute more of hand-holding, and she counts out seven or eight, the contract complete.

The mummers gather in the fuel-house, arriving at different times, each hamlet having its own clock. When they are gathered and she has waited long enough, Eustacia enters saying a cousin of Miss Vye will take Charley’s place. Saint George says they will accept her if she isn’t too young. She asserts that she knows every word. It takes them half an hour of walking to reach the Yeobright house. With dancing underway, they cannot enter until it ends. The merry noise provokes Eustacia to ask why Mrs. Yeobright gives this kind of party. The mummers tell her they have invited the common folks, the neighbors and working people, without class lines. Mrs. Yeobright and her son wait upon the people attending.

When some of the players want to charge in, Eustacia says, “Certainly not” (130). The Doctor turns on the Turkish Knight: “He thinks himself somebody because he has had a bit more schooling than we” (130). The mummers whisper among themselves, and then Saint George says that they think she is Miss Vye. She doesn’t deny it, just asks that lads not tell on a lady. When the fiddles finish, the mummers enter, led by Father Christmas. Eustacia steps into her role as the Turkish Knight. As she looks out into the room, the light of the candles and the visor she wears prevent her from seeing the people in the audience. The Turkish Knight is among the slain, but Eustacia manages to sit against the clock rather than on the floor.

Eustacia looks around the room, arranged for dancing, to find Clym Yeobright. Although generally handsome, she sees a face marked by thought and experience “overlaid with legible meanings” (135). When Fairway and Christian arrive late, Fairway comments he wouldn’t have recognized Clym if he met him anywhere else because he is so changed. The conversation turns to the effect experience makes on the countenance. Humphrey speaks of his soldiering days. They say Clym favors his mother’s side of the family. The play over, the mummers prepare to leave, but Mrs. Yeobright invites them to stay to supper. They take off their helmets and begin to eat and drink. Eustacia refrains and stays in costume. Clym stops by her with a tray and offers food. She declines. Then he insists she has something to drink. She accepts the wine.

Then Thomasin enters the room. Eustacia can tell from her conversation with Clym that she has not told him the story of her marriage. Thomasin invites him into a private room. Eustacia feels jealous in her disguise as a boy, unable to use her charms. Later, Clym passes by her several times and advances to ask if she is a woman, curious why she came in disguise. She says she seeks excitement to ward off depression. Clym says that, had he known, he would have invited her. He wonders if he has met her before, and she tells him “never.” He tells her she is safe with him, but he wonders “why I find a cultivated woman playing such a part as this” (142).

Eustacia leaves without the other mummers and strikes out into the heath, a habit with her on moonlit nights, exulted by the termination of the adventure, apprehensive about Clym finding out her name, and totally infatuated. As she reaches the cottage, she looks back at the heath and sees the moon over Blackbarrow. She remembers she was supposed to meet Wildeve there this night to give her answer about eloping. She forgot all about him, and she wishes Thomasin were already married to him.

The captain asks his granddaughter what she was doing out so late at night, and she tells him about her role as the Turkish Knight. It amuses him, taking him back to his youth, but he asks her not to do it again. Eustacia wanders out on a walk and comes across Venn who stays on in the heath after the usual season. She asks to sit in his van, and he tells her that Wildeve was at Blackbarrow the night before, agitated, and he will return tonight. Eustacia says she does not want to meet him, and Venn offers to take him a letter from her. She asks why he is so eager to take the letter, and Venn says he would rather have married Thomasin himself, but if having Wildeve as a husband will make her happy, that is what he wishes.

When Wildeve arrives at Blackbarrow, Venn gives him the letter. Written in Eustacia’s usual fashion, it turns the blame on Wildeve, saying he has put her through two difficult years during which she put up with his courtship of another woman. She returns items from their friendship. Wildeve, enraged, asks Venn if he knows the contents of the letter. Venn sings “Ru-um-tum-tum” (149). Wildeve accuses him of self-interest for bringing the letter. Mrs. Yeobright told him Venn wishes to marry Thomasin. Wildeve sings back to him.

Wildeve cannot endure the irony of losing both women when he has been loved by both. He tears the letter into 50 pieces. Venn goes back to his van, changes his clothes, and emerges only with a red face. He sets off toward Blooms-End. Wildeve has beaten Venn there and claimed Thomasin. Venn returns to his van, takes off his best clothes, and emerges again as a reddleman.

Mrs. Yeobright expresses distress that Thomasin has agreed to marry Wildeve so quickly. Thomasin, in response, refers to a letter from Clym in which he states his surprise that she was jilted. Thomasin prepares for her wedding by braiding her hair into seven braids and decides to wear her blue silk dress. She wants to be married before Clym returns from a trip away from the heath. Her aunt offers to give her away, but Thomasin wishes to do the ceremony without relatives. They weep as she leaves for the church. Mrs. Yeobright, who is not superstitious, nevertheless throws a slipper after her.

Clym arrives a half hour later and tells his mother how shocked he was by all of this, especially since he was fond of Thomasin and this affection was renewed upon his return. His mother did the wrong thing by not telling him about the marriage when he was in Paris. He says he is going to the church, that they shouldn’t stay away even though he hopes Wildeve won’t come.

A few minutes later, Clym returns to the house with Venn. He wasn’t in time. Thomasin is married. Mrs. Yeobright asks who gave her away. Venn says that it was Eustacia. Clym ask who that is, and his mother replies she’s a proud girl from Budmouth, one some think is a witch. Venn does not reveal that he went to get her. Eustacia wore a veil and pushed it up to sign the wedding book. Wildeve gave Eustacia a glance that said now he has punished her. She replied in a low tone: “You mistake; it gives me sincerest pleasure to see her your wife to-day” (161). Venn then vanishes from Egdon Heath.